1967 oPt: Israeli occupied Palestinian territory, Jimmy Carter's book tour (2006-2007)

•• John Dugard, HRC video {16:07, 29mb.rm, source} (U.N. hrc4r19: Human Rights Council, 4th regular session, 19th plenary meeting, Geneva, Thursday March 22 2007, 3-6pm at 3:06-3:22pm CET):

John Dugard: My report does not make pleasant reading.

Gaza remains an imprisoned society.

Into which the prison guards have made frequent military incursions, killing hundreds of Palestinians and wounding thousands in the second half of 2006.

Most of those killed and wounded have been civilians, and many have been children.

Missiles, shells, and bulldozers have destroyed public buildingsm, and private homes, water pipelines, and electricity networks.

Agricultural land has been levelled by bulldozers.

The siege of Gaza has resulted in unemployment and poverty.

90% of Gazans rely on food aid from international agencies to survive.

Health, education and family life have suffered.

The situation in the West Bank is little better.

Military incursions have dramatically increased — as evidenced by the raid on Nablus in late February which confined 50,000 Palestinians to their homes for several days.

The Wall — now recognized by Israel as an instrument for the annexation of settlements — continues to disrupt lives and prevent access to agricultural land.

In Jerusalem the Wall divides communities and families in its pursuit of the Judaization of the city.

Checkpoints, now numbering over 500, make travel in the West Bank a nightmare.

Road apartheid intensifies.

The status of the Jordan Valley increasingly resembles the closed zone between the Wall and the Green Line and Israel excludes all but registered residents from the Valley.

Settlements increase in size and population.

There are over 460,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Settlers, largely unrestrained by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), subject many Palestinians to a reign of terror — particularly in Hebron.

There are over 9,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. There are serious complaints about the treatment of prisoners.

Since 2000, over 500 persons have been killed by targeted assassinations, including a substantial number of innocent civilians.

Israel prides itself on its abolitionist stance on the death penalty,

But, in effect, targeted assassinations constitute the implementation of the death penalty, without trial.

Israel shows little respect for Palestinian family life.

Thousands of Palestinian families are separated by Israeli laws.

In my report, I state that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory contains elements of colonialism and apartheid.

That Israel’s settlements, with a population of nearly half a million, constitute a form of colonialism cannot seriously be disputed.

Settlements violate both Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention and numerous resolutions of the General Assembly, condemning colonialism.

In previous reports, I have carefully refrained from likening Israel’s practices, in the OPT, to apartheid, on account of the sensitivity of this issue.

The uproar over Jimmy Carter’s book Palestine Peace not Apartheid (2006) — and the serious attempts to impugn his integrity, particularly in the United States — has led me to reconsider this decision.

Of course there are similarities,

Between the OPT, and apartheid South Africa.

Anyone who experienced apartheid has a sense of déjà vu, when visiting the OPT.

Laws, and practices, discriminate against Palestinians.

Restrictions on movement, within the West Bank and Jordan Valley, resemble the “pass laws” of apartheid, both in their discriminatory nature and brutal application.

There is a system of “separate but unequal” roads, for settlers and Palestinians.

Which was never even contemplated, in apartheid South Africa.

Jews may travel freely, within the closed zone, between the Wall the Green Line.

But Palestinians require permits.

Which are frequently denied.

The separate residential areas, for Jews and Palestinians, in Hebron, remind one of the “group areas” for different races, under apartheid.

Palestinians are prohibited, from living with their Arab Israeli spouses.

But no such restrictions apply to foreigners, living with Israeli Jewish spouses.

House demolitions are carried out in a discriminatory manner.

Over 9,000 Palestinian political prisoners are held in Israeli jails.

Can it seriously be denied?

That such acts are:—

to use the language of the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid {article II}.

Israel takes care, not to announce its apartheid practices.

There are no signs, on the roads, or in the closed zone, saying,

“No Palestinians Allowed”

or

“Settlers Only.”

And there are no laws, providing that only Palestinian houses, built without a permit, may be demolished.

In this respect, Israel has learnt the lesson, of apartheid.

But the result is the same:—

Oppressive discrimination.

