Ladies, Gentlemen
I would like to start by expressing my gratitude and my thanks to the South African National Defense Force College in particular the organizers of this friendly gathering for giving me the opportunity to stand before you today.
I had the honor and the privilege to address this distinguished assembly on a somewhat regular basis to present to you an in-depth analysis of the latest development in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This document therefore presents these latest development while linking them to the previous presentation.
The history of Palestine has been marked by many dramatic events that have left a lasting impact not only on the region, but also on the world at large. Despite its crucial importance, and the mass of literature written about the subject, ignorance about the Question of Palestine is fairly widespread. There exist two main reason for ignorance about the true nature and dimension about the Palestine Question.
The first is the systematic, well-planned and expertly organized misinformation and distortion which are spread in the Western media by Zionist and Israeli propaganda concerning the question generally. This process of misinformation and distortion is coupled with a deliberate concealment of the history of Palestine which for 1800 years, and until recent times, was an exclusive Arab country. The Israelis are anxious to bury that part of the past during which the Jews did not live or exist in Palestine. For this reason the history of Palestine for that period is ignored, distorted or not even taught in Israeli schools. The purpose of Israel’s suppression of the historical Arab character Palestine is to give the false impression of continuity of Jewish presence in the country and hence of a non-existent historical connection between the two Jewish monarchies of biblical times and the State of Israel establish 25 centuries later.
The second reason is that each new wrong committed against the Palestinian people blots out the preceding one. For over 57 years Israel has by force of arms and , after every stage in this expansion, it had appealed to ‘reason’ and suggested ‘negotiations’. ‘Every new conquest’ became the new basis of the proposed negotiation from strength which ignores the injustice of the previous aggression.
Rarely in history – at least in modern history – has the majority of the population of a country been forcibly displaced and uprooted by a militant minority of foreign origin. Yet this happened in Palestine in 1948 when nearly a million Palestinians were expelled or otherwise forced to leave their homes, towns and villages ; were robbed of their lands, properties, and possessions and became refugees without homes and without any means of livelihood. This past week, Palestinians throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip observed a minute of silence as sirens rang simultaneously in the Occuppied Territories to commemorate the 57 years of the Nakbah or desastre.
Latest developments in the Palestinian- Israeli conflict:
The assassination of president Yasser Arafat in November 2004 was a profound blow to the peace process ,to the Palestinian people in particular and could have created the ideal ground for any negative Israeli interference in the Palestinian internal affairs.
Up to the present day, the elements that unfortunately represent the reality of the Palestinian people haven’t change that much. The construction of the Apartheid Wall of Separation has continued and accelerated in most parts of the West Bank. A steady rise of Israeli aggression against our defenseless people resulting in hundreds of death among the most vulnerable sections of the society namely children, women and elders has been reported by Amnesty International and Human Right Watch.
The disengagement plan is still a plan that has been formulated for the mere purpose of political strategizing in view to waste time and avoid any serious solution to this bloody conflict and has yet to be executed on the ground.
The regimes of closures and arbitrary imprisonment still take place disrupting the lifes of hundreds of thousands.
On the Palestinian political scene many positives development transpired over the last couple of months. These development are the interim Presidency of Rouhi Fattouh the president of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the Presidential elections of January 2005 and the successive municipal and legislative elections of May 2005.All these important events consolidate the efforts to create a stable, modern, democratic state for Palestinians that could respond to our aspiration for a sovereign , independent state with Jerusalem East as its capital.
The apartheid Wall of Separation:
Israel approved the construction of a "Permanent Barrier" (The Wall of separation), between the occupied West Bank and Israel. The Wall of separation is being constructed almost entirely in occupied Palestinian territory, including in occupied Jerusalem extending beyond the Green Line. The Wall of separation is not simply a concrete wall or wire fence, but is an entire regime composed of razor wire, trenches, watch towers, electric fences and ditches. This Apartheid Wall of separation illegally annexes more than 58% of the land of the West Bank to Israel.
