Israel’s response to the new Palestinian National Unity government, which agrees to respect previous agreements but does not explicitly renounce violence or recognise Israel’s "right to exist", has been unequivocal. Said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
"A Palestinian government that won’t accept the Quartet conditions won’t receive recognition and cooperation...The American and Israeli positions are totally identical on this issue."
This reaction was predictable, of course - Israel is not interested in peace, and so the question was always one of when, not if, Israel would reject the new government. The U.S., on the other hand, has been more cautious, perhaps because of the central role played by Saudi Arabia, an important ally, in drafting the Mecca agreement. It looks like the U.S. will continue to co-operate with President Abbas, while boycotting the new government as a whole. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice described the U.S. approach to journalists yesterday:
"I’ve articulated two principles here. One is that we’d like to continue cooperation with Abu Mazen because we think he is an important figure in moving toward the President’s vision of two states. That includes a desire to continue the security cooperation that we are supporting [read: the arming and training of Abbas’ private army]...
But I’m also obligated to say, and I have told the Palestinians this, that no taxpayer dollars are going to go to the activities of a government or a government that doesn’t recognize the Quartet principles. And I will try to find a way to simultaneously deliver on both of those."
Sadly, then, the economic sanctions that have increased Palestinian unemployment to 40% and poverty levels to over 70% will likely continue. Why? In the words of Ret. Major General Shlomo Gazit, a former chief of Israel’s military intelligence,
"Why are we not negotiating with [Syrian President Bashar] Assad? Because we know the price and we aren’t willing to pay. The same goes for the Palestinians."
The price of peace with the Palestinians was summarised by Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal on January 10. "As a Palestinian today, I speak of a Palestinian and Arab demand for a state on 1967 borders," he said. "It is true that in reality there will be an entity or state called Israel on the rest of Palestinian land." In other words, the price for an end to the Israel/Palestine conflict is what the entire international community has been advocating for decades: an Israeli withdrawal to the Green Line and the creation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Likewise, the price of peace with Syria is, according to Olmert, the return of the Golan Heights. For Israel, both of these solutions are, to use Olmert’s phrase, "totally unacceptable". As Henry Siegman, a specialist on the Middle East, wrote in a recent article for the International Herald Tribune, ‘no matter how far Hamas might go in meeting the conditions called for by the so-called Quartet — the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States — Israel has no intention of returning to the 1967 border, and the United States has no intention of making the Israelis do so.’
Therefore, in order to avoid having to negotiate for a two-state settlement with a Hamas government that both wants and is capable of achieving a peaceful settlement, Israel will continue to boycott the government - on the most pathetic of pretexts - and collectively punish the Palestinians into submission.
Meanwhile, as Condoleeza Rice holds meaningless discussions and explores the "political horizon", let’s take a look at what Israel is doing in the Occupied Territories:
Between February 8-14, Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) conducted 40 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and wounded with gunfire 22 Palestinians (including five children and an Israeli solidarity activist). They "arrested" 75 Palestinians, including 10 children. That brings the total number of Palestinians arrested by the IOF in the West Bank this year to 463. Israel regularly arrests Palestinians, including children, for very minor "offences" like throwing stones, as in this Christian Peacemaker Teams video filmed in Hebron on February:
I put "arrested" in scare quotes because the word implies that those detained do not simply disappear, but are dealt with through a legal process that respects their basic civil rights. Hence, it is an inaccurate description to use here. Israel holds close to 10,000 Palestinians prisoner, including many women and children. 801 of those are "administrative detainees" - in other words, they are detained without charge or trial. Administrative detention can be legal under international law, but its use is subject to extremely strict restrictions. According to B'Tselem, the Israeli centre for human rights in the Occupied Territories, "Israel’s use of administrative detention blatantly violates these restrictions." B’Tselem continues:
‘Over the years, Israel held Palestinians in prolonged detention without trying them and without informing them of the suspicions against them. While detainees may appeal the detention, neither they nor their attorneys are allowed to see the evidence. Israel has therefore made a charade out of the entire system of procedural safeguards in both domestic and international law regarding the right to liberty and due process.’
07-01-12 Israeli soldiers detaining Palestinian youths, two under 14 years of age.
Under international law, administrative detention is only permissible when absolutely necessary to prevent acts of violence or other clear dangers to security. It is not to be used as a form of punishment. However, B’Tselem found that Israel often uses administrative detention as "a quick and efficient alternative to criminal trial, primarily when they do not have sufficient evidence to charge the individual, or when they do not want to reveal their evidence. This use of administrative detention is absolutely prohibited and totally blurs the distinction between preventive and punitive detention." Furthermore, "Israel administratively detains Palestinians for their political opinions and non-violent political activity. Following signing of the Oslo Accords, Israel also administratively detained Palestinians who opposed the peace process."
