- On March 15, 2006, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly
170 to 4 (with only the US, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau against)
"to establish the Human Rights Council (HRC), based in Geneva, in
replacement of the Commission on Human Rights, as a subsidiary organ of
the General Assembly....responsible for promoting universal respect for
the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without
distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner."
-
- HRC "is an inter-governmental body within the UN
system made up of 47 states responsible for strengthening the promotion
and protection of human rights around the globe."
-
- At its tenth session this year, HRC prepared a report
titled: "Human Rights Situation in Palestine and other Occupied Arab
Territories" and delivered it on March 20. It deals mainly with grave
human rights violations in Occupied Palestine, especially due to Operation
Cast Lead against Gaza.
-
- It states that the "Occupied Palestinian Territory,
particularly the Gaza Strip, has been affected by protracted conflict and
occupation policies for decades." However, Operation Cast Lead caused
"a dramatic deterioration of the living conditions of (a) civilian
population" already reeling under an oppressive "20-month-long"
siege. An estimated 80% of Gazans, especially women and children, were
already dependent on humanitarian aid prior to the conflict's onset.
-
- When it ended, an estimated 91% needed help as it gravely
exacerbated current conditions for all 1.5 million Gazans with regard to
food, health, housing, education, transportation, electricity and gas,
agriculture, and virtually all other aspects of life. Even after the January
18 ceasefire, attacks continued, the siege remained, and free movement
restrictions hampered recovery efforts and a return to normalcy. Gazans
still suffer gravely in the aftermath of a three-week conflict worsening
an already catastrophic humanitarian situation compounded by continued
hostilities and a complete blockade - in gross violation of international
law.
-
- The Territory's complete dependence on external aid,
by whatever means and in whatever amounts obtainable, makes Gazans vulnerable
to political manipulation and a deepening crisis of poverty and desperation.
-
- International Humanitarian Law
-
- This writer discusses it often, especially the binding
standards under Fourth Geneva relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War. Also the Hague Regulations, obligations under Geneva's
Common Article 3, and principles of distinction and proportionality:
-
- -- distinction between combatants and military targets
v. civilians and non-military ones; attacking latter ones are war crimes
except when civilians take direct part in hostilities; and
-
- -- proportionality prohibitions against disproportionate,
indiscriminate force likely to cause damage to or loss of lives and objects.
-
- In addition, parties to a conflict must make take all
precautions to avoid and minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury
to civilians, and damage to non-military sites. To alert civilians, "effective
advance warning" must also be given, under Fourth Geneva; "neutralized
zones" must be available to protect them as much as possible; and
using human shields is strictly prohibited.
-
- Other Fourth Geneva provisions prohibit:
-
- -- collective punishment "for an offence he or she
has not personally committed;"
- -- the destruction of private or public property unrelated
to military operations;
-
- -- torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment at
all times, under all circumstances, with no allowable exceptions;
-
- -- assuring the population of adequate food and medical
supplies and providing relief by all available means; and
-
- -- allowing free passage of all "consignments"
intended for civilian purposes.
-
- Israel is a signatory to major human rights treaties
relevant to the current situation and thus bound by their strict provisions:
-
- -- Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights obligates parties to respect and ensure the rights of
all persons in a territory;
- -- according to the International Court of Justice (ICJ),
applicable also are the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child among other
binding laws;
- -- UN human rights treaty bodies also affirm that as
a party to international laws, Israel must fulfill its human rights obligations
in Occupied Palestine as long as it maintains jurisdiction; they include
ensuring free movement; various economic and social rights, especially
the right to food, medical care, the highest attainable standard of physical
and mental health, adequate housing, education, and freedom from discrimination.
-
- Gaza's Deepening Crisis
-
- Years of Israeli incursions and blockade devastated Gaza's
infrastructure, environment, and lives of 1.5 million people. The World
Bank estimates that 98% of industrial operations are inactive, and around
70,000 workers lost their jobs since 2007. In December 2008, the UN's Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that 18 months
of siege caused a 50% rise in unemployment, especially for women with only
11.5% of them employed in 2007, one of the world's lowest rates.
-
- Suspending financial aid and tax transfers and revenues
interrupted regular salary payments. Also, restrictions on currency transport
caused a liquidity crisis enough to disrupt basic social services deliveries,
forcing people to survive by any means possible.
-
- During Operation Cast Lead, Israel inflicted destructive
terror against a defenseless civilian population affecting vast numbers
of non-military sites - hospitals and other health facilities, water and
sanitation infrastructure, land and cellular communications networks, schools,
universities, mosques, residential and government buildings, factories,
commercial enterprises, farms, fishing boats, roads, bridges, transportation,
power, UN buildings, and any living being that moved - all in gross violation
of international laws.
