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MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 7/19: It's that little old problem rearing it's ugly head again -- calls that come much too late and even then call for much too little. Worse yet the calls come in very self-serving ways from persons and institutions whose past records make them not very credible, and certainly not very potent.
Just a few years ago Amnesty International was hardly willing to speak up at all against the outrageous Israeli conduct toward the Palestinians. Now, with Israeli troops and tanks everywhere; with settlements, "by-pass roads", trenches and military roadblocks thoroughly dividing and controlling the hostage Palestinian population; with the focus of the world blurred by dastardly events in recent years in Bosnia, Chechnya, Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, Kashmir; now so late in the day AI is finally going on record in favor of a few more international observers! It's a bit laughable actually since AI appears to have raced at the last minute to take this little self-serving step at the very same time the Arab League, the European governments, and even the Americans, are advocating much the same.
As for the Arab League, what a shameful and pathetic collection of cowardly regimes and dictators it has become. Amr Mousa, moved from being Egyptian Foreign Minister to AL Secretary-General, can pontificate as much as he loves to; and the new spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi can articulate grievances as much as she loves to; but none of that kind of thing at this very late date can or will change what the Israelis are up.
AI has come a long way from the days when it tried very hard to look the other way and make excuses for the Israelis, days not that long past. But then the European media and public opinion are now at least somewhat more informed and caring about what is going on, even if the key governments in London and Berlin are not. But what's really needed now from Amnesty is a loud call for meaningful and urgent international sanctions against Israel, not more international observers which Israel has a long history of twisting to its own designs anyway! If AI and other semi-independent organizations like Human Rights Watch, the Brookings Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, and other major international affairs organizations in "the free world" had not been such wimps all these years watching (and in many cases helping) the Israeli/Jewish lobby dominate affairs in Washington, create its own think-tanks, and even appoint its own officials to negotiate the "peace process", the dire predicaments of today might not be.
As for the AL, if the regimes embodied in the Arab League would have strengthened both their convictions and their power all these years and thus be in a position to actually act at this point in history the situation for the Palestinians wouldn't be so tragic and nearly hopeless. But there are of course deep historic reasons the Arabs are even today so collectively weak and impotent, reasons having to do with their own internal corruption and incompetence, but most of all due to their dependence on the U.S. and its CIA to keep them in power at the price of being forced to control their own people on behalf of Western economic and strategic interests. What's urgently needed from the Arab League immediately and at minimum is a unified decision to break all diplomatic relations with Israel, to impose a total economic embargo on Israel, and to vigorously pursue Israel's suspension from the General Assembly a la the precedent that was applied to South Africa in the days of Apartheid. Stress on "at minimum".
Throwing more money at the Arafat regime from the long-time Arab client regimes, and more "observers" from the "international community" attempting to resuscitate the miserable "Oslo Peace Process" which was so wrongly endorsed and paid for by the Europeans and the Arabs in the first place -- no doubt causing many private chuckling in Israel all these years -- is not going to change the larger picture and is certainly not going to stop the Israelis at this point. That much we can all be sure about.
July 18, 2001: Amnesty International called today on the international community to act promptly to end the Israeli policy of closures in the West Bank and Gaza.
"The confinement of more than three million people for 10 months to their own villages or homes by curfews and closures is a totally unacceptable response to the violence of a few," the organization said.
Amnesty International welcomed the European Union's call on Monday 16 July for international observers. "But the international community must not wait any longer before acting to unblock what has become an intolerable situation," said the organization.
The delegates from Amnesty International, Philippe Hensmans, Director of Amnesty International's Belgian (Francophone) Section, and Elizabeth Hodgkin, researcher, returned yesterday from a fact-finding visit to Israel and the Occupied Territories and travelled widely around the area.
Almost every road to every village we passed south of Jerusalem was blocked by mountains of earth or concrete blocks. The main north-south road between Nablus, the area's largest city, and Jenin is empty of vehicles other than army vehicles for many stretches. Army checkpoints consistently turn back Palestinian vehicles. In a number of cases, Palestinians requiring urgent medical attention have died," said Philippe Hensmans.
"Such a situation should no longer be tolerated by the international community," said Amnesty International. Closures constitute the collective punishment of a whole people.
"In all cases the closures deny the right to freedom of movement and suffocate economic life. They are not effective in preventing violent attacks against Israelis, as the latest suicide bombings have shown," the organization said.
Delegates also visited areas of the West Bank where dozens of homes of Nawaje'a Bedouin groups had been bulldozed in reprisal after one settler had been killed.
"In the vast majority of encampments, not a single person was accused of the murder and arrested. Yet the Israeli Defence Force bulldozed the tents and stone shelters, blew up the caves where many groups live, and even filled wells with rubble."
In Rafah and Khan Yunis more than 70 homes have been demolished since March, most of them one-storey buildings of refugees who lost their homes in 1948.
Israel is a High Contracting Party to the Geneva Conventions. Yet its actions towards the Palestinians, regarded as 'protected persons' under the Conventions, is in breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Article 33 states clearly that:
"No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.... Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited."
In a joint letter to political and UN leaders on 6 July, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reiterated their calls for international observers to monitor compliance with human rights and international humanitarian law as a means of enhancing protection for civilians.
Background
Since the beginning of the intifada in late September 2000 at least 480 Palestinians have been killed, most of them unlawfully, by Israeli security forces when their lives and the lives of others were not in danger.
More than 130 Israelis have been killed, most of them civilians deliberately targeted in suicide bombings or drive-by shootings by Palestinian armed groups and individuals.
Human rights abuses by opposition groups can never justify abandonment of human rights principles by a government.
CAIRO, Egypt (Associated Press, 18 July) - Arab foreign ministers met here Wednesday to forge a consensus on taking a harder line on Israel, including steps toward reviving a boycott of Israeli products.
A draft resolution obtained by The Associated Press said the 10 ministers will endorse a call for immediate financial support for the Palestinian Authority, the deployment of international observers in the Palestinian territories, and the cutting of all Arab ties with Israel.
After arriving in Cairo to attend the meeting at the Arab League headquarters, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told reporters that the recent escalation of Israeli attacks ``shows their intention to continue their aggression on all levels against the Palestinian people, establishments and Islamic and Christian holy places.''
Palestinian Minister of Planning Nabil Shaath said Arafat would ask the ministers to step up their ``political and financial support to the Palestinian people, who are suffering from the blockade imposed by the Israeli authorities.''
Arab diplomats said the ministers would discuss proposals from the Gulf states for a campaign to garner support from major world powers to pressure Israel.
The campaign includes urging the top industrialized nations, which meet in Italy this weekend at the G-8 Summit, to take a tougher position on Israel. The nations are the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy Japan and Russia.
The ministers will also recommend that Arab states attend an October meeting called by the Central Office for the Boycott to discuss reviving the boycott of Israeli goods and Western companies doing business with Israel. No such meetings have been held since 1993, the year of the first Israeli-Palestinian interim peace accord, when some Arab states relaxed or lifted the boycott.
The proposed call for cutting ties with Israel is not expected to be heeded by two leading moderate Arab states, Egypt and Jordan. On Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said his country would continue its diplomatic and political contacts with Israel. Jordan has expressed a similar position. Both countries have signed peace treaties with Israel.
The foreign ministers belong to a committee created at an Arab summit in Cairo last year. The committee is charged with following up pledges of support to the Palestinians. Its members are Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen and Bahrain.
Ten months of Israeli-Palestinian violence have left hundreds dead. A cease-fire, brokered by the United States and declared June 13, has been repeatedly broken. ..
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| Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/7/292.htm |