Cathy Sultan's Blog, page 11

ISRAEL’S PERMIT REGIME

 

The Israeli government uses over 100 different types of permits to regulate all aspects of Palestinian lives. They are divided into four categories: civil and political rights that include permits for residency and travel; economic rights that encompass permits for work, farming, trade and even money transfers; cultural rights’ permits for education, worship and visiting holy sites and social that include permits for construction, renovation and health.

On the one hand, the permit regime could be seen as the mechanism for enforcing discriminatory zoning and planning policies such as denial of residency, land confiscation and access to land and natural resources but, as I’ve written in  Israeli and Palestinian Voices: A Dialogue with Both Sides, it is also a standalone method of imposing daily constraints that entangle Palestinians in a web that includes closures, work discrimination, entry and travel permits, restriction of movement, land appropriation; house demolitions; transfer schemes, a freeze on the natural development of Palestinian towns and villages, restrictions on the planting of crops and even their sale. All these fall under bureaucratic controls and these every day extremes remain largely invisible to the outside world, and therefore are rarely—if ever—exposed.

The idea of establishing a “permit regime” started with the first groups of Zionist colonists entering Palestine in the beginning of the 20th Century. Kibbutzim, or collective communities, were effectively “little fortresses” built by European Jews to exclude Palestinians with the aim of acquiring more and more territory and thus separating the land from its indigenous inhabitants. Over time, this strategy of acquisition of land and expansion has served to establish a territory for the Jewish people. Israel’s politics of separation and conquest are still visible in every aspect of Israel’s ongoing 50 year old military occupation of the Palestinian people and their land.

The practice of geopolitically dividing and subdividing the Palestinian population started in 1948 even with Palestinian communities that remained inside Israel after it declared its independence. Palestinians citizens of Israel in the Galilee and the Negev, for instance, are divided by the Israeli authorities. For instance, Israel considers the Palestinian Bedouins as an administrative category apart from that of Palestinians, while Muslims, Christians and Druze are also considered distinct nationalities by Israeli law and practice.

In order to apply a sophisticated permit regime the Palestinian population had to be classified and categorized. The permits infiltrate in various ways all aspects of the lives of affected Palestinians and the different types of permits cannot be viewed in isolation from one another. For example, although a Palestinian may obtain a “farmer permit” to work on his land located in the so-called Seam-Line (in the proximity of the Green Line and near the Separation Wall), he also needs several additional permits if he wishes to bring in equipment or if he wishes to visit family or friends since a permit only allows for individual people to carry out one specific identified task for a very limited time.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem are assigned “permanent” resident status. This “honor” comes at a cost for even if they were born in Jerusalem and if their parents were born in Jerusalem, they must constantly prove Jerusalem is their center of life by showing proof of home ownership, of taxes and bills paid in order to keep their permanent resident status. This status can be revoked if they leave the city for an extended period. Government officials actually go to peoples’ homes in the middle of the night to see if they are sleeping there, if there is food in the refrigerator and clothes in the closet. Ultimately, Israel seeks to revoke the permanent resident status of every Palestinian living in East Jerusalem for its ultimate goal is the Judification of all of Jerusalem.

Under “denial of natural resources,” a Palestinian has very limited access to water and needs a permit should he want to collect rainwater to compensate for the meager amount of water he is allocated by the Israeli authorities. He will also need a permit if he wants to install solar panels on his roof for energy efficiency.

As a way of discouraging higher education, Palestinian youth cannot start university until the age of 21 because their Israeli counterparts must serve in the Israeli Army and don’t finish until they are 21 years of age.

Taken together, these policies strip Palestinians of their fundamental rights and create an environment in which it becomes ever more difficult to remain. That is precisely the end goal of the permit regime whether in the Seam Zone or in the limitation of movement across the West Bank and Gaza or the construction in the Jordan Valley to the exclusion of any Palestinian presence. It is the gradually clearing out the indigenous Palestinian population in order to clear the lands for the benefit of Israeli settlements.

Israel’s hopes its method—revocation of permanent residency (forced transfer), prevention of agricultural and economic development, destruction of local communal and family structures and turning day-to-day routines into bureaucratic nightmares—will eventually force Palestinians to leave.

After 50 years of military occupation, Israel still does not understand the Palestinian people. They live by the word sumud (steadfastness) and their prime symbol is the olive tree representing their ancient connection to the land. They will never give up and they will never leave.

THE JEWISH NATIONAL FUND AND THE NEGEV

 

Theodore Herzl, father of modern Zionism, organized the first Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland in August 1897. At Basle, his Zionist movement resolved to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The Congress also proposed setting up a financial institution to carry forward the Zionist idea. Thus the Jewish National Fund (JNF) was created with a mandate to acquire and develop the land in Palestine. The fund could lease the acquired lands to any Jew, body of Jews or to any company under Jewish control, but Arabs and non-Jews were prohibited from living on JNF land. Its mandate was to hold all such land in perpetuity on behalf of the Jewish People.

