As a member of the Mideast Quartet, and as an organization admirably respectful of human rights, the European Union is neglecting some of its commitment to actively contribute to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. True, the EU has so far been actively ignored by the Israelis and the USA in this regard, but after a series of recent geopolitical changes, such as the EU expansion last year, the weakening of the US economy, the USA’s increasing troubles with its war on Iraq, and now the democratic and diplomatic credentials of a new Palestinian Authority leadership, it is time for the EU to wake up and use its influential powers more constructively. This is not just a moral appeal, it is to a large extent also a long-neglected legal responsibility, a responsibility that has largely been forgotten due to successful Israeli and US attempts to bury the rule of international law along with respect for basic human rights, especially with regard to Palestinian rights. Yet, both land theft and ethnic segregation, especially, are ongoing, and, at least in that respect, things continue to get worse on the ground.
In today’s main story on the Palestinian Authority presidential elections in the independent Israeli newspaper, Ha’aretz (“Bush says Abbas welcome at White House”), the positive reactions of heads of state such as G.W. Bush, Hosni Mubarak, and Vladimir Putin, heads of government such as Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder, and a host of foreign ministers and heads of intergovernmental institutions, such as Javier Solana, Amr Moussa, and Jose Manuel Barroso are reported.
Second only in size and prominence to the coverage of Bush’s statements in the article, however, is the analysis by the only non-governmental commentator referred to in the entire article, international affairs expert Rime Allaf. An associate fellow at the Chatham House think-tank in London, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Allaf predicts that “Abbas’ victory would do little to increase the European Union’s role in resolving the Middle East conflict, after years of being sidelined by Israel and the United States”, according to Ha’aretz. ”The only new thing that Abbas brings for the Europeans is the chance to tell the United States and Israel that they have lost their excuse for not talking with the Palestinians, i.e. Arafat,” Allaf is quoted as saying. “Pretty much all they can do is pressure the United States to be more equitable,” she reportedly added.
Why is it so? The European Union is not only growing in terms of territory, population, and economy. The 25-member organization is also growing in importance in world political affairs, despite its relative lack of coordinated military might.
A recent confidential 10-year forecast government report, prepared by Israel’s Foreign Ministry and then leaked by (or to?) the media, warned that “Israel could end up on a collision course with the European Union and face sanctions like apartheid-era South Africa.” Furthermore, during the coming decade, as the expanding EU might grow more powerful and influential to the detriment of the main Israeli ally, the USA, the report cautions that “the Jewish state could become increasingly isolated internationally”. (Matt Spetalnick: Israel, Europe Could Be on Collision Course –Report, Reuters, October 14, 2004)
This is certainly not the time for the EU to acquiesce or stay sidelined. The reasons are not only ethical, they are legal as well. In fact, they are predominantly legal. One among many examples: Israel’s Apartheid Wall.
As Victor Kattan remarked in a recent Counterpunch article (“It Must Do More Than Issue Statements: The EU and Middle East Peace”, 8 January 2005) Paragraph 159 of last year’s ICJ ruling that the wall is illegal “sets out in clear and unequivocal terms the legal obligations of the international community. These include the duties of non-recognition, non-assistance, preventing the wall from impeding the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, and ensuring Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law. Whilst sceptics have pointed out that an advisory opinion [the ICJ ruling] is not binding per se, the legal obligations stipulated in that paragraph are. The EU, as an international organisation made up of its constituent states, has a responsibility, in the same way as states do, to abide by the ICJ’s opinion. The EU is set up by treaties which are governed by international law. The European Court of Justice has held that customary international law is binding upon the EU. At least two of the obligations set out in the ICJ’s opinion are of a customary character. All 25 members of the EU voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution which demanded that Israel comply with its legal obligations as identified in the advisory opinion.”
