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Sunday, May 22, 2011

Refugees

Palestine Monitor factsheet - Updated: 18 December 2008

Refugees

“The UN General Assembly reaffirms the right of all persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities to return to their homes or former places of residence in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967”
United Nations Resolution 61/113 (Dec. 14th, 2006)
"There are a total of 4,618,141 registered Palestinian refugees in the Middle East and an estimated 5.5 million Palestinian Refugees worldwide, making them the largest refugee population anywhere in the world."
UNRWA, 2008

Palestinian Refugees: The Facts

- Registered Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East total 4,618,141.
- Estimated Palestinian Refugees worldwide 5.5 million.
- The war in 1948 resulted in over 750,000 Palestinian refugees.
- The 1967 “Six-Day War”a further 240,000 refugees were created.
- Since 1967, another 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced.

Palestinian Refugees

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly (UN GA) passed Resolu-tion 181, endorsing a partition plan to divide the land of historic Palestine between the Jews and Arabs. War ensued and resulted in the state of Israel being created on 78% of the total area of historic Palestine. The plan was rejected by the wider Arab world.
During the ensuing war of 1948, over 750,000 Palestinians (75% of the Arab population in Palestine) were displaced and dispossessed of their homes and land, creating what has become the largest refugee population in the world. Some 531 villages and towns were destroyed, amounting to estimated total losses of 209 billion USD.
The majority remained in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but a large number fled to neighboring countries; Jordan, Lebanon and others throughout the world.
40,000 Palestinians were internally displaced within the new Israeli state. Many lost their homes and land and few were allowed to return despite the fact that they would later became Israeli citizens. During the 1967 “Six-Day War”, Israel forcefully annexed the West Bank and Gaza Strip; and 240,000 Palestinians were uprooted. In addition, approximately 95,000-193,500 refugees from 1948 who had been living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip became refugees for the second time.
Since 1967, another 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced from the occupied Palestinian territories due to Israeli policies. These policies include home demolitions, settlements and wall construction as well as revocation of residency rights and deportation of Palestinians.
Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, was established by United Nations Gen-eral Assembly resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949 to carry out direct relief and works programmes for Palestine refugees. The Agency began operations on 1 May 1950. In the absence of a solution to the Palestine refugee problem, the General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA’s mandate, most recently extending it until 30 June 2011.
UNRWA defines Palestine refugees as being “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the conflict.” UNRWA’s definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948.
At the end of June 2008, there were a total of 4,618,141 refugees registered with UNRWA; 1,930,703 in Jordan, 416,608 in Lebanon, 456,983 in Syria, 754,263 in the West Bank, and 1,059,584 in the Gaza Strip.
One-third of the registered Palestine refugees, about 1,3 million, live in 58 recognized UNRWA refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The other two-thirds of registered refugees live in and around the cities and towns of the host countries, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, often in a close vicinity to the official camps.
The socio-economic conditions in the refugee camps are generally poor with high population densities, cramped living conditions and inadequate basic infrastructure such as roads and sewers (9). The rights of the refugees vary from one host country to another; whereas in Jordan all Palestinian refugees have full Jordanian citizenship (with the exception of about 120,000 refugees originally from the Gaza Strip – who are eligible for temporary Jor-danian passports but who do not have the right to vote or to work with the government), the refugees in Lebanon have no social and civil rights, and have very limited access to the government’s public health or educational facilities. According to UNRWA’s estimates, the number of registered refugees who have re-turned to the occupied territories since 1967 is about 30,563.

