Israeli President Shimon Peres visited Washington earlier this month, hot on the heels of an announcement that Israeli authorities had approved yet more housing units for Jewish settlers in the West Bank. In a week when the U.S. paused to recall the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, President Peres might have considered King's message -- an end to segregation -- and why such a system of racial inequality remains in place in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Back in 1968, when Dr. King was murdered, the debate about discrimination was live and real. Most governments have long since stopped trying to justify separating people based on race or national origin, whether for ostensible security concerns, like the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, or plain old bigotry, like the Jim Crow laws of the American south.
Yet in the areas of the Occupied Palestinian Territories where Israel has moved almost half a million Jewish "settlers," not only do Israeli laws and policies strictly segregate Jews from Palestinians, they deliberately deprive Palestinians of the most basic needs, in many cases forcing them out of their communities. With little regard for the blatant racial inequality of its policies, the Israeli government provides Jewish settlements with water, electricity, housing, schools, hospitals and roads, while it severely restricts access to these necessities to Palestinian communities under its control. On April 3, a planning committee approved the construction of 942 more settlement housing units in East Jerusalem and Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved construction plans for five other settlements.
Put aside for the moment that these settlements are illegal under the Geneva Conventions because they're on occupied territory. In the 60 percent of the West Bank known as "Area C" and in East Jerusalem, Israel maintains exclusive control over the lives of settlers and Palestinians. In these circumstances, Israel must, under international human rights law, treat the two populations equally. Except with respect to voting rights in Israel, it is prohibited from discriminating against the Palestinians because they, unlike the settlers, lack Israeli citizenship. Even in East Jerusalem, which Israel unilaterally annexed but no other state has recognized, Israel subjects Palestinians to grossly unequal laws and policies -- not just separate, but disturbingly unequal.
Israel justifies its policies on security grounds: it must protect the security of settlers. Israeli authorities indeed have an obligation to safeguard citizens -- all citizens, whatever their ethnicity or religion. But security concerns do not warrant treating every last Palestinian man, woman and child as a threat. And security concerns do not justify systematically separating Palestinians from Jews, with shanties and dirt roads provided for the one, and spacious villas with swimming pools and paved highways provided for the other.
Israel restricts Palestinians' access to their agricultural lands if they're near a settlement and limits how much they can export. It keeps Palestinians from building or expanding their homes and demolishes those built without permission -- 430 structures last year alone. It refuses to grant them access to the water beneath their land, or to the electricity grid, or even permission to install solar panels; it denies them permits to build schools or medical clinics. None of these things are permitted in century-old Palestinian villages that Israel now re-defines as "closed military zones."
Israel's security justifications fall far short of the strict and narrow limits on differential treatment permitted under international law between people of different ethnicities or national origins. A state should never apply such measures categorically against an entire group and must limit them to specific individuals who pose a threat.
In recent polls, 63 percent of Israeli Jews supported continued settlement expansion and 34 percent of American Jews opposed dismantling settlements. Yet how can Israelis, so proud of the democratic values of their state, tolerate a settlement system that has thrived on outdated and discredited discrimination against the people who live alongside them? And why should American Jews, who have a history of deep engagement with the U.S. civil rights movement, support settlements built on these kinds of laws and policies in Israel? A peace accord may come, or not, but meanwhile Israel's separate and unequal treatment of Palestinians and Jews is causing tremendous harm and suffering in the life of every Palestinian living under Israeli control.
One could "tsk tsk" and look away, but the international community's involvement in Israel's discriminatory system makes it hard to shrug off responsibility for the humiliation and abuse this system imposes on Palestinians. When the EU imports tax-free goods from settlement greenhouses, using water and land that Palestinians can't access, and doesn't even let consumers know the source of these goods, it supports the system. When businesses invest in settlement agriculture and construction accomplished by denying basic resources to Palestinians, the businesses help the system flourish. When the U.S. government gives financial aid to Israel, it frees up Israeli funds for settlements; when it grants tax exemptions to charities that finance settlement expansion, it undermines US opposition to discrimination and settlements.
This is why Human Rights Watch, which extensively documented these discriminatory practices in a report, has called on the EU to clearly label settlement-produced goods, on businesses to review their activities in the settlements, and on the US to cut aid to Israel equal to what Israel spends on the settlements and to investigate tax exemptions for settlement charities.
We do no honor to King's legacy by supporting policies that promote racial discrimination and segregation, no matter where in the world they may be. The universal principles of equality under law are ones that all people, Jewish or Palestinian, in the United States or Israel, deserve to enjoy.
..
Sarah Leah Whitson is director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. The report, Separate and Unequal: Israel's Discriminatory Treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, documents the situation in East Jerusalem and the West Bank area under complete Israeli control.
Rep. Barbara Lee: Race Is Still a Factor in America
Israelis are not a race.
This is not rocket science.
If you'd like to criticize Israel, go right ahead. But put the race card back in the deck.
"In the 60 percent of the West Bank known as "Area C"
"For instance: What about the Palestinian children of Area C? (Area C, for those witless innocents who have never heard of it, is not that part of the West Bank controlled by the Palestinian Authority, nor is it Gaza, for which Israel now claims no administrative responsibility other than blockading it. Instead it is that part of Palestine entirely occupied and controlled by Israel since 1967. ) According to a 2009 report by Save The Children U.K. called "Life on the Edge," the rate of malnutrition of the children in Area C is higher even than that in Gaza, and many kids are not only developmentally stunted, but are dying from related illnesses.
