Israel is guilty of occupation, apartheid and colonialism

Israel is guilty of occupation, apartheid and
colonialism,
top UN lawyer reports
Date: 26 / 02 / 2007 Time: 21:33


Israeli soldiers fire at Palestinian youths,
demonstrating at Qalandiya checkpoint,
9 Feb 2007 (MaanImages)
Bethlehem - Ma'an - The UN's Special Rapporteur for
Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,
John Dugard, has issued a harshly critical report on
Israel's human rights record in regards to its
treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied
Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip.

"The international community, speaking through the
United Nations, has identified three regimes as
inimical to human rights - colonialism, apartheid and
foreign occupation," Dugard says. In his 24-page
report, which will be presented to the United Nations
General Assembly for debate on 15 March 2006, the
South African lawyer accuses Israel of all three.

Occupation

Israel is clearly guilty of occupying another nation.
Dugard also refutes Israel's claim that, since its
'disengagement' in 2005, it is no longer occupying the
Gaza Strip. Israel controls all the borders, air space
and sea space surrounding the Strip, in addition to
carrying out numerous military incursions and air
strikes into the Strip, thereby continuing to be the
occupying power.

Apartheid

Furthermore, Dugard says Israel's discriminatory
practises towards Palestinians amount to apartheid. He
says in his report: "Discrimination against
Palestinians occurs in many fields. Moreover, the 1973
International Convention on the Suppression and
Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid appears to be
violated by many practices, particularly those denying
freedom of movement to Palestinians.

"

Dugard harshly criticises Israel's system of
checkpoints and barriers across the occupied West
Bank, which makes freedom of movement and trade
impossible. In particular, he criticises the arbitrary
nature of the restrictions. "there is a secret list
with some 180,000 names of security risks who may not
pass through a checkpoint," Dugard says, "but no
notice is served on such a person on this list until
he arrives at a checkpoint"; this means "it is left to
Palestinians to find out by trial and error whether
they will be allowed to pass through a checkpoint on a
particular day". As a result, "an arbitrary and
capricious regime prevails."

Dugard warns Israel that, "In apartheid South Africa,
a similar system designed to restrict the free
movement of blacks - the notorious “pass laws” -
created more anger and hostility to the apartheid
regime than any other measure. Israel would do well to
learn from this experience."

Dugard singles out Israel's illegal separation wall as
one of Israel's most apartheid-like tool. He says, "It
has become abundantly clear that the Wall and
checkpoints are principally aimed at advancing the
safety, convenience and comfort of settlers."

In regards to Jerusalem and the wall, Dugard says:
"The 75 km Wall being built in East Jerusalem is an
instrument of social engineering designed to achieve
the Judaization of Jerusalem by reducing the number of
Palestinians in the city. The Wall is being built
through Palestinian neighbourhoods, separating
Palestinians from Palestinians, in a manner that
cannot conceivably be justified on security grounds."

Dugard depicts in particular the absurd plight of the
inhabitants of Ar-Ram neighbourhood of northeast
Jerusalem: "Some 60,000 people live in the suburb of
ar-Ram just outside the municipal boundary of
Jerusalem. About half of the residents are
Jerusalemites who left Jerusalem because of the
restrictions placed on Palestinians’ building houses
in the city. They are completely dependent on
Jerusalem for work, education and hospitals. Yet now
they are surrounded by the Wall and cut off from
Jerusalem. To get to work, school or hospital they
must travel a circuitous route of several kilometres
and pass through the international terminal-like
checkpoint at Qalandiya, and they may only do this if
they have the correct permit. A journey that
previously took them minutes is now extended into
hours."

Colonialism

He also accuses Israel of carrying out illegal,
colonial practises, saying, "The Occupied Palestinian
Territory is the only instance of a developing country
that is denied the right of self-determination and
oppressed by a Western-affiliated State." He singles
out the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank
as a new form of colonialism. Furthermore, noting that
Israel has appropriated agricultural land and water
resources in the West Bank for its own use, Dugard
says that, "This aspect of Israel’s exploitation of
the West Bank appears to be a form of colonialism of
the kind declared to be a denial of fundamental human
rights and contrary to the Charter of the United
Nations as recalled in the General Assembly’s
Declaration on the Granting of Independence to
Colonial Countries and Peoples of 1960 (Resolution
1514 XV)." He suggests the case be referred to the
International Court of Justice.

War crimes

Dugard accuses both Israeli military personnel and
Palestinian militants of war crimes, pointing out that
the state of Israel has the greater responsibility:
"Persons responsible for committing war crimes by the
firing of shells and rockets into civilian areas
without any apparent military advantage should be
apprehended or prosecuted. This applies to
Palestinians who fire Qassam rockets into Israel; and
more so to members of the IDF who have committed such
crimes on a much greater scale. While individual
criminal accountability is important, the
responsibility of the State of Israel for the
violation of peremptory norms of international law in
its actions against the Palestinian people should not
be overlooked."

While condemning the Palestinian launching of homemade
Qassam rockets into Israel, Dugard says, "Israel’s
response has been grossly disproportionate and
indiscriminate and resulted in the commission of
multiple war crimes."

As for Israel's policy of demolishing residential
buildings in the Gaza Strip suspected of housing
weapons, preceded by a warning issued over the
telephone shortly before the air strike, Dugard
describes this act as a " policy of terrorism by
telephone." In regards to the Palestinians' collective
act of gathering on the roof of a targeted building in
a form of 'human shield', Dugard says, "Voluntary,
collective action of this kind can at most be
categorized as an act of civil disobedience against
the occupying Power."

Dugard describes the imprisonment of the Gaza Strip's
1.4 million inhabitants behind Israeli-controlled
borders as "a controlled strangulation that apparently
falls within the generous limits of international
toleration."

The UN rapporteur also describes the racist attacks
carried out by some Israeli settlers against
Palestinians. "Undoubtedly the most aggravated settler
behaviour occurs in Hebron," Dugard says, "where
Palestinian schoolchildren are assaulted and
humiliated on their way to schools, shopkeepers are
beaten and residents live in fear of settler terror."
Dugard adds that, despite rulings by Israel's High
Court of Justice that it is the duty of the Israeli
military to protect Palestinian farmers from settlers,
"there is still evidence that the IDF turns a blind
eye to settler violence and, on occasion, collaborates
with the settlers in harassing and humiliating
Palestinians."

In regards to Israel's policy of extrajudicial
killing, or targeted assassinations, of 'terrorists'
wanted by the state of Israel, Dugard describes this
practise as "the death penalty on a wide scale through
the back door ".

Palestine, a test for the West

Dugard concludes that the case of human rights
violations in the occupied Palestinian territory has
come to resemble a 'test' for the West, by which its
commitment to human rights is to be judged. He
recognises that numerous other nations in the
developing world suppress human rights, but Israel is
the only "Western-affiliated regime" allowed to get
away with it. Dugard warns, "If the West fails this
test, it can hardly expect the developing world to
address human rights violations seriously in its own
countries, and the West appears to be failing this
test."