- On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly passed
Resolution 181, the Palestine Partition Plan, granting 56% of historic
Palestine to Jews (with one-third of the population), 42% to Palestinians,
with Jerusalem designated an international city (a corpus separatum - separate
body) under a UN Trusteeship Council. The area included all Jerusalem,
Bethlelem, and Beit Sahour, to encompass Christian holy sites.
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- Resolution 181 called for an Independent Arab state by
October 1, 1948, asking:
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- "all Governments and peoples to refrain from taking
any action which might hamper or delay the carrying out of these recommendations,"
the Security Council to be empowered with "the necessary measures
as provided for in the plan for its implementation."
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- However, Israel's 1948 "War of Independence"
intervened, creating the Jewish state on May 14, 1948 on 78% of historic
Palestine, excluding Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
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- On December 2, 1947, the General Assembly (GA) passed
Resolution 32/40 A and B, stating its deep concern:
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- "that no just solution to the problem of Palestine
has been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to aggravate
the Middle East conflict, of which it is the core, and to endanger international
peace and security."
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- It reaffirmed "that a just and lasting peace in
the Middle East cannot be established without the achievement, inter alia,
of a just solution of the problem of Palestine on the basis of the inalienable
rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return and the
right to national independence and sovereignty in Palestine, in accordance
with the Charter of the United Nations."
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- Urging the Security Council to act promptly on this matter,
the GA declared, "commencing in 1978, the annual observance of 29
November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people."
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- On December 1, 2005, the GA requested that the Committee
on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and
the Division for Palestinian Rights (CEIRPP), as part of the International
Day of Solidarity observance, to continue organizing an annual exhibit
or cultural event on Palestinian rights in cooperation with the Permanent
Observer Mission of Palestine to the UN. It also encouraged Member States
to widely support and publicize the day that should have established an
independent Palestinian state.
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- Sixty-three years later, none exists, affirming Resolution
32/40's belief that no Middle East peace is possible without "a just
solution to the problem of Palestine." As a result, regional wars,
occupation, and settlement expansions continue. Increasingly, Palestinians
are oppressed, dispossessed, isolated, and denied what UN resolutions and
international laws mandate, including a viable sovereign state, East Jerusalem
as its capital, and the right of diaspora refugees to return.
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- None of these are achieved or in sight, nor have world
leaders held Israel accountable for breaching virtually all international
humanitarian laws, as well as others on war and occupation.
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- Specifically, Israel systematically and willfully failed
to recognize Palestinian self-determination under provisions of the December
1960 UN General Assembly Declaration on the Granting of Independence to
Colonial Countries and Peoples, as well as all UN resolutions before and
thereafter affirming Palestinian self-determination, including:
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- (1) UN Resolution 181, the 1947 Partition Plan.
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- (2) GA Resolution (1965): Declaration on the Inadmissibility
of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of
Their Independence and Sovereignty, affirming the principle of non-intervention.
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- (3) Security Council (SC) Resolution 242 (1967), calling
for an end of conflict and withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from occupied
territories.
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- (4) The 1970 Declaration on Principles of International
Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in Accordance
with the Charter of the United Nations.
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- (5) SC Resolution 298 (1971), affirming acquisition of
territory by military conquest inadmissible, calling Israel's failure to
observe previous resolutions deplorable.
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- (6) SC 338 (1973), affirming the same demand.
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- (7) GA Resolution 3236 (1974), recognizing Palestinian
self-determination and expressing "grave concern" that they've
been "prevented from enjoying (their) inalienable rights (to) self-determination....national
independence and sovereignty....without external interference...."
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- (8) GA Resolution 3314 (1974) on the Definition of Aggression
in accordance with the UN Charter and Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal
and its judgment, calling it the supreme international crime against peace.
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- (9) Numerous other SC and GA resolutions, affirming the
principles of international law, including Geneva's Common Article 1, obliging
all nations to enforce them, saying:
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- "The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect
and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances."
-
- Israel also failed to comply with the Convention on the
Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (the Apartheid Convention),
as defined by the Rome Statute to include murder, extermination, enslavement,
torture, arbitrary arrest, illegal imprisonment, denial of the right to
life and liberty, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and other abusive
acts imposed by one group or nation on another.
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- As a result, Palestinians have endured slow-motion genocide
through:
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- -- wars of aggression;
- -- mass deaths, injuries and arrests;
- -- targeted assassinations;
- -- torture;
- -- land theft;
- -- home demolitions;
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- -- dispossessions;
- -- denial of their right to free movement, expression,
and assembly;
- -- their own resources, including water and offshore
oil and gas;
- -- control of their airspace, coastal waters and borders;
and
- -- other international law violations, including Gaza's
suffocation under siege.
