-Caveat Lector-
Ignoring apartheid
Published August 15, 2001 by the Palestine Report
htp://www.jmcc.org/media/reportonline
Special Report by Ihab Abu Ghosh, director of the Jerusalem Legal Aid
and Human Rights Center
FAMOUS ENGLISH physicist Stephan Hawking promised readers in
his acclaimed book "A Brief History of Time" to explain theories
pertaining to the universe without discouraging or confusing the
readership with numerous complicated equations, and in the end only
referring to Einstein's famous E = mc2.
Similarly, it should be possible to present the issue of Israeli
settlements in its true form, without digressing into a futile academic
discussion. Indeed, the illusion of the controversy surrounding Israeli
settlement policy is one intended to turn the issue into a discussion that
might be negotiated - which has already been done so successfully with
the matter of occupation.
Only this way can one understand the changes in the United States
governments' position on Israeli settlements over the past two decades.
First they were "illegal," then "obstacles to peace," and now they have
become a negotiable issue subject to the wills of the parties concerned,
in which there is no place for external interference specifically that of
the relevant United Nations resolutions.
Israeli settlement policy is all about having the cake and eating it, too.
It is about emptying international conventions, Article 49 of the Geneva
Convention and 52 of the Hague Convention, in particular, of their
meaning. It is about creating new international legitimacy for an
occupation and its primary tool, one that has been clearly denounced by
various relevant United Nations General Assembly and Security Council
Resolutions. It means the final closing of the curtain by coercing
Palestinians into accepting this reality and signing a final concession to
that effect.
Under different terms of "legality," even the Israeli High Court was only
able to justify the first settlements by saying that they served Israeli
security needs as laid down in the "Beit El" and "Alon Moreh" cases of
1978 and 1979, respectively. [That is particularly interesting in light of
the security justifications used in today's razing of entire
neighborhoods, liquidation of Palestinian activists and oppressive siege
of the Palestinian areas.]
Since then more than 200 settlements have been erected in the
Occupied Territories with an estimated 350,000 Israeli settlers living
there. A network of roads has been built on Arab land to enable settlers'
free movement and connection with one another. Israeli settlements
control all water resources in the Occupied Territories, and utilize 80
percent of that water for their own use. These Israeli settlements and
Jewish settlers are under total Israeli jurisdiction and laws that give
them economic and military support. In essence, the settlements have
become what they were fundamentally established to be: the
cornerstone and primary tool for creating a new apartheid system.
Understanding this reality and this fundamental attribute helps in
distinguishing this issue from one that is controversial and a matter of
moral inconsequence, and one that is not only illegal but also non-
negotiable.
Understanding this also clarifies the positions of state organs in
support of settlement and differences in approach and realization of
this support. This also clarifies the policy of support for the
establishment and expansion of settlements equally practiced by the
different Israeli governments over the past three decades. Differences
were only noted in the tools and areas of settlement policy but not in
the fundamental approach towards this issue.
The discussion on settlements should not be seen as one pertaining to
town planning, architecture or landscape, or even the needs of a civilian
population. Rather, choosing to ignore or support settlement is a
choice between supporting an apartheid system or denouncing it.
It is not difficult to comprehend the mentality of supporters of
settlements vis a vis the Palestinians; examples range from militants
who chant "death to Arabs" at social events to the more sophisticated
who are more subtle and merely wish this in their dreams.
Who is that legal advisor who conjured up the cunning scheme of
making use of land that had been declared state land, rather than going
through the hassle of discussing the security purposes for which the
land was required? This same person was reported to have defended the
state and army against claims for compensation brought by a Gaza
refugee camp family whose wife and mother were killed
"unnecessarily" by soldiers that they should be thankful "for they now
have one less mouth to feed."
And then there is the notorious architect who designed the Ma'aleh
Adumim expansion plan over an additional 12,000 dunums, which gave
the settlement a surface area of 60,000 dunums (more land than Tel
Aviv). That land was expropriated from five Arab villages whose 60,000
inhabitants have to live on an isolated 6,000 dunums. This same person
finds nothing wrong in his actions - and why should he? For we also
know that he himself lives in an Arab house in Ein Karem village, which
was occupied in 1948 and partially demolished in 1967 and its 5,000
Palestinian residents made refugees, unable to return. He is now
designing the plans for a recreational park on the ruins of this village
and of Emwas, whose residents were evicted and their village and
houses demolished in 1967. This place is now called Canada Park.
Congruently, the Israeli High Court upheld the expansion of Ma'aleh
Adumim. Its inability to find any rulings in the opposite direction from
the same court over the past 20 years led it to decide without hesitation
that this is a political issue, subject to pending negotiations, during
which all state organs should speak in the same tongue and protect the
same policy.
Article 2 of the "International Convention of the Suppression and
Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid" of 1973 clearly defined the
term "crime of apartheid." This includes similar policies and practices
of segregation and discrimination as practiced in South Africa and
which also apply to inhuman acts committed for the purpose of the
establishment and maintaining of domination by one racial group over
another. This includes the deliberated imposition of living conditions
calculated to cause physical destruction and any legislative or other
measures preventing a racial group from full development of their
political, social, economic and cultural life.
An overview of these settlements in the Occupied Territories
demonstrates - and perhaps in the last few months more than ever - that
these settlements are allocated and connected in such a manner that
would ultimately cut off the towns and villages of the West Bank from
one another and control furthermore all available resources. Thus, the
entire notion of social and economic development of the Palestinians
is rendered impossible. Even during the interim phase, as World Bank
and other donor agency reports clearly show, the main obstacle for any
development project was the subdivision between the villages and the
lack of territorial continuity, which prevented much needed
infrastructure projects and development or rendered it much too
expensive and futile.
Many analogies can be drawn between the Occupied Territories and
South Africa, but the Palestinian case can be seen as even worse
because of the pressures practiced on the Palestinians to finally submit
and accept this new reality of a new apartheid in a world where
Palestinians are left to face this fate alone.
The Israeli High Court was correct to regard Israeli settlement policy a
political issue. It only stopped short of stating what is becoming more
and more obvious: that the politics that are being defended are those of
an apartheid state. Published 15/8/01 (c)Palestine Report
To receive the full weekly edition of Palestine Report, visit
http://www.jmcc.org/media/reportonline for check and credit card
subscription.
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