In addition to the physical structures, Israel has instituted a number of administrative measures designed to isolate the Palestinian population and deny them access to their land and natural resources. Such measures include confiscation orders, home demolitions, erection of "Gates" for which the "permission" is now required and the creation of "Closed Zones" to which Palestinians have no access.
On 3 December 2003 the General Assembly Resolution 58/21 on the "Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine" received overwhelming support reflective of the near consensus of the international community with regard to this issue, a consensus rooted in positions and convictions that are based on the primacy of international law in international relations and on the universal ideals of justice and peace. During the 58th session of the General Assembly, member states once again adopted this resolution by a huge majority of 160 votes in favor with only 6 against and 5 abstentions.
Regrettably, resolution 58/21, like countless other United Nations resolutions relevant to the question of Palestine, has not been implemented. This is mainly due to the intransigence and defiance of Israel, the occupying power, and its refusal to adhere to international law and to fulfill its obligations in accordance with the charter of the United Nations and relevant General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, including with regard to compliance with Resolution 58/21. Instead, Israel, the occupying power, has continued to blatantly and flagrantly violate and even commit grave breaches of international law as it has persisted with its now 37 year occupation of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian land, refusing to withdraw its occupying forces, in compliance with Security Council Resolutions 242(1967) and 338(1973), and relentlessly carrying on its illegal and oppressive policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Not a single day has passed during which the occupying power has not deliberately engaged in violation of international law, including International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law, in its practices and measures against the Palestinian people, both individually and collectively, and it is without a doubt that systematic human rights violations and war crimes continue to be committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.
Since the beginning of this 2nd Intifadah, Israel, the occupying power, has continued carrying out its military campaign against the Palestinian people and has continued to use excessive, indiscriminate and disproportionate force against Palestinian civilians, willfully killing civilians, including by extrajudicial execution and causing thousands of injuries. To date more than 3600 Palestinian civilians have been directly killed by the Israeli occupying forces and settlers since September 2000, and more than 52000 Palestinian have been injured, many critically and permanently disabled by the use of live ammunitions, rubber coated steel bullets and other internationally forbidden weapons.
At the same time, the occupying power has continued to wantonly destroy Palestinian homes, properties, infrastructure and agricultural lands and orchards, to detain and imprison thousands of Palestinian civilians, including women and children, and to impose harsh measures of collective punishment on the entire Palestinian population, exacerbating the already dire humanitarian crisis. More than 7250 houses belonging to Palestinian civilians have been completely destroyed or demolished making almost 40000 Palestinian homeless, more than 250 000 acres of Palestinian land was confiscated by Israel, more than 17 500 acres of Palestinian land has been razed by Israel and more than 1 million trees have been uprooted by Israel.
Throughout the recent period Israel has also continued to intensively carry out its campaign of settler colonialism in the occupied Palestinian territories, in direct contravention to international law, particularly the 4th Geneva convention. The occupying power has continued to confiscate more land to construct and expand illegal settlements, to build bypass roads for the armed illegal Israeli settlers, and to allow for the establishment of dozens of settler out post on Palestinian land.
Directly linked to Israeli's campaign of settler colonialism is its ongoing construction of the apartheid Wall. In utter contempt, disrespect and defiance of Resolution ES 10/13 of 21 October 2003 and ES 10/14 of 8 December 2003, and in violation of numbers relevant provisions of international law, Israel has continued to construct the apartheid Wall and for this unlawful purpose has continued to confiscate land, to destroy property and to impose a series of illegal restrictions, including by a means of a "Permit System", constituting an entire associated regime of measures intended to facilitate the construction of the Wall of separation. The apartheid Wall and its associated regime has resulted in the complete caging of thousands of Palestinian civilians in walled enclaves or ghettos, the separation and isolation of cities, towns and villages from each other and in some cases from within, has severely impaired the access of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians in affected areas to their jobs, schools, medical facilities and farmland while causing the displacement of thousands of Palestinian civilians and has led to extensive loss of livelihood and the impoverishment of thousands of families, compounding their suffering and hardship under Israeli occupation.