Is Israel responsible for this situation? Yes, because it alone controls the Area C Palestinian population's access to food and its ability to earn a viable living. Is there a "Yes But" that could possibly justify the conditions being imposed on these children? Unless the report is lying, I can't think of one. Even the most wild-eyed extremist can hardly claim that children under the age of seven are terrorists."
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/suffering-of-palestinian-children-is-something-both-sides-can-agree-on-1.314309
I posted a UN report that cited the same effects of ghettoisation.
Yet, the apologists, with no apparent roots to history, or understanding of the process of starvation, immediately rushed to minimize and say no one was starving and no one had starved to death.
The pain and suffering that goes on in those ghettos are never spoken about or shown here.
You drive down a US highway, and you see the billboards of cute little Jewish kids, and it states the kids in Israel are starving, you see the same message with cute kids again, in numerous Israeli newspaper ads. We NEVER see anything close to it coming from the Palestinian side, which also gives the American people here, that only the Israeli's are suffering or the victims. You have to admit it is a well crafted system, and it has worked here. The fact that Israel, the wealthier, militarily more powerful, influential, that holds the Palestinians under siege, has been perceived to be the victim, and in constant need of help over here, is truly amazing. No one wonders why, the deaths in the Palestinian side, is always greater, and who really is inflicting the injuries. Stats don't lie.
Keep in mind that Whitson is referring to the the 60 percent of the West Bank known as ‘Area C’ where Israel has complete control - but she fails to tell you that Area C contains only 4% of the Arab population! It's mostly uninhabited desert and mountainous areas. Oh, and In 1967, only 20% of the Arab population on the West Bank had a water system now it's 90% who are connected to Israeli national grid, even Gaza receives most of its water and electricity from Israel, heck the factories that make the missiles fired at Israel are powered by Israeli electricity!
A particularly vicious untruth she perpetrates is that Israel built ‘apartheid roads’ on which Arabs aren't permitted to drive, when in fact that after so many attacks on Jewish civilian drivers the Israel chose to close the off-ramps to certain Arab villages/ Now that things are calm both Israeli Arabs and residents of the territories DO drive on the roads again, she's spreading falsehoods, as there is nothing racist involved, (unless it is racist to shoot at Jews, ya'think?).
"I cannot stand idly by, even though I happen to live in the United States and even though I happen to be an American Negro and not be concerned about what happens to the Jews in Soviet Russia. For what happens to them happens to me and you, and we must be concerned."
"Israel's right to exist as a state in security is uncontestable."
"Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality."
"I solemnly pledge to do my utmost to uphold the fair name of the Jews -- because bigotry in any form is an affront to us all."
"When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism."
"We do no honor to King's legacy by supporting policies that promote racial discrimination and segregation, no matter where in the world they may be. The universal principles of equality under law are ones that all people, Jewish or Palestinian, in the United States or Israel, deserve to enjoy."
Yes. Perfectly said.
Some foreign workers were forced to live in conditions “that constituted involuntary servitude.”
Refugees living in Israel were targeted in violent attacks, including a beating in December of three young daughters of African refugees in Tel Aviv.
In a speech last January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, referring to asylum seekers, “The infiltrators conquered Eilat and Arad, and they are conquering Tel Aviv from north to south.”
The report also notes instances of discrimination against non-Orthodox Jews. “Many Jewish citizens objected to exclusive Orthodox rabbinic control over aspects of their personal lives,” the report states
The unrecognized Bedouin town of al-Arakib was demolished eight times during 2010 in what advocacy groups said was an expropriation of land that historically belonged to the clan that lived there
Accounts of civilians, including three children, who were allegedly used as human shields by Israeli forces.
Israel performed 353 demolitions of buildings in the West Bank, up from 191 in 2009
A report that Israeli security forces had tortured children in detention, according to one NGO. The NGO found 28 children who were beaten and kicked by Israeli forces in the second half of 2010, and three who said that electric shocks had been applied to their bodies.
http://www.forward.com/articles/137014/
You are completely wrong. It is a difference of NATIONALITIES. The Jewish People have re-established their nation. The Arabs have many nations, and have yet to establish the Palestinian one.
Besides, I don't know of any African-American organizations that send suicide bombers into college cafeterias. This isn't a matter of race, it's a matter of security. Just letting strangers walk in without checking them is not a good policy at Madison Square Garden, much less a perpetual warzone like the West Bank.
Now, I agree the settlements are illegal under international law (really, everybody does), but this is not the right way to go about getting rid of them. Good faith negotiations and the carrot will work far better than aggressive lobbying and the stick.
Israel does more than just restrict its services, it restricts Palestinians from access to their own resources, access to their own water and lands - it practices a grotesquely brutal form of colonial oppression which involves incarcerating 10 thousand of them, arbitrary detainment and beatings at their checkpoints, and enforced closure of many villages so that they cannot get in or out except on foot. I think you would be shocked to see just how viciously Israel treats its neighbours.
that mine is the FIRST comment here more than 2 hours after this article was posted, considering the subject matter i find utterly FASCINATING...!!!
the truth shall always win out, in the end...!!!
perhaps your suggestion might work, especially this being the time of passover...one never knows...!!!
thank you for your post...!!! :)))