A Review of "Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law"
By Michael Gillespie, Miftah 10/27/2003
Most observers know very well that Israeli Zionists displaced and dispossessed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 and again in 1967, creating the world's largest, most problematic, and longest running refugee crisis. Many understand, as well, that Israel's continuing illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and brutal oppression of the Palestinian people is aided and abetted by the U.S. government. But few have a comprehensive understanding of the relationship of Palestine and Israel in international law, and even among those who consider themselves knowledgeable about the Palestinian cause, questions about the legal status of Palestine and Palestinians abound.
In a compelling new work, Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law, renowned international jurist, author, and human rights champion Francis A. Boyle provides a comprehensive history of the legal wrangling over Palestine and Palestinian rights while setting out bold new legal strategies for ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and oppression of the Palestinian people.
Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law arrives at a critical moment. As the extremist right-wing Sharon regime tightens its grip, the humanitarian crisis in Palestine grows dangerously acute, and the Bush administration's so-called war against international terrorism expands, few are able to predict with any confidence the future of the heroic Palestinian struggle for liberty, justice, and national sovereignty. Boyle clarifies the confusing legal complexity of the crisis in Palestine, proposes creative new approaches to Israeli intransigence and deceit, and argues persuasively for the preservation of the established norms of international law at a time when the rule of law itself is seriously threatened.
Lesser-Known Stories from the Only Democracy in the Middle East
By Ran HaCohen, Dissident Voice 10/27/2003
The Man Who Had Five Heads: Israel's former Prime Minister Barak and his present successor Sharon made extra-judicial killing – euphemised at first as "targeted assassination", later as "targeted prevention" – a key element in Israel's "defence" policy. ....Yes, within less than two years Israel liquidated and arrested five people all of whom were described as 'the head of the military wing of Hamas in Hebron.'
...."An individual will not enter the seam zone and will not stay there; An individual found in the seam zone will have to leave it immediately."
What about a Palestinian who lives in the seam zone? -Well, he "will be permitted to enter the seam zone and stay there, so long as he bears a permit in writing" issued by the Israeli Army.
So if you happened to have your house in the seam zone, and you are aged 12 or older, you have to persuade the Israeli Army to give you a permit to stay at home, or to go home. If you expect a visit, first make sure your guest fills one of the 12 relevant application forms – for an owner of a business in the seam zone; a merchant; an employee; a farmer; a teacher; a student; an employee of the Palestinian Authority; a visitor; an employee of an international organization; an employee of a local authority or infrastructure company; a member of a medical team; or for 'all other objectives' – the Israeli Army thinks of everything. Once your guest has filled out the form, and has been lucky enough to obtain the permit, he is most welcome to visit you.
Israel’s apartheid wall aims at ethnic cleansing
By Mustafa Barghouthi, Daily Star 10/27/2003
The Israeli construction of the West Bank apartheid wall is clearly a politically motivated maneuver intent on reshaping the West Bank, rendering impossible a viable Palestinian state, and with it any lasting peace through a two state solution.
In reshaping the West Bank and slicing off huge portions of Palestinian land east of the 1967 border, Israel has also annexed thousands of Palestinians Palestinians it is now trying to expel through forceful expulsion but also through destroying any remaining quality of life within this isolated area of land.
On Oct. 2, the Israeli military released an order declaring all occupied West Bank land between the “security” wall and Israel’s pre-occupation 1967 border a “closed zone.” The order states that “no person will enter the (closed zone) and no one will remain there.” Free access to the closed zone will only be granted to “Israelis.” In this Oct. 2 order, General Moshe Kaplinski defines “Israelis” as any citizen of the state of Israel, resident of the state of Israel, and any one eligible to emigrate to Israel in accordance with the Law of Return, 1950. This means therefore, that while the 15,300 Palestinian residents in this 115 square kilometer area, or those in adjoining communities who own agricultural land here (180,000 people) must now obtain highly unreliable permits to validate their existence, any Jewish person from anywhere in the world is quite free to come and settle on this land.
Would-be White House occupants: Where they stand on the Middle East
By David Walsh, Daily Star 10/28/2003
WASHINGTON: The Oct. 18-19 appearance of the leading Democratic presidential candidates before Arab-Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, was interesting in several respects: principally, the fact that so many of them turned up this year. The event also offered a crumb of hope for the optimistically-inclined, which in earlier years was in short supply.
Making a contribution were senators Joe Lieberman and John Kerry, representatives Dick Gephardt, Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards, former Senator Carol Moseley Braun, former Governor Howard Dean, and retired General Wesley Clark.
The presidential hopefuls were addressing the annual Leadership Conference of the Washington-based Arab American Institute. Here, either in person in printed statements, or via satellite, the Democrats delivered messages to several hundred attendees which, although mixed and imprecise, nonetheless heartened organizers. Most of the eight contenders had strong reservations about the course of Republican President Bush’s occupation of Iraq. In relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict the candidates embraced the two-state solution and the Bush administration’s stalled “road map” for peace, and were generally critical of Israel’s security barrier.
The overarching theme, however, was as clear as it was dismaying to many listeners. Arabs, the Democrats agreed, must unconditionally halt “terrorism.” And while retaliation for it was, in the words of Lieberman “regrettable and heartbreaking,” Israel was mostly cast less in the role of aggressor than as an injured party engaged in justified self-defense.
Questions On Lebanon's Status And Role In The New Middle East
By George Haddad, Daily Star 10/28/2003
The American Congress agreed, almost unanimously, on what is known as the Syria Accountability Act. This "Act" will probably be submitted to the Senate as well, in order to become a new "legitimate weapon" in the hands of the White House for its campaign against what it calls "international terror." Whatever the "small" local Lebanese accountability's stance is from the Syrian regime in general and the so-called "Syrian presence" in Lebanon, the regional and international "large" accountability system has produced this decision as a warning siren that touches the entire Lebanese situation, among others.
