Delegation of Inquiry of the International Committee for Palestinian Human Rights (ICPHR) to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (June 1989)
Members:
-- Dr. Christoph Pan, Professor of Political Sociology at the University
of Innsbruck (Austria)
-- General (rtd) Nino Pasti, Senator, former Deputy Supreme Commander of
NATO for Nuclear Affairs, Rome (Italy)
-- Dr. John Quigley, Professor of International Law at the State University
of Ohio, Columbus (USA)
Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Palestine with Special Focus on Children and Juveniles
CONTENTS
PRELIMINARY
REMARKS
RESULTS
OF THE INVESTIGATION:
I.
The general situation
II.
Oppressive and expulsive strategies
of
the Israeli occupying power
1.
Discrimination in the economic field
2. Discrimination in public health service
3.
Discrimination in the educational field
III.
Children as the victims of the Israeli occupying power
IV. Legal uncertainty and law as a means of oppression
V.
The reaction of the Palestinian people
FINAL
REMARKS
N.B. The numbering of the pages follows the print version of the report (Vienna: I.P.O., 1989, ISBN 3-900704-07-4).
PRELIMINARY REMARKS
Upon the initiative of the INTERNATIONAL PROGRESS ORGANIZATION
(I.P.O) and
of its INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE
They were commissioned to collect facts and
information that would allow them to judge the situation of human rights
particularly as far as children and juveniles are concerned. The above mentioned
group of observers visited especially East Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bir-Zeit and
Ghaza. They were able to talk to more than 60 of the local Arab people, who were
all willing to describe the current situation although giving and getting
information is illegal and severely punished.¹)
1) "Get or give any informations is illegal and causes
troubles" (comment by a lawyer well familiar with the local situation).
9
Among these people were lawyers, doctors,
psychologists, criminologists, teachers, students, pupils, children, parents,
nursery-school teachers, nurses, refugees, released prisoners, members of
voluntary welfare organizations and cooperatives.
In view of the given situation, the
information received by the observers was surprisingly objective and in most
cases seemed reliable. What struck the observers in particular was the fact that
these people, who were independently interviewed either individually or in
groups, never contradicted each other, despite the deviations in precision and
detail according to their respective background and educational standard.
Essentially, the orally given information
proved to correspond with the written material that had been received. Moreover,
the reliability of the collected oral and written informational material could
be verified by numerous personal observations made either directly of
indirectly.
Yet the investigation was made difficult by
the fact that the IPO-delegation mentioned above could not proceed openly
because they had to avoid endangering the personal security of the people
interviewed or exposing them to potential acts of retaliation by the Israeli
occupying power. ²)
For these reasons the following report cannot
give names or information that might help to identify the people interviewed.
2)As is well known, the Israelis are very intent to
deny foreign observers insight into the actual situation in the occupied
territories. The special committee formed by the United Nations in 1968 is still
not allowed to visit Israel, any cooperation with this committee has
consistently been refused by Israel for 21 years!
10
RESULTS
OF THE INVESTIGATION
I.
The general situation
In
general, the reports published by the IPO and the ICPHR on the situation of
human rights in Palestine ³) at the turn of 1987/88 were found to be
correct; there was no indication whatsoever that those reports had been
exaggerated or incorrect.
On
the contrary, it was unanimously noticed that the situation meanwhile, that is
from the turn of 1987/88 till the end of June 1989, particularly since the
middle of April 1989, has significantly worsened and been aggravated.
The
Arab-Palestinian national revolt (Intifada), that has now been going on for two
years, manifests itself in general strikes or strikes carried out according to a
checker pattern. With a few exceptions everyone joins in the strikes. They last
either a whole day, or only a morning or an afternoon. At the time of
investigation there were strikes going on temporarily in East Jerusalem, in
Ramallah, in Bir-Zeit, and in Ghaza. Moreover, there was a boycott of Israeli
products, with which the Arab-Palestinian people tried to cope by growing their
own fruit and vegetables in their home gardens, by intensely utilizing agricul-
3)International Progress Organization: Zur Lage
der Menschenrechte in Palästina, Vienna 1988; especially the topical case
report by Norbert Wimmer and Josef Unterweger (pp. 25-34, printed here
pp. 33 ff. below) as well as the article by Erwin Lanc about the
Palestinian revolt and the procedures by the Israeli occupying power (pp. 15-24).
