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Thursday, 28 March. 2024
 
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In a lecture in London, Sourani: "The agreement on border crossings institutionalizes the occupation"

The Palestine Society in the School for Oriental and African Studies in London University invited Mr. Raji Sourani to give a lecture on "Legal Analysis of the Disengagement"

Mr. Sourani started his lecture by stressing the fact that the Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip is still effective in its physical and legal forms. He pointed out that Israel controls the airspace, sea, borders and crossings of the Strip.

International humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the Hague Convention define occupation as "actual control over the lives of the civilian population," added Mr. Sourani. Since the conclusion of the implementation of the disengagement on 12 September 2005, the reality has been that the Strip is under the control of the Israeli occupation measures. Despite the evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip, Israel has continued to implement the policies of extra-judicial executions and bombardment. In addition, Israel has controlled the Gaza Strip's border crossings. By 25 November 2005, Israel had banned freedom of movement to and from the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, the movement of goods was restricted.

Mr. Sourani referred to the evacuation of Israeli settlements as a positive development as the Gaza Strip got rid of 22 Israeli settlements that were built illegally on its land, and their 7000 inhabitants. These settlements, Mr. Sourani indicated, constituted a war crime. However, Mr. Sourani warned that the new situation in the Gaza Strip would lead to economic and social strangulation; and that the Gaza Strip would be totally isolated from the West Bank and Jerusalem. Mr. Sourani stated that Israel sold the world an illusion called "withdrawal," while on the ground it implemented a mere redeployment of its occupation forces.

Mr. Sourani talked about the agreement on border crossings pointing out that the state of border crossings has been formulated with international acceptance in a way that gives Israel the right to exercise full control over the crossings. He discussed the situation at the Rafah International Crossing Point, the only outlet for the Gaza Strip to the outside world. He stated that in addition to video cameras, computers and European monitors who oversee the implementation of Israel's dictations, the core issue is that Israel is the party which decides who has an identity card and who can travel or not. This situation makes the occupation's control over the border complete in both form and content. This control stems from Israel's power to decide who has an "identity card." This in effect deprives thousands of Palestinians who were not issued identity cards by Israel of traveling.

Mr. Sourani stated that Israel's main goal behind the implementation of the disengagement plan is to move the attention away from the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This means turning the attention away from the policy of Judaizing Jerusalem, creating facts on the ground in the West Bank through settlement construction and expansion, construction of the Annexation Wall and the issue of Palestinian refugees. Furthermore, the attention would be turned away from the need to put an end to the Israeli military occupation and allow Palestinians to exercise their rights of independence and self-determination.

Also in London, Mr. Sourani held a series of meetings with solicitors Daniel Machover and Kate Maynard from the Hickman and Rose Solicitors, who cooperated with PCHR last September in issuing a judicial arrest warrant against the Israeli Major General Doron Almog. However, Almog managed to evade the order after the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Ambassador in London had instructed him not to get off the plane in London. The meetings centered on the issue of pursuing Israeli war criminals through the utilization of international law.

Mr. Sourani also met with lawyer Maria Lahood from the Center for Constitutional Rights in the United States. The Center is cooperating with PCHR in the case of Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist who was run down and killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in March 2002 as she attempted to protect a Palestinian home from demolition. The Center filed a lawsuit against Caterpillar in New York, since the Israeli occupation army uses the company's bulldozers in demolishing Palestinian homes and razing agricultural land.

It is noted that the Center for Constitutional Rights was the first center to file a lawsuit against the United States of America for its acts in Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

In Brussels, the European Coordinating Committee of NGOs on the Question of Palestine, headed by Mr. Pierre Galand, invited Mr. Sourani to give a lecture on the disengagement plan and the upcoming Palestinian legislative elections on 25 January 2005.

Further, Mr. Sourani will participate in the Paris meetings of the International Office of the International Federation for Human Rights (FDIH) in his capacity as the Vice President of FDIH. It is noted that the FDIH is an international organization of 146 members from all over the world. PCHR has been a member in the FDIH since 1995. The FDIH holds regular meetings every four months.

 
 
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