[GushShalom] Amidst the revenge cycle an Israeli anti-Wall statement
Gush Shalom
info at gush-shalom.org
Thu Jan 29 16:14:51 IST 2004
GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/
International release
# The blood cycle rolls again
# We also want to be represented in The Hague
# Only by Force? - Gush Shalom weekly ad in Haaretz
***
# The blood cycle rolls again
Again - as on so many terrible occasions - the cycle of bloodshed is set
rolling precisely when new peace initiatives are in the offing.
Yesterday, Israel's armed forces launched a massive invasion of the city
of Gaza, in order - so the generals declared - to defend the settlement
enclave of Netzarim (an absurd enclave which Sharon himself reportedly
took the decision to evacuate). Nine Palestinians were killed in the
raid, including an eleven year old child.*
This morning - another madness - a Palestinian suicide bomber blew
himself up inside a Jerusalem bus, killing ten random Israelis and
wounding many others. This afternoon Sharon's cabinet is due to meet and -
of course - to decide on another punitive action...
Meanwhile, the far-reaching peace initiative, mooted by the Saudi Crown
Prince in preparation for the March Arab summit seems swept off the
agenda, and the latest efforts to revive the literally dead-locked Road
Map for Peace are set at naught.
For Sharon the terrorist attack comes as "additional justification" of
his Wall. We beg to differ: the Wall is part of the provocative
government poilicies.
*See Ha'aretz Editorial "Indiscriminate Killing":
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/388246.html
***
# We also want to be represented in The Hague
òáøéú ìôé á÷ùä àå á÷øåá áàúø
Defending The Wall At The International Court Of Justice:
Not In Our Name!
This week Gush Shalom and 12 other Israeli peace & human rights
organizations sent a request to the Israeli government to represent at
the International Court of Justice in The Hague also our view on the
wall. And the request was made public in a press release to the Israeli
press.
Because only governments are entitled to submit materials to the Court,
we asked the Israeli government to submit a letter in our name. We
pointed out that there are diverse voices in Israel on the matter, and
that many, if not most, Israelis (including the Minister of Justice in
Sharon’s government) oppose the building of the Wall deep inside
Palestinian territory, which is indefensible on “security” grounds. Even
if Israel claims “military necessity” in constructing the “Separation
Barrier,” it is enjoined by the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure the
well-being of the civilian population under its control which is clearly
not the case here, where hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians will
be displaced, enclosed in locked enclaves and financially ruined (let
alone the political implications of the Wall).
Here follows the full text of what we sent:
1) Letter to the government
2) Appendix (Statement for the court in The Hague)
3) Translation of the press release to the Israeli press
1) Letter to the government
January 25, 2004
To:
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom
DEFENDING THE WALL AT THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
NOT IN OUR NAME!
Towards the end of February the International Court of Justice in The
Hague will begin its proceedings on the issue of the “"Separation Wall”
that your government is constructing in the depths of the Palestinian
areas of West Bank at an accelerated pace. According to the Israeli
media, you intend to defend your policies on the grounds that the Wall is
a security matter intended to prevent terrorist attacks. It seems
appropriate, in the spirit of democratic rules, that you also inform the
Court that in their arguments your representatives do not speak for the
entire Israeli public. In your building of the Wall especially to the
degree that it constitutes a political “fact”" rather than a true
security barrier and in your defiance of international law and
international public opinion, your government and its lawyers do not
speak in our name.
We, the undersigned, citizens of Israel to whom the Wall is supposed to
give security, reject your claims completely. If you sincerely sought to
prevent the entry of suicide bombers to Israel, you could have erected
the Wall along the Green Line, the recognized de facto border of the
State of Israel, as the most prominent of your generals urged and at a
greatly reduced cost. The Wall you are constructing robs land and
livelihood from hundreds of thousands of Palestinians but also
eliminates crucial resources from your own increasing impoverished and
desperate society.
If your government sincerely desired an end to terrorism and security for
our people, it would have actively engaged in a political process and
refrained from a unilateral act of constructing a Wall that only
perpetuates the Occupation and the conflict. In this way you would have
dried up the swamp of misery, hatred and repression that motivates the
attacks and endangers our lives. This may have saved us from even the
perception that we needed such a Wall.
There is no conclusion other than your true objective in constructing the
Wall along its present intrusive and indefensible route are motivated by
political aims rather than genuine security concerns. The aim is to grab
more and more Palestinian land, to annex large settlement blocs and in
the end to foreclose the possibility of a viable Palestinian state. We
refuse to be part of any of these endeavors, which we utterly oppose.
Your representatives before the International Court of Justice do not
speak in our names or in the names of millions of Israelis who yearn for
an end to the conflict. We demand that you convey the attached letter
expressing our opposition to the Wall as a grave violation of Palestinian
human rights, of international humanitarian law and of the desire of both
our peoples for a just and lasting peace.
We await your reply.
The Alternative Information Center
(A joint Israeli-Palestinian organization)
Bat Shalom
The Coalition of Women for a Just Peace
The Fifth Mother
Gush Shalom
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
MachsomWatch
New Profile
Noga
Rabbis for Human Rights
Tandi
Women in Black
Yesh Gvul
2) Appendix (Statement for the court in The Hague)
Statement by Israeli Peace and Human Rights Organizations
On The Construction Of The Wall In Occupied Palestinian Territory
We, the undersigned Israeli peace and human rights organizations, wish to
make our views known to the International Court of Justice concerning the
Wall currently under construction by the Israeli government in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory.