These are important matters, as is, for instance, the continued existence of illegal Jewish settlements on illegally confiscated Palestinian land. The illegal confiscations of land by illegally stationed Israeli soldiers and settlers, by the way, also continued throughout the Palestinian Authority presidential election campaign period (like the construction of the illegal wall), a period during which Israel had promised to “pull back”. Meanwhile Israel continues to trumpet its unilateral Gaza “disengagement” plan, in fact little more than a tactical retreat plan (and a scheme to grab more in the West Bank), in any event, a continued military siege of one of the most densely populated, attacked, and dilapidated areas on this planet.
Believing in Jerusalem
Date posted: May 27, 2013
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
Last week, Israel barred a UNESCO fact-finding mission from entering the country, charging that the Palestinians had ‘politicized’ the mission before it had even arrived. The mission was tasked with looking into conditions of historical sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, something Israel apparently found to be very threatening.
Looking at the state of Jerusalem’s eastern sector today, it is understandable why Israel would not want UNESCO or anyone else walking around the Old City, especially the Palestinian-populated parts of it. Because anyone who does, will see the devastation that Israel and its settlers have wreaked on one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the world.
Excavation works are being conducted in and around the Aqsa Mosque to make way for more Jewish construction at the place where Waqf authorities say Ottoman and Abbasid artifacts have long been tucked away. A Muslim graveyard is being dug up just outside the Old City’s Jaffa Gate, to build – ironically – a museum of tolerance. Today, two stores were forcefully taken over by Jewish settlers in Al Hakari, one of the neighborhoods in the Muslim quarter and every day, it seems that more and more homes are either being demolished by Israeli municipality authorities or being taken over by Jewish settlers.
The “Judiazation” of Jerusalem is a term many Palestinians and Arabs use for what Israel is doing in the city. In a nutshell, it is the long-term plan Israel is gradually carrying out to change the Arab Palestinian character of Jerusalem. This means demolishing old and historical structures, displacing Palestinians, handing over their homes to settlers and trying to erase the Palestinian or Arab history of the city.
The sad truth is that, on the surface, Israel has succeeded in this to a large extent. Pockets of Jewish settlers now live in the heart of Muslim quarters and aim to take over more and more. Sheikh Jarrah, one of the more affluent Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem, is now pierced with Jewish flags waving from homes that have been wrestled from their Palestinian owners, and Israel’s light rail train cuts right down through Palestinian neighborhoods outside of the city center. The train, of course, is not meant to service the Palestinian population but rather to connect Jewish neighborhoods and settlements in the city, but the area confiscated from Shufat and Beit Hanina for its construction simply fell into the plan.
What the UNESCO mission would not have seen even if they made it into the Old City is the overall humiliation that the Palestinian population of Jerusalem must endure on a daily basis because of Israel’s military occupation. Trips to the Israeli ministry of interior must be made just to prove that one lives in the city for fear that their residency rights may be revoked; young Palestinian men are stopped randomly by Israeli soldiers to check their ID cards or just to harass them, and settlers are always given the luxury of maximum security whenever they walk the streets. If settlers want to march through the city, the Palestinians are told to close their shops, are barred for hours from reaching their homes if they run along the path of the march and are always the ones blamed if any kind of confrontation between the two sides breaks out.
Jerusalem is being squeezed by these measures more and more each day. But there is always that glimmer of hope, that strength that shines through proving that all is not lost. On Shavuot, Israeli settlers and extremists poured into the Old City, singing loudly, banging on the shop doors and waving huge Israeli flags. The sight was disconcerting to say the least. However, the afternoon of that same day, at Damascus Gate, passersby were met with a completely different scene. Palestinian flags waved in determined Palestinian hands under the threatening eye of heavily armed Israeli police and soldiers. The youths were fearless, demanding freedom, with strong, unrelenting voices.
The sight of the Palestinian flag waving at the entrance to Damascus Gate was a breath of fresh air. All is not lost and never will be because hope is eternal and determination and strength come from a never-ending spring.