Refugees and International Law

The UN GA has reaffirmed the right to return in response to the Israeli occupation since 1949 and on numerous occasions since, most recently in January 2008 (13). In addition to this, four bodies of international law dictate the right of return for Palestinians; humanitarian law, human rights law, the law of nationality as applied to state succession, and refugee law.
UN GA Resolution 194 (III) states that refugees and their descendants have a right to compensation and repatriation to their original homes and land due to ‘loss of or damage to property (.)’ The Resolution defined three distinct rights: return to their homes, restitution of their property and/or compensation, and has been reaffirmed every year since 1948.
The Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 49) prohibits “individual or mass forcible transfers…regardless of their motives” and calls for evacuated persons to be “transferred back to their homes as soon as hostilities in the area of question have ceased.”.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 13) reaffirms that “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country”.

Refugees and Annapolis

Throughout negotiations refugees have been a ma-jor sticking point. Following the failure of the Oslo Accords, the international media put the blame on the doorstep of PA head Yasser Arafat and his refusal to give up the refugee right of re-turn.
The controversy concerning refugees has not faded with time. On March 30th, 2008, nearly four months into the Annapolis negotiations, Ehud Olmert stated in an in-terview with the Jerusalem Post that:
“I will never accept a solution that is based on their (Palestinian refugees) right to return to Israel, any number...I will not agree to accept any kind of Israeli responsibility for the refugees. Full Stop. It is a moral issue of the highest level. I do not think we should accept any kind of responsibility for the creation of this problem”.
Neither side is moving from these positions, at least publically. Meanwhile nearly 5.5 million refu-gees have been asked to remain patient and let their rights become bargaining chips in the negotiating process.

http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article15

AS Veto Resolusi PBB tentang Permukiman Ilegal Israel

Headline News / Internasional / Sabtu, 19 Februari 2011 08:08 WIB
 

Metrotvnews.com, Washington: Amerika Serikat kembali membela dan mendukung Israel. Kali ini Amerika Serikat memveto resolusi Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa (PBB) yang akan mengutuk permukiman ilegal Israel dan menuntut penghentian segera pembangunan permukiman tersebut. Veto itu tentu saja menimbulkan kemarahan di negara-negara Arab dan negara pendukung Palestina lainnya di dunia.

Kecuali Amerika Serikat, 14 negara anggota Dewan Keamanan PBB lainnya mendukung resolusi PBB tersebut. Dukungan 14 negara anggota Dewan Keamanan ini menunjukkan luasnya dukungan terhadap Palestina dalam masalah permukiman ilegal Israel. Selain itu, Amerika Serikat juga menentang 100 negara lainnya pendukung resolusi permukiman ilegal Israel.

Palestina menolak mengadakan perundingan damai dengan Israel jika negara Yahudi itu tidak menghentikan pembangunan permukiman ilegal di Tepi Barat dan Jerusalem timur yang akan dijadikan Ibu Kota Israel.

Perundingan damai Palestina-Israel terhenti beberapa minggu setelah dimulai kembali pada September lalu karena pihak Israel mengakhiri 10 bulan moratorium pembangunan permukiman tersebut.

Duta Besar Amerika Serikat di PBB Susan Rice mengatakan, alasan veto Amerika Serikat itu karena Pemerintahan Presiden Barack Obama tidak yakin resolusi itu akan kembali mengarahkan pada perundingan damai.

Rice menambahkan, pihaknya tidak ingin veto Amerika Serikat ini disalah-tafsirkan sebagai dukungan terhadap pembangunan permukiman Israel. Veto kali ini merupakan yang kesepuluh kalinya bagi Amerika Serikat dalam masalah-masalah di Timur Tengah sejak 2001. Veto kali ini merupakan yang pertama kalinya bagi pemerintahan Barack Obama. Selama ini semua veto yang dilakukan Amerika Serikat menguntungkan posisi Isarel. (DOR)


http://metrotvnews.com/metromain/newsvideo/2011/02/19/122763/AS-Veto-Resolusi-PBB-tentang-Permukiman-Ilegal-Israel

US aid to Israel

US aid to Israel

“Israel has no more loyal friend than the United States. We couldn’t have done it without her”
Yitzhak Rabin

