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"Unrecognized" Palestinians
By Stephen Lendman
09/13/07 "ICH" --- -- Israel's population today is about
7,150,000. About 5.4 million are Jews (76%) plus another 400,000
Jewish settlers in over 200 expanding settlements on occupied
Palestinian land in the West Bank that includes Palestinian East
Jerusalem. They're the chosen ones afforded full rights and
privileges under the laws of the Jewish state for Jews alone.
Palestinian Arabs are another story. Their population is around
5.3 million (plus six million or more in the Palestinian
diaspora). Around 3.9 million live in occupied Gaza and the West
Bank, and another 1.4 million are Arab citizens of Israel (20%
of the population), including about 260,000 classified as
internally displaced. Palestinians get no rights afforded Jews
even though those inside Israel are citizens of the Jewish
state, have passports and IDs, and can vote in Knesset elections
for what good it does them. They're subjected to constant abuse
and neglect, are confined to 2% of the land plus 1% more for
agricultural use, and are treated disdainfully as nonpersons.
Arab Israeli citizens live mainly in all-Arab towns and villages
in three heartlands - the Galilee in the north; what's called
the "Little Triangle" in the center that runs along the Israeli
side of the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank; and
the Negev desert region in the country's south. These
communities aren't geographically consolidated and are
surrounded by established Jewish communities, hostile to Arab
neighbors, and with Israel's full military might backing them. A
minority of Palestinians also live uneasily in mixed Jewish-Arab
cities like Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Jerusalem in the West
Bank and others.
The Plight of Palestinian Nonpersons in "Unrecognized Villages"
The term is Orwellian in its worst sense. How can something real
not officially exist? Around 150,000 or more (accurate numbers
are hard to come by) Palestinian Arabs today live in over 100
so-called "unrecognized villages," mainly in the Galilee and the
Negev desert. They're unrecognized because their inhabitants are
considered internal refugees who were forced to flee their
original homes during Israel's
1948 "War of Independence" and were prevented from returning
when it ended.
These villages were delegitimized by Israel's 1965 Planning and
Construction Law that established a regulatory framework and
national plan for future development. It zoned land for
residential, agriculture and industrial use, forbade unlicensed
construction, banned it on agricultural land, and stipulated
where Israeli Jews and Palestinians could live. That's how
apartheid worked in South Africa.
Existing communities are circumscribed on a map with blue lines
around them. Areas inside the lines can be developed. Those
outside cannot. For Jewish communities, great latitude is
allowed for future expansion, and new communities are added as a
result. In contrast, Palestinian areas are severely constricted
leaving no room for expansion. Their land was reclassified as
agricultural meaning no new construction is allowed. This meant
entire communities became "unrecognized" and all homes and
buildings there declared illegal, even the 95% of them built
before the 1965 law passed. They're subject to demolition and
inhabitant displacement at the whim of Israeli officials. They
want new land for Jews and freely take it from Arab owners,
helpless to stop it.
All Israeli public land is administered by the Israel Land
Authority (ILA) that has a legal obligation to treat all its
citizens fairly. Instead and with impunity, it serves Jewish
interests only using various methods to do it. It restricts and
prohibits Palestinian land development by:
-- putting large Arab areas under its control through the
creation of regional councils;
-- zoning restrictions mentioned above;
-- transferring public land adjacent to Arab communities to
Jewish National Fund (JNF) ownership that mandates it's only for
Jews;
-- connecting the cost of leasing land to military service that
discriminates against Palestinians not required to serve and
almost none do;
-- declaring national priority town areas for Jews only;
-- delaying, restricting and prohibiting local development in
Arab communities;
-- ignoring Arab needs in regional and national plans;
-- allowing Palestinians little or no representation on national
planning committees;
-- enforcing a policy of forced evictions and demolitions of
buildings without appropriate permits. In "unrecognized
villages," no permits are allowed Palestinians on their own
land. Entire villages thus face prosecution in the courts and
loss of their homes, land and possessions through a
state-sponsored policy to remove them judicially.