In the months since the adoption of Resolution 58/21, the critical issue of the apartheid Wall has been the predominant concern of the international community vis-Ã -vis the situation in the occupied territories, including Jerusalem East. In the most significant development in the United Nations system in regard to the question of Palestine since the adoption of the Partition Plan in Resolution 181 of 29 November 1947, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rendered, on 9 July 2004 an Advisory Opinion on the "Legal Consequences of the Construction of the Wall of separation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories" pursuant to the request made by the Assembly in its 10th emergency special session in Resolution ES-10/14 of 8 December 2003.
The Court's advisory opinion is a strong and comprehensive one that represents an historic opportunity to return to the rule of the international law in the effort to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Indeed, the Advisory Opinion underscores the applicability, and the need of respect, of the rules and principles of international law for resolving the issue of the Wall of separation and the ultimate peaceful resolution of the question of Palestine.
The rules and principles of international law emphasized by the Court correspond to the very same rules and principles repeatedly reaffirmed by the General Assembly in the resolution relevant to the question of Palestine, which for decades have been disregarded and violated by Israel, the occupying power.
In its advisory opinion, the ICJ, inter alia, concluded that "the Construction of the Wall being built by Israel, the occupying power, in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and its associated regime, are contrary to international law". In arriving at this determination, the Court undertook a historical analysis of the status of the occupied Palestinian territory, followed by an analysis to establish whether the law had been breached and then a determination of the legal consequences in this regard. The court found that the area east of the 1949 Armistice Line "Green Line" and the former eastern boundary of Palestine Under the Mandate, including East Jerusalem , was Occupied by Israel in 1967 and, under international Law, Considered to be occupied territory. Here it is necessary to also recall the adoption by the General Assembly on 17 may 2004 of Resolution 58/292 on "The Status of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem ".
In brief, with regard to the specific violations of international law including International Humanitarian law and Human rights law the Court concluded, inter alias in its advisory opinion that Israel's construction of the Wall of separation and its associated regimes create a "fait accompli" on the ground which would be tantamount to de facto annexation have led to the destruction or requisition of properties in contravention of relevant provisions of the Hague regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention, and violate the Palestinian people's freedom of movement and the right to work, to health, to education and to an adequate standard of living .
In examining the route of the Wall of separation the Court found that not only did it depart from the green line but that the "Wall's sinuous route has been trailed in such a way as to include within that area the great majority of Israeli Settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territory (including East Jerusalem) in this regard, it is significant the court also explicitly concluded that the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (including East Jerusalem) have been established in breach of international law".
Israeli's goal in building the apartheid Wall is two fold:
(1) To confiscate Palestinian land in order to facilitate further colony expansion and unilaterally redraw geopolitical borders, (58% of the West Bank.) and,
(2) To encourage an exodus of Palestinians by denying them to earn a living from their land by denying them adequate water resources, and by restricting freedom of movement to such an extent as to make remaining in their town or village an unavailable option.
Upon the apartheid Wall completion, it is estimated that approximately 343 000 Palestinians will by trapped between the Wall of separation and the Green Line,
93 000 of whom will by trapped in "Double Walled" ghettos or enclaves. Following its determination that the construction of the Wall of separation and its associated regime are contrary to international law, the Court determined the following:
(1) Israel is under the obligation to terminate its breaches of international law, to cease the construction of the apartheid Wall being built in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, to dismantle the structure therein situated and to repeal or render ineffective all legislative and regulatory acts relating thereto,
(2) Israel in under obligation to make reparation for all damage caused by the construction of the Wall of separation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in and around East Jerusalem,
(3) All states are under an obligation not to recognize the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the Wall of separation and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by such construction; and all parties to the 4th Geneva Convention have an additional obligation of ensuring compliance by Israel with the Convention,
(4) The United Nations, especially the General Assembly and the Security Council, should consider what further action is required to bring an end to the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the apartheid Wall.
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), in its XIVth Ministerial Meeting in Durban last August took the lead this regard and its declaration on Palestine in fact called for specific measures to be taken, including sanctions by member states, collectively, regionally and individually to prevent any products of the illegal Israeli settlements from entering their markets, to decline entry to Israeli settlers involved in the construction of the separation Wall and other illegal activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. The EU apparent agreement on distinct treatment of settlement products is an important step in this regard.