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- On November 29 and every day, solidarity with them should
be affirmed until they're free and independent on their own land in peace.
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- The International Day for the Elimination of Violence
Against Women
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- On December 20, 1993 the UN General Assembly (GA) adopted
Resolution 48/104 - Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against
Women, to include:
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- "Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring
in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in
the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation
and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence
and violence related to exploitation."
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- Also, these same abuses within the community, educational
institutions, elsewhere, and violence committed or condoned by the state,
"wherever it occurs."
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- On December 17, 1999, the GA passed Resolution 54/134,
designating November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of
Violence against Women, adopted by the body on February 7, 2000:
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- "Invit(ing), as appropriate, Governments, the relevant
agencies, bodies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system, and
other international organizations and non-governmental organizations, to
organize on that day activities designed to raise public awareness of the
problem of violence against women."
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- The resolution stemmed from the 1960 assassination of
the three Mirabel sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic,
on order of military strongman Rafael Trujillo (El Jefe - the Chief or
Boss).
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- Palestinian women especially have endured decades of
occupation related violence, an article on the Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies
and Consultations' early 2010 report documenting it, accessed through the
following link:
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- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/06/palestinian-women-under-occupation.html
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- It noted their "exceptional suffering" and
remarkable endurance qualities under harsh conditions. Living under stress
in poverty, their homes destroyed, lands razed or expropriated, children
sick, husbands imprisoned, fathers killed, and more, they plant seeds of
hope, fulfill their daily social role, and participate actively in political
and every day resistance heroically.
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- Refugees in their own land and abroad, they've bourn
burdens beyond what most women anywhere bear. Yet they persist and endure,
including in Gaza under siege and the effects of Cast Lead, as well as
regular Israeli assaults, incursions, targeted and random killings.
-
- They're also arrested, tortured and imprisoned, a reminder
to remember them every day, especially the one designated against violence,
November 25, that should highlight its elimination against anyone for any
reason.
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- International Women's Day
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- Its history dates from the February 28, 1909 US National
Women's Day. Other countries picked up on the theme, rallying for gender
equality, for peace during WW I, and continued advocacy for women thereafter.
On March 8, 1975, the UN began celebrating International Women's Day. In
December 1977, the GA proclaimed a UN day for Women's Rights and International
Peace.
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- In February 2008, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched:
"UNiTe to End Violence against Women," a campaign "to prevent
and eliminate violence against women and girls in all parts of the world,"
and punish violators. On November 25, Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director
of UN Women, said women and girls everywhere face violence throughout their
lives.
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- "The UNiTe campaign places the issue at the top
of the UN agenda." Whether or not so, women continue to be violated
and abused, especially in places like Occupied Palestine where UN resolutions
and agendas aren't enforced by member states or the world body. It's time
Ban followed his rhetoric with action, what he's failed to do since taking
office on January 1, 2007, serving power, not popular interests.
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- A Final Comment
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- Like men and women, children also endure violence and
abuse, notably in Occupied Palestine, one of several earlier articles explained,
accessed through the following link:
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- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/04/imprisoning-palestinian-children.html
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- On November 30, Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return
Coalition issued an action alert to "Release all Palestinian Children
from Israeli Prisons," demanding:
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- "the US administration (to) direct the state of
Israel to stop the targeted arrests and immediately release all Palestinian
children" in prisons and detention centers where they're treated as
harshly as adults.
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- Recent reports revealed escalated night raids and other
arrests in communities like Silwan, adjacent to Jerusalem's Old City, one
of 28 Palestinian villages incorporated into East Jerusalem. Children as
young as 10 have been targeted, arrested, terrorized, interrogated, tortured,
threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and detained. Every year,
over 700 are affected, mostly on charges of stone-throwing, whether or
not true.
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- Al-Awda "calls on all its members, supporters and
people of conscience" to demand this outrage end, that all Palestinian
children detained be released, and for Washington "to cut off all
aid until" until Israel stops violating "human rights and basic
freedoms in a verifiable manner."
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- Given America's child prison population, how harshly
they're treated, and Washington's appalling human rights record and support
for Israel, only grassroots pressure might get either country to reform,
but only if sustained relentlessly, a campaign well worth initiating.
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- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached atlendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge
discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour
on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and
Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
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- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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