It gets worse. No new Palestinian communities are allowed, and
existing "unrecognized villages" are denied essential municipal
services like clean drinking water, electricity, roads,
transport, sanitation, education, healthcare, postal and
telephone service, refuse removal and more because under the
Planning and Construction Law they're illegal. The toll on their
people is devastating:
-- clean water is unavailable almost everywhere unless people
have access to well water,
-- the few available health services are inadequate,
-- many homes have no bathrooms, and no permits are allowed to
build them,
-- only villages with private generators have electricity enough
for lighting only,
-- no village is connected to the main road network,
-- some villages are fenced in prohibiting their residents from
access to their traditional lands,
-- in the North, only one school remains open and children must
travel 10 - 15 kilometers to attend another; as a result,
achievement levels are low and dropout rates high.
It's worse still when home demolitions are ordered. It may
stipulate Palestinians must do it themselves or be fined for
contempt of court and face up to a year in prison. They may also
have to cover the cost when Israeli bulldozers do it under a
system of convoluted justice penalizing Palestinians twice over.
Discriminatory Israeli Law
Israel is a signatory to the 1966 International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Its Preamble states "the
obligation of (signatory) States under the Charter of the United
Nations to promote universal respect for, and observance of,
human rights and freedom." It then covers what states must
observe in 53 Articles that stipulate the following:
-- "All people have the right of self-determination."
-- "Each state party....undertakes to respect and ensure to all
individuals within its territory the rights in this Covenant,
without distinction of any kind" for any reason.
-- "Every human being has the inherent right to life," to "be
protected by law," and no activity may be undertaken to destroy
any rights and freedom covered under this Covenant.
-- "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment."
-- "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention."
-- "Everyone....within the territory (shall) have the right to
liberty of movement and freedom to chose his residence (and) to
be free to leave any country (and not be) deprived of the right
to enter (or return to) his own country."
-- "All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals."
-- "Everyone shall have the right to recognition everywhere as a
person before the law."
-- "All persons are equal before the law and are entitled
without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law."
-- In states with "ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities
(those persons) shall not be denied the
(same) right(s)....as the other members."
In Israel, for all intents and purposes, the ICCPR is a
nonstarter. It applies to Jews alone, not to Arabs and other
non-Jews. Israeli laws allow it by subjecting non-Jews, and
specifically Arabs, to three types of discrimination:
-- legal direct discrimination guaranteeing Jews alone the right
to immigrate and become citizens; it also gives various Jewish
organizations in the country quasi-government status serving
Jews only.
-- indirect discrimination through "neutral" laws and criteria
applying principally to Palestinians; government preferences and
benefits are predicated on prior military service most
Palestinians don't perform; the categorization of the country
into preferential zones for Jews provides them privileges and
benefits denied Palestinians.
-- institutional discrimination through a legal framework
facilitating a pattern of privileges afforded Jews only; they're
allocated through budgets and resources showing preferential
treatment for Jews and discrimination against Palestinians;
Israeli courts enforce the bias by refusing to hear cases where
Palestinians claim their rights have been denied;
-- even when courts hear cases and rule favorably, Palestinians
get only crumbs; an example was in the early September Supreme
Court decision that Israel reroute part of its illegal apartheid
wall and return a small portion of stolen land to the people of
Bil'in; a far greater issue was ignored by allowing the illegal
Modiin Illit settlement on Bil'in land to remain intact; for
anti-occupation Gush Shalom, the court decision message to
settlers is do as you please, build fast and expect court
approval retrospectively.
Israel professes to be a democracy. It is not by any reasonable
standard. It defines itself as a Jewish state which contradicts
its claimed democratic credentials. It treats Jews
preferentially and entitles them to special consideration denied
non-Jews who are discriminated against as second-class citizens
and denied comparable rights.
Israel has no formal constitution and instead is governed by its
Basic Laws that before 1992 guaranteed no basic rights. That
year, the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom passed
authorizing the Knesset to overturn laws contrary to the right
to dignity, life, freedom, privacy, property and to leave and
enter the country. The law states "There shall be no violation
of the life, body or dignity of any person. All persons are
entitled to protection" of these rights, and "There shall be no
deprivation or restriction of the liberty of a person by
imprisonment, arrest, extradition or otherwise."
For a nation committed to violence, the irony is particularly
galling that a section of the Basic Law also deals with "The
Right to Life and Limb in Israeli Law." It states "Israeli law
has abolished the death penalty for murder (and corporal
punishment)." It notes this penalty exists in principle but only
under limited circumstances such as for treason during war and
under the Law for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. It
further notes Israel's 1998 Good Samaritan Law requires
assistance be given in situations "of immediate and severe
danger to another." Omitted from the Basic Law is the right to
equality so all rights in it apply to Jews only.