Sharon so-called Disengagement Plan:
Israel has attempted to formally evade the Road Map and the entire Peace Process by replacing it with the so called "Disengagement Plan" and the continuation and the intensification of settlement activities. It is the Israeli way of deception in dealing with the peace initiatives that produced the so called Sharon's so called Plan of Unilateral Withdrawal from Gaza.
The Israeli government insistence in not dealing with the Palestinian National Authority to coordinate its withdrawal is a flagrant departure from the principles of the negotiations as stipulated in the Road Map.
Moreover, the Israeli government is keeping ambiguous about the nature, extent and timeline of its withdrawal. Despite all the deception and ambiguity, the President of the USA gave letters of assurances to the Israeli Prime Minister as a prize for their plan.
These letters of assurances are contrary to international law, in contravention of Palestinian National and Human Rights and in contravention to United Nations Resolutions and Charter.
Sharon's so called Plan of Unilateral Withdrawal from Gaza is very dangerous. It has started by the invasion and destruction of thousands of homes in the Gaza strip refugee camp of Rafah on the border with Egypt. It has strengthened its illegal control and occupation of the international passage between Gaza and Egypt. The second step of this plan was undertaken in the north of Gaza. In fact the military operation has the same characteristics as the one carried in the south. It aimed at breaking the will of the Palestinian people by means of hysteric bloody indiscriminate massacres among Palestinian civilians in the name of securing Israeli borders. Home demolitions allow for a tighter control of strategic areas in Gaza. The death toll in Gaza has reached a staggering 140 deaths with thousands of injured civilians
These barbaric military operations aim at effectively isolating Gaza by controlling the borders with Egypt and Israel, by controlling the sea access points and by controlling the airspace of the Gaza Strip. Therefore Sharon's so called Plan aims in fact at changing the status of the occupied territory.
He effectively controls the Gaza Strip while appearing in the eyes of the international community as having withdrawn from it. This means that even though Israel is still a de facto occupying power it is relieved of all its duties and responsibilities as the occupying power.
The efforts made by the extremist right-wing Likud government of Sharon to deceive the general public and the international community worldwide as to its intention with the so-called unilateral withdrawal plan have been unveiled by Sharon’s senior advisor Dov Weisglass.
On 6 October 2004, in an interview to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s senior advisor, Dov Weisglass announced that the disengagement plan means a “freezing of the peace process”.
When asked why the so-called disengagement plan has been hatched, Weisglass ,who is one of the initiator of the disengagement plan, said “in the fall of 2003 Israel understood that everything was stuck. And although by the way the American administration reads the situation, the blame fell on the Palestinians, not on Israel. Sharon grasped that this state of affairs could not last and that they wouldn’t leave us alone. Time wasn’t on our side. There was an international erosion and an internal erosion. Domestically in the mean time everything was collapsing. The economy was stagnant and the Geneva Initiative had gained support abroad.
In addition to that came a new hit with the letters of officers and letters of pilots and letters of commandos all refusing to serve in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. These were people like Yiftah Spector a renowned Israeli Air Force pilot who signed the pilot’s letter.
The main achievement of the Gaza plan is the freezing of the peace process in a ‘legitimate’ manner”.
Freezing the peace process means that you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian State, you prevent any discussions on the refugees as well as the borders and Jerusalem. Using the words of Dov Weisglass, what transpires from the so-called plan of unilateral withdrawal from Gaza is that “effectively this whole package called the Palestinian State, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with authority and permission. All with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress.”
Dov Weisglass explains that “the disengagement plan is a device which in cooperation with the management of the world, ensures that there will be no stop watch in there. There will be no timetable to implement the settlers’ nightmare. He has postponed that nightmare indefinitely. Because what was effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns( Finland). That is the significance of what we did. The significance is the freezing of the political process. And when you freeze that process you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and you prevent the discussion about the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem.What more could have been anticipated? What more could have been given to the settlers?