As Israeli citizens, we are troubled that the position of the Israeli
government regarding this Wall does not reflect our views, nor does it
necessarily reflect the views of the Israeli public. We represent a
significant segment of the population in Israel who object to
construction of this Wall, and we call upon the Court to demand that it
be dismantled, for the reasons that follow.
The construction and location of the Wall are in grave breach of
international humanitarian law as articulated inter alia by the Fourth
Geneva Convention. The Wall is actually a complex system of walls and
electronic fences that surround and isolate tens of thousands of
Palestinians who are innocent of all wrongdoing. While Israel clearly
has the responsibility to defend its citizens against terrorist and other
attacks, we hold that the Wall although presented to the public as a
security measure in actuality constitutes a political border that
defines the Bantustan-like state that Israel is planning for the
Palestinians in the West Bank. This is evident from the route of the
Wall which, by surrounding Areas A and B, creates “cantons” (as Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon has referred to them) in which the Palestinians
will be confined. Indeed, the Wall reaches deep into Palestinian
territory in order to encompass “settlement blocs,” thus extending the
Israeli civilian and military presence far inside Palestinian territory.
This route clearly reveals that the Wall is designed to serve political,
not security, objectives. It will unilaterally define a boundary that
ensures Israeli control of the entire region between the Mediterranean
and the Jordan River.
Israel argues “military necessity” in its defense of the Wall.
International humanitarian law, however, mandates proportionality between
military necessity and the well-being of the civilian population under
occupation. The Fourth Geneva Convention obligates the occupying power
to respect and ensure the fundamental rights of the civilian population
to personal security, dignity, a livelihood, freedom of movement, and
access to property, education and medical care all irreparably harmed by
the route and scale of the Wall, as well as the constraints on movement
that it entails. Despite the serious repercussions of its construction,
no study was undertaken by the Israeli government to survey the impact of
the Wall on the civilian Palestinian population.
In addition, the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an Occupying Power
from making its occupation permanent. The erection of a $2-3 billion
system of massive barriers, walls, electronic fences, security roads,
roadblocks, checkpoints, and military installations constitutes such
permanent presence, especially when taking into account the dramatic
alteration in land use, demography, induced population transfer, and
other irreversible changes in Palestinian life emanating from the
presence of the Wall.
We the undersigned have approached the Israeli Minister of Foreign
Affairs with our request to include this statement in the materials
presented to the Court. It is our contention, based upon
incontrovertible evidence, that the Wall in its present route constitutes
a severe violation of fundamental human rights, serves political rather
than security ends, and throws up a major obstacle to a just and
sustainable peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
We say to the Israeli government and to the Court as one: Not in our
name. Justice requires not only condemnation of the Wall, but its
immediate dismantling.
For a Just Peace,
[the signed organizations]
3) Translation of the press release to the Israeli press
PRESS RELEASE - January 27, 2004
ISRAELI PEACE ORGANIZATIONS TO PRIME MINISTER SHARON:
NOT IN OUR NAME! DO NOT JUSTIFY THE WALL AT THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF
JUSTICE
The “Separation Wall”" violates international law which holds Occupying
Powers responsible for the well being of the civilian population living
under their control.
The Israeli peace and human rights organizations demand that the
Government include their opposition to the Wall in Israel’s brief to
the International Court in The Hague . We declare to both the Israeli
Government and the Court: “Not In Our Name” will you justify the Wall in
its present route that creates political facts on the ground whose
implications are a permanent occupation, repression of the Palestinians’
basic human rights and the perpetuation of the conflict.
Yesterday, January 26, a dozen Israeli peace and human rights
organizations presented a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and
Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom stating that the Separation Wall
constitutes a brutal violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention that
requires proportionality between the security concerns of an Occupying
Power and the well-being of the civilian population under their control.
The Israeli peace and human rights organizations turned to the Israeli
government with the demand that it include their opposition to the Wall,
based on detailed objections arising from international humanitarian law,
in the materials presented to the International Court of Justice in The
Hague. The letter states: We say to the Israeli government and to the
Court as one: Not in our name. Justice requires not only condemnation
of the Wall, but its immediate dismantling. As Israeli citizens, we are
troubled that the position of the Israeli government regarding this Wall
does not reflect our views, nor does it necessarily reflect the views of
the Israeli public. We represent a significant segment of the population
in Israel who object to construction of this Wall, and we call upon the
Court to demand that it be dismantled
[signed: the 13 organizations]
# Only by Force? - Gush Shalom weekly ad in Haaretz
òáøéú á÷øåá áàúø
ONLY BY FORCE
If the Sharon government had voluntarily released hundreds of prisoners
when it accepted - or pretended to accept - the Road Map, the credit for
the act would have gone to Israel and it would have created a lot of good
will.
When it releases the same prisoners within the framework of a prisoners'
swap, it looks (using the language so often employed by Sharon himself)
like "rewarding terrorism". All the credit is going to Hizballah.
It seems that the Palestinians are right: Sharon indeed understands only
the language of power.
Gush Shalom,
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#
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For participating in ongoing joint Israeli-Palestinian
protest actions against the wall, call:
Jonathan:066-327736 or Franceska:064-494030
#
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