Destructive US foreign policy harms all By Mazin Qumsiyeh

Opinion Editorials, October 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

Jordan Times, Thursday, October 23, 2003

THE MEDIA are now talking about an informal Geneva peace accord between some Palestinian and Israeli “moderates”. This comes on the heels of failed plans with names like Oslo, Camp David, Taba, Tenet, Mitchel, Zinni, Aqaba, and the roadmap. All these plans have two things in common: they abrogate international law and ignore human rights. Meanwhile, facts on the ground speak for themselves. Those of us who do not rely for their news on CNN, MSNBC and Fox, witnessed the succession of incredible changes this week. First was an Israeli army “operation” into Gaza that added some 1,500 Palestinians to the rank of homeless. Amnesty International called it a war-crime and UN officials dubbed it a violation of international law, while Bush and company said nothing about it. Then came an Israeli order to basically remove Palestinians who live within the apartheid wall snaking through the West Bank and the so-called Green Line (Israel border before the 1967 war). Palestinians (Christians or Muslims) living there are considered illegal and will be removed unless they acquire a “permit” from the occupation authorities. This is added to the permits needed to move between Palestinian towns and cities and to go to work to school to hospitals etc. Israeli human rights groups objected in vain that “permits” are not needed for Jews and are rarely given to non-Jews (and mostly in exchange for collaboration with the occupation). These are, again, considered gross violations of human rights.

Then came the decision to “relocate” 15 Palestinians from the West Bank to Gaza. Such expulsions and relocations are also violations of international law.

Rapid succession of military orders that increasingly shrink the land of the native Palestinians, while expanding Israeli colonies and settlements throughout Palestine, has been a key feature of the Zionist programme. It explains why 6 of the 9 million Palestinians are refugees and displaced people. What is different now is that even the feeble attempts at mentioning international law or human rights are met with shrugs from our elected officials. Those elected officials continue to lavish tax money on Israel, to the tune of $5 billion per year. This benefits neither Israelis nor Palestinians, and certainly does not benefit Americans.

Now comes talk of Palestinian “leaders” finally capitulating and agreeing to abandon such well recognised rights as the right of the refugees to return to the houses and lands from which they were expelled. All for the sake of a non-viable “statelet” on some 15 per cent of historic Palestine and with no real sovereignty. We are told that Abed Rabbo and company, having recognised Israel, has been forced to agree to recognise the Jewish state as a state “for the Jewish people”. I wonder what the 1.2 million non-Jews in Israel think about this after the bitter civil rights struggle they have been going through to gain the status of even fourth-tier citizens. I wonder if anyone thinks this will bring a durable peace.

Human rights groups reported that in the past three years, the Israeli occupation forces killed over 2,000 Palestinian civilians, injured over 25,000, demolished over 5,000 houses, destroyed infrastructure, and held an entire population hostage. But this is not a new policy. A US-supported Israel ethnically cleansed more than 800,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949, and over 300,000 in 1967. Israel refused to abide by UN Resolution 194 or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which demand the refugees' repatriation.

We are sending billions of dollars of our taxes to Israel while it has defied over 70 UN Security Council resolutions and is shielded from many others by US veto. Meanwhile, we went to war in Iraq and are losing men daily, claiming as justification a handful of dubious technical violations by Iraq. And while Iraq was no democracy, we are currently funding and supporting dozens of similar or worse dictatorships.

Inconsistencies explain why the world isn't buying the neoconservative doctrines and why we are down the wrong path. A recent Zogby polls showed that Americans are demanding a change in US foreign policy in the Middle East. It is well past time for our elected officials to heed the call. Besides avoiding complicity in war crimes, the taxpayers and the world will benefit from a more rational policy, not influenced by special interests.

The writer is an associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine and a co-founder of two human rights groups: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (Al-Awda.org) and Academics For Justice (AcademicsForJustice.org). He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

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