Little by little, the JNF began acquiring land as early as 1903 but it was during the British Mandate and its favorable policies toward the Jewish colonization of Palestine that the JNF, through trickery and manipulation, forced Palestinian farmers off their own land, thus acquiring ever larger parcels. In 1947-48, JNF President, Josef Weitz, hatched Plan Dalet, the campaign to ethnically cleanse some 500 Palestinian villages and expel their residents. Once the residents fled their villages the Jewish National Fund moved in and “acquired” for the State of Israel all “abandoned” land under the newly written Absentee Property Law.  This law was one of Israel’s major legal instruments for seizing Palestinian property left behind by the Palestinians who were forcibly displaced. The law is still in effect and is used to confiscate Palestinian property more than six decades later. Today 93% of all land is in the hands of the State of Israel.

After expelling the residents and destroying their villages, Weitz and his Jewish National Fund orchestrated the planting of hundreds of thousands of trees to cover up the scores of villages that had been ethnically cleansed by Zionist militias.

As early as 1910, the Jewish National Fund began planting trees in the Negev with the intent of not only making the desert bloom but eventually populating it with Jewish settlements. The problem was the presence of 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins.

In 1947 the Bedouins still owned and used 99% of the Negev lands. Today the Bedouins have trouble proving that ownership, which existed from the time of the Ottoman Empire, because during the war of ’48, Israeli authorities stole all Bedouin ownership papers and transferred them to the State Archive. The State of Israel is now expelling Bedouins from their own land, claiming that they have no official documents to prove their ownership.

Currently, Bedouin land-use for agriculture and grazing has been reduced to just 3%.  Most of their homes, made of corrugated iron, now sit on what Israel calls “unrecognized villages,” which means they do not officially exist and so have no water pipes, no electricity, no phone lines, no trash removal, sewer systems, schools or medical clinics and no way to acquire a building permit because their homes are illegal under Israeli law and therefore under threat of demolition.

These untenable conditions were purposely put in place by the Israeli government to force the Negev’s Bedouin community to finally accept “life in the Negev” on Israel’s terms which means “coerced urbanization,” the goal of which is to turn the Bedouin community into an “urban proletariat.”

On a recent visit to the Negev with Interfaith Peace Builders, Khalil, our Bedouin guide, showed us the “city” of Hura, one of the “established townships.” It consists of rows and rows of non-descript industrial looking two story cement block buildings, housing some 10,000 people, on treeless lots with no room inside the city for livestock, an essential element to Bedouin livelihood and identity. These townships, presented as a carrot-and-stick arrangement, offer cheap land for housing and services such as electricity, water and roads versus remaining in unrecognized villages with no services and threat of demolition of property and livestock. Of the remaining 180,000 Bedouin living in the Negev, about half now live in concentrated towns.

The Jewish National Fund continues to play an integral role in the displacement of the Negev Bedouin tribes. They have spent the last 106 years planting trees across the Negev for future Jewish settlements. Major forests, some with as many as 28 million trees, were starkly evident as we traversed the vast desert landscape.  In 2015, they announced plans to build five new Jewish settlements in the Negev, some on land still occupied by Bedouin.

According to Khalil, the Bedouin communities of Um Elheran and Attir are due to be uprooted and forcibly transferred to the “city” of Hura because JNF is building an Orthodox Jewish settlement and Yashiva school on their property.

Khalil grew up in the village of Al Sira which, until recently, also faced demolition orders. However, unlike the other two villages, after eight years in court, Al Sira finally won its legal appeal and was granted permission to stay-at least for now. Perhaps their “win” is because Al Sira sits right next to an “under the radar” American military base and the noise of incoming and outgoing planes would be disruptive to any Jewish settler hoping for a quiet desert life.

 

 

HEBRON, WEST BANK

 

Hebron (al Khalil), 30 km. south of Jerusalem, is the West Bank’s largest city with a population of some 200,000 Palestinians. It is also home to approximately 500 Orthodox Jewish settlers, many of whom are from Brooklyn, New York. They are protected by some 2000 Israeli soldiers, 140 border police and anywhere from between 30 to 50 police officers.

The city contains one of the most important sites to Jews and Muslims alike. It is home to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, also known as the Ibrahimi Mosque, where, according to biblical tradition, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their wives, Leah, Rebecca and Sarah are believed to be buried.

Israel’s current restrictions on the Old City of Hebron date back to 1994 when the Israeli-American doctor Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Muslims and wounded 150 while they were praying in the Ibrahimi Mosque during Ramadan.  Following the massacre, then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during his first term as Israel’s Prime Minister, divided the city into H1 under Palestinian control and H2 under full Israeli control with the caveat that the Israeli Army could enter H1 at any time to arrest Palestinians.