Palestinian Arabs have none, yet can stand for public office in
the Knesset. Some do, a few are elected but have no power beyond
a public stage to state their views and be shouted down or
ignored. They're also constrained by the 1992 Law of Political
Parties and section 7A(1) of the Basic Law that prohibits
candidates for office from denying "the existence of the State
of Israel as the state of the Jewish people." No candidate may
challenge the fundamental Jewish character of the state or
demand equal rights, privileges and justice under the law for
Arabs and Jews. The essential Zionist identity is inviolable,
the rule of law works for Jews alone, and Palestinians are
denied all rights, equal treatment and justice under a legal
system for Jews that discriminates against Arab Muslims. In
South Africa it was called apartheid.
The Current Plight of Palestinian Israeli Citizens in the Negev
About half the 160,000 Bedouin Arabs today face forced
displacement in the Negev. Why? Because they live in dozens
"unrecognized villages" making their homes illegal under Israeli
law. They face imprisonment and fines if they refuse to leave so
their land can be cleared, homes demolished, and the area
Judaised for a Negev development plan. It's described as "A
Miracle in the Desert" that aims to populate the area with a
half million new Jewish residents in the next decade. Plans are
for 25 new communities and 100,000 homes on cleared Bedouin
lands. For the past two years, Israel has been ethnically
cleansing the Negev and erasing Bedouin villages to make it
possible.
All Bedouin Arabs in "unrecognized villages" face what those
living in Tawil Abu Jarwal endured in January. The entire
village was destroyed when the Israeli military (IDF), a large
police contingent and special task forces, a helicopter and
bulldozers came in January 9. They demolished all 21 of its
homes that consisted of shacks, brick rooms and tents. It
followed a month earlier assault when 17 other homes were
destroyed and their residents forcibly displaced. The people
became homeless, and 63 of them in January were children. In
late 2006, Israel's interior minister, Roni Bar-On, announced
his intention to destroy all 42,000 "illegal structures" in the
Negev in a bandit declaration of planned forced ethnic cleansing
against people helpless to stop it.
It's happening in Al-Sadir, Tel-Arad, Amara-Tarabin and on June
25 to Bedouin families in the small villages of Um al-Hiran and
Atir that are homes to about 1000 people. Hundreds of police and
Israeli security forces destroyed over 20 of their homes to make
way for a Jewish community called Hiran to replace them. People
living in them lost everything including their possessions they
had no chance to remove. Haaretz reported Atir villagers lived
there for 51 years after being transferred to the area in
1956 under martial law. The article continued saying the Israeli
Regional Council of "Unrecognized Villages" will move displaced
families to a refugee camp in the center of Jerusalem (where
Bedouins don't wish to live) "as part of the government's
(forced ethnic cleansing) relocation project" to make the
"desert bloom" for new Jewish only communities.
This is what all Negev Bedouin Arabs now face unless something
can stop it. Large numbers of them attended an early August
protest conference. It was held in solidarity with unaffected
Palestinians who together called on Arab and other countries to
support their right to remain in their homes and denounce
Israel's racist apartheid laws.
Arab Knesset member, Talab Al Sane, spoke on their behalf. So
did Hussein Al Rafay'a, head of the regional council of the
"unrecognized villages," who said Israel wants Palestinians to
be refugees in their own lands and has been forcing them into
this status by a policy of home demolitions and continued
displacement. Arabs once owned 5.5 million dunams of land
(550,000 hectares) in the Negev, he said. They now own less than
200,000 (20,000 hectares) and are threatened with losing all of
it. "We will resort to the Security Council, and the
international court (in the Hague) to provide the residents and
their lands with needed protection."
With an assured US veto in the Security Council and Israel's
record of ignoring UN resolutions and World Court rulings
against it, there's little chance for success and every
likelihood legal Israeli Arab citizens will continue being
displaced from their own land.
Advocacy for Palestinian Arabs in "Unrecognized Villages"
Israel denies all Palestinians their basic rights. However,
those living in so-called "unrecognized villages" face a special
threat - demolition of their homes, loss of their land and
possessions, and frightening displacement that will make them
refugees along with millions of others in their own land. Few
organizations advocate on their behalf, but a group that does is
called The Association of Forty.
