Palestinians

Excerpt from "Israel/Occupied Territories"

   Written by Amnesty International

   Provided on Amnesty International's Human Rights Concerns Web site http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/israel_and_occupied_territories/document.do?id=ar&yr=2005

Asmall piece of land located along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea is the center of a long-standing conflict between Arabs and Jews. Rooted in thousands of years of history, the controversy focuses on which group can rightfully claim the territory as its homeland.

Depending on which people had control of the land at a particular time, it has been called various names such as Palestine, Israel, and Judea. At the start of the twenty-first century, the land was known as Israel and was controlled by the Jewish people. Israel also gained control of nearby territories following its 1967 war with Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The control was regarded by many as unlawful occupation by the Israelis.

"Palestinians had to obtain special permits from the Israeli army to move … within the West Bank and were barred from … roads which were freely used by Israeli settlers living in illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories."

Israel and its occupied territories are, in total, about the size of the state of Maryland, or 10,000 square miles. The occupied territories included the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Golan Heights. Gaza Strip is located on Israel's southwestern coast. West Bank is located to the west of the Jordan River, hence its identification as the West Bank. The West Bank territory is located within east-central Israel and includes the Old City of Jerusalem, sometimes called East Jerusalem. Golan Heights is territory in the far northeastern corner of Israel adjacent to the Syrian border. Between 1948 when the state of Israel was established and the 1967 Six Day War when Israel gained the territories, Gaza was administered by Egypt, the West Bank was united with Jordan, and the Golan Heights was administered by Syria.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch

Both Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) are organizations dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights of people around the world. Supporting the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights written in 1948, both groups focus on preventing and halting physical and mental abuse, call for freedom of expression, and an end to prejudice and discrimination.

Established in the mid-twentieth century, AI had over 1.8 million members representing over 150 countries and territories by the beginning of the twenty-first century. AI is independent of any government or economic interest, and promotes no political agenda or religion. Its sole concern is protection of the rights of the world's people. To this end, it publishes a widely distributed annual report on the condition of human rights in countries of the world.

Human Rights Watch, based in the United States but with offices worldwide, investigates human rights abuses wherever they occur and then publishes their findings in widely read reports. Several watch groups united in 1988 to form the present-day organization. HRW, a nongovernmental organization, challenges governments and leaders to end human rights abuses and adhere to the Universal Declaration. HRW reports on their Web site (http://www.hrw.org) that they "have exposed abuses by government and rebels; by Hutu and Tutsi [in Rwanda]; by Serb, Croat, Bosniak Muslim, and Kosovar Albanian [in the former Yugoslavia]; by Israelis and Palestinians; by Christians and Muslims in the islands of Indonesia and sands of the Sudan." HRW also reports on human rights abuses carried out by the United States both within and outside the country.

Extremely complex, the Arab-Israeli conflict is based in religion and the desire to have a secure homeland. Arabs who live in Israel and its territories are called Palestinian Arabs. Palestinian Arabs are followers of Islam, therefore they are Muslims. Those called Israelis are Jews. Because Palestinian Arabs and Israelis feel that they are entitled to a nation on the same land, each group demonstrates its hatred and distrust for the other. Their attitudes are expressions of prejudice so deeply held that Palestinian Arabs and Israelis often participate in horrific acts of violence against each other. Between September 2000, the beginning of an intifada (uprising against each other) and a ceasefire called in 2005, Human Rights Watch, an international organization dedicated to protecting people's rights, reported Israel had killed three thousand Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza, including at least six hundred children. Palestinian fighters had killed more than nine hundred Israelis. Most killed on both sides were civilians. The following is an excerpt from the 2005 annual report on Israel's occupied territories by Amnesty International, another international human rights organization.

Things to remember while reading excerpts from "Israel/Occupied Territories":

• During the first half of the twentieth century, the land so violently contested in the early twenty-first century was known as Palestine and inhabited largely by Arabs. As a result of the Holocaust (mass killing of European Jews and others by the Nazis) carried out during World War II (1939–45) when Nazi Germany murdered six million European Jews, the United Nations (UN—an international organization created to resolve international disputes) passed Resolution 187 in 1947. Resolution 187 divided Palestine into two new states, one for a secure Jewish homeland and one for Arabs.
• The Jewish people declared an independent state of Israel in 1948, igniting a war against its Arab neighbors. Defeating the combined armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq by 1949, Israel established its borders, displacing approximately seven hundred thousand Palestinian Arabs from their home. Israel has been in conflict with the Arab world ever since.
• While the Arab-Israeli conflict is a struggle over a small piece of land with few natural resources, it has ignited hatred of Israel throughout the Middle East and countries where Islam is the predominant religion. The struggle between Palestinian Arabs and Israelis has at times caused the world's most powerful nations to choose sides against each other, threatening a global conflict.