That day at Damascus Gate is what all Palestinians must keep in their minds’ eye in spite of the daily oppression of the occupation. No matter how many missions Israel bars from entering or how many houses it takes over, there will always be those brave souls who, despite the risks, will always raise Palestine’s flag.
Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
Let Mohammed rest in peace
Date posted: May 20, 2013
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
There is no point falling into the pit of countering the claims being made about the death of Mohammed Al Durra, the 12-year old boy from Gaza whose videotaped killing was seen around the world. The boy, crouching in fear behind is equally afraid father as bullets whizzed around them, was killed admittedly by the Israeli army. Later, the army recanted after investigating the tape, saying Durra was killed by Palestinian fire instead. Well now, Israel is changing its story altogether, saying he was not killed at all. In fact, he was probably not even wounded and the French channel that broadcast the footage and brought some pretty bad rap to Israel, had most likely filmed a charade.
The reason why I will not waste my time countering this claim is that even with the great lengths the Israeli government went to to prove that the boy was never killed, it could not provide any irrefutable proof that Mohammed Al Durra – who would be 25 now – is still alive. No pictures, no testimonies, no hospital or morgue officials giving statements to refute his death, have been provided. Only sketchy information about ‘poor quality footage’ and the fact that it seems as though the boy moved his arm after he had slumped over his father following the explosion.
My point is this: indeed, Mohammed Durra’s death was at least one of the catalysts that fueled the second Intifada, and thus, was an important event in the history of the Palestinians. However, more importantly – most importantly to me –is the fact that this is about a boy who died in sheer terror, with his distraught father futilely trying to shelter him from the barrage of bullets coming their way.
Mohammed Al Durra was a boy, with a life, a family and friends. He died a horrible death and now he is being made to die a second one. I did not know Mohammed or his family, but I can only imagine how awful it must be for them to read these claims now and feel the pain of losing their child all over again. If nothing else, this is disrespect for human life of the worst kind.
Some may postulate that the rehashing of the Durra case is a personal jab at the French cameraman who shot the footage, Charles Enderlin. Perhaps. But as a Palestinian who has seen the pain endured by numerous families who receive the horrible news that their sons or daughters have been killed by the Israeli army, my concern is for his family and for his memory. He should be left to rest in peace. If Israel has axes to grind with French journalists or with the international community for holding it accountable for its actions, then so be it. Israel is not lacking in the public relations department.
That being said, there is just one decent thing left to do. Leave Mohammed Al Durra and his memory alone.
Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
Recognition and justice is our demand
Date posted: May 13, 2013
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
This week Palestinians will commemorate Al Nakba, the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people when Israel was founded. Every year, Palestinians hang placards pointing to the right of return, they carry keys symbolizing the homes they were forced to leave and could not return to and remember the Palestine that was lost to them 65 years ago.
This year will be no different. Every May 15, Palestinian recall their catastrophe and demand justice. They demand that they are granted the right of return for those who were made refugees virtually overnight and were then relegate to a life they did not choose. But more than anything, they demand recognition of the tragedy that befell them rather than a denial that it ever happened, or worse, that it was of their own making.
It has been 65 years since Israel was established in 1948, which means those who were cast into exile are either very old or have long passed. Those who experienced the Nakba are now few and far between, clinging to those few precious memories of a small garden in front of their house in Jaffa or of the salty smell of the sea in their neighborhood in Haifa. The rest of us are either descendants of these refugees or ordinary Palestinians who feel their cause is our cause because we are one people.
But the Palestinians have made one thing clear. The refugee issue will not die with the last refugee. It is felt nationwide, the loss, the injustice and the fact that those who were forced from their homes have mostly passed, longing for their beloved homes.
We cannot turn back time. What was lost has been altered, destroyed, changed or taken over by Israel’s newcomers. What we can do is hold on to the right to be recognized, for the injustice to be rectified in word and deed and for Palestine to never be lost in our minds or hearts.
Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