US Aid: The Facts

- Israel and the US have a long-established special relationship. The US was the first country to recognise the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
- Israel is considered America’s closest non-NATO ally in the Middle East, a region that is geopolitically crucial to the US.
- The close relationship between the two states is reflected in the volume of aid Israel receives from the US. Since World War II Israel has been the largest overall recipient of US aid: from 1949-2006 Israel received more than $156 billion of direct US aid.
- Until 2003, Israel received approximately one-third of the annual US foreign aid budget. In 2005, the US gave Israel more than $2.6 billion in aid, a budget exceeded only by US aid to Iraq. By comparison, Jordan received $683.6 million, Rwanda received $77 million, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories received $348.2 million.
- In the past, a majority of the direct US aid to Israel was via US Economic Support Funds (ESF). The US publicly states that ESF are given in order to support stability in areas strategic to the US. However, the recipient government completely controls how it spends these funds.
- The US also lends money to Israel, but these loans are frequently waived before any repayments are made. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs has estimated that from 1974-2003 Israel benefited from more than $45 billion in waived loans from the US.
- Direct US aid to Israel has significantly diminished since 1996 in order to reduce Israeli financial dependence on the US. Speaking to the US Congress in July 1996, Former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared, “We will begin the long-term process of gradually reducing the level of your generous economic assistance to Israel.

Political support

- The US has a history of giving Israel direct political support. In 1972, the US prevented the adoption of UN resolution S/10784 paragraph 74, which condemned Israeli attacks against southern Lebanon and Syria. In order to do this, the US used its veto power in the Security Council for only the second time.
- Since 1972, the US has used its veto power to prevent the adoption of 42 UN resolutions that condemned or severely criticized actions by the State of Israel. In 2006, for example, the US prevented the adoption of UN resolution S/878, which demanded a mutual ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
- In 2002, former US Ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, stated that it was US policy to denounce all UN resolutions that criticized Israel without also condemning “terrorist groups.” This statement is now known as the Negroponte-doctrine.

Military Aid

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A line of American-made Israeli F 15 fighter jets at an Israeli Air Force base
- Whilst US economic aid to Israel has diminished in the last ten years, the level of US military support to Israel has substantially increased. This includes financial military aid.
- Israel’s military superiority is largely dependent on various forms of direct US support, including financial military aid and donations, weapons deliveries and technological support.
- Between 1996 and 2006, Israel received $24 billion in financial military aid from the US.
- The major financial mechanism for military aid from the US to Israel is Foreign Military Financing (FMF). These grants are given to foreign governments in order for them to buy US-manufactured weapons systems. Approximately 50% of the current FMF budget is designated to Israel. Israel has also been granted the privilege of spending 26.3% of its allocation, an unusually high percentage, on buying weapons produced by Israeli arms manufacturers.
- Economic Support Funds (ESF – see previous reference) are not specifically designated for military use. But as governments are unaccountable as to how they spend this money, ESF can also be considered indirect military aid.
- In August 2007, a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on military aid was signed between Israel and the US. This MOU guarantees Israel $30 billion in military aid via FMF over the next decade.
- As the closest US ally in the Middle East, Israel has privileged access to US military technology. Israeli research and development of weapons systems is often co-financed by the US. Joint military projects have been set up, such as the development of the Arrow Missile System, which has been operational since 2000.
- Israel values its relationship with the US, but nonetheless has exported US military technology to China against the interests of the US. Military equipment is one of Israel’s most important export products, with a net estimated value of $4.4 billion in 2006.
- For China, Israel is a backdoor to access advanced western military technology. For example, in 1996 Israel exported the US Airborne Early Warning (AEW) system to China, and, in 2005 attempted to sell China the Harpy Killer anti-radar system.

