In 1993, with the Oslo Accords, we seemed so close to peace. Today there
is horrible bloodshed. What happened? The fact is that no one is spelling
peace with a "j". You might point out that there is no "j"
in peace. You would be right. There has been no justice in any of the
attempts to achieve peace between Palestinians and Israelis. If the
Palestinians were willing to accept an unjust settlement, there could
have been "peace" long ago.
The question is, what constitutes justice today? To understand the elements
of a just peace, we need to draw on human rights and the law. Only the
principles that underpin rights and the law can help us to see clearly
through the heavy veil of blood that envelops the conflict between Israel
and Palestine. Without clear principles, we will be swayed by sympathy
for whoever is dying—the 8-year-old Palestinian boy who went
out to buy sweets and was shot dead by Israeli soldiers, or the 15-year
Israeli girl who was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber. We will
never see our way clearly enough to support action for a just peace.
While there is "violence on both sides", there are also basic
rights and wrongs in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and these are
clearly defined by the law. Which law? The law based on the human rights
principles adopted by the international community after World War II,
when unspeakable horrors happened and the world swore, "Never again".
Today, we live in a world different from the one that existed before
1948. The dividing line between the Old World and the New World is the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United
Nations on 10 December 1948.
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places,
close to home—so close and so small that they cannot be seen
on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual
person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends;
the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where
every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity,
equal dignity without discrimination.
—Eleanor Roosevelt
Chair of the UN Commission of Human Rights in 1948
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights incorporates
many of the principles found in all world religions and philosophies.
Thus, it serves as a common platform for us all, irrespective of our personal
faith or origins. It is a statement of the different way that, in the
New World, human beings will treat each other, and how they will judge
one another.
The principles of human rights have been translated into international
laws that cover all aspects of human life in times of peace[2] as well as in times of war.[3]
When countries sign these laws, they agree to enforce them at the national
level. And countries that have signed can hold each other accountable
for their adherence to these laws.
Several of these laws and the principles that
underpin them have been applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Three
resolutions passed by the United Nations are key to moving towards a just
peace: UN General Assembly Resolutions 181 of 1947 and 194 of 1948, and
UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 1967. Implementing these three resolutions
would bring peace to the Middle East. What's more, all the parties to
the conflict—Israel, the Palestinians, the Arab states, and the
United States—accept these three resolutions. Implementing the last
resolution—242—first would immediately end the bloodshed.
Resolution 242: A Clear Principle
Resolution 242 calls for Israel's withdrawal from territories occupied
during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.[4]
The Security Council, where the US has veto power, unanimously adopted
this resolution, which was accepted by Israel and all Arab states. Resolution
242 is based on a clear statement of principle set out at the start: "The
inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war."
This is the New World: states are no longer permitted
to gain territory by war. In the world of human rights and international
law, colonialism is no longer acceptable. We have moved on from the days
of colonialism when the Europeans rampaged through Asia, Africa and the
Americas, stealing natural resources and creating captive markets and
cheap labor.
Yet, although Resolution 242 was accepted by
all concerned, the international community has allowed Israel free rein
in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for 35 years, imposing no sanctions
as Israel took land and water, created captive markets, and supplied itself
with cheap labor. This passivity in the face of flagrant illegality is
particularly glaring compared to the constant call for application of
UN resolutions to Iraq (which no longer occupies Kuwait).Not only is the
occupation itself illegal, but all Israel's actions in the Occupied Territories
are illegal, according to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which Israel
has signed and accepted, as has the US. International law views occupation
as a temporary status during which the occupying power is obligated, first,
to end the occupation as quickly as possible and, second, to safeguard
the rights of the occupied population during the temporary period in which
the occupation is maintained.[5]
Any move by the occupier against the rights
of the population under occupation, or to change the status of the occupied
land through, for example, annexation, confiscation of resources, population
transfer, or destruction of civilian property is illegal and may constitute
a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. Collective punishments—home
demolitions, curfews, and sieges of entire towns and villages—are
also against the Geneva Conventions.