In keeping with Israel’s policy of “blaming the victim,” Palestinians living in H2 were placed under curfew for weeks following the massacre while armed settlers were allowed to roam the empty streets freely. Some 512 Palestinian businesses in H2, roughly 75 percent of all commercial establishments, were closed and welded shut under the pretext of offering security to the settlers living in the busy commercial artery. An additional 1000 businesses were closed under “restricted access policies.”These brazen acts pushed more than 77 percent of the Palestinians living in the Old City into poverty. Hebron’s main Shuhada Street was also closed to Palestinian vehicles and pedestrians and the Ibrahimi Mosque was partitioned into Muslim and Jewish areas.

In total, there are over 120 obstacles to Palestinian movement designed to segregate “restricted areas” (settlements and anywhere settlers walk) from the rest of the city, including 18 permanent manned military checkpoints whose job it is to harass Palestinians and that includes children on their way to school who routinely suffer the indignation of having their book bag contents strewn over the road and trampled on before being allowed to retrieve them and continue on to school. Christian Peace Maker Team members often accompany children to school in an effort to provide some sense of security in an otherwise hostile environment.

Any street in downtown Hebron that leads anywhere near an Israeli settlement is off limits to Palestinian foot traffic. (Palestinians are forbidden to drive cars anywhere in H2). Access restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities in H2 (the 20% of Hebron under Israeli control) are compounded by systematic harassment by Israeli settlers which has resulted in the displacement of thousands of Palestinians and the deterioration of living conditions including a lack of basic services, delivery of water restricted to a few hours weekly, no sanitation facility, and no access to emergency health services without a permit, to name but a few.

The Israeli authorities justify the restrictions imposed on the Palestinian population as the only way to protect the Israeli settlers and allow them to lead normal lives even though the settlements in the heart of Hebron, as are all other Israeli settlements, illegal under international law.

In the market place in the old city, Palestinians have been forced to install overhead metal screens to protect their alleyways from rocks, garbage, urine, and often times feces, thrown on them by the Israeli settlers living above the market place in homes they have confiscated from Palestinian families. The screens do not protect visitors, however, from the vile verbal abuses shouted down at them by the settlers.

On a very recent visit, our group was followed by Israeli soldiers whose job it was to harass us. At one point our guide was stopped and threatened with arrest because he was walking on the side of the street reserved for Israeli settler-use only.

There are serious gaps in the enforcement of the rule of law on Israeli settlers involved in violence and intimidation against Palestinians. Incidents include acts of vandalism, burning homes and in one instance causing the death of a small child, physical attacks, verbal abuse and stone throwing at children on their way to school.

Today, some twenty two years later, the extremist settlers of Hebron remain firmly entrenched with the full support of the Israeli government and its military.

Other stories on the daily lives of Palestinians living under almost 50 years of Israeli military occupation can be found in my book Israeli and Palestinian Voices: A Dialogue with Both Sides, now in its third edition.

I CANNOT PROTECT YOU, MY SON, WHEN THEY COME TO ARREST YOU

 

  How do you tell your five year old son that you cannot protect him from that eventual, fateful day when Israeli soldiers, in the middle of the night, will break down the family’s front door, enter his bedroom, forcefully pull him from his bed and, if so inclined, smack his head against the wall? What will go through your son’s mind when he sees you, his father and protector, beaten by the soldiers because you try to intervene? And what of the mental image he’ll keep of his helpless mother as their house is ransacked, his games and prized possessions crushed by callous soldiers whose job it is to harass and terrorize Palestinians because they can, with impunity?

Like his four brothers before him, when he comes of age, he will be blindfolded, his hands tied with a plastic cord so tight it will cut into his wrists at the slightest movement. His mother’s mournful cry will not deter the soldiers who will forcibly drag him to the waiting Jeep, kick and beat him on the way to the nearest settlement police station before finally, hours later, transferring him to a prison where his official interrogation, often with torture, will begin.

According to Israeli law, any Israeli, regardless of age or crime, is tried in a civilian court of law. A Palestinian arrested, whether child or adult, in either East Jerusalem or the West Bank, is tried in a military court with one caveat. A child must be at last fourteen years old to be tried.

Currently, if a child younger than fourteen is arrested, and they number in the hundreds, they are held in detention, without legal counsel, without parental visitation rights, tortured, and often times put in solitary confinement until they reach the designated court age of fourteen. At this stage, the Israeli authorities offer the detainee two options. They can sign a “confession” in Hebrew, a language they do not understand. If a child agrees to sign the paper, often times after torture, he is released with a criminal record, a stigma he or she will carry when applying for a travel permit from Israeli authorities to leave their village or seeking future higher educational or job opportunities inside Israel proper. If a child insists on his innocence and refuses to sign a “confession,” he is held in prison, without representation, until a court date is set, often times many years later.