We created a status quo vis-Ã -vis the Palestinians. There was a really difficult package of commitments that Israel was expected to accept. That package is called a political process. It included elements we will never agree accept and elements we cannot accept at this time. But we succeded in taking that package and sending it beyond the hills of time. With the proper management we succeeded in removing the issue of political process from the agenda and we educated the world to understand that there is no one to talk to. And we received a no one to talk to certificate that says:
(1) there is no one to talk to
(2) as long as there is no one to talk to the geographic status quo remains intact
(3) the certificate will be revoked only when this and this happens, when Palestine becomes Finland.
Interim Presidency, Presidential elections, Municipal and Legislative elections:
The death of President Yasser Arafat represented a very emotional moment in the history of our people. The amount of sympathy and compassion expressed by the world in general turned the attention of the international community to the Palestinian conflict, after being side-lined by the tragic events happening in Iraq. The departure of a leader of his stature prompted some ill-wishing protagonists to predicted that chaos was inevitable.
However once again, the Palestinian people, despite being shackled by the heavy chains of occupation, rejected being denied the right to exercise the tool of their democratic aspirations, and as in 1994, organized very successful presidential elections.
Following the death of President Yasser Arafat , the President of the PLC(Palestinian Legislative Council) Rouhi Fattouh assumed the role of interim president of the Satete of Palestine as stipulated by the Constitution. This respect for the Constitution and the belief in a peaceful and democratic transition of powers is the most salient feature of the Palestinian political life. It allowed the world to witness these realities of the Palestinian people.
In January 2005 the presidential elections took place under the supervision of more than 900 international observers coming from almost 130 countries and international organization. Despite the disruption caused by the soldiers of the Israeli occupying army , the election process was carried in a transparent and democratic manner. This led to the election of President Mahmood Abbas as the new democratically elected President of Palestine.
The programme of Mahmood Abbas has been based on strengthening the national unity in order to better promote the interest of all Palestinians. This meant that all the different political paries that animate the political life in Palestine had to participate in the following elections namely the municipal and the legislative elections. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have finally joined the path of a peaceful resolution of the conflict by means of a negotiated settlement of all outstanding issues.
This represents a huge achievement that should be added to all the efforts that Palestinian have put in all these years in order to reach a just and fair solution to this conflict.
As expected of the newly elected Palestinian leadership, the efforts to reform and improve the quality of the service of the government carried on. The reform of the finance of the state of Palesrtine as well as the reforms of all the security services have all been executed and conform with the recommendation of the quartet formed by the UN, the USA, Russia and the EU. A unilateral cease fire has been observed by all Palestinian political parties in order to empower the newly voted President to carry on with his programme of reaching a peaceful solution to the conflict. Unfortunately , as has been the case consistently over the past decade, Israel still refuses to deliver on any of the promises and agreements that have been signed.
Ever since the so called disengagement plan has been presented by Sharon and Dov Weisglass, not a single step on the ground has been taken to put it into effect.
On the contrary, our skepticism toward the seriousness of Sharon’s intentions has been once more proven to be accurate. Sharon has further delayed any withdrawal of any settlement in Gaza in order to gain time and to appease the masses of illegal Israeli settlers. This confirm what Dov Weisglass had declared when he said that the disengagement plan was actually Sharon’s way of killing and forever freezing the peace process while using American influence and bias to put pressure on the Palestinian leadership to portray them as the culprits.
The only way out of this dead locked situation seems to be by way of imposing sanctions on Israel as suggested by the AU, the EU and different experts of international affairs.
Israel is not in a situation to help in peacefully resolving the conflict. The tendency in Israel is to retain by force what have illegally been acquired by means of violence and unrestricted , unchallenged force. Therefore only a serious and comprehensive set of sanctions would pressurize Israel and make it realize that it cannot stay as the only state in the world to defy International justice, The United Nation’s Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions.
The myth of a democratic Israeli state in the midst of dictatorial regimes has been broken forever. The world has had the privilege to witness the survival of democratic values deeply entrenched in the Palestinian political culture and proudly manifested in the Presidential, Municipal and Legislative elections.