Excerpt from "Israel/Occupied Territories"

Amnesty International (AI) 2005 Annual Report: Israel/Occupied Territories.

Killings and attacks by the Israeli army

The Israeli army killed around 700 Palestinians, including some 150 children, in the Occupied Territories, most of them unlawfully. Many were killed in deliberate as well as reckless shooting, shelling and bombardment of densely populated residential areas or as a result of excessive use of force. Some 120 Palestinians were killed in extrajudicial executions, including more than 30 bystanders, of whom four were children. Others were killed in armed clashes with Israeli soldiers. Thousands of others were injured.

• Four Palestinian schoolgirls were shot dead by the Israeli army in their classrooms or walking to school in the Gaza Strip in September and October. Raghda Adnan al-Assar and Ghadeer Jaber Mukhaymar, aged 10 and nine, were shot dead by Israeli soldiers while sitting at their desks in UN schools in Khan Yunis refugee camp. Eight-year-old Rania Iyad Aram was shot dead by Israeli soldiers as she was walking to school. On 5 October Israeli soldiers shot dead 13-year-old Iman al-Hams near her school in Rafah….
• Ten-year-old Walid Naji Abu Qamar, 11-year-old Mubarak Salim al-Hashash, 13-year-old MahmoudTariq Mansour and five others were killed on 19 May in Rafah in the Gaza Strip when the Israeli army opened fire with tank shells and a helicopter-launched missile on a non-violent demonstration. Dozens of other unarmed demonstrators were also wounded in the attack.

"Human shields"

Israeli soldiers continued to use Palestinians as "human shields" during military operations, forcing them to carry out tasks that endangered their lives, despite an injunction by the Israeli High Court banning the practice. A petition against the use of "human shields" submitted by Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations to the Supreme Court in May 2002 was still pending at the end of 2004.

• In April, Israeli soldiers used 13-year-old Muhammed Badwan as a "human shield" during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Biddu. The soldiers placed the boy on the hood of their jeep and tied him to the front windscreen to discourage Palestinian demonstrators from throwing stones in their direction.

Killings and attacks by Palestinian armed groups

Sixty-seven Israeli civilians, including eight children, were killed by Palestinian armed groups in Israel and in the Occupied Territories. Forty-seven of the victims were killed in suicide bombings, the others were killed in shooting or mortar attacks. Most of the attacks were claimed by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Fatah, and by the armed wing of Hamas. Forty-two Israeli soldiers were also killed by Palestinian armed groups, most of them in the Occupied Territories.

• Chana Anya Bunders, Natalia Gamril, Dana Itach, Rose Bona and Anat Darom and six other Israelis were killed on 29 January when a Palestinian man blew himself up on a bus in Jerusalem. More than 50 other people were wounded in the attack. The suicide bombing was claimed by both the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the armed wing of Hamas.
• Tali Hatuel, who was eight months pregnant, and her four young daughters, Hila, Hadar, Roni and Meirav, aged between two and 11, were shot dead in the Gaza Strip while travelling by car near the Gush Katif settlement block where they lived. They were shot at close range by Palestinian gunmen who had opened fire on their car and caused it to careen off the road….

Attacks by Israeli settlers in the Occupied Territories

Israeli settlers stepped up attacks against Palestinians and their property throughout the West Bank and also increased attacks on international human rights activists. They destroyed and damaged trees owned by Palestinians and frequently prevented Palestinian farmers from harvesting their crops.

On 27 September, an Israeli settler shot dead Sayel Jabara, a Palestinian taxi driver, as he was driving his passengers between Nablus and Salem. The settler claimed that he shot Sayel Jabara because he thought that he might attack him, even though Sayel Jabara was not armed. The settler was released on bail less than 24 hours after the killing.

In September and October Israeli settlers, wearing hoods and armed with stones, wooden clubs and metal chains, assaulted two US citizens, members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), and AI delegates as they escorted Palestinian primary school children to school near Tuwani village in the Hebron area. CPT members Kim Lamberty sustained a broken arm and knee as well as bruising, and her colleague Chris Brown sustained a punctured lung and multiple bruises. The attackers came from the Israeli settlement of Havat Máon and returned there after the attacks. Israeli settlers from Havat Máon continued to attack Palestinian children on their way to school with impunity.