11
tural ground, by
constructing irrigation plants etc., as well as founding cooperatives for the
production, processing and selling of agricultural products. Protests were also
signalized by inscriptions on walls, which also serve as a means of
communication and information because they don't have their own media, by the
secret hissing of the Palestinian flag (black-white-green-red) an well visible
spots (steeples, circuit and electric lines etc.), by peaceful demonstrations,
by the spreading of the index and middle finger to form a V-sign, especially
done by children. Beside these non-violent manifestations of the Intifada stones
are thrown at Israeli cars and military vehicles, which in view of the superior
strength of the Israeli occupying power conjures up the image of David fighting
with Goliath. That the means are disproportionate in this conflict is obvious.
Major material damage, for example by fire bombs, is hardly ever caused due to
the almost complete control by the Israeli occupying power.
During the frequent strikes the occupied territories struck the observers as a dead place. The streets were deserted, the stores closed. In Ramallah, Bir-Zeit and Ghaza they noticed that the flat roofs of the higher houses are occupied by armed military people, usually placed in sight of each other and connected wireless with the control center, which means that the urban areas of the Palestinians are completely under control. Moreover, mobile military and police patrols permanently search the streets, while at the same time the most important checkpoints and arterial roads are secured by heavily armed police and military squads.
On
June 28, at around 11 a.m., the IPO-delegation was able to witness a military
and police raid in the center of Ramallah. The reason for the raid could not be
recognized. First there was the wailing of the sirens of the emergency cars and
then the explosion of tear bombs; then shots were heard in the immediate
vicinity, a "street-fighter" jumped out from behind the corner of a
house and while running threw a stone backwards towards a military vehicle and,
followed by two or three other Arabs, stormed by the observers in order to bring
himself out of danger behind the street doors further down the road; a bullet
broke the window above the observers and the person behind
12
the window
immediately disappeared. About fifty meters down the road a tear bomb was thrown
by the troops into the entrance of a house, probably the one in which those few
"street-fighters" had just disappeared. The Arab-Palestinian
inhabitants had retired into their houses and stores, remained completely
peaceful and calm and obviously avoided the streets during the raid. Merely a
vendor selling tea on the road and several workers at a road construction site
at some distance from the observers indifferently continued to do their jobs.
On
the afternoon of June 26th the observers saw 6 to 7 Palestinian flags waving on
steeples and electric lines in Bir-Zeit, in Ramallah they discovered two on the
26th and one on the 28th. Those had obviously been made by children
in the form of a dragon painted in the Palestinian colors.
With
the exception of East Jerusalem, the infrastructures, particularly the streets
of the town centers in the occupied territories as well as the public buildings,
are in a strikingly deplorable state. Evidently, no investments have been made
in maintenance or repair for a long time. Street cleaning and garbage disposal
are either neglected or they don't work.
Occasionally
the streets are barricaded by the military, such as for instance a main street
in front of the prison in Ramallah or important connecting roads so that the
people using public roads often have to put up with inconvenient and
time-consuming detours.
What has been said so far refers only to the
general situation in the occupied territories. Things are even more precarious
in the refugee camps. Except for one single side entrance, all entrances
including the main entrance are barricaded by the Israeli occupying power for
controlling reasons. There is no sewage system. Due to the crucial lack of basic
hygienical provision the number of diseases in these camps is said to be
significantly higher than in comparable areas. Other indicators such as
unemployment, incapacitation owing to injuries or invalidity, the number of
family men kept in prison etc. are, according to reliable statements,
significantly higher as well.
13
II.
Oppressive and expulsive strategies
From
the collected informational and observational material the impression could be
gathered that the Israelis, intentionally taking coercive measures, are trying
either to induce the Palestinian people still living in the occupied territories
(about 1.4 million in the West Bank and about 0.8 million in the Ghaza-Strip) to
leave their home country, or to cut off the Palestinian people from their
economic, social and cultural life lines in order to reduce them to the ranks of
a people of helots.
It
is clearly recognizable what this strategy aims at: the expulsion of the
Palestinians or the breaking of their ethnic will to survive, in order to gain
the occupied territories as additional area for Jewish immigrants from all over
the world. Israel wants Palestine, but without Palestinians! 4)
The
various measures taken by the Israeli occupying power serve this goal more or
less openly and have since the middle of April 1989 (the beginning of Itzhak
Shamir's so-called "peace initiative' significantly increased and
intensified.
