ISRAEL TO U.N.: DROP DEAD!
by David Bloom
On July 9, the International Court of Justice at the Hague issued an
advisory opinion saying Israel was in violation of international law and
conventions by building its "separation barrier" within the occupied West
Bank. The United Nations General Assembly, by a vote of 150-6, with 10
abstentions, adopted the opinion. The UN resolution requires Israel to
dismantle the barrier and compensate Palestinian farmers and property
owners for the damage done to their crops by the fence. Israel flatly
rejected the resolution.
RULING HISTORIC--BUT NON-BINDING
Michael Tarazi, a legal adviser to the PLO, described the court's ruling as
"a real bolstering for Palestinian moderates who have long argued that
violence is not the way to victory." Tarazi warned that "if the
international community sends a message that this can be ignored, it only
enforces the extremists who prey on the fact that most Palestinians feel
abandoned." (Philadelphia Inquirer, July 10)
As if to underscore Tarazi's point, the day after the ruling, Hezbollah
secretary general Sheik Hassan Nasrallah opined: "What will remove the
barrier in occupied Palestine is the intention, will, jihad and resistance
of Palestinians and the [Arab] nation." Nasrallah pointed to UN Security
Council Resolution 425, issued in 1978, which demanded Israel's immediate
withdrawal from Lebanon. Israel did not pull out until 2000, after years of
Hezbollah guerrilla attacks. "This international resolution was not able to
return for us one inch of our occupied lands," Nasrallah said. "Arabs might
be happy for hours or days because of the international court's ruling but
everybody knows that this ruling is non-binding." (Ha'aretz, July 10)
The court's ruling, which cannot be appealed, was more than just an opinion
on the legality of the barrier. It was a searing 65-page indictment of
Israel's entire occupation, including the illegal settlement of 430,000
Jews in occupied Palestinian territory. The 14-1 ruling was much stronger
than had been expected. Under the leadership of France, the entire
European Union voted for adoption of the ruling at the General Assembly.
Israel had lobbied hard against this. The Israeli government hoped that
some European countries, especially Britain, would break away from the
consensus.
To explain their failure, some Israeli officials quoted by Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, theorized "that the emerging generation of European
elites has less empathy with Israel than their predecessors. They also
have no Holocaust guilt, meaning they would have fewer reservations about
joining a Palestinian-inspired campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state."
One official told the JTA, "We are losing the battle for legitimacy
in Europe." (JTA, July, 29)
The barrier's US supporters were similarly concerned. Malcolm Hoenlien,
executive chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations in the USA, warned in the Israeli paper Ma'ariv July 26 that
"the Israeli public fails to understand the importance and the possible
implications of this ruling. I would not like my grandchildren to one day
open a history book only to learn that Israel committed crimes against
humanity. This ruling presents Israel as an illegitimate state and this is
what will go down in the annals of history. We should not underestimate
this ruling, as it confers the power on quasi-government and semi-official
bodies to call for boycotting Israel. Even if a US veto in the UN Security
Council prevents officially-imposed sanctions on Israel, the damage to
Israel could still prove enormous."
(Ma'ariv, July 26)
British parliamentarian Gerald Kaufman has already called for sanctions to
enforce the ICJ's decision, as did Palestinian activist Mustafa Barghouthi.
The Palestine Authority's representative to the United Nations, Nasser
al-Kidwa, said that full sanctions would not be called for immediately.
"It's time now, we believe, for implementation, for compliance, and at a
later stage for additional measures," Kidwa said. (AP, July 21)
PALESTINE SQUANDERS "MORAL CAPITAL"?