Israel has continued to impose an economic siege on Gaza. In the week beginning February 8, the Rafah crossing, de facto controlled by Israel, was open for only two days. The Karni crossing remained closed throughout. Meanwhile, Israel continued to impose a ban on fishing in Gaza - since 2003, according to the UN, there has been an absolute ban on fishing 40% of the time. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported in June 2006 that Gazan fishermen were struggling for survival. Since then, almost eight months ago, the ban on fishing has been total. The bullet-ridden boats in Gaza’s docks, together with the numerous detained Palestinian fishermen (at least 14 were detained in one week in January, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights) testify to the dangers those few Gazans who dare to defy the ban face. The Palestinian Department of Fisheries has estimated that by late 2007 the entire fishing industry will have collapsed in the absence of drastic Israeli policy changes. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), fish usually accounts for at least a third of the protein consumed by Gaza’s population - a recent UN Consolidated Appeals Process report states that if situation remains as it is now, "food insecurity will continue to rise at a sharp rate with an adverse impact on vulnerable groups." Already, "[s]carcity ‘has led to a precipitous rise in the price of fish, which is now priced beyond almost all of Gaza’s 1.5 million people."
This violates Art. 52 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states:
"All measures aiming at creating unemployment or at restricting the opportunities offered to workers in an occupied territory, in order to induce them to work for the Occupying Power, are prohibited."
This video, filmed by the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron on February 2 2007, shows IDF soldiers blocking Palestinians from travelling through the town. The soldier shouts at a Palestinian woman to "GO" and when she refuses, he loads his gun and points it at her.
This humiliating and frightening experience is routine for the Palestinians living under military occupation.
Sticking with Hebron, Ha’aretz reports that six settler families have been permitted to live inside an IDF base for a decade. This ‘extraordinary’ and legally ‘questionable’ situation highlights, in the words of senior Peace Now activist Dror Etkes, the "growing distortion in the relations between the IDF and settlers." This ‘distorted relationship’ was evident again in Hebron yesterday, when a group of Israeli settlers entered and occupied the house of local resident Issa Amro. This was apparently the third time this week that Israeli settlers had occupied the building - yesterday, they stayed for about an hour. IDF soldiers stood around and did nothing. A Palestinian living near Susia, south of Mount Hebron, claimed yesterday that he was attacked by three settlers who brought their sheep to graze on his land, in just the latest example of what the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights describes as "systematic attacks [by settlers] on Palestinian civilians and property." Visiting Hebron last month, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh admitted that the laws protecting Palestinians against settler violence are not being enforced. "We cannot allow the fact that people live in cages because someone is harassing them in an area we control", he said, referring to a much-publicised video showing a female settler swearing and attacking an Arab family in Hebron’s Tel Rumeida neighbourhood. One would have thought this an uncontroversial statement, but he was greeted with curses by right-wing activists in Hebron.
On February 17, Israeli security forces demolished seven Palestinian houses on the slopes of Mt. Hebron in the West Bank. Supposedly, they were constructed "illegally" because Israel refused to grant the families building permits. Never mind the fact that it is Palestinian land, or the fact that Israel has issued 44 tenders already this year to expand the illegal settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, on top of the 952 that were issued last year. According to a local resident, one of the houses belonged to a family with eight children. Nothing was done to help the family whose house had been destroyed, he said, and they were forced to sleep in a tent brought by their relatives. Since 1967, Israel has demolished almost 12,000 Palestinian homes, leaving some 70,000 Palestinians without shelter.
Needless to say, Israel has continued to construct the illegal annexation wall, issuing a new order last week to seize another 44,600 square meters of Palestinian land southwest of Nablus to construct the "security fence". In late January, Ehud Olmert approved a decision to move the "separation wall" eastwards, away from the Green Line, to incorporate to settlements that house a combined total of 1,500 Israeli settlers. As a result of the revised route, roughly 20,000 Palestinians will be trapped in two enclaves on the Israeli side of the wall.
And so on and so on. The "international community" continues to punish the Palestinians horrifically because Hamas merely agrees to a two-state solution and to an Israeli state within the pre-1967 borders, while refusing to make an unreasonable moral judgement about Israel’s "right to exist", even as Israel continues to perpetrate widespread human rights violations against the Palestinian people.
People in the U.S. and in Europe need to wake up - there is no peace process. As Miko Peled, the son of an Israeli General, writes,
"In America people still speak of a `peace process`, and the situation in Gaza and in the West Bank is characterized as a conflict between two people who can`t find a fair compromise. Few dare to mention that the only process that is taking place is oppression for the sake of expansion. Palestinian children are imprisoned, traumatized, starved and murdered so that Israeli can maintain its hegemony over the: `Land of Israel`."
The only meaningful way to show solidarity with the victims of the occupation and to pressure Israel to respect the law and to accept a two-state settlement is to boycott and enforce sanctions against it. In Prof. Ilan Pappe’s words, "You have to boycott them, you have to sanction them until they will come to their senses, just like you did to South Africa. Nothing else will work."
Cross-posted at The Heathlander