Israel is a Nuclear Power

- Although never officially confirmed by either Israel or the US, it is widely known that Israel has developed nuclear weapons. In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu exposed Israel’s nuclear program.
(see below)
- The number of Israeli nuclear bombs produced in the Dimona nuclear research centre in the Negev Desert is estimated at 200.
- Israel has never signed the 1968 Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.
- Both the US and Israel have an unofficial policy of silence regarding Israel’s nuclear capacity.
- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert confirmed that Israel possesses nuclear weapons in a 12 December 2006 interview with the German TV channel Sat.1. He said that Iran aspires “to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel and Russia”.

US aid to Israel violates US laws

- US aid to Israel, and the way in which this aid is used, frequently violates US law, policy and interests.
- Under US policy, financial aid to Israel should not be spent by Israel in the Occupied Territories. But Israel spends US aid with impunity.
- The US has a number of laws regulating foreign military aid and weapons’ exports. The 1961 Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) states that “No assistance [ought to be given] to countries that violate human rights”. But Israel systematically violates human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
- The 1976 US Arms Export Control Act (AECA) states that “Weapons purchased from the US should only be used for legitimate self-defense”. But since September 2000 the Israeli military has killed more than 3,354 Palestinian civilians (as of 8 August 2007).

The Vanunu case at a glance

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Front page of the British ‘Sunday Times’ on October 5, 1986: “Revealed: the secrets of Israel’s nuclear arsenal.”
In 1986, Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu leaked information and photographs about Israel’s nuclear program to the British Sunday Times newspaper. Whilst in London exposing Israel’s nuclear industry, Vanunu was invited to Rome by an undercover female Mossad agent.
When he arrived in Italy he was kidnapped by Mossad and taken back to Israel for trial. In 1988, Vanunu was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He endured more than 11 years of solitary confinement before being released in 2004.
He remains under house arrest.
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Poster for the liberation of Vanunu. An international solidarity campaign began after his abduction in 1986.
 
 
 
 
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article17

Children

Palestine Monitor factsheet - Updated: 18 December 2008

Children

“Life is becoming more violent for children in the Palestinian Territory. By the end of 2006 more than 120 children had died due to the conflict, more than double the number of child deaths in 2005. Many more have been injured, some for life.”
UNICEF, 2007
"Children have the right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated, physically or mentally. Governments should ensure that children are properly cared for and protect them from violence, abuse and neglect by their parents, or anyone else who looks after them."
Article 19 of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child

Children in Palestine: The Facts

- 60% of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are under 19-years-old.
- One in 3 Palestinian males aged 15-19 is an unskilled worker. Unemployment is a severe problem for young Palestinian men: 20% of 15-19-year-olds cannot find paid work.
- 20% of Palestinian females marry between the ages of 15-19. More than 1 in 10 subsequently divorce.
- According to the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF): “Conditions have rarely been worse for Palestinian children.” One in 10 Palestinian children now suffer from stunted growth due to compromised health, poor diet and nutrition and 50% of Palestinian children are anemic, and 75% of those under 5 suffer from vitamin A deficiency.
- UNICEF claims that roadblocks, barriers, checkpoints and soldiers are impeding health workers and patients, including child patients, from accessing health centers across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Delivery of medication and equipment are also severely affected.
- On March 8th, 2007 Khaled Daud Faqih died at a checkpoint between the village of Kafr’Ain and the city of Ramallah. His parents were trying to take him to Ramallah hospital, but were detained at a checkpoint by Israeli soldiers. Khaled Daud Faqih was 6 months old.
- Rising poverty and unemployment is affecting school attendance across Palestine. In the 2005/6 school year the number of students whose families could not afford the NIS 50 ($11) school fee doubled from 29,000 to 56,000.
- Up to 67% of families are living in poverty across the West Bank. In Gaza poverty rates have spiraled to 85% this year, severely affecting every aspect of children’s lives.
- Increasing numbers of Palestinian children are now working to support their families instead of attending school. Palestinian children under the age of 14 can cross Israeli checkpoints without permits, and at least one thousand Palestinian children now cross into Israel every day, to work in garbage tips salvaging glass and metal. More than half of the Palestinian children who work in Israel, or Palestine, do not attend school at all.

