"Unrecognized"
Palestinians
By Stephen Lendman
11 September, 2007
Countercurrents.org
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 Jewish 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 [email protected].
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.
Leave
A Comment
&
Share Your Insights
Comment
Policy
Digg
it! And spread the word!
Here is a unique chance to help this article to be read by thousands
of people more. You just Digg it, and it will appear in the home page
of Digg.com and thousands more will read it. Digg is nothing but an
vote, the article with most votes will go to the top of the page. So,
as you read just give a digg and help thousands more to read this article.