After Kidwa identified companies assisting in the building of the barrier
as potential targets for boycott measures, charges spread anew that
businessmen in Palestine have sold 420,000 tons of cement to Israel. The
cement is used in settlement construction and--according to a Palestinian
auditor's report--for the separation barrier itself. It was originally sold
by Egypt to the PA for rebuilding demolished Palestinian homes and was
instead sold off-the-books to the Israelis, circumventing Palestinian
Authority taxes. (Al-Jazeera, July 31)
(Al-Jazeera, July 31)
The corruption charges occurred against a backdrop of a violent power
struggle among Palestinians, between one faction loyal to President Yasser
Arafat and another to former Gaza Preventative Security Chief Mahmoud
Dahlan. The resulting violence, kidnappings and arson led Palestinian
commentator Douad Khuttab to note that "the main loser in all this fighting
is the Palestinian people themselves, who seem to have lost an opportunity
to make capital from the historic decision of the International Court of
Justice regarding the wall and the following UN General Assembly decision."
(Jordan Times, July 31)
WALL'S REACH: TEN KILOMETERS FROM JORDAN
For its part, Israel has declared its intention to ignore the ICJ ruling,
and has announced few changes to the planned route of the barrier. On Aug.
3, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz announced the barrier would be
built around the West Bank's largest illegal Jewish settlement, Ma'ale
Adumim, and its satellite communities--leaving only 10 kilometers between
the barrier and the Jordanian border. It was also confirmed that an
additional 600 units of housing would be added to Ma'ale Adumim, despite
international reproval. In addition, Mofaz announced that approximately 40
Jewish settlements not included on the "Israeli" side of the wall would be
surrounded by their own individual fences. And contradictory statements
have been made about the "Ariel salient," a section of barrier slated to
surround the central West Bank settlements of Kedumim, Ariel, and Immanuel.
(Ha'aretz, June 30, Aug. 3)
Not one inch of the barrier as already built is to be moved. Instead,
Israel announced that $11.1 million would be spent in a series of tunnels,
bridges and roads to help isolated Palestinian communities maintain access
to larger towns without having to pass through Israeli checkpoints.
There will be no relief for the people of Qalqilya region, whose farmers
are cut off from their fields by the barrier, hostage to a restrictive
permit system and the whims of Israeli security forces. Forty-five percent
of the West Bank's agricultural land is now trapped on the "Israeli" side
of the wall that has been already built in the north.
In the town of Jayyous, the effects of this policy can clearly be seen in
fruit rotting on trees and emaciated sheep which have been forbidden to
graze in the village's fields. For about two weeks following the June 30
Israeli High Court ruling that the barrier must accommodate Palestinian
humanitarian concerns, Jewish militants from the nearby illegal settlement
of Zufim, in conjunction with the Israeli army, seized more pproperty and
built a new road into Jayyous' land. Signs planted on the road read
"Israel" and names of famous Zionists.
(Stopthewall.org, July 20)
)
U.S. CONGRESS CONDEMNS RULING
The barrier's current route does have some notable detractors amongst the
Israeli security establishment. Four former heads of the Shin Bet internal
security service have come out against the fence's route, as has the
Council for Peace and Security, a group of 100 Israeli reserve officers,
many of them generals. "It is against the security interests of the state
and its residents on either side of the fence," the council wrote in a
letter to the Knesset. (Jersalem Post, March 30)
Despite the ICJ ruling, the UN resolution and the reservations of prominent
Israeli security professionals, a US congressional resolution condemning
the ICJ ruling July 15 passed by 361-45. Speaking against resolution 713
was Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA), who said of the barrier, " I have personally
witnessed the very severe hardships it imposes on Palestinian life. Again,
a fence on the Green Line is one thing. That makes sense strategically and
demographically. But a separation barrier that winds its way through the
West Bank, appropriating Palestinian land in its wake, is not acceptable."
Numerous commentators and editors in both the US and Israel condemned the
ruling for not taking into consideration the purported successes of the
barrier in preventing attacks on Israeli civilians. But nothing in the
court's decision precludes Israel from building a barrier on its own land
or on the border. In describing the current barrier's route, former Shin
Bet head Avraham Bendor said "today's fence is creating a political and
security reality that will become a problem. Why? Because it creates
hatred, it expropriates land, and annexes hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians to the State of Israel. This is contrary to our interests,
according to which we view the State of Israel as the home of the Jewish
people." (Yediot Achronot, Nov. 14)
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Special to WORLD WAR 3 REPORT, August 9, 2004
Reprinting permissible with attribution
WW3Report.com
