Doesn't Israel have a right to stop foreign intervention in its internal affairs by stopping funding by foreign governments and the UN of anti-Israeli organizations like ICAHD? Would it all right in your eyes for a foreign government- sponsored "camp" to fund the building of homes in any of the "West Bank settlements"?
The question is a good one but is badly phrased. Foreign government intervention in what Israel does in the Occupied Territories is perfectly appropriate for several reasons:
(1) The Occupied Territories are not within the state of Israel, nor are their Palestinian residents citizens of Israel, so it is hard to argue that foreign governments are interfering in the "internal affairs" of Israel;
(2) The very point of the conception of human rights is that they are universal and must be safeguarded not only by particular governments (Israel, for example, is required to safeguard Palestinian rights by the Fourth Geneva Convention, which it does not do and which it violates with impunity -- by building settlements in an occupied territory, for example, or limiting Palestinians' right to freedom of movement or taking their water for use in Israel and in its settlements), but by the entire international community.
The concept "universal jurisdiction" reflects this concept and responsibility. In direct response to Hitler's claim that Germany's "Jewish Problem" was an internal German matter and that foreign governments should "butt out," the UN, in formulating the Fourth Geneva Convention in 1949, said NO, violations of universal human rights, rights every person and people possess inalienably, must be addressed by all governments and court systems, whether or not their nationals are involved.
In fact (and in supreme irony), Israel was the first country to urge universal jurisdiction on the world's governments when, in one of its first official statements as a country, it called on EVERY state to prosecute Nazi war criminals. To turn around and argue today that our treatment of the Palestinians is no one else's business is the height of hypocrisy.
And (3), given the activities of AIPAC and the Jonathon Pollard case (perhaps the worst breach of US security in its history), Israel would be hard pressed to criticize the "intervention" of other governments in its "internal" business.
The questions were wrongly phrased because they missed the very point. It is the Israeli settlers who are in violation of international law and who infringe on Palestinian human rights (since most settlements are built on confiscated Palestinian land). If a foreign government were to actually violate international law by supporting the settlers, that would be truly an eggregious abrogation of its responsibilities to the international community.
Are Israel's house demolitions legal under international law?
No. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention Occupying Powers are prohibited from destroying property or employing collective punishment. Article 53 reads: “Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons…is prohibited." Under this provision the practice of demolishing Palestinian houses is banned, as is the wholesale destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure.
What aspects of the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza are most likely to be denied or ignored by the average Israeli?
What does the average Israeli not understand or ignore about the state's treatment of its Bedouin citizens?
The list is too long for this page. Go to ICAHD's comprehensive listing of everyday atrocities and tragedies endured by Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and Bedouin citizens of Israel in the Negev.
Click here to read more.
What are the reasons given by the Israeli government for demolishing Palestinian homes?
The majority of house demolitions are conducted for 'Administrative' reasons and are generally because the house was built without a permit. However permits are almost impossible to obtain by Palestinians living under Occupation.
Are Israeli settlements legal under International Law?
Under article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention Israel is prohibited from establishing settlements: "The Occupying Power shall not transfer parts of its own civilian population into territories it occupies"
Are expulsions of Palestinians legal under international law?
Under Articles 35 & 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention it is forbidden to deport or "forcibly transfer," the local population, including such common Israeli practises as revoking the Jerusalem residency of Palestinians or banning Palestinians from returning from work, study or travel abroad.
Are Israel's house demolitions legal under international law?
No. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention Occupying Powers are prohibited from destroying Palestinian property or employing collective punishment. Article 53 reads: “Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons…is prohibited." Under this provision the practice of demolishing Palestinian houses is banned, as is the wholesale destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure.
Since Israel seems to be annexing the Occupies Territories, why not create a single democratic state?
If the Palestinians are given citizenship in a state incorporating the entire Land of Israel, Israel ceases to be a Jewish state. In the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean live 5 million Jews and 4 million Palestinians – not including the refugees.
If Palestinians are not given citizenship in a state incorporating the entire Land of Israel, Israel becomes an apartheid regime.
During the Oslo Process were Palestinian Homes demolished in East Jerusalem?
During the Oslo negotiations, the Jerusalem municipality and the Ministry of Interior demolished almost 300 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem.
