Israel’s appetite for Palestinian land is illegal
The country’s top court has cleared the way for the Jewish state’s annexation of a Palestinian village that stands in the way of land grab
Almost six decades of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip have reduced its people to desperation. These are Palestinian lands controlled by Israel through repression, institutionalised discrimination and systematic abuses of the population’s rights.
The occupation has in recent times been accelerated by massive land theft by the government of Israel to make room for Jewish colonists — a move roundly condemned by many in various parts of the world but surprisingly little is heard in the form of protest from the heads of governments of the United States or the United Kingdom.
Recently, the Israeli top court cleared the way for the Jewish state’s annexation of a Palestinian village that stood in the way of a land grab to serve Israel’s immoral road to apartheid. The residents of the Palestinian village of Khan Al
Ahmar were told to demolish their homes voluntarily or face the might of the Israeli army with their heavy weaponry and bulldozing equipment.
The Israeli court ruling was widely condemned by the European Union which warned Israel that demolishing Khan Al Ahmar would not only add to the Palestinian refugee problem, but also undermine the ‘prospects for peace’ and the possibility of the two-state solution.
Such a gross violation of human rights is bound to attract global attention, but the hapless Palestinians who live in constant fear of bulldozers and bullets have not had the luxury of having their situation highlighted in the western media or by their biggest backer — the United States government. The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) recently accused the US of ‘inciting’ Israel to demolish the village. The PLO criticised the statement by a US State Department spokeswoman who commented on the impending demolition of Khan Al Ahmar by claiming that it had followed a “lengthy legal process I believe that’s gone on for eight years”.
Unlawful killings
Human rights organisations have periodically highlighted major violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law that illustrate the occupation: Unlawful killings; forced displacement; abusive detention; the closure of the Gaza Strip and other unjustified restrictions on movement; and the development of colonies, along with the accompanying discriminatory policies that disadvantage Palestinians.
Rarely do much of Israel’s nefarious activities grab the front pages of mainstream western media. One has to realise the ownership and political inclinations of these media moguls to understand why it’s not an even-playing field when it comes to the Palestinians. Israel always explains away their abusive practices to a charitable and forgiving media.
Whether it’s a child imprisoned by a military court or shot dead in cold blood by a sniper, or a house demolished for lack of an elusive permit, or checkpoints where only colonists are allowed to pass, few Palestinians have escaped serious rights abuses during this 50-year occupation. Israel today maintains an entrenched system of institutionalised discrimination against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories — repression that extends far beyond any security rationale.
Over the years, Israeli authorities have illegally expropriated thousands of acres of Palestinian land for colonies. Discriminatory burdens, including making it nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits in occupied East Jerusalem and in the 60 per cent of the West Bank under exclusive Israeli control have effectively forced Palestinians to leave their homes or to build at the risk of seeing their “unauthorised” structures bulldozed. For decades, Israeli authorities have demolished homes on the grounds that they lacked permits, even though the law of occupation prohibits destruction of property except for military necessity, or punitively as collective punishment against families of Palestinians suspected of attacking Israelis.
It has taken a brave man in the form of Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the UK Labour Party, who has highlighted the plight of the Palestinians and their gradual fading into obscurity at the hands of the Israelis. The apartheid Israeli state and its deeply entrenched supporters in the UK government immediately initiated a scathing and merciless attack on Corbyn to diminish his stature and to intimidate him. Fortunately, he has stood firm.
But unfortunately, the Palestinians don’t have many such moral leaders in the West to count on. Many choose to remain blind to the atrocities committed by the occupiers. Meanwhile, Israel marches on to its goal of extermination of Palestinians from their lands, one way or the other.
■ Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi socio-political commentator. He lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Twitter: @talmaeena.