Israel calls this policy suppression of resistance.

Palestinians call this a calculated and callous attempt to breach the familial bond of security and trust between child and parent. Israel’s policy is meant to dispel the idea that a parent can protect his or her child and that a home is sacred and safe, and that a child can safely sleep in his bed a night without fear of arrest.

Currently, there are 440 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons, a dramatic increase from 171 in February 2016. 75% are subjected to some form of physical violence. 60 children have been placed in solitary confinement for an average of 13 days.

This is no way to treat a child.

WE REFUSE TO DIE IN SILENCE

 

Nabi Saleh, a village of 600 residents some 20 miles northwest of Ramallah in the West Bank, has seen its surrounding farm land burned and its trees uprooted to accommodate an encroaching Israeli settlement. While some of the houses in Nabi Saleh are in Area B (an area of the West Bank partially under Palestinian control), 97% of their land has been labeled Area C (an area completely controlled by and recently designated as such by the Israeli government). 

The Tamimi family, whose house is in Area C and is under demolition orders, has lived in this village for over 400 years. According to Bassim Tamimi, our host on a recent visit and a member of the villages’ Popular Committee, “My grandfather was a Christian and my great grandfather was a Jew. We don’t perceive Jews as our enemy but rather the Israeli military which protects the Israeli settlers.”

The Israeli settlement of Neveh Tzuf was established on land belonging to Nabi Saleh in 1976. In the ensuring years the villagers began holding demonstrations opposing the stealing of their land. They took their case to Israel’s Supreme Court but were unable to stop the construction of the illegal settlement. Since 1976, Neveh Tzuf has not only continued to expand and steal more and more land, but it has also seized control of the fresh water springs all of which were located on private Palestinian land.

As a result of this water theft, the residents of Nabi Saheh must now buy water from Mekorot, the same Israeli company that allowed the settlers to steal this resource. Currently, every house in Nabi Saleh receives seven hours of water every Sunday afternoon. This is the extent of their weekly water supply.  

The residents of Nabi Saleh have been practicing creative resistance against the Israeli military occupation since 2005. “We refuse to die in silence,” said Bassim. “Our duty is to resist. We’ve studied Gandhi and Martin Luther King.  By our nonviolent actions, we want to act as an example to others.”

The Israeli military brutally represses the weekly nonviolent demonstrations in which internationals and Israelis participate by shooting rubber bullets and tear gas canisters into the crowd. They often times shoot live ammunition at the protester’s thighs to sever nerves. Two villagers have been paralyzed as a result, 50 are permanently disabled, 350 have been wounded and two have been killed. Over 80% of the men and 10% of the women have gone to prison. Bassim has been arrested and imprisoned nine times for protesting the confiscation of his land. His wife spent four years in an Israeli prison for organizing “illegal demonstrations” and causing “incitement.”

Initially, each Friday at protest time, Bassim and the others would gather all the children in one house to “protect them” while the adults carried out their protests. When Israeli soldiers began purposely lobbing tear canisters into the house and firing sound bombs on the children, the adults ultimately decided, on the advice of a psychologist, that it was better to take the children with them so they would lean how to defend themselves. Prior to each Friday demonstration, the villagers say their goodbye’s to one another just in case one or more of them don’t make it safely back home.

According to Bassim, the media used to be controlled by Israel but now thanks to social media he and others are able to share their message and their struggle with the world. The children have also become experts in social media. One ten year old “journalist” by the name of Janna Jihad has over 35,000 Facebook friends.  https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/738023053005871/

 The residents of Nabi Saleh are articulate, well educated people and ask their friends around the world to stand with them as they continue to practice nonviolent resistance against some of the world’s most egregious human rights violations, now in its 50th year.

THE TEL AVIV ATTACK

While I strongly condemn any violence, any loss of innocent life, the recent attack on a Tel Aviv open air market was, unfortunately, predictable. I say this with regret and deep sadness. I have just returned from two weeks in Israel and the West Bank where I have seen the immediate and systemic causes of such attacks. On the systemic level, this week Palestinians entered the 50th year of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza. This means that generations of Palestinians have lived under brutal and discriminatory Israeli military rule, constantly facing threats of imprisonment, land confiscation, home demolitions, and forced to live under a system of movement restrictions in which Palestinians must obtain Israeli permission to travel. This systemic violence cannot simply be ignored.

As to the more immediate causes, since September alone, Israeli forces have killed nearly 200 Palestinians, including a number that were summarily executed, and have refused to turn over many of the bodies in an attempt to control even Palestinian mourning. Since January, Israel has also destroyed or confiscated more than 600 Palestinians homes and other structures in the occupied West Bank. Israel continues to destroy Palestinian homes with complete disregard for international law, basic humanity, and the demands of the international community.  