This
may be illustrated by various examples:
1.
Discrimination in the economic field
In
the Ghaza-Strip fishery has always been an essential source of income. Since the
occupation by Israel in 1967 has been made difficult because the fishermen from
Ghaza are no longer allowed -as they used to be- to fish in Egyptian waters or
to sail in the international neutral zone. This has led to the fact that the
fishing areas along the
4) The Israeli press publicly regrets the fact that
they will hardly be able to win the approx. 50,000 Soviet Jews, who according to
Itzhak Shamir will leave their country within the next three to four years, as
immigrants to Israel.
14
Ghaza coast are
meanwhile no longer profitable or are even empty of fish. Most recently this
already very critical situation has even worsened in that the occupying power
temporarily, for days, weeks or even months, withdraws the fishing right from
the fishermen and then suddenly grants them permission again. These people
living on fishery are without means of support when they are withdrawn the right
to fish. They cannot turn to other lines of business because of the chronic lack
of jobs in the densely populated and economically underdeveloped Ghaza-Strip. In
order to apply for jobs in Israel they are required a special permission, which
for inexplicable reasons is rarely granted if at all. It has already been said
that since the beginning of June 1989 a great number of people from the
Ghaza-Strip who are employed in Israel or in the West Bank have been withdrawn
the permission to leave the Ghaza-Strip so that they are now unemployed. It is
said that this measure is going to be applied to inhabitants of the West Bank as
well.
On
June 27, 1989 observers visited the refugee camp Al-Shaty in Ghaza-City. In
riotous scenes hundreds of obviously angry women handed a petition over to the
IPO-delegation, which was addressed to the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency (UNRWA) and which revealed the fact that there is a famine,
1.
because of unemployment, caused by a new regulation concerning the entry into
Israeli territory, so that more than 300,000 employees are no longer allowed to
enter Israeli territory and are therefore unemployed,
2.
because Israel forbids the import of capital from abroad to all those who
dispose of capital abroad,
3.
because of the long-lasting unemployment due to the lack of fertile soil and
factories,
4.
because most of the more than 15,000 captives in Israeli prisons are family men,
and add to these the great number of injured and disabled people who are unable
to work,
15
5.
because bread (which is not available in sufficient quantity) has been the basic
food of the Palestinian refugees,
6.
because there are no institutions, apart from the UNRWA, supporting the
inhabitants of Ghaza,
7.
because the prices for basic food are constantly rising while the people's
standard of living is declining.
The
observers were told repeatedly and identically that in the Ghaza-Strip and in
the West Bank even the planting of a tree requires, supposedly for public safety
reasons, special permission by the occupation authorities.
Although
the inhabitants of the Arab part of Jerusalem, of the West Bank and of the
Ghaza-Strip are subject to taxation, there seem to be for them- in contrast to
Israel, that is the Jewish inhabitants of Israel- no public support measures to
boost their economic development.
2.
Discrimination in public health service
In
the refugee camps there are no sanitary infrastructures whatsoever, let alone
public health service. In the West Bank there are 1,722 hospital beds available
for approx. 1.4 million inhabitants, in the Ghaza-Strip merely 930 for approx.
0.8 million inhabitants, which for the West Bank makes an indicator of 1.16. To
compare: In Western Europe the corresponding numbers are 7 to 10 hospital beds
per 1000 inhabitants.
The
regional hospital Maqasid in East Jerusalem, which is superior to the peripheral
hospitals because it is more specialized and technologically advanced, is
equipped with only about 200 beds. At the end of June 1989 it held 220
in-patients (200 beds + 20 emergency beds) and was thus filled beyond capacity
by 110%. This overcrowdedness is said to characterize the normal rather than the
exceptional situation.
16
About
40,000 patients ^5) in the occupied territories badly need
physiotherapeutical treatment, but neither in the West Bank nor in the
Ghaza-Strip is physiotherapeutical rehabilitation service available. According
to reliable reports the establishment of a rehabilitation center sponsored by
friendly organizations has recently been forbidden by the occupying power.