I can do no better, than quote a recent article, by a former Israeli cabinet minister, Shulamit Aloni (“Indeed there is Apartheid in Israel,” 31 December 2006) {Yedioth Ahronoth, Tel Aviv}:

She then tells the story of an occasion, when she questioned an Israeli soldier, who was confiscating a vehicle, belonging to a Palestinian, for driving on a road that he described as “a Jews-only road.”

In response to her question, whether — and if so, where — there was a sign, indicating, that the road was for Jews only, he replied:

Apartheid, and colonialism, are contrary to international law.

Occupation is a lawful regime, tolerated by the international community, but not approved.

What are the legal consequences of a regime of occupation that has continued for 40 years?

A regime that has acquired characteristics of apartheid and colonialism?

Is it a lawful regime?

If not, what are the legal consequences for the occupied people, the occupying Power, and third States?

Should the International Court of Justice not be asked for an Advisory Opinion on this matter?

It is true, that the Advisory Opinion on the Wall has had little impact.

Thanks to the Quartet.

But it must be remembered, that the United Nations requested four advisory opinions, on South West Africa/Namibia, to guide it in its handling of South Africa.

There is a desperate need for consensus, on the part of the international community, towards Palestine.

The developing world sees Palestine as human rights issue, worthy of special attention because, since the end of apartheid, it has become the only case in which a developing people are brutally subjugated by a Western-affiliated regime.

The West, on the other hand, acting through the Quartet, prefers to pursue a policy of appeasement, towards Israel, coupled with economic sanctions on the Palestinians.

An Advisory Opinion, from the International Court of Justice, might possibly serve to change the attitude of the West, and promote a common policy towards the OPT, premised on respect for human rights.

Failure, on the part of the international community, to find and pursue such a common policy has serious implications, for the future of human rights.

The West cannot expect the developing world to share its concern for human rights violations, in situations such as Darfur, Zimbabwe, and Burma, if it refuses to demonstrate a concern for human rights in the OPT.

This places in danger the whole international human rights enterprise.

I fear that this Council will not succeed, in its basic task of promoting and protecting human rights throughout the world, until consensus is reached, on the human rights situation, in the Palestinian Territory.

The crime of apartheid

• International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, article II (“the crime of apartheid” defined) (adopted November 39 1973, entered into force July 18 1976), 1015 U.N.T.S. 243 {402kb.pdf} (t.reg. 14861), status {31kb.pdf, 21kb.xml} (mtgsc) (107 parties).

• Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) (Geneva, adopted June 8 1977, entered into force December 7 1978), 1125 U.N.T.S. 3 (t.reg. 17512), volume 1125 {11mb.pdf} and in segments, Protocol I in English {2mb.pdf}, French {2.07mb.pdf}, and the 4 other official languages, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish {7.47mb.pdf}, depositary gvapr1 webpage, with pdf links to Protocol I in all 6 official languages and, in French, German, Italian, both pdf and html copies, article 85(4)(c) (“Repression of breaches of this Protocol”) (ICRC commentary).

• Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (adopted July 17 1998, entered into force January 7 2002), article 7 (“crimes against humanity”), section 2(h) (“the crime of apartheid”), 2187 U.N.T.S. 3 {1.02mb.pdf, cod, 218kb.pdf, icc} (t.reg. 38544), status {126kb.pdf, 101kb.xml} (mtgsc) (108 parties) (ICC, The Hague).  –CJHjr

Maps

• Map of Security Fence Project (“Revised route of the security fence according to the government decision of April 30, 2006”) {2.6mb.jpg, source} (“Revised route of the security fence, updated map as of April 30th 2006”) (IDFMU, map scale 1:200,000).

• Map of Security Fence Project (“Revised route of the security fence as of April 2007”) {7.25mb.jpg, source} (Israel Ministry of Defense, IDFMU: Israel Defense Forces, Aman: Military Intelligence Directorate, MU: Mapping Unit, map scale 1:250,000).

_______________

Source: (for those below): U.N. OCHA-oPt: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, occupied Palestinian territory {maps: barriers, closures}, copy: OCHA, ReliefWeb, Complex Emergency: Occupied Palestinian Territory (CE)) {maps}.