Every one of these violations has been and is
being perpetrated against the Palestinians under occupation: their basic
human rights to life, liberty, freedom of movement and association, education,
work, health are denied every day. Before the 1993 Oslo Accords were signed
between the Israelis and Palestinians, Israel had settled 200,000 Israelis
in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. During the Oslo "peace
process" between 1993 and 2000, another 200,000 Israeli settlers
moved on to Palestinian land.
There are several flaws in the Oslo process.
The most serious is that it did not call for an immediate end to occupation,
but rather set in train a process of negotiation around the occupation.
The Palestinian Authority agreed to provide security for the Israeli soldiers
and settlers of occupation, while various committees held endless negotiations
about water, legal affairs, the economy—in short, everything except
an end to occupation.
But ending the occupation should not be open
to negotiation. The principle of 242 is clear: the inadmissibility of
the acquisition of territory by war. We must demand that world powers
push for immediate implementation of 242 and an end to Israeli occupation,
and end death and destruction. Between September 2000, when the second
uprising against the occupation erupted, and August 2002, Israeli soldiers
and settlers have killed 1,658 Palestinians.[6] The vast majority of Palestinians
killed have been civilians; 294 were children.
And, since that date, 612 Israelis, the majority
of them civilians, have been killed by Palestinians. The attacks against
Israeli civilians violate human rights and international law. The Palestinian
Authority has condemned them, as have respected Palestinian intellectuals
and activists who issued a petition against suicide bombings in June.
But the complete breakdown of law and order and the pervasive presence
of Israeli armed forces and settlers make it impossible to control those
who have turned to violence in their desperation to end the military occupation.
In March and April 2002, Israel launched fierce
attacks on Palestinian towns, the ostensible aim to bring "security"
and end suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. But there were no
such attacks before the occupation began—and very few attacks until
the peace process collapsed in July 2000 and Palestinian civilians were
killed by Israeli forces in the wake of protests against Sharon's September
2000 visit to Al Aqsa mosque, which sparked the uprising. Beginning in
June 2002, Israel imposed collective punishment on 800,000 Palestinians,
confining them to their homes 24 hours a day for days on end, a curfew
enforced by tanks in and around all the major population areas in the
West Bank.
"The occupation is killing all of us",
is the Israeli peace bloc Gush Shalom's succinct summary of the realities
on the ground. The UN Security Council should impose the withdrawal of
Israeli soldiers and settlers to the 1967 borders. Not one soldier, not
one settler, should be left. Negotiations can take place about outstanding
issues after Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territories.
It is worth noting that some mainstream Israelis
are calling for the same thing. In early June, the former chief of Shin-Bet
(the Israeli intelligence service) Ami Ayalon and the Deputy Foreign Minister
Michael Melchior called for Israel to leave the occupied territories.
"We need to leave the settlements as soon as possible, with or without
an agreement with the Palestinians," Melchior said. "We simply
cannot afford to be an occupier in today's world."
Several hundred Israeli soldiers have refused
to serve in the army of occupation. Israeli reservist officer Guy Grossman
explained why he had joined Ometz Le'Sarev (Courage to Refuse) in a stand
against "the continued occupation of Palestinian land. This war is
unjust. It saps my country's sanity and morality and corrupts its soul.
There is not and can never be a benign occupation. For 11 years my friends
and I risked our lives and sanity to perpetuate this unbearable reality—the
daily humiliations at checkpoints, the arbitrary closures and destruction
of homes. I saw the kids grow up with hatred in their eyes—eyes
that I was ashamed to meet".[7]
Ending the occupation will bring an end to the
bloodshed and enable the Palestinians to pick up the pieces of their shattered
lives. Once the occupation is ended, the other outstanding issues can
be addressed: final borders, the status of Jerusalem, and the Palestinian
refugees. These can be resolved by implementing UN General Assembly Resolutions
181 and 194.
UN Resolution 181 of 29 November 1947 partitioned
Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. Israel came into being
but Palestine did not. This was partly because the Palestinians and Arabs
rejected the Partition Plan, which they considered unjust.