Patients
from the Ghaza-Strip who are in need of a more specialized treatment at the
regional hospital Maqasid in East Jerusalem do no longer have access to the
Maqasid hospital because the transit through Israeli territory has been
obstructed for the past few weeks. Many patients in the Ghaza-Strip who are in
need of medical care at Maqasid are now cut off from the hospital.
Although
the Maqasid hospital has a sufficient number of ambulances, recently those have
often been confiscated by the occupying power on the pretext of needing them to
transport prisoners. It is absurd that in urgent cases the hospital management
first has to apply to the occupation authorities for the permission to use them.
Thus precious time and often precious human lives are being lost.
The
regional hospital Maqasid as well as other hospitals in the occupied territories
are technologically dependent on Israel. This technology transfer, however, has
been one-sidedly suspended by the Israelis since the beginning of the Intifada.
Lawyers
and doctors unanimously report that many gunshot wounds are in the head and
chest areas. Strikingly often children are wounded by shots in the back.
3.
Discrimination in the educational field
Since
the beginning of the national revolt in December 1987 (Intifada) the military
authorities have repeatedly closed down all schools during the two school years
of 1987/88 and 1988/89, supposedly for
5) wounded, mutilated, crippled
17
safety reasons, and
thus deprived pupils and teachers of education. The whole school system in the
occupied territories, from preschool and kindergarten up to the universities has
been affected by this lock out.
Of
the 19 months of school teaching from the fall of 1987 through the end of June
1989 (9 and1/2 months of school teaching a year) 13 and 1/2 months were lost
because of the lock out, that is to say during the past two years school was
only taught for about 5 months altogether.
In
the school year of 1987/88 about 30,000 six-year-old children enrolled at
school, but school was only taught for 4 and 1/2 months.
During
the school year of 1988/89 another 30,000 six-year-old were taken an the school
rolls. School lasted only for 3 to 4 months.
These
two classes will practically have to start from scratch.
For
the school year 1989/90 another 30,000 to 40,000 six-year-old children are
expected for first schooling. Together with the two previous classes there will
be about 90,000 to 100,000 children aged 6 to 8 to begin education. By June 29,
1989, however, nobody knew as yet whether school is going to be taken up in the
fall of 1989 or not. 6)
Add
to this the logistic problems such as the obtaining of a sufficient number of
rooms, teachers, teaching aids etc.
This
situation is rendered even more serious if one considers the fact that there is
no way for them to make up for the classes they have lost: neither by means of
additional homework nor by way of postal
6) The Jerusalem Post edition of June 28 1989, said on page 1 that on
June 27 at a summit conference in Madrid the EC had handed over to the Prime
Minister Shamir the request, among others, to reopen the schools in the West
Bank. The Israel News of June 30, 1989, reported on page 1: "In about two
weeks the Palestinian schools in the West Bank area shall be opened again to
take up teaching . . .”
18
tuition and extra
teaching material, nor by privately organized coaching lessons. The parents are
even forbidden to teach their own children at home.
Considerations
of public safety are pretended to justify the school lock out. Yet with the best
of wills and the most impartial of attitudes towards the occupying power it is
hard to acknowledge such arguments. Rather, the lock out of these two classes
and probably others as well, if this is going to be continued, seems to aim at
sentencing them to illiteracy, although their law provides compulsory education
for 12 years.
Add
to this the problems concerning all classes of 1987/88 and 1988/89 of this 12
year compulsory educational system that will never be able to make up for the
classes they lost because of the lock out and that will always suffer from this
handicap. About 400,000 pupils and 20,000 university students a year are
affected by this. This is approximately a fifth of the Palestinian people in the
occupied territories, which indicates the quantitative dimension of this
coercive measure.
Another
of the consequences of this lock out as a military action, which have obviously
been clearly calculated, is the predictable "draining" of the
Palestinian universities in the occupied territories: The senior classes of the
12-year compulsory educational system do not pass the school-leaving
examination, which is a prerequisite to be admitted to the university. The
approx. 20,000 Palestinians studying at the five universities in the occupied
territories do not succeed in graduating etc. Many senior pupils and university
students, tired of desperately waiting and idling about, are deciding to
prematurely break off their aspired education.
Another
aspect of the problem is the situation of the teachers. Their salaries, which
are rather low anyways, have temporarily been reduced because of the lock out to
half, to 40% or 30% or even been completely cut off under the pretext that they
have not been teaching anyways. It remains to be seen for how long the
teaching staff will last in these circumstances.