This type of state violence only breeds further violence. As noted by Tel-Aviv mayor, Ron Huldai after Wednesday’s attack: ‘We might be the only country in the world where another nation is under occupation without civil rights…You can’t hold people in a situation of occupation and hope they’ll reach the conclusion that everything is alright.’”

If Israel’s oppressive military rule and apartheid regime are not brought to an end swiftly, and if Israel’s systematic violations of Palestinian rights continue to go unaddressed, we can expect to see more of this type violence. The sad reality is that violence goes on everyday here for the Palestinians. Even sadder, the world has become desensitized to the violence experienced by Palestinians on a daily basis. Earlier this week, 20-year-old Jamal Muhammad Dweikat died after Israeli soldiers shot him in the head with live fire as he was protesting illegal settlers entering his city in the occupied West Bank. This is life in Palestine and it goes unnoticed by the international community.

As a result of the Tel Aviv attack, Israel plans to impose collective punishment and take further repressive measures against Palestinians. This, despite warnings from even its closest ally, the US, against engaging in collective punishment, with a State Department spokesman stating on Thursday that Israel needs to ‘take into consideration the impact on Palestinian citizens that are trying to go about their daily lives.’

Israel has cancelled permits for more than 80,000 Palestinians in the occupied territories to travel to Israel to visit family and to visit occupied East Jerusalem and its holy sites for this month of Ramadan, denying them the right to worship freely. This will likely further increase tensions around the Noble Sanctuary mosque complex, known as the Temple Mount to Jews, which has been the focus of mounting provocations by Messianic Jews, including members of Netanyahu’s government, for many months and was one of the immediate causes of the outbreak of violence last fall.

Israel has also announced it is deploying two more battalions of soldiers in the occupied territories resulting in another major crackdown in the West Bank, including curfews, mass arrests, the indefinite imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial, and additional restrictions on movement.

As was the case in the past, these actions will only lead to an increase in violence. Israeli leaders have yet to understand, or worse, they don’t really care, that further repression has a boomerang effect and that only an end to the denial of freedom and repression and a restoration of the most basic human rights will bring about peace and security for all.

WATER WARS

 

The issue of water or the lack thereof is an urgent one for many countries in the Middle East. Water-fueled conflicts paint a dark picture of a future without adequate freshwater supplies.

Israel’s voracious consumption and lack of environmental responsibility has turned its water problem into a crisis. To continue its settlement expansion, Israel needs new sources of water, by any means necessary.

For decades, Israel has seen permanent occupation of South Lebanon and continued access to Lebanon’s Litani River as the answer to some of its water problems.

The 170-kilometer-long Litani River, with its 2, 290 square kilometer basin, is located entirely within the borders of Lebanon. The river’s proximity to Israel, a scant four kilometers, makes it very tempting for Israel to exploit.

I document in Tragedy in South Lebanon that in a 1920 letter to Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Chaim Weizmann then head of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) argued that Lebanon was “well watered” and that the river was “valueless to the territory north of Israel’s proposed frontiers. It can be used more beneficially in the country further south.” Weizmann concluded that the WZO considered the Litani valley “for a distance of twenty-five miles above the bend of the river essential to the future of the Jewish national home.” The British and French mandate powers disregarded this recommendation and retained the Litani basin entirely in Lebanon.

Historically, any analysis of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has focused on religious differences. This is a shallow veneer covering a deeper conflict for a more basic resource. In the June 1967 war, the water issue was among major Israeli concerns in launching a preemptive attack. With careful pre-war planning, Israeli tanks and troops stationed across the proposed war route effectively completed Israel’s encirclement of the headwaters of the Upper Jordan which included the West Bank. Its seizure of Syria’s Golan Heights assured Israeli protection for the Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee) pumping works while the take-over of Gaza also gave Israel plentiful water supplies. These territories have proven very problematic for Israel but the precious water it afforded them has far outweighed the diplomatic cost of its nearly fifty years of occupation.

The water sources captured in 1967 were estimated to last Israel only into the 1980s. Israel hoped to meet its additional water needs when it invaded South Lebanon in 1978, in 1982 and 2006. Their official excuse was to create a “security zone” to better protect its northern border.

A growing water crisis has helped spark wars in Syria and Yemen. As far back as 2009 Yemen officials were warning U.S. officials that their country was slipping into chaos as a result of water scarcity. Less than two years later, rural tribesmen fought their way into Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and seized two buildings: the headquarters of the ruling General People’s Congress and the main office of the water utility. The president was forced to resign and a new government was formed but water issues continued to amplify long-simmering tensions which eventually led to a full-fledged civil war.