A short while earlier, "General" Aoun had gone to Washington to make a preplanned "testimony" before the Congress committee, filled with Zionists, and he implied that a "coalition" could be formed on the Lebanese grounds in the process of holding Syria accountable; this coalition could resemble that of the Afghan North Alliance or Iraqi Kurd one. The "General's" people also leaked information according to which "Syria's days" in Lebanon are coming to an end. As honest as ever, he told the Americans that they had appointed Syria to enter the Lebanese territories, and hence were the only ones capable of making it leave. Actually, he had always opposed the U.S. and been in the European camp, and this move only means that there is an undeclared project of a Euro-American deal, where the "General" plays the role of a special pawn, in a game that is way bigger than his cliché "sovereignty" game.
Our 'Friends,' the Israelis
By Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com 10/27/2003
In 1967, they sunk the U.S.S. Liberty – and LBJ engineered a cover-up -- Retired Captain Ward Boston, a former U.S. Navy attorney who was senior legal counsel to the military investigation of the sinking of the U.S.S. Liberty by the Israelis, in 1967, has finally revealed the truth in a signed affidavit:
"For more than 30 years, I have remained silent on the topic of the USS Liberty. I am a military man and when orders come in from the Secretary of Defense and President of the United States, I follow them….
"The evidence was clear. Both [the late] Admiral [Isaac C.] Kidd, [Jr.] and I believed with certainty that this attack, which killed 34 American sailors and injured 172 others, was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew. I am certain that the Israeli pilots that undertook the attack, as well as their superiors who had ordered the attack, were aware that the ship was American….
"I am outraged at the efforts of the apologists for Israel in this country to claim that this attack was a case of 'mistaken identity.' … I know from personal conversations I had with Admiral Kidd that President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered him to conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary."
Low expectations
By Avi Temkin, Globes 10/27/2003
A 1.1% growth forecast is nothing to celebrate. -- Israeli politicians and military men coined the phrase "low expectations" as an insurance against failure, whether the subject was the chances of success for an important meeting or the chances for a positive diplomatic or security development.
Judging by the Central Bureau of Statistics data published yesterday, Israel's economic policy-makers are also about to adopt this phrase in order to calm the public about anticipated growth in the foreseeable future.
Yesterday's figures predicted 1.1% growth in 2003. They wonderfully demonstrate the concept of low expectations. An economy with only 1% GDP growth is one with restrained private consumption, slowly declining investment, and exports growing by only 2.5%. It is a stagnant economy that is going nowhere.
Politicians can take pride in the fact that instead of contracting by 3% a year, GDP per capita is shrinking by "only" 0.7%.
This is the reality that will probably be depicted as stability after years of decline. The Bank of Israel has already talking for several weeks about a "slow exit from recession", while the Ministry of Finance will presumably declare that the figures constitute a change of direction after three years of crisis.
A disastrous dead end: the Geneva Accord
By Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada 10/28/2003
Because of the Oslo process, the basis for a viable and minimally fair two-state solution has been completely destroyed. The Israeli "peace camp" and the Palestinian leadership ought to have learned from the calamities they helped bring about and changed their ways. The so-called "Geneva Accord," an informal agreement prepared by Israelis, led by former Labor Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and other Oslo-era luminaries, and Palestinians close to Yasser Arafat, demonstrates a determination to repeat the tragic errors of the past. Oslo allowed Israel to double the number of colonists on occupied Palestinian land, while the PLO transformed itself into a Palestinian Authority whose mandate was to protect Israel from the victims of the ongoing colonization. There is no better account of the bad faith with which Israel's leaders approached the peace process than Tanya Reinhart's book Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how Palestinians and Israelis reached the bloody impasse they are in today.
While its creators have tried to sell the Geneva Accord as some sort of breakthrough, it is nothing of the sort. The document recycles the unworkable arrangements that Israel and the United States tried to impose at Camp David in July 2000. A Palestinian "state" would be established in the West Bank and Gaza, but without sovereignty or control of its own borders or airspace. Israel would be permitted to keep military forces in it forever, while the Palestinian "state" would not be allowed to defend itself. The Palestinian state would be occupied by a "Multinational Force" that could only be withdrawn with Israeli agreement, and so on.
The lost generation
By Jon Elmer, FromOccupiedPalestine.org 10/28/2003
Jenin, West Bank -- Mohammed is four years-old. As he ran up the stairs to the roof where we were sitting, his chattering noises became louder and louder until his tiny figure came flying around the corner of the stairwell. He ran directly toward me and jumped up on my lap as if we were brothers. It was the first time we had met.
He immediately asked my name, and although Mohammed is only four, he carried the conversation as though we were peers. I simply followed his lead.
"Jon. Bo! Bo!" he said as aggressively and animated as only a four year old might, while clinging to my arm.
"That's what the Israeli soldiers say, it means 'come here' in Hebrew," his uncle explained to me as Mohammed repeated the call.
"Where are you from?" Mohammed asked me, quietly relayed in English by his uncle.
"I am from Canada," I said, making the gesture of an airplane's trajectory with my hand out into the night.
"Oh," he said. "On the other side of the tanks."
Sitting above the refugee camp of Jenin, under a perfect starry night, the Israeli tanks whined in the distance as Mohammed mimicked my airplane gesture with his hands, adding his own noises and sprinkling my arm with spittle.
"Would you like to come to Canada to visit me sometime?" I asked after Mohammed had stopped with the airplane game.
"Do the children in Canada throw stones at the tanks?" Mohammed asked.
"Um, no."
"No," he said matter-of-factly, without missing a beat.
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