Based on the historical facts, the Partition
Plan was indeed unjust. Up until 1917, the population of Palestine was
overwhelmingly Arab. On 2 November 1917, Britain promised the Zionist
movement that it would support "the establishment in Palestine of
a national home for the Jewish people . . . it being clearly understood
that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." [8]
At that time, the "existing" population consisted of 650,000
Arabs, the majority Muslim, a significant minority Christian, and a small
community of Jews. They had for the most part, whatever their faith, continuously
lived on the land for centuries. Several thousand European Jews also lived
in Palestine, having begun to immigrate since the 1880s to escape persecution
in Europe.
Moreover, in 1915, Britain had promised the Arabs
living under Ottoman rule independence in exchange for their help during
World War I—promises violated by the 1917 commitment to the Zionists.[9] Britain went on to conquer Palestine and other
Arab lands from the Ottoman Turks, obtained mandatory power over Palestine
from the League of Nations, and opened the country to large scale Jewish
immigration from Europe. This action set in motion bloody conflict between
the Arabs and Britain, Arabs and Zionist immigrants, and Britain and the
Zionists.
In 1947, Britain turned the Question of Palestine
over to the UN General Assembly, which adopted Resolution 181. This recommended
the partition of Palestine into an Arab State and a Jewish State, allocating
56% of the land to the Jewish state and 43% to the Arab state, with Jerusalem
and Bethlehem designated as an international zone. At this time, 68% of
the population of Palestine was Arab and 32% was Jewish,[10]
and Jews owned no more than 6% of the land. The Arabs rejected the very
principle of Partition as unjust. The
Palestinians had had nothing to do with the pogroms of the Jews in Europe
over the centuries, or the Nazi Holocaust of World War II. Why should
they pay the price by turning part of over their country to the Zionist
movement as part of a British colonial enterprise? The first Arab-Israeli
War broke out in 1948. Israel won, occupying not just the 56% of Palestine
allocated by the Partition Plan, but 78% of the country. In 1967 Israel
occupied the rest of Palestine.
Today, Resolution 181 offers the best hope for
just peace—even though it was unjust in 1947. How is what was once
unjust now just? It helps to reflect on what we might call absolute justice
versus "achievable justice". For Palestinians, absolute justice
would mean turning the clock back to 1917. Turning the clock back 100
years to achieve absolute justice is impossible. Even assuming that absolute
justice could somehow be achieved, shutting down Israel and evicting five
million Israeli Jews would create new injustice today. A two-state solution
is the closest thing to justice that can be achieved today.
Israel may perhaps one day recognize how much
it owes Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and the Palestine
Liberation Organization. The reason that the majority of Palestinians
are now willing to accept a two-state solution with a state of Palestine
in the West Bank and Gaza—which constitute just 22% of mandate Palestine—is
because the PLO has been talking them into it since 1974. That was the
year when the PLO first spoke of establishing a state on any part of Palestine
that was liberated (delicate phrasing was necessary because, in those
days, PLO officials were killed by radical groups for even hinting at
a two-state solution).
The support for a two-state solution was ever
more clearly stated by the Palestinians—in 1988 at the Palestine
National Council session held in Algiers, and in 1993 as part of the Oslo
Accords, which included the PLO's formal recognition of Israel. The Arab
states were also ever more clear in accepting a two-state solution, beginning
with a Saudi Plan in 1982 and culminating in the Saudi Plan formally endorsed
by the League of Arab States in 2002.