19
Add
to this a vast number of other coercive measures. Frequently the "popular
schools", where Palestinian teachers, parents or neighbors are secretly
teaching their children, are stormed by the military with tear gas. Apart from
the shock effect on children, the people concerned have to reckon with
detention, the destruction of their houses or the sealing up of rooms or parts
of their dwellings.
When
houses are forcibly pulled down the people living there are often given only one
hour to vacate them, and the plot of land passes to the state; it is forbidden
to rebuild the houses, the families concerned have to be accommodated in
provisional tents provided by the Red Cross. Rooms and parts of homes are sealed
by bricking up windows and doors. They remain sealed for an indefinite period of
time, sometimes for weeks, months, or even years. The mere suspicion of having
taken part in the Intifada in a harmless manner (throwing stones or spreading
the index and middle finger to form the V-sign), secret teaching etc. are
sufficient reason for the occupying power to take such coercive measures. The
resulting long-time shock effect on children must not be underestimated. It has
unanimously been reported that the frequency and intensity of such coercive
measures have considerably increased since the middle of April 1989.
The
aim of this long-time strategy is clearly recognizable: The immobilization of
public education is meant to deprive the coming generation of the educational
premises that are necessary to obtain jobs; this pressure is meant to induce
migration. The Israeli strategy may thus be reduced to the following simplified
formula: no education = no prospect for employment and jobs = no economic basis
of existence = famine or migration abroad?
III.
Children as the victims of the Israeli occupying power
In
the occupied territories children are increasingly often used as a dead pledge
by the Israelis for their oppressive and expulsive strategies against the
Arab-Palestinian people.
20
The
number of children and juveniles under 18 arrested or taken prisoner
varies from 25% to 50%, the lower value describing the situation before 1989,
the higher value reflecting the most recent development. Lawyers and
released prisoners, who dispose of topical information, rather tend to give the
higher value, whereas the welfare organizations, that are more indirectly
informed about the situation by family members and are thus lagging behind for a
few weeks or months, suggest the lower value.
The
number of children and juveniles7)
treated at the Maqasid hospital during the three months from April through June
1989 makes up 47% of all the patients during that time who had been victims of
acts of violence by the Israeli occupying power.8)
A
former prisoner recently released from the Telmond prison in the North of Israel
reports that there are about 500 prisoners, 400 of whom are criminal, 100
political. About half of the 100 political prisoners are young people under 18,
most of them aged between 14 and 16, the youngest being only 12. The prison
has only two sections, one for men and one for women. No differentiation is made
between political and criminal, juvenile and adult prisoners, they are only
separated according to their sex. Brutal torture for all of them without
differentiation is the order of the day.
In
the Ghaza-Strip the number of children and juveniles kept in prison is reckoned
to be a third of the total number of prisoners.
The
American welfare organization "Save the Children" takes care of about
7,000 families whose children have been killed or arrested. 9)
7) under the age of 16
8) among them 13- and 14-year-old; recently an
11-year-old boy was taken to the hospital after having been severely injured by
a shot in the back; he had been playing football with his friends when a patrol
had passed, and as the boy had wanted to catch the ball and run away, he had
been hit by a bullet in the back.
9)The number of political prisoners is now estimated
at 14,000 to 15,000; a few months ago there were said to be only 6,000 to 7,000.
The fact that the number has doubled within the past months confirms the
impression that since April the situation has considerably worsened. As far as
children are concerned, they are often accused of having thrown stones or made
the V-sign.
21
This organization
knows of a number of children and juveniles who were shot by "rubber
bullets" and suffered bone communition. The severeness of injuries and
skeletal fractures caused by this specific kind of munition in the form of
"rubber bullets" is unanimously certified by the doctors.
One
doctor reports to have witnessed the following scene in Ramallah on June 28, at
around 8 p.m.: A bunch of boys were standing in front of an ice-cream stand to
get some ice-cream. A military patrol passed, grabbed two of the boys by their
heads for no apparent reason and hit them brutally against each other.
The
same doctor also reports that recently the number of incidents has increased,
where soldiers for no reason seize one of the playing children, drag him to a
side alley and brutally beat him up, apparently to deliberately cause fractures
of arms and legs. Their screaming can be heard far away and is meant to warn and
shock the others.