It was Muammar Gaddafi’s dream to provide fresh water for all Libyans and to make Libya self-sufficient in food production. In 1953 his search for new oil fields in the deserts of southern Libya led to the discovery of not just significant oil reserves but also of vast quantities of fresh water trapped in the underlying strata. Of the four ancient water aquifers that were discovered each had estimated capacities ranging from 4,800 to 20,000 cubic kilometers. Most of this water was collected around 14,000 years ago though some pockets are believed to be only 7,000 years old.

In July 2011, NATO not only bombed the Great Man-Made River water supply pipeline near Brega, but also destroyed the factory that produced the pipes to repair it, claiming that it was used as a “military storage facility” and that “rockets were launched from there.”

Fresh clean water is essential to all life forms. Without it we simply cannot function. Currently 40% of the world’s population has little to no access to clean water and that figure is actually expected to jump to 50% by 2025. There is little doubt then that the wars of the 21st Century will be fought over water.

 

THIS IS NO WAY TO TREAT A CHILD

 

Palestinian children are exempt from no Israeli laws. Like adults, they face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment under an Israeli military detention system that denies them basic rights.

As told in Israeli and Palestinian Voices: A Dialogue with both Sides, military law has applied to Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967, when Israel occupied the territory following the Six Day War. On the other hand, Jewish settlers, who reside within the bounds of the West Bank, in violation of international law, are subject to Israeli civilian legal framework.

Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children in military courts each year. Since 2012, Israel has held an average of 204 Palestinian children, their ages ranging from 11 to 17, in custody each month. Three-quarters of them endured some form of physical violence following their arrest. In 97% of the, children had no parent present during the interrogation or access to any legal counsel. Interrogators used position abuse, threats and isolation to coerce confessions from some of these children. Sixty-six of these children were held in solitary confinement for an average of 13 days. More than 90% of children held in solitary confinement provided a confession. Children most commonly face the charge of throwing stones which carries maximum sentences of 10 or 20 years, depending on the circumstances.

In 179 out of 429 cases the Israeli military arrested children from their homes in the middle of the night.

Recently, around 3:00 a.m. Israeli forces stormed a home in the West Bank. A boy, age 17, woke to find 10 masked soldiers in his room. He was grabbed from his bed, slapped, and pushed against the wall. Another soldier physically assaulted the father while the others ransacked the house. The boy was then forced into a military jeep and transported to a nearby military camp. His parents will not see him, or be informed of his whereabouts, until he appears before a military tribunal, time and place to be determined.

In some cases, Israeli authorities transfer Palestinian child detainees from the West Bank to prisons inside Israel in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. While awaiting trial, these children have little or no family visits because the vast majority of people living in the West Bank are unable to obtain entry permits to enter Israel proper.

Israel ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, obligating itself to implement the full range of rights and protections included in the convention.

According to Khaled Quman, General Director of Defense for Children Palestine: “The widespread ill-treatment of Palestinian children and the systematic denial of their due process rights by Israeli forces and the military law framework further the control aspects of Israel’s prolonged military occupation of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories.

“Recent amendments to Israeli military law have had little to no impact on the treatment of children during the first 24 to 48 hours after an arrest when most of the abuse occurs at the hands of the Israeli soldiers, police and the security service.

“In no circumstances should children face detention and prosecution under the jurisdiction of military courts. As a minimum safeguard, however, Israeli authorities have an obligation to ensure all procedures from the moment of arrest conform to international juvenile justice standards.

“International law is clear: Children should only be detained as a last resort, for the shortest appropriate period of time, and under absolutely no circumstances should they be subjected to torture or ill-treatment.

“Why then, year after year, do we see Palestinian children experiencing widespread, systematic, and institutionalized ill-treatment and torture at the hands of Israeli forces?”

This is no way to treat a child.

 

THE FORGOTTEN GAZA STRIP

THE HISTORY OF GAZA SPANS 4000 YEARS. IT WAS A CARAVAN HUB OF STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE LINKING SOUTH EAST ASIA TO EUROPE. PEPPER, CINNAMON, NUTMEG, CLOVES ARE BUT A FEW OF THE SPICES AND GOODS THAT FOR CENTURIES PASSED THROUGH GAZA AND MOVED THE WORLD ECONOMY.

GAZA HAS ALSO WEATHERED THE REGION’S MAJOR EMPIRES-THE EGYPTIANS, PERSIANS, GREEKS, ROMANS, BYZANTINES, ARABS AND OTTOMANS

THE FOUNDING OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL IN 1948 CHANGED THE MAP DRAMATICALLY. THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SEVERED GAZA FROM THE REST OF HISTORIC PALESTINE, LEAVING ONLY A SMALL ENCLAVE SOME 25 MILES LONG AND 3 TO 5 MILES WIDE. IN 1948 OVER 700,000 PALESTINIANS WERE FORCED TO FLEE THEIR TOWNS AND VILLAGES. THOSE IN NEIGHBORING TOWNS AND VILLAGES TOOK REFUGE IN GAZA.