-
- Israel also willfully obstructed humanitarian personal
leaving the poor, injured, and others without basic food, medical, and
other essential services - crimes of war and against humanity under international
law. Also, after hostilities ceased, the IDF continues obstructing humanitarian
aid by maintaining its siege and restricting the work of civil society
and human rights organizations.
-
- HRC states that for Gaza and its population to revive,
"all of (its) entry points must be opened to ensure freedom of movement
for all, the free inflow of industrial and agricultural inputs and cash
and the export of products" to buyers outside the Territory. Also
that urgently needed fuel, construction materials, spare parts, and other
essential supplies and services be allowed to be received normally.
-
- Further, recovery depends on Gazans having income-generating
work, including inside Israel and the West Bank as available, and access
to education at all levels at home and abroad. The many thousands of injured,
homeless, and displaced require special attention and aid, so far not forthcoming
because Israel won't allow it and international leaders are silently complicit.
-
- Besides the above-listed needs, HRC stresses that "to
improve the lives of (Gazans) living in poverty, psychosocial support....is
urgently needed," especially for children who've been severely traumatized
by months of deprivation and conflict. "The rights of the victims
of human rights violations to have access to remedy and reparations must
also be respected.
-
- Adequate Housing As Part of An Acceptable Standard of
Living
-
- Inadequate housing far predates Operation Cast Lead in
Gaza and the West Bank - characterized by overcrowding, lack of sanitation,
exacerbated by repeated incursions, home demolitions, construction restrictions,
an oppressive military occupation, and the willful targeting of thousands
of residences during the recent conflict. Destroyed were 4240 houses with
another 44,300 damaged and mostly uninhabitable without extensive rehab
- in total, over 20% of the Territory's housing affecting up to 90,000
people left homeless, many forced to live in the open.
-
- Numerous Gazan communities are virtually uninhabitable.
In urban areas and several refugee camps, entire neighborhoods were destroyed.
The vast amount of damage gravely reduced the housing stock, remaining
unrehabed because Israel prohibits the import of essential construction
materials.
-
- HRC expressed deep concern about "persisting impediments
to the entry of reconstruction material," either by prohibition or
protracted administrative delays, at a time when "international support
for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of homes and neighborhoods is
urgently needed." As a result, destitution and human suffering are
deeper and the cycle of violation exacerbated.
-
- The Fundamental Human Right to Food
-
- Israel gravely violates this right while, at the same
time, Dov Weisglass, advisor to former prime minister Ehud Olmert, talked
of "putting Gazans on a diet" and deputy defence minister Matan
Vilnai spoke of "a bigger shoah" to starve them - referring to
the Nazi holocaust against the Jews. Against Muslims it's "acceptable."
-
- According to various human rights organizations on the
ground, Gaza's farmland and greenhouses were extensively bombed. The result
was a devastating impact on the population to produce enough food for sustenance
or trade. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimated that Operation
Cast Lead damaged around 80% of agricultural land and crops. Also, sewage
spills and toxic munitions contaminated vast areas of arable land.
-
- OCHA reported that extensive destruction disrupted commercial
enterprises and public infrastructure, including Gaza's largest flour mill
and food processing plants. These are grave international law violations,
exacerbated by Gaza remaining under siege. Border crossings are blocked.
Little of anything gets in or out, and, as a result, severe shortages
of everything afflict the Territory and people. A nutritional crisis and
starvation affect a sizable per cent of the population and little is done
for relief.
-
- Currently, "the number of hungry people without
access to basic food necessary" to survive remains at dangerously
high levels. According to a December 18, 2008 Palestine Monitor Factsheet,
75% of Gazans eat less overall and 89% survive on less nutritious, cheaper
diets than pre-siege and before food prices rose sharply in 2008. As a
result, chronic malnutrition is rampant, especially for children. Up to
half of them under age two suffer from anemia. Two-thirds of them are vitamin
A deficient, and stunted growth affects 10% of them. Gazans are slowly
being starved to death while world leaders collude with Israeli crimes.
-
- The Right of Everyone to the Highest Attainable Standard
of Physical and Mental Health
-
- The long-standing Israeli-Palestinians conflict, Gaza
siege, and Operation Cast Lead "resulted in grave violations of the
right to" achieve adequate food and nutrition, clean water and sanitation,
proper housing, and a healthy environment.
-
- Gazans are trapped and gravely vulnerable to deteriorating
physical and mental health as well as outbreaks of highly infectious diseases
such as measles, polio, and hepatitis - exacerbated by Operation Cast Lead's
destruction of vast infrastructure, including medical personnel and facilities:
-
- -- 16 medical workers were killed and another 25 injured;
-
- -- 15 hospitals, 43 primary health centers and 29 ambulances
were targeted and destroyed; and
-
- -- only 44 of 56 primary health care centers still operate.
-
- As a result, basic facilities are inadequate for public
needs, and the WHO estimates that 40% of chronically ill patients have
no health care centers available for help. Nor is it available abroad as
border crossings remain closed with entries and exits blocked.