In
Ghaza the observers were able to talk to several children who had been beaten up
or wounded by shots. They were children aged 8 to 12, the youngest was 7. In the
fall of 1988 that child, then 6 years old, had been arrested by the military and
beaten up for six hours in order that he may give away the names of his friends
who were said to have made the V- sign. His head was injured and he had to be
hospitalized. Now, 9 months after this horrible incident, this child is still
suffering from trauma.
Lawyers,
doctors and members of welfare organizations verify unanimously that in
arresting, interrogation, and custody no differentiation is made between
children, juveniles, and adults. They are exposed to the same severe procedures,
they are equally beaten up and tortured, the prisons, jailers, the conditions,
food etc. are the same for adults and young people. Children, however, cannot
stand interrogation for a long time.
Thus reports a lawyer of a 16-year-old who had
been beaten up in prison so brutally that the military judge immediately set him
free because of his injuries. The boy had made a Palestinian flag out of rags.
22
The
most frequent ways of torturing are described as follows:
- having to stand for a long time, sometimes
for days, with hands bound and a hood put over one's head, without being able to
relieve oneself and without receiving any food;
- having to remain in a position somewhere in
between sitting and standing, the rest as described above;
- incessant interrogation, for example over a
period of eleven hours; being beaten (very frequently practiced);
- being deprived of the possibility to relieve
oneself, to care of one's body and to make one's toilet, to change clothes
(especially in Jerusalem) over a period of months.
Medical
care in prisons is disastrous. For all physical complaints there is one single
medicament available, that compares in its composition to aspirin.
The
military regulations n. 951 in Ghaza and n. 1235 in the West Bank, both dating
from April 1988 and being identical in contents, define the criminal liability
in general "up to 12 years". This means that children under 12 years
of age are criminally liable, respectively their parents or persons vested with
the right of education. The protective measure that allowed insight into the
significance of the criminal offence and that had until then been provided by
the Jordanian law to protect children under 12 and without which no legal
proceedings had been allowed to be taken, has thus been abandoned. From the day
of his birth any child that may accidentally spread two fingers, may be called
to account.
Since
this new regulation was introduced in April 1988, every local military
commander, if the accuser sustains a suspicion, has been allowed to demand of
the accused children's parents a bail to the maximum amount of 1,500 shekel (=
750 US$) as a guarantee for not repeating the "crime".
Ever
since then, this possibly has not only been frequently made use of, the
frequency of its application also reveals the fact that it is
23
meant to squeeze out
as much from the Arab-Palestinian people as possible.
A
lawyer comments on this from his practice: recently a little girl was suspected
of having thrown stones. Since her mother couldn't or wouldn't give the bail
that is required in such cases, in this case 1,000 IS (= 500 US$), she was
arrested herself.
Another
lawyer reports from his practice: since September 14, 1988, a mother of two
children (11 and 13 years old) has been held in prison, because her children had
been accused of having thrown stones and the mother had refused to give the bail
of 1,000 IS per child, that is 2,000 IS (= 1,000 US$).
Recently
the incidents of administrative detention (without legal proceedings) have
significantly increased as well. The people concerned are first kept in prison
for 6 months and after that their imprisonment may be extended for another 6
months.
This
is one of the most recent of such incidents: For 6 months a 15-year-old boy was
detained in prison because of having thrown stones (administrative detention).
A
member of Al-Haq, an organization in the occupied territories associated with
the International Commission of Jurists, is busy collecting records and
documents about victims, witnesses, deportations, the sealing and destruction of
houses. Al-Haq disposes of a great amount of documentation on the violation of
human rights in the occupied territories and reports that even people who are
caught without a proof of identity have to reckon with one to two years of
imprisonment.
For
interrogations the Arab language is used, whereas Hebrew is spoken when people
are arrested. Children, however, usually don't have as good a command of Hebrew
as adults.
24
fected. The lock out
from public education as a collective punishment is actually a device to
undermine their future. Collective punishment such as the sealing and
destruction of houses ^10),
the use of tear bombs in private homes or in catacomb schools etc. affects
mainly innocent children, who are the actual victims.