GAZA FELL UNDER EGYPTIAN ADMINISTRATIVE RULE UNTIL 1967 WHEN DURING THE JUNE ’67 ARAB ISRAELI WAR ISRAEL OCCUPIED GAZA AND CUT IT OFF FROM EGYPT. IT WAS AT THAT TIME THAT ISRAEL ALSO OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM, THE WEST BANK AND SYRIA’S GOLAN HEIGHTS. 

UNTIL THE OCCUPATION IN ’67 THE GAZAN ECONOMY WAS PRIMARILY AGRICULTURE AND FISHING BASED. AFTER THEIR LANDS WERE CONFISCATED IN 1967 TO BUILD ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS AND THEIR ORCHARDS UPROOTED, PALESTINIANS WERE OBLIGED TO BECOME DAY LABORERS INSIDE ISRAEL.

IN 2000 THEN PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON CLOSED THE BORDER BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA. OVERNIGHT 100,000 MEN LOST THEIR DAY JOBS IN ISRAEL. ONCE THE MOST SKILLED LABOR FORCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, THESE MEN WERE REDUCED TO AID-DEPENDENT CONSUMERS WITH A PRODUCTION SECTOR AT ALMOST ZERO.

IN 2005 ARIEL SHARON CARRIED OUT WHAT HE CALLED A “UNILATERAL DISENGAGEMENT” FROM THE GAZA STRIP, PULLING SOME 7000 ISRAELI SETTLERS WHO HAD OCCUPIED GAZA FOR 38 YEARS AND PLACING THEM IN SETTLEMENTS IN THE WEST BANK.  

THESE SETTLERS COMPRISED ½ OF 1% OF THE POPULATION IN GAZA YET THEY OCCUPIED 20% OF THE LAND WHILE AN ADDITIONAL 10% WAS KEPT UNDER ISRAELI MILITARY CONTROL.

AFTER THE SETTLERS WITHDREW THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY MADE PLANS TO REVITALIZE GAZA’S ECONOMY. HOWEVER, IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH THIS THEY NEEDED ISRAEL’S COOPERATION.  INSTEAD, ISRAEL SURROUNDED GAZA WITH CONCRETE WALLS AND HIGH FENCES AND STRICTLY CONTROLLED ALL ACCESS IN AND OUT OF THE STRIP, INCLUDING THE RAFAH CROSSING BETWEEN GAZA AND EGYPT FOR BOTH PEOPLE AND GOODS.

IN 2006 HAMAS WON DEMOCRATICALLY HELD ELECTIONS WHICH WERE MONITORED BY PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER. ISRAEL AND THE US EXPECTED ABBAS’S FATAH PARTY TO WIN. AS I MENTION IN Israeli and Palestinian Voices: A Dialogue with Both Sides, THE PALESTINIANS IN BOTH THE WEST BANK AND GAZA, FED UP WITH THE CORRUPTION WITHIN THE FATAH RANKS, VOTED HAMAS INTO POWER. THEY WON 76 OUT OF THE 132 SEATS IN THE PALESTINIAN PARLIAMENT. THE FIRST THING HAMAS DID WHEN IT WON ELECTIONS WAS TO PROPOSAL A LONG-TERM TRUCE WITH ISRAEL. IT HAS SINCE AGREED TO ACCEPT A PEACE TREATY BASED ON THE ’67 BORDERS WHICH IS AN IMPLICIT RECOGNITION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL, A CONSTANT DEMAND BOTH OF ISRAEL AND THE US GOVERNMENT. THE TRUCE OFFER WAS IGNORED BY BOTH ISRAEL AND THE US GOVERNMENT. INSTEAD REPRISALS FOR VOTING THE WRONG WAY  QUICKLY FOLLOWED BOTH FROM THE US GOVERNMENT IN THE FORM OF SANCTIONS AND FROM ISRAEL WHICH CUT OFF THE GAZA STRIP FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD, CREATING AN OPEN AIR PRISON WITH SOME 1.7 MILLION INMATES, 55% OF WHOM ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 18.

THE GAZA STRIP COULD HAVE BECOME A PROSPEROUS MEDITERRANEAN REGION WITH ITS RICH AGRICULTURE AND A FLOURISHING FISHING INDUSTRY, A HIGHLY EDUCATED POPULATION, MARVELOUS BEACHES AND GOOD FINANCIAL PROSPECTS DUE TO THE RECENT DISCOVERY OF EXTENSIVE NATURAL GAS SUPPLIES FOUND WITHIN ITS TERRITORIAL WATERS. BY COINCIDENCE OR NOT, THIS WAS PRECISELY WHEN ISRAEL INTENSIFIED IS NAVAL BLOCKADE ALONG GAZA’S COASTLINE.