Why is it a problem for East Jerusalem Palestinians to obtain housing permits?
Since 1967, Israel has created a "Greater" Jerusalem which controls the entire central portion of the West Bank and cuts the economic heart out of Palestinian state. While constructing 90,000 housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem, the municipality has intentionally created a shortage of 25,000 housing units for Palestinians. The goal is three-fold: (1) the blatantly racist objective of maintaining a 72%-28% majority of Jews over Arabs; (2) to confine the Palestinian population to small islands – the Arabs make up a third of the Jerusalem population, but only have access to 7% of the urban land; and (3) to ultimately force them out of the city.
Did the lives of the Palestinians improve during the Oslo process?
During the Oslo negotiations, a permanent closure was imposed on the Occupied Territories. It has little to do with security. Indeed, during the previous 26 years of occupation, including the first Intifada, there was no closure. Since 1993 Palestinians have been locked out of work, and impoverished, while Israel has imported hundreds of thousands of cheaper foreign workers. By 2002, the average Palestinian family earned only an eighth of what it had earned when the peace process began in 1993.
Since the start of the Oslo negotiations how many houses have been demolished?
During the Oslo negotiations (1993-2000), some 740 homes were demolished. Another 5,000 homes have been demolished since the beginning of the second Intifada (October 2000) through 2004.
How many houses have been demolished since the Occupation began?
Since 1967, 18,000 houses Palestinian homes have been demolished in the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem.
• At least 6,000 houses were demolished immediately following the 1967 war. Four entire villages were razed in the Latrun area (now known as “Canada Park”), while hundreds of ancient homes were destroyed in the Mughrabi Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City to create a plaza for the Wailing Wall.
• In 1971, Ariel Sharon, then Commander of the Southern Command, cleared 2,000 houses in the Gaza refugee camps to facilitate military control. (Since he was elected Prime Minister in early 2001 he has overseen the demolition of another 1500 homes in Gaza.)
• At least 2,000 houses in the Occupied Territories were destroyed in the course of quelling the first Intifada in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.
• Almost 1,700 Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories were demolished by the Civil Administration during the course of the Oslo peace process (1993-2000)
• Since the start of the second Intifada in September 2000, about 5000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed in military operations, including hundreds in Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and other cities of the West Bank, more than 2500 in Gaza alone. Tens of thousands of other homes have been left uninhabitable. Altogether around 50,000 people have been left homeless (Human Rights Watch, Razing Rafah, October 2004). Hundreds of shops, workshops, factories and public buildings, including all the Palestinian Authority ministry offices in all the West Bank cities, have also been destroyed or damaged beyond repair. According to Amnesty International more than 3000 hectares of cultivated land – 10% of the agricultural land of Gaza – have been cleared during this time. Wells, water storage pools and water pumps which provided water for drinking, irrigation and other needs for thousands of people, have also been destroyed, along with tens of kilometers of irrigation networks.
• During the same period (Sept. 2000-May 2007) about 1900 Palestinian homes have been demolished by the Civil Administration for lack of proper permits.
• More than 628 Palestinian homes have been demolished during the second Intifada as collective punishment and “deterrence” affecting families of people known or suspected of involvement in attacks on Israeli civilians. On average 12 innocent people lose their home for every person “punished” for a security offense – and in half of the cases the occupants had nothing whatsoever to do with the acts in question. To add to the Kafkaesque nature of this policy, the Israeli government insists its aim is to “deter” potential terrorists, although 79% of the suspected offenders were either dead or in detention at the time of the demolition (B’tselem Summary 2004:1,3).
Israel’s policy of house demolitions seeks to confine Palestinians to small enclaves, leaving most of the land free for Israeli settlement.
How much land was transferred to Palestinian control during the Oslo Process?
During the seven years of the Oslo negotiations, the Palestinian Authority achieved control of only 18% of the West Bank and 60% of Gaza – far from the idea of two states on which Oslo was based.
Did Israel continue building by-pass roads after the Oslo process began?
During the Oslo negotiations Israel began building a massive system of 480 kilometers of Israel-only "by-pass" roads, at a cost of $3 billion. The project continues to this day (May 2002), creating "facts on the ground" that make the de facto incorporation of the West Bank into Israel irreversible.
Read more: Google Israeli Commite Against House Demolitions