It's a grassroots NGO in Israel committed to promoting social
justice for Israeli Arabs and to gain official recognition for
their "unrecognized villages." It was formed in December, 1988
when Arab and Jewish residents from several of the affected
villages and other areas formed the Association. It now
"represents the residents of the 'unrecognized villages' and
their problems, and promotes support locally and
internationally" on their behalf. It seeks official recognition
for the villages, an improvement in their living conditions, and
"full rights and equality for the Arab citizens of the state" of
Israel.
Its work consists of initiating "the preparation and
implementation of active projects within these villages such as
paving roads, improving existing roads and helping the residents
to achieve their rights, to connect their villages to the
network of water, electricity and telephones, to establish and
operate kindergartens and clinics for mother and child care, and
to obtain educational non-curricular activities for the
schoolchildren...." It publishes a monthly newspaper, Sawt Al-Qura,
has photographic exhibitions, films and documentaries that
reflect the plight of the villages. It also organizes study
days, holds local and international conferences, and
participates in other international ones.
The Palestinians Enduring Struggle for Freedom and Justice
Palestinians today live under horrendous conditions. By any
standard, they're appalling, repressive and in violation of
fundamental human rights principles under the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights stating:
-- "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
rights."
-- "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms....in
this Declaration, without distinction of any kind."
-- "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of
person."
-- "Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person
before the law."
-- "All are equal before the law and are entitled....to equal
protection."
-- "Everyone has the right to own property (nor shall anyone) be
arbitrarily (be) deprived of his property."
Israel offers these rights to Jews alone. It denies them to
Palestinian Arab Muslims in violation of its own Basic Law
professing "Fundamental human rights....founded upon recognition
of the value of the human being, the sanctity of human life, and
the principle that all persons are free." It continues stating
the Basic Law of Israel "is to protect human dignity and
liberty....(that) There shall be no violation of the property of
a person....(that) All persons are entitled to protection of
their life, body and dignity....(that) All government
authorities are bound to respect the rights under this Basic
Law."
The Basic Law also states Israel is a Jewish state, and the
message is clear. All rights, benefits, privileges and
protections are for Jews alone. All others are unwelcome,
unwanted, unprotected, and unequal under the law. For them,
justice unrecognized is justice denied and for Palestinians it's
willful and with malice.
They face constant harassment, abuse and near daily assaults in
the West Bank and even worse treatment under virtual
imprisonment in Gaza. Their democratically elected government
was ousted by a US-Israeli orchestrated coup in June to the
shameless applause of Western leaders and silence from Arab
ones. They're now isolated, surrounded and dangerously close to
a humanitarian disaster affecting 1.4 million people.
It's no better for Israeli Palestinian citizens. They're
nonpersons in their own land, are treated like intruders, given
no rights, face constant harassment and mistreatment, get no
justice, and face imminent loss of their homes, land, freedom
and lives any time Israeli authorities wish to act against them.
Yet they persist and endure as do their brethren in the Occupied
Territories. They reach out to the world community, press their
case, and a delegation from occupied Palestine stated it at the
World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya in January.
It was a call to action and cry for help for "freedom, justice
and (a) durable peace" and an end to six decades of repression.
It called for a "global Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions against Israel until it ends its apartheid-like regime
of discrimination, occupation and colonization, and respects the
right of return of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced
persons."
It called for "Consumer boycotts of Israeli products; boycott of
Israeli academic, athletic and cultural events and institutions
complicit in human rights abuses; divestment from Israeli
companies (and) international companies involved in perpetuating
injustice, and pressuring governments to impose sanctions on
Israel...."
Silence is not an option, and people of conscience can help.
Noted author and documentary filmmaker, John Pilger, believes
"something is changing," and he saw it in a recent full page New
York Times ad having a "distinct odour of panic." It called for
boycotting Israel, and Pilger senses the "swell....is growing
inexorably, as if an important marker has been passed
(and it's) reminiscent of the boycotts that led to sanctions
against apartheid South Africa.....once distant voices," notes
Pilger, have "gone global," it caught Israel off guard and may
signal change. But not easily or fast and may not happen at all
unless global pressure becomes mass public outrage that this
injustice no longer will be tolerated by people of conscience
anywhere.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to
the Steve Lendman News and Information Hour on
TheMicroEffect.com Saturdays at noon US central time.
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