Yasser Arafat could not accept Ehud Barak's so-called
"generous offer" at Camp David in July 2000 because it did not
provide for a sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza as
US negotiator Robert Malley revealed a year later. "To accommodate
the settlers, Israel was to annex 9 percent of the West Bank; in exchange,
the new Palestinian state would be granted sovereignty over parts of Israel
proper, equivalent to one-ninth of the annexed land. ... In Jerusalem,
Palestine É would enjoy custody over the Haram al Sharif, the location
of the third-holiest Muslim shrine, Israel would exercise overall sovereignty
over this area, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. ... As for the future
of refugees—for many Palestinians, the heart of the matter—the
ideas put forward at Camp David spoke vaguely of a 'satisfactory solution'
... ."[11]
Currently, the discussion around borders is focused
on what Israel wants to accommodate its settlements, all illegal under
international law. Discussions on permanent borders between Israel and
Palestinian should take into account the land allocations made in the
Partition Plan, and the PLO's willingness to accept much less. Achievable
justice involves a fair agreement on borders. In the meantime, the State
of Palestine should be immediately accepted as a UN member state pending
agreement on borders. The status of Palestine would be the same as that
of Israel, which, unlike most world countries, does not yet have recognized
borders pending agreements on the West Bank, Gaza, and the Syrian Golan
Heights occupied by Israel in 1967.
Resolution 194 adopted on 11 December 1948, provides
for the right of return or compensation for the 750,000 Palestinian refugees
who fled or were expelled from their homes during the first Arab Israeli
war. Another 500,000 Palestinians became refugees during the 1967 War.
Today, out of some 8 million Palestinians, 4.6 million live in exile and
2.2 million live in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt
(1.2 million are citizens of Israel). Here, again there is a need to look
at what might constitute absolute justice and achievable justice. Absolute
justice would mean that every single refugee and exile would return to
the homes from which they came in present-day Israel.
Achievable justice would mean recognizing the
rights of Palestinians in and to Palestine, including the right of return
set out in Resolution 194. It would also involve recognition of, and an
expression of regret for, Israel's responsibility for the refugee problem,
which is now well documented by mainstream Israeli historians.[12]
Since not every Palestinian will be able to return to their original homes,
achievable justice in implementing the right of return would give priority
to those that have the most need to return—the Palestinians who
still live in refugee camps and/or are stateless. This would be based
on a fair distribution between those returning to Israel and those returning
to the future Palestinian state—together with compensation to the
Palestinians who do not return, again giving priority to those most in
need of compensation.
It is worth noting that the State of Israel has
accepted both resolutions 194 and 181. The preamble to the resolution
admitting Israel to the UN membership specifically refers to Israel's
undertakings to implement 181and 194. Today, the question is not whether
but how to finally implement these resolutions to achieve what the majority
consider just.
A main reason for Israel's refusal to implement
the Palestinian right of return is its desire to preserve the Jewish character
of the State of Israel. Let us assume for a moment that not a single Palestinian
refugee will return to Israel. As things stand today, the population of
Israel includes over a million Arabs who carry Israeli passports. However,
because Israel is defined as a Jewish state, the Israeli Arabs are, by
definition, not full citizens of the Jewish state. This is not just a
matter of definition: Israeli Palestinians have identified 20 laws that
discriminate against them in basic aspects of civic life, including laws
of citizenship, emigration, education, and land ownership.[13]
Therefore, irrespective of the Palestinian right
of return, the State of Israel will need to address discrimination by
law and in fact against those of its citizens who are not Jews. This includes
the need to address and amend the Israeli Law of Return, which allows
any Jewish citizen of any country in the world to immigrate to Israel.
Meanwhile, Palestinians languish in refugee camps. Where's the justice
in that?
There needs to be a point, very soon, when Israel
becomes the state of all the citizens who live in it (as must the future
Palestine). States must be states of all their citizens: non-discrimination
is a basic principle of human rights. The US is the model: wherever they
come from, all immigrants become US citizens, equal in rights and duties.
The US model is not perfectly implemented in practice, but it is better
even than in Europe. The separation of religion and state is one of the
factors that make it possible for all citizens to be equal in the United
States. Another factor is the application of the rule of law. A third
is respect, so far, for civil and political rights, such as freedom of
speech.