• West Bank Barrier Route (map, June 2007) {464kb.pdf, barriers, copy, source}.

• West Bank Barrier Update (map, April 2007) {293kb.pdf, source}, “on 30 April 2006, the Israeli cabinet approved a revised route ... the revisions include ...”

• West Bank Barrier Route Projections (map, April 2007) {with the previous map, separate earlier versions: 436kb.pdf, 547kb.pdf, barriers}, 712 km, 80% of it seizing 10.17% of the West Bank and East Jerusalem (142,130 acres, 57,518 hectares), isolating 200,000 Palestinians in guarded ghettos.

The next maps depict additional confiscations: barricaded settlements, networks of barricaded roads (which double as internal “barriers”), right of free passage, access rights to extensive “closed areas.”

• West Bank & Gaza Strip Closure Maps (April 2007) {7.20mb.pdf, closures}, inside the occupied territories: “a 17 pages booklet with in-detail maps of all governorates, key figures, and barrier projections. Detailed maps of Hebron's old city and East Jerusalem.”

• West Bank Closure Photo Album (May 2 2007) {9.62mb.pdf, closures}, inside the occupied territories: photos of tools, erected by the occupying power, to block access and restrict movement, inside the occupied territories, by the occupied population, and to alter and control their behavior, marked on maps by symbols, with these names: “checkpoint, earthmound, road block, road gate, earth wall, trench, road barrier, passage, observation tower.”

• West Bank: Effect of closure and permit regime on Palestinian movement (map, November 2006) {308kb.pdf, closures, copy, source}, inside the occupied territories: “permit required for all 'closed areas' ... effective partitions due to closure policy.”

• Fragmentation of the West Bank (map, May 7 2007) {508kb.pdf, closures, copy, source}, inside the occupied territories: “Israeli settlements, roads primarily for settler use, closed military zones ... checkpoints, underpasses.”

• West Bank: Access and Closures (map, April 19 2007) {8.27mb.pdf, closures, summary}.

• South Qalqiliya (map, July 2 2007) {367kb.pdf, barriers, copy, source}.

• North Tulkarm (map, July 2 2007) {508kb.pdf, barriers, copy, source}.

Sherif Fam: 1. Do you agree with the findings of Professor Dugard’s report and its conclusions?

2. What is the significance of the Special Rapporteur’s use of the term apartheid — and colonialism — to refer to Israel’s policies, instead of just talking of occupation?

* * *

Pappé bullied, threatened, out of Israel

Dr Ilan Pappe is the only Jewish academic in Israel who is vehemently critical of Zionism and the formation of the Israeli state in the land of Palestine.

A senior lecturer of political science at Haifa University, Pappe says that he is now planning to migrate to the UK with his family, as he has found it increasingly difficult to live in Israel with his “unwelcome” views and convictions.

“I was boycotted in my university and there had been attempts to expel me from my job. I am getting threatening calls from people every day. I am not being viewed as a threat to the Israeli society but my people think that I am either insane or my views are irrelevant. Many Israelis also believe that I am working as a mercenary for the Arabs,” said Pappe in an interview with The Peninsula yesterday.

On his first-ever visit to a Gulf state, Pappe was in Doha yesterday at the invitation of the Qatar Foundation to speak at the Doha Debates. He believes that two independent states cannot co-exist in the land of Palestine and the only lasting solution to the issue is formation of one state, shared by Jews, Arabs and other communities living there. He also feels that there is no immediate solution to the crisis and only international pressure can force Israel to end the occupation and the continuing atrocities against the Palestinians.

“Over the past six years, the Israeli government has become more oppressive, thanks to the strong support from the Bush administration. They now feel that they can do anything they want,” said Pappe.

* * *

A bit surprisingly, he said: “I support Hamas in its resistance against the Israeli occupation though I disagree with their political ideology. I am for separating state from religion,” said Pappe.

He feels that Israeli democracy is meant only for Jews and there is no space for other communities. “Any state that perpetrates occupation cannot be called a democratic state,” he commented.

Subsequently: Ilan Pappé (professor of history, “20th Century ethno-politics,” Exon: University of Exeter, England, Penryn Cornwall Campus (Tremough).