-
- The Right to Education
-
- The siege and recent conflict severely impaired education
- within and outside Gaza. School facilities suffered extensive damage
and destruction, and minimal repairs only are possible as long as Israel
blocks construction materials from entering.
-
- UN schools were also hit. So was the American International
School near Beit Lahiya and the Islamic University's science and engineering
labs, Gaza's oldest and largest higher education facility, affecting over
20,000 students.
-
- During the three-week Operation Cast Lead period, schools
at all levels shut down, causing 540,000 students to miss nearly a month
of classes. Then for many, there was no school to attend.
-
- Even before the conflict, conditions were grossly inadequate
with the Territory under siege:
-
- -- overcrowding caused restricted school hours to accommodate
morning and afternoon shifts for 450,000 students;
-
- -- 200,000 refugee camp children at UN schools were especially
impacted;
-
- -- according to UNICEF, power shortages meant no heat
or electricity for classrooms, and the blockade caused shortages of everything,
including books, paper, pencils, chalk, and other essential materials and
teaching aids; and
-
- -- as a result, enrollment rates dropped, effective teaching
was impaired, and student performance suffered hugely - with failure rates
of 80% in grades four to nine and for mathematics up to 90%.
-
- Causes and Consequences of Violence against Women
-
- HRC called the "scale of civilian deaths, injuries
and destruction during (Operation Cast Lead) unprecedented by all accounts,"
including its affect on women:
-
- -- 116 killed and another 800 injured.
-
- Women suffered critical injuries from bombings, artillery
shells, rockets, live ammunition, willful targeting at chose range, being
shot in their homes, and from use of illegal weapons like white phosphorous.
Some injuries caused maiming and amputations, and for 40,000 pregnant women
endangerment to their unborn and numerous cases of premature labor and
delivery because of trauma from continuous bombing and shelling. Also,
a UNFPA finding showed a 40% rise in miscarriages, a 50% increase in neonatal
deaths, and a sharp increase in premature births.
-
- A UNFPA February 2009 survey highlighted the psychological
impact on women:
-
- -- extreme fear and insecurity;
-
- -- depression and sadness;
- -- overall debilitation making them feel unfit as mothers
and care-givers; and
-
- -- vulnerability to violence and depravation in a "precarious
and traumatic environment."
-
- The Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons
-
- For nearly 42 years, Israel's occupation policies have
gravely harmed the human rights of Palestinians and caused "large-scale
forced displacement....within the Occupied Palestinian Territory,"
even prior to Operation Cast Lead. Displacement results from:
-
- -- incursions;
-
- -- military clearing operations;
-
- -- home demolitions and evictions;
-
- -- land expropriation;
-
- -- settlement expansions;
-
- -- the Separation Wall;
-
- -- settler violence and harassment;
- -- closures, barriers, and checkpoints that deny free
movement;
-
- -- revocation of East Jerusalem residency rights; and
-
- -- denial of construction permits to build on one's own
land.
-
- Operation Cast Lead alone left about 72,000 persons displaced,
according to a shelter/Intern Development Programme preliminary report
- conducted in 45 Gaza localities several days after the conflict ended.
-
- International law prohibits forced displacement, yet
Israel caused it by targeting densely populated areas with bombings, shellings
and ground assaults. Thousands fled to UN shelters in terror. They, too,
were then attacked.
-
- Currently tens of thousands remain displaced because
their homes were destroyed, and no materials are available to rebuild them.
As a result, they're staying in poor, overcrowded areas in the open, or
when possible, with members of extended families - already overstretched
by impoverishment, inadequate food, water, electricity, and basic non-food
items and facilities like mattresses, blankets, and enough space for new
arrivals. The overall humanitarian situation is far more dire than before
hostilities began given the vast amount of destruction, deaths and injuries
over the three-week period.
-
- On February 9, 2009, the Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs reported that international agencies faced "unprecedented
denial of access" to Gaza since the previous November, and that condition
hasn't abated.
-
- Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
-
- HRC reported that "All killings during the Gaza
conflict that violated applicable human rights and humanitarian law norms
come within the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary
or arbitrary executions." Best estimates put the number at around
1440 people, the great majority being civilians.
-
- Further, "strong and credible reports" indicate
grievous war crimes and other international violations occurred that beg
for accountability. None so far are in prospect. The alternative is de
facto impunity that "mocks the international legal order, makes hollow
the international obligations undertaken and reaffirmed by the parties,
increases the likelihood of more flagrant (future) violations, and poisons
the prospects for an eventual solution to the conflict."