Apart
from the fact that the Intifada essentially orients itself by Mahatma Ghandi’s
way of non-violent resistance and actually is non-violent with a few exceptions,
whereas violent and terrorist measures are clearly taken by the Israeli
occupying army, the terrorization of a whole people, especially of children,
calls forth a long-time traumatic effect that may badly affect two generations
of human beings. Therefore the interviewed people of higher educational standard
again and again stress the point that the direct or indirect coercive measures
in the sense of collective punishment are incomparably more serious than the
more than 600 casualties to be mourned so far.
In
particular they emphasize the danger of getting used to this brutality, for,
they say a generation of children is growing up for whom killing is part of
everyday life. It can already be observed that this brutalization has affected
the Israeli society as well, since violence among the younger generation has
significantly increased, particularly among young men and women who are soldiers
of the army engaged in the occupied territories.
IV.
Legal uncertainty and law as a means of Oppression
Among
the circumstances described above the general legal uncertainty among the
Arab-Palestinian people is extremely high and has repeatedly raised the
rhetorical question: What is legal?
The IPO-delegation cannot help thinking that this extreme uncertainty among the people in regard to legal aspects is deliberately caused and used as a means of oppression
.
10) The number of houses meanwhile destroyed amounts
to more than 700!
25
The
situation in the occupied territories is probably better described as one of a total
absence of rights.
The
testimony of one single soldier, for example, is sufficient enough to convict
someone who has been accused or to arrest him (administrative detention), even
if ten people with no police record witness the opposite.11)
A
lawyer reports that during his 11 years of practice he was able to get only two
of his clients released.
Families
are never informed when one of them is arrested. Information is only indirectly
available through the Red Cross. Nor are the lawyers informed of the
appointments, they have to find out themselves in time-consuming manners.
The
prison of Ansar is situated in the desert, a several hours' drive away. The
lawyers are allowed to see only one client a day, only seven a month. About
4,000 captives are kept in the prison of Ansar under severest conditions.
Recently the clients have often been forced to completely undress before the
lawyer's visit, for safety reasons according to the official version. Many of
them, however, feel so humiliated that they would rather do without a legal
adviser.
Almost
every day new military regulations are being issued. In the lawyers' opinion
this is evidently an absurd way of bringing down the law to a means of
oppression.
Independently
of each other yet unanimously the lawyers say that they find themselves in a
terrible dilemma. If someone innocently accused voluntarily confesses the deed,
he usually gets away with 8 months of imprisonment and without being tortured
and beaten. If he does not confess, he will still remain arrested for two years
and have
11) When a soldier who had accused an innocent child of having thrown
stones was called to account by the defender, he Said literally: `If he did not
do it today, he did it yesterday or will do it tomorrow, so it's true; what
difference does it make?'
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to suffer all the
physical and psychic pains connected with the imprisonment. Often the lawyer's
role seems to be reduced to persuading his client to "voluntarily"
confess, and to negotiate the sentence of imprisonment with the public
authorities and the military court.
Whoever
asks about the legal situation in the occupied territories is often given to
understand that he may forget everything, for this is a situation of absolute lawlessness!
This
situation may be illustrated by the following incident, that happened a week ago
and was reported and documented by several doctors. A Palestinian had been
wounded at a demonstration and because of his injuries was suffering from a
severe loss of blood. After an ambulance had picked him up, it was shot at, the
driver received three wounds of entry. The brother of the wounded man, who was
also in the ambulance, pulled the wounded driver aside and drove the ambulance,
despite its tattered tires, to the station, put the two wounded men into another
ambulance and took them to the hospital. Meanwhile his brother had bled to
death, the wounded driver had to be operated an three times within a week.
Another
incident: a suspect was lying in the intensive care unit being ventilated. The
military people came to pick him up and demanded of the doctors to cut him off
the respirator. They refused, however, because he was in acute danger to life.
Thereupon a military doctor was brought. He, too, refused to stop the
ventilation. The military people, who had come at night, waited until 8 o'clock
in the morning, stopped the ventilation and took the dangerously wounded patient
away.
Because
of this situation the Palestinian people in the occupied territories are verging
an desperation. This may be best illustrated by the following comment by one of
them: "The inhumane, beastly treatment of the Palestinians is immense, for
everything is allowed!"
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V.
The reaction of the Palestinian people
The
observers unanimously noticed that in view of the precarious situation all
people interviewed showed remarkable emotional constraint. And this despite the
fact that many of the interviewed people had dreadfully suffered.