Children in Palestine

The Palestinian demographic is weighted heavily toward the youth, in which the ma-jority of the population is under the age of eighteen. In the Gaza Strip, it is estimated that the median age is nearly 15 years old. This generation and those preceding it know nothing but military occupation and war. They are often called the ‘lost generation’ as they have been robbed of the tools and structures by which to develop a normal life.
In a reality where the adults are engaged in daily violence and aggression, the emotion and outlook of young Palestinians is built upon anger, loss and trauma. All Palestin-ian children can tell you about their relationship to the occupation and the horrors they have witnessed at such a young and vulnerable age - from death to injury to daily humiliation. Many children, far more than in other countries, suffer from acute psychological, emotional and social problems which exhibit themselves in a variety of ways.
It is commonly said that ‘the children are our future’, and that this brutal conflict must come to an end so that they will have the opportunity to live and develop in a peaceful secure environment. The following chapter attempts to outline why we have failed as Israelis and Palestinians to provide this en-vironment, and how the standard of living for Palestinian children has declined along the same trajectories as the Palestinian economy. This is unacceptable according to every national and international law, standard or moral code. Moreover, it makes peace that much harder to reach between our two peoples.
The children of the ‘lost generation’ have, more often than not, never met an Israeli who was unarmed, unafraid, and not dealing with them from a position of power. To them, the guard at the checkpoint repre-sents all Israelis; and within this they have found something to fear and hate. Soon this ‘lost generation’ will arrive to their adulthood knowing only occupation, and nothing what-so-ever of peace. It is them with whom peace will have to be struck, and it is their accumulated anger and trauma which will sit on the opposite side of the negotiating table. To those who say that there have been no real ‘partner for peace’ before on the Palestinian side...wait until you meet the ones with no hope at all.

Children and Education

Though Palestine is often cited as the most edu-cated society in the Arab world, it is a very mis-leading notion. In order to achieve the level of education that they have, incredible obstacles to their learning and access to learning have to be overcome on a daily basis.
Classrooms are crowded, and the school day has been shortened dramatically to coincide with cuts in public funding resulting from the Israeli and international sanctions on Palestine follow-ing the 2006 election of Hamas.
The occupation, which affects virtually every area of life in Palestine, has not made the education of children any easier. Stories abound through-out the West Bank of children being hampered or harassed on their way to school by either the Israeli army or settlers. The schoolhouses them-selves, meant to be sanctuaries where children can feel safe, have often been the site of Israeli incursions or clashes between the army and mili-tants.
In spite of these and many more challenges, Palestine has many impressive statistics to show the world in terms of its education.
According to a 2006 study by UNESCO, male and female youth aged 15-24 have a 99% literacy rate. Meanwhile, the gross primary school enrollment for male and female youth sat at 89% and 88% respectively.

Children in Conflict

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has dispro-portionately affected children, who often find them-selves directly in the line of fire in a war where nei-ther side can seem to draw the line between civilian and combatant.
According to Defense of Children International (DCI), whose field workers document each case of child death or injury, a total of 974 Palestinian chil-dren were killed in the seven years from the onset of the second Intifada to the opening of of the An-napolis Peace Conference. The vast majority of these deaths came as a result of Israeli air and ground assaults into Palestinian Territory. The second most common cause of death is cited as ‘random Israeli gunfire’.
Since the talks began at the end of last year until Sep-tember of 2008, the firing has not stopped. As a re-sult, 79 Palestinian children have been killed, and a further 370 injured. During this same period of time, 4 Israeli children have been killed and a further 11 injured as a result of the conflict.
Though it has been widely reported, there are no credible publications citing the number of child fa-talities in the month of October 2008. In spite of this the reader should be made aware that this disturbing statistic is expected to rise in comparison to previous months. The 2008 Palestinian Olive Harvest has been met with intense violence from the settlers making it one of the bloodiest autumns in recent memory.

