Obstacles to peace: Israel's Duplicity
Apologists for Israel are frequently heard to complain that Israel is held to a different standard than other countries. Well, this is certainly true, but not in the way they mean.
Israel's violation of international laws is almost always totally overlooked, while focusing instead on comparing Israel favorably with "rogue" states. Were Israel to be held to the same standards as we expect of most other countries, you would find that it falls far short of holding the high moral ground which it claims. For example:
1) Zionists accepted with alacrity the portion of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which "... viewed with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," but ignored the stipulation that "...nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities."
2) Israel, in its 1948 Declaration of Israel's Independence, agreed to "... uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed, or sex." Instead, Israel's currently announced goal of being a "Jewish" state, with its insistence on being recognized as such, would preclude recognition of the equality of all its citizens, which would in effect establish the fact that Israel is in fact an ethnocracy, not a democracy. (This is a primary reason for Israel's failure to draft an internationally-accepted Constitution, as it promised to do by October 1948.) *
Even though Israel appeared to support the borders as prescribed by the United Nations in 1948, in reality it has never accepted them, even though the partition gave proportionally a much greater area of the Palestine Mandate to Israel than to Palestinians. In fact, to date, Israel has not defined its borders, but has persistently aggrandized the territory it controls. Ironically, most of the expansion of Israeli-controlled territory has occurred during the various peace "processes" which have been convened over these many years.
Israel agreed with the provision for Jerusalem to be a UN-controlled open city, with access for all. Israel (Netanyahu) now claims that Israel will never give up Jerusalem as an undivided Jewish city.
3) Israel is a signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention adopted in 1949 which specifies:
a) "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." Ironically, this was done " ... to ensure that abuses practiced by the Axis powers could not be legally repeated." ** p.182. This position has been supported in principle by every U.S. president since then, but has been ignored by Israel.
b) Israel is in violation of the prohibition against collective punishment, according to Amnesty International, Save the Children, B'tselem, and others.
c) Israel is in violation of the prohibition against destroying real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons.
4) Israel, in exchange for a seat at the United Nations, agreed to U.N. 194 as to the Right of Return of a people displaced by war, but has never abided by this agreement.
5) Israel is in violation of U.N. 242, reinforced by U.N. 338, as to the prohibition against acquiring territory by war.
6) Israel is in violation of most of the 30 Articles of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (
www.hrusa.org)
Israel has been cited for possible war crimes in its recent attack on Gaza. The building of the "separation" wall which encroaches severely into Palestinian territory has been condemned by the International Court of Justice. The apartheid system practiced by Israel has been condemned by Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu as being even more brutal than that of South Africa.***
I think it is obvious that, were Israel to be held to the same international laws as is expected of other countries, that there would be no problem in arriving at a just solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Notes:
*Declaration of Israel's Independence 1948
**"The Passionate Attachment, America's Involvement With Israel, 1947 to Present," by George S. Ball and Douglas B. Ball, W.S. Norton, 1992.
UN 181 reference. p.38-39, and others - Ball
UN 194, p.39, p. 231 - Ball
Geneva Convention, p.182, - Ball
Other U.N. resolutions - Ball, p.308
Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948
"The Other Side of Israel," by Susan Nathan, Doubleday 2005.
"The Problem with Israel." by Jeff Halper, Israeli activist against demolition of Palestinian homes
"The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," by Ilan Pappe, Oneworld Publications, 2006
"Palestine Peace Not Apartheid," Jimmy Carter, 2007 "[T]he plight of the Palestinian people represents one of the most abhorrent cases of human rights oppression on Earth. Forced from their homes and land and surrounded by walls, they live under a system of mandatory segregation, with passes required to reach their jobs, schools, pastures and fields. A unique system of military justice deprives them of any legal ability to alleviate their suffering."
***"I am a black South African. If I were to changes the names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and West Bank could describe events in [apartheid] South Africa." Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Many other books and articles