-
- Disturbingly, that's where things now stand with Israel
absolving itself of war crimes and refusing to cooperate when HRC investigators
arrive in the region to begin their independent work. In a May 8 issued
statement, the Richard Goldstone headed team said:
-
- "In the course of its work, the mission intends
to conduct visits to affected areas of southern Israel and the Occupied
Palestinian Territories, including Gaza, and has requested the cooperation
of Israel in this regard."
-
- Goldstone stressed he would take a "law-based approach,"
not a political one to achieve "an objective assessment of the issues....in
the interest of all parties (to) promote a culture of accountability (that
can) serve to promote greater peace and security in the region."
-
- HRC Recommendations
-
- Briefly they include:
-
- -- Israel's cooperation with HRC investigators;
-
- -- ending the siege;
-
- -- allowing unimpeded access and safe passage for humanitarian
aid, including food, medicines, fuel, agricultural inputs, construction
materials, and whatever else is needed to sustain, rebuild, and revive
the shattered Territory;
-
- -- let sick and injured persons be treated abroad and
in Israel;
- -- let those wishing to do so travel and study abroad;
and
-
- -- end all violations of binding international laws and
commit no breaches thereof - to include:
-
- (1) abiding by the principles of distinction, proportionality,
and precaution;
-
- (2) ending the killing of civilians;
-
- (3) no longer using human shields;
-
- (4) ending extrajudicial assassinations;
-
- (5) terminating the use of illegal weapons like white
phosphorous; and
-
- (6) prohibiting attacks on medical personnel, ambulances,
hospitals, schools, civilian infrastructure, UN buildings, and other non-military
sites.
-
- HRC also calls on UN entities to assess Palestinian needs
and contribute to the wide-scale reconstruction of Occupied Palestine,
including the vast amount of damage done to Gaza. It also asks the international
community for help through the Security Council, International Court of
Justice, and UN human rights mechanisms - and for all states to abide by
international humanitarian law and work to restore a battered Palestine.
Holding Israel accountable for its war crimes is a good way to start.
-
- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday
- Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on major world and national issues. All programs are archived for
easy listening.
-
- http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13720
- ?
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- z box and H and dp
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-
- Dire Human Rights Crisis In Occupied Palestine
-
-
-
- By Stephen Lendman
-
- 5-25-9
-
-
- On March 15, 2006, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly
170 to 4 (with only the US, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau against)
"to establish the Human Rights Council (HRC), based in Geneva, in
replacement of the Commission on Human Rights, as a subsidiary organ of
the General Assembly....responsible for promoting universal respect for
the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without
distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner."
-
- HRC "is an inter-governmental body within the UN
system made up of 47 states responsible for strengthening the promotion
and protection of human rights around the globe."
-
- At its tenth session this year, HRC prepared a report
titled: "Human Rights Situation in Palestine and other Occupied Arab
Territories" and delivered it on March 20. It deals mainly with grave
human rights violations in Occupied Palestine, especially due to Operation
Cast Lead against Gaza.
-
- It states that the "Occupied Palestinian Territory,
particularly the Gaza Strip, has been affected by protracted conflict and
occupation policies for decades." However, Operation Cast Lead caused
"a dramatic deterioration of the living conditions of (a) civilian
population" already reeling under an oppressive "20-month-long"
siege. An estimated 80% of Gazans, especially women and children, were
already dependent on humanitarian aid prior to the conflict's onset.
-
- When it ended, an estimated 91% needed help as it gravely
exacerbated current conditions for all 1.5 million Gazans with regard to
food, health, housing, education, transportation, electricity and gas,
agriculture, and virtually all other aspects of life. Even after the January
18 ceasefire, attacks continued, the siege remained, and free movement
restrictions hampered recovery efforts and a return to normalcy. Gazans
still suffer gravely in the aftermath of a three-week conflict worsening
an already catastrophic humanitarian situation compounded by continued
hostilities and a complete blockade - in gross violation of international
law.
-
- The Territory's complete dependence on external aid,
by whatever means and in whatever amounts obtainable, makes Gazans vulnerable
to political manipulation and a deepening crisis of poverty and desperation.
-
- International Humanitarian Law
-
- This writer discusses it often, especially the binding
standards under Fourth Geneva relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War. Also the Hague Regulations, obligations under Geneva's
Common Article 3, and principles of distinction and proportionality:
-
- -- distinction between combatants and military targets
v. civilians and non-military ones; attacking latter ones are war crimes
except when civilians take direct part in hostilities; and
-
- -- proportionality prohibitions against disproportionate,
indiscriminate force likely to cause damage to or loss of lives and objects.
-
- In addition, parties to a conflict must make take all
precautions to avoid and minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury
to civilians, and damage to non-military sites. To alert civilians, "effective
advance warning" must also be given, under Fourth Geneva; "neutralized
zones" must be available to protect them as much as possible; and
using human shields is strictly prohibited.
-
- Other Fourth Geneva provisions prohibit:
-
- -- collective punishment "for an offence he or she
has not personally committed;"
|