Children in Israeli Prisons

Contrary to international norms and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Israel is a signatory, children under the age of 16 in the oPT can be arrested, tried and treated in the same manner as adults.
Israel has often chosen to sidestep both its own regulations, and those of the UN Convention by charging and sentencing children as young as twelve years old.
Between the ages of 12-14, children can be sen-tenced for offenses for a period of up to 6 months. After the age of 14, Palestinian children are tried as adults. There are no juvenile courts, and children are often detained in centers together with adults.
This practice is also illegal according to the UN Con-vention on the Rights of the Child which states that “every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child’s best in-terest not to do so”. Over the last eight years an es-timated 6,700 Pal-estinian children were arrested and detained in Israeli prison facilities and treated in the same manner as adults.

Child Psychology

The ongoing occupation of Palestine, and the humanitarian crisis which it entails, is an endless source of trauma in Palestine, especially among the young who lack the understanding and coping skills of adults. Fur-thermore, those adults who are mentally ill or affected by the occupation bring their traumas home where their wives and families bear the brunt.
According to Dr. Eyad El Sarraj, ‘the psychological effects of violence (on children) are severe and trauma-tizing. While many injured children have acquired a permanent physical disability, many more have devel-oped psychological impairments. The prevalence of neurotic symptoms and behavioural problems among children, such as disobedience or irritabil-ity, is high. According to recent research in the Gaza Strip, some 32.7% of children suffer severe levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, 49% moderate levels, and 16% low levels’.
According to World Health Organization’s Ra-jiah Abu Swai, ‘ children are more vulnerable (to mental illness). It is particularily important for children to be able to grow up in a situation in which they can feel secure and in which they do not experience fear. It is essential that they can sense that their parents are protecting them...When the Second Intifada started in 2001, there were many incursions, shellings and bombings into the West bank and in Gaza.’
‘In parallel, there were more recorded instances of violence in schools as well as aggression, night-mares and bedwetting at home. This is normal, because when a child sees that his parents are as scared as he is and are unable to control or stop a negative situation, he will become even more frightened or anxious’.

http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article11

Israeli settlements

Palestine Monitor factsheet - Updated: 15 March 2010
 

Israeli settlements

 

"Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development [... and] have been established in breach of international law."
International Court of Justice Ruling, July 9, 2004

 

Settlements: The Facts

 

- There are currently 121 Israeli colonies, often referred to as "settlements", and approximately 102 Israeli outposts built illegally on Palestinian land occupied militarily by Israel since 1967 (West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights). All of these settlements and outposts are illegal under international law and have been condemned by numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions. Israeli outposts are considered illegal under Israeli law.
- These settlements and outposts are inhabited by a population of some 462,000 Israeli settlers. 191,000 Israelis are living in settlements around Jerusalem and a further 271,400 are further spread throughout the West Bank. The settler population has grown consistently between 4-6% per year over the last two decades, a much higher rate of growth than Israeli society as a whole (1.5%).
- Approximately 385,000 settlers in 80 settlements will be located between the Separation Wall and the Green Line if Israel holds to projected plans.
- In 2008, amidst the ‘settlement freeze’ agreed upon in the Annapolis framework, tenders for new settle-ment building increased by 550% from 2007. Actual settlement construction has increased by 30% since the launching of the new round of peace talks. Settlement building around Jerusalem has increased by a factor of 38.
- A total of 9,000 further housing units have been approved in East Jerusalem, and approximately 2,600 new housing units are being built east of the Separation Wall, comprising 55% of all settlement construc-tion activity.
- Settlements are built on less than 3 percent of the area of the West Bank. However, due to the extensive network of settler roads and restrictions on Palestinians accessing their own land, Israeli settlements domi-nate more than 40 percent of the West Bank.