This
striking phenomenon may be considered a symptom of the fact that the aspiration
to a life of fulfillment among the Palestinian people has been reduced to the
absolute minimum of mere existence because of numerous inhumane
treatments to which they have now been exposed for 22 years and which have even
increased and intensified during the past two years. To live a peaceful life,
not to be in fear of coercive measures every day is the almost
utopian yet repeatedly uttered wishful thinking of the people in the
occupied territories.
"The
situation is unbearable, no one tells them to stop [referring to the
Israelis]. Rabin said last November: ‘we need to harm them as much as
possible.’"
A
rabbi is said to have made the following comment in an Israeli television
broadcast on June 27: "If in 1947 we solved the Palestinian problem
by exodus of half a million, we simply have to solve it now by the exodus of a
whole million."
"The Germans were reproached by the Jews with having remained silent about the horrible events during the Nazi-regime. Now the Israelis are silent themselves."
"We
have given a lot, the best of all our land. They invite people from all over the
world to take our land. Still we don't want to wipe them out, but we don't want
so succumb either, we will go to the last extreme."
"We
couldn't prevent their coming and what they did, but in the long run they
won't prevail, that's why they push things to the extremes, which hurts them. We
will hold out, even if it will eventually
28
lead to a civil war.
The sooner this will be over, the better, because then there will be less
suffering and damage and, above all, reconciliation, that comes afterwards,
will be possible. But here exactly lies the problem. If this keeps on going
for too long, chances for reconciliation will be small."
"Why
does nobody help us? It isn't necessary to make war to help us. It would
be sufficient for the EC and other nations to no longer accept Israel as a
negotiating partner, because that would hurt them, they don't want to risk
that."
"When
in China human rights are violated for several weeks, the whole world
reacts and responds. In our country human rights have been violated for 22
years, but the rest of the world seems to have got used to it."
"We
no longer want good wishes, we want actions!"
These
are some statements that document the seriousness of the situation.
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FINAL
REMARKS
It
would be a mistake to think that because of the enormous pressure exerted by the
Israeli army of occupation resignation is spreading among the Palestinian people
in the occupied territories.
During
the 22 years of the occupation the Israelis have not been able to win the
Palestinians. Obviously they are unable to change by their own efforts their
inhumane policy of oppression into a policy of humanity and economic, social and
cultural support that is so badly needed by the occupied territories.
Unless
the situation in the occupied territories is meant to further escalate and get
out of control with serious consequences for universal peace, the following
suggestions need to be emphasized:
(1) immediate replacement of the Israeli
occupying power in the Palestinian territories by international (United Nations)
control;
(2) preparations for handing over the occupied
territories to the PLO-state (State of Palestine), that has already been
internationally acknowledged;
(3) international economic boycott of Israel;
(4) immediate start of relief actions for the
Arab-Palestinian people in the occupied territories, essentially by means of
humanitarian support; providing, particularly refugee camps, with food,
medication, teaching material etc. Support of teacher training is badly needed
as well.
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All
these measures are urgently required if one respects the Palestinian people's
inalienable right to self-determination. The denial of this right is the real
cause of the present tragedy. It should be made absolutely clear that Israel has
no right whatsoever to occupy Arab territory. In conformity with the Charter of
the United Nations compulsory measures have therefore to be taken in order to
effect Israel's immediate withdrawal from illegally occupied territory. All
legal and administrative measures taken by Israel as the hostile occupant are null
and void. The only legal authority (which is also internationally
recognized) is that of the State of Palestine (Palestine Liberation
Organization). Governmental power therefore has to be handed over to the PLO in
conformity with the resolutions of the United Nations.
In
order to pursue this goal of reinstating Palestinian-Arab sovereignty over
Palestinian territory and of putting an end to the tragedy of the Palestinian
people and to the denial of its basic human rights, it will be necessary to
effect a reversal of opinion particularly in the United States. It will
therefore be necessary to make the inhumane horrors known, to expose Israel's
illegal practices and to denunciate publicly those who are responsible for the
crimes committed against the Palestinian people. Only this will create the
worldwide awareness and moral concern for the Palestinian cause which may help
to mobilize public opinion particularly in the West in order to put pressure an
the respective governments to work more effectively for the solution to the
problem of Palestine.
Jerusalem,
30 June 1989
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