Defining citizenship on the basis of faith or
ethnicity is a recipe for civil war, as can be seen from the modern history
of other states in the region such as Lebanon. There are different ways
to define a Jewish state. Israel has succeeded in coming into existence,
and has created a home for many Jews and a bond with Jews worldwide. At
some stage, the relationship of other Jews to Israel must become that
of historic, religious and cultural ties, rather than seeing Israel as
a haven of last resort for all Jews for all time.
But, for this to happen, we must all fight against
anti-Semitism, latent and blatant, which remains a threat to Jews wherever
they are. At the same time, we should also be aware that some anti-Jewish
feeling today has no roots in the anti-Semitism that originated in Europe,
but is fuelled by the injustice of Israel's occupation of Palestine. As
part of the struggle both against Israeli occupation as well as against
anti-Semitism, it is important to highlight the growing number of Jews
and Israelis—including those refusing to serve in the army of occupation—who
speak up and take action for the human rights of Palestinians.
In sum, UN resolutions provide for:
1) An end to the Israeli occupation of territories
taken in 1967—Resolution 242;
2) Two states, Palestine and Israel, leaving in peace and security—Resolution
181;
3) A just implementation of the Palestinian refugees right of return—Resolution
194.
The law protects. It protects Israel, which was
accorded statehood by UN Resolution 181. However, the law cannot be applied
piecemeal. It must also be applied to protect Palestine and the Palestinians
who are exposed to death and destruction and have been for decades.
September 2002 marks the 20th anniversary
of Sabra and Shatila (16—18 September 1982), when Israeli forces
surrounded two Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and sent in rightwing
Lebanese militias who massacred unarmed Palestinians over the course of
three days. As part of an agreement to end the 80-day siege of Beirut
by Israeli forces during its invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the US had promised
the PLO that it would protect Palestinian civilians after the PLO left
Lebanon. Yet the US withdrew its marines, and the Israelis went in. An
Israeli court found Ariel Sharon "personally responsible" for
the massacre of Sabra and Shatila and said he should never hold office
again. Yet here he is today, Prime Minister of Israel during two of the
bloodiest years of the 35-year-old Israeli occupation. When justice is
denied, blood flows, and continues to flow.
Citizens of the US have a responsibility to demand
that their Government apply the law to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The US is the strongest supporter of Israel politically and financially,
with aid and military equipment worth close to $4 billion a year, much
of which has been used to devastate Palestinian society and economy. There
are many actions US citizens can take in support of a just peace:
1) Work to
Change US Policy on Military Aid to Israel
Organize at the district level to let your elected representatives know
that Americans want military aid to Israel stopped until the occupation
is ended. In districts that house military corporations, US citizens can
call on shareholders, workers, and executives to stop selling arms to
Israel until the occupation is ended, because the occupation violates
international and US law.
2) Support
the Human Rights of Palestinians Under Occupation
There are initiatives to support the Palestinians' right to education
(http://www.ffipp.org/)
and the right to shelter by rebuilding demolished homes (http://www.RebuildingHomes.org).
3) Support
International Protection for the Palestinians
Call on elected representatives to promote a US policy at the UN in favor
of an international force to protect the Palestinian people from Israeli
attacks until the occupation is ended. Many US citizens are travelling
to the occupied territories to join the International Solidarity Movement
(http://www.rapprochement.org/),
in the absence of an international force, placing themselves between Israeli
soldiers and Palestinian civilians.
4) Support
Non-Violent Resistance to Occupation
The ISM actions are an example of resistance to occupation that is non-violent.
Many Palestinian civil society organizations oppose the occupation using
methods of resistance that are non-violent (LAW—the
Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment;
www.miftah.org—a human rights organization
founded by Hanan Ashrawi; Badil
Resource Center) There are also several Israeli organizations active
for a just peace (Gush
Shalom; the human rights group B'Tselem;
Rabbis for Human Rights;
and Adalah:
Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel; Courage
to Refuse).
There is a Campaign taking shape in the US today to apply the law: the
US Campaign
to End Israeli Occupation. The US Campaign is a coalition of organizations
and individuals focused on changing US policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict in support of freedom from occupation and equal rights for all.
The Campaign is based on human rights and international law, providing
a
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