 

The Israeli settlements


The Israeli Settler movement has continued growing and expanding throughout the last few decades in spite of the international condemnation it has accrued for Israel, and regardless of which political party holds sway in Tel Aviv. That is to say that settlement building on the land occupied in 1967 is not a policy of either the right or the left; it is the policy of Israel. Even those in Israel who now loudly call for a swift two-state solution, for fear that it will soon become impossible, have done little or nothing to stop the expansion of settlements - even during the on-going Annapolis Peace Process.
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Making the desert bloom with concrete
Picture: Palestine Monitor

Settlers and settlements compose one of the most difficult challenges to peace. Those who self-identify as settlers are ideologically committed to staying on their land regardless of what their government or military think. Many of these settlers have built their communities in areas far east of Israel proper and often far east of the illegal separation Wall that encloses the majority of illegal settlements. These settlers are often will-ing to use violence against both Israelis and Palestinians to have their way, and have stepped up their acts of terror and intimidation throughout the peace process.
Those settlers living in the blocks surrounding Jerusalem largely identify themselves as ‘economic settlers’, or those who have been enticed to settle in occupied lands by the variety of public and private incentives laid at their door. Ironically these settlers are the most willing to leave and repatriate back to Israel; while they are at the same time those settlements least likely to be conceded by Israel in negotiations.

It is important to remember that though the settlements and settlers themselves are significant obstacles to peace, the large security apparatus and infrastructure which unite them to Israel proper pose even more dif-ficult challenges, as by-pass roads between settlements slice the West Bank into a series of economically and politically isolated ‘bantustans’. Furthermore, settlements are often located in strategic areas which capture vital resouces such as water and agricultural land.
Israel’s continued insistence upon the legitimacy of the settler movement provides a tough challenge for negotiators who are able to recognize the inherent impossibility of maintaining nearly half a million hostile citizens of Israel in a future, highly incontiguous Palestinian state. Regardless of this reality, the movement continues to grow stronger and more determined day by day.

Settlement vs. Outpost

Since 1967, successive Israeli governments have established settlements in violation of international law; colonizing Palestinian territories in order to con-solidate and secure control of these areas and prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state.
Originally used to describe any new Jewish develop-ment in Israel, the term ‘settlements’ now refers to Jewish-only housing units built in strategic areas of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, on land occupied by Israel in 1967.
Most settlements begin as ‘outposts’. These are often composed of just a few families who live in caravans whilst awaiting infrastructure and financial support from the state and other sympathetic communities both inside Israel and abroad.
Caravans in the outpost of Maskiot
Of the more than 120 settlement outposts in the West Bank, 58 were established after March 2001. Only three have been dismantled since the Annapolis process began.
Moreover, Israel continues to speak of removing only “unauthorized” outposts (i.e., those estab-lished in violation of domestic Israeli law) and have identified only 26 which fit this description. Neither the Road Map, nor the successive UN resolu-tions, contain or respect Israel’s domestic distinction between legal and illegal settlements or outposts.

By-Pass Roads

Settlements are linked to each other and to Israel by an extensive network of “bypass roads”.
All bypass roads have a 50–75m buffer zone on each side, where no construction is allowed. These buffer zones have led to a great loss of agricultural and privately-owned Palestinian land.
Whilst illegally built on confiscated Palestinian land, these roads are forbidden for use by Pales-tinians. They consolidate Israel’s creation of a sys-tem of Apartheid in the West Bank and fracture communities across Palestine.
In August of 2008 there were 794 kilometers of by-pass roads in the West Bank. To date it is unclear how many kilometers of road Israel is planning to build before it is finished. This is un-derstandable within the context of the on-going negotiations and the uncertainty that they pose for the future of many settlements.
For Palestinian use there are currently a number of roads being constructed to facilitate their move-ment in a way which will separate them from the settlers. To date, about 40 kilometres of “fabric of life” roads, including 44 tunnels and underpasses, were completed. In addition, some five kilometres are under construction and another 40 kilometres and 18 tunnels are planned.