INSTEAD GAZA HAS BEEN SUBJECTED TO NUMEROUS ISRAELI ASSAULTS NOT LEAST OF WHICH WAS THE 2014 51-DAY POUNDING OF GAZA RESULTING IN 2,217 DEAD, 11,000 WOUNDED AND 111,000 HOMES DAMAGED OR DESTROYED, THE VAST MAJORITY OF WHICH HAVE YET TO BE REBUILT BECAUSE ISRAEL STRICTLY RATIONS THE BUILDING MATERIALS IT ALLOWS INTO GAZA.

ONCE A FERTILE, PRODUCTIVE AND SUSTAINABLE TERRITORY, THE GAZA OF 2016 HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED INTO A RADICALLY IMPOVERISHED POLITICAL POWER KEG WERE AID DEPENDENCE WENT FROM 10% IN 2000 TO 80% WITH NO AUTONOMY AND ON THE BRINK OF ECOLOGICAL DISASTER THROUGH A COMBINATION OF ISRAELI ASSAULTS AND ECONOMIC DESTABILIZATION.

BERNIE SANDERS HAS NOT FORGOTTEN GAZA AND ITS PEOPLE. “PEACE,” HE SAID, “WILL ALSO MEAN ENDING THE ECONOMIC BLOCKAGE OF GAZA AND BESTOWING ON ALL PALESTINIANS THEIR BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS.”

THE SPEECH BERNIE WAS NOT ALLOWED TO GIVE

 

All presidential candidates were invited to address this year’s AIPAC convention in Washington, D.C. Because of a previously scheduled event, Bernie Sanders offered to send a pre-recorded message to be played at the pro-Israel lobby’s annual policy conference. In years past, this had been a courtesy offered to invited guests unable to attend, but not this year. Sander’s offer to have his speech telecast to AIPAC was denied.

Instead, Bernie Sanders gave the speech he would have given to AIPAC to an audience in Salt Lake City, Utah. While the speeches in Washington featured comparisons between the boycott movement (BDS) and anti-Semitism, with claims that the Palestinians were part of a “culture of death,” and promises to shield Israel from U.N. intervention and vows to cut off federal funding to universities that boycott the Israeli occupation, Bernie took a different approach.

“Let me begin that I have a deep connection to Israel and I am fairly certain I am the only U.S. presidential candidate to have ever lived on a kibbutz for a while. Israel is one of America’s closest allies, and we as a nation, are committed not just to guaranteeing its survival but also to its people’s right to live in peace and security.”

Clinton and Cruz have also expressed die-hard support for Israel. Clinton went so far as to write an open letter in November promising to reaffirm the U.S. “unbreakable bond with Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu.”

But Bernie had something else to say. “As friends” he said, “we are obligated to speak the truth as we see it. This is what real friendship demands, especially in difficult times.  Our disagreements will come and go and we must weather them constructively.

“If elected president I will work tirelessly to advance the cause of peace as a partner and as a friend to Israel. But to be successful, we have to be a friend not only to Israel but to the Palestinian people, where in Gaza they suffer from an unemployment rate of 44%, the highest in the world, and a poverty rate nearly equal to that. There is too much suffering in Gaza to be ignored.”

This is a departure from previous Sanders remarks. When called out by peace activists during Israel’s summer 2014 war in Gaza in which Israeli military killed approximately 2,200, he shouted down the activists. Sander’s promise to level the playing field on Israel/Palestine is seen as a victory for the Palestinian human rights movement.

As I write in Israeli and Palestinian Voices: A Dialogue with Both Sides, Israel has illegally occupied Palestinian territories in East Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1967. It occupies Gaza, on which it has imposed a blockade for almost fifteen years, controlling everything that enters the densely populated strip. Since 1967, Israel has illegally colonized more and more Palestinian land with settlements. Today there are more than 600,000 Israelis living in the occupied territories.

“Peace will mean ending what amounts to the occupation of Palestinian territory,” said Sanders, ‘establishing mutually agreed upon borders, and pulling back settlements in the West Bank. Peace will also mean ending the economic blockade of Gaza.

“These are difficult subjects. They are hard to talk about both for many Americans, and for Israelis. I recognize that,” he said, “but it is clear to me that the path to peace will require tapping into our shared humanity to make hard but just decisions.”

Sander’s speech was mentioned in only a handful of outlets. Unlike the addresses by Clinton and Trump, no major broadcast outlet carried it live.

“It is my firm belief,” he said, “that the test of a great nation, with the most powerful military on earth, is not how many wars we engage in but how we can use our strength to resolve international conflicts in a peaceful way.”