The Obama Administration today boycotted a Geneva conference on the Fourth Geneva Convention, because the topic of discussion was the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
126 of the 196 parties to the conventions affirmed that the Fourth Geneva Convention must be respected in the occupied territories, criticizing Israel for its repeated, flagrant violations.
The Fourth Geneva Convention governs the rights of civilians living under military occupation, in particular banning collective punishment, physical abuse, and the transfer of occupier populations into occupied territory (i.e. settlements).
Israel maintains that the Geneva Conventions don’t apply to the occupied territories, claiming their sovereignty “is in limbo” because of how long they have been under Israeli control, and because the Palestinians were not previously an independent state.
"…because the Palestinians were not previously an independent state."
And before 1948, Israel was not an independent state either.