Resources

Settlements are the cause of great inequalities in ac-cess to natural resources between Israelis and Palestin-ians. Many settlements are built on prime agricultural land confiscated from Palestinians, or over key water resources such as the Western Aquifer basin, springs and wells.
Israeli West Bank settlers domestically consume an amazing 280 liters of water per day, per person com-pared to 86 liters per day available for Palestinians in the West Bank - only 60 of which are considered po-table. The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 100 liters per day – meaning that settlers utilize far more than double the water required, while Palestinians do not approach the minimum.
But only looking at domestic use is misleading. The brunt of water resources consumed by Israel are for farming and industrial purposes. When one looks at these numbers, the inequality between Israel and Palestinian resource sharing grows dramatically.
It is also misleading to look at the amount of land ac-tually ‘settled’ in the West Bank (3%), as opposed to the more than 40% of West Bank residential and vital agricultural land confiscated around the settlements themselves.
By stealing both the land and water resources from Palestine, the Israeli settlers and the Israeli state have literally made the ‘desert bloom’ whilst Palestinians are left with little of their own wealth by which to compete.

Settler Violence

Settlers often carry out violent attacks against Pal-estinians and their property with complete legal immunity, and often with more than implicit sup-port from the military itself. In fact, Israeli soldiers often protect and assist settlers, and legal proceed-ings are rarely brought against them.
Swedish human rights wor ker after being attacked by Israeli settlers in Hebron in the presence of Israeli soldiers and police. November 18th, 2006
According to OCHA, 80-90% of the files opened against Israeli settlers following attacks on Pales-tinians and their property are regularly closed by the Israeli police without prosecution.
In the first eight months of 2008, there were a total of 112 people injured as a result of settler attacks. Nearly 80% of these incidents have occurred in the Hebron district.
However, as this book goes to print, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of settler attacks and murders coinciding with the Palestinian Olive Harvest. The ferocity and sheer number of such incidences have led to more calls within Israel to punish settler violence, but as of yet there has been no real effect on the ground.

Settlements and International Law

Israeli settlements are illegal under every basic reading of international law:
- Article 46 of the Hague Convention prohibits confiscation of private property in occupied territory. Article 55 of the same Hague Convention stipulates “the occupying state shall be regarded only as administrator and usufructuary of public buildings, real estate, forests, and agricultural estates belonging to the hostile State, and situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of these properties, and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufruct”.
- Article 49, paragraph 6 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly stipulates that “the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”.
- UN Security Council Resolution 465 (1980-unanimously adopted) made it clear that “Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants” in the Occupied Territories constitutes “a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East”. The Security Council called upon Israel to “dismantle the existing settlements and in particular to cease, on an urgent ba-sis, the establishment, construction or planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem”.
- The 2004 ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague declared that “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to eco-nomic and social development”.

Settlements in the Annapolis Process

At the Annapolis Conference Israel and the Palestinians renewed their respective commitments under the Road Map. Chief among Israel’s obligations are “[freezing] all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)” and “immediately [dismantling] settlement outposts erected since March 2001”.
Despite Israel’s commitment during the Annapolis Summit to freeze all settlement activity, construction has continued and almost doubled in all of the settlements and outposts on both sides of the Separation Barrier. “Since Annapolis, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other senior Israeli officials have repeatedly made clear that Israel would not implement a genuine settlement freeze. Among other things, Olmert has said that Israel would continue building in settlements in and around East Jerusalem as well as in the so-called settlement ‘blocs’, thus effectively negating the very purpose of the freeze. Moreover, de-spite clarification by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that “the United States doesn’t make a distinction” between settlement activity in East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, Israeli officials continue to make unilateral exemptions to their settlement freeze obligations”.
The Two state solution map   
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article7