Impunity

Most members of the Israeli army and security forces continued to enjoy impunity. Investigations, prosecutions and convictions for human rights violations were rare. In the overwhelming majority of the thousands of cases of unlawful killings and other grave human rights violations committed by Israeli soldiers in the previous four years, no investigations were known to have been carried out.

Israeli settlers also enjoyed impunity for attacks on Palestinians and their property and international human rights workers. The Israeli army and police consistently failed to take steps to stop and prevent such attacks and routinely increased restrictions on the local Palestinian population in response to attacks by Israeli settlers.

Destruction of Palestinian property in the Occupied Territories

The Israeli army carried out large-scale destruction of Palestinian houses and property in the Occupied Territories, far exceeding the destruction of previous years. It demolished several hundred homes, mostly in the Gaza Strip, making thousands of Palestinians homeless, and destroyed large areas of agricultural land, roads and water, electricity and communications infrastructure. Such destruction was often a form of collective punishment on the local population in retaliation for attacks by Palestinian armed groups. The army usually gave no warning of the impending destruction and inhabitants were forced to flee their homes without being able to salvage their possessions. UN agencies and humanitarian organizations were unable to respond to the needs of tens of thousands of Palestinians whose homes had been destroyed by the Israeli army over the previous four years.

• In May the Israeli army destroyed some 300 homes and damaged some 270 other buildings in Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, making nearly 4,000 people homeless in the space of a few days. Several people were trapped in their homes when Israeli army bulldozers began to tear down the houses and had to drill holes in the back walls to escape. Thousands of other residents also fled their homes, fearing imminent destruction. UN schools had to be used as temporary shelters for the homeless. The mass destruction came in the wake of an attack by Palestinian gunmen in which five Israeli soldiers were killed….

Collective punishment, closures and violations of economic and social rights

The Israeli army continued to impose stringent restrictions on the movements of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Military checkpoints and blockades around Palestinian towns and villages hindered or prevented access to work, education and medical facilities and other crucial services. Restrictions on the movement of Palestinians remained the key cause of high rates of unemployment and poverty. More than half of the Palestinian population lived below the poverty line, with increasing numbers suffering from malnutrition and other health problems.

Palestinians had to obtain special permits from the Israeli army to move between towns and villages within the West Bank and were barred from main roads and many secondary roads which were freely used by Israeli settlers living in illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories. Movement restrictions for Palestinians were routinely increased in reprisal for attacks by Palestinian armed groups and during Jewish holidays. Further restrictions were also imposed on the movement of international human rights and humanitarian workers throughout the Occupied Territories.

The Israeli army routinely used excessive and unwarranted force to enforce blockades and movement restrictions. Soldiers frequently fired recklessly towards unarmed Palestinians, ill-treated, humiliated and arbitrarily detained Palestinian men, women and children, and confiscated or damaged vehicles. Sick people needing to reach medical facilities were often delayed or denied passage at checkpoints.

Continued construction by Israel of a fence/wall through the West Bank left an increasing number of Palestinians cut off from health, education and other essential services in nearby towns and villages and from their farm land—a main source of subsistence for Palestinians in this region. Large areas of Palestinian land were encircled by the fence/wall and Palestinians living or owning land in these areas had to obtain special permits from the Israeli army to move in and out of their homes and land….

Detainees and releases

Thousands of Palestinians were detained by the Israeli army. Most were released without charge. More than 3,000 were charged with security offences. Trials before military courts often did not meet international standards of fairness, and allegations of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees were not adequately investigated. Some 1,500 Palestinians were detained administratively without charge or trial during the year….

Violence against women

The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women visited the Occupied Territories in June to gather information on the impact of the occupation and conflict on women. She concluded that the conflict had disproportionately affected Palestinian women in the Occupied Territories, in both the public and private spheres of life. In addition to the women killed or injured by Israeli forces, Palestinian women were particularly negatively affected by the demolition of their homes and restrictions on movement, which hampered their access to health services and education, and by the sharp increase in poverty. The dramatic increase in violence as a result of the conflict also led to an increase in domestic and societal violence, while at the same time there were increased demands on women as carers [caretakers] and providers.

Discrimination

In August the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called for the revocation of the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, passed the previous year and extended for six months in July. The law institutionalized racial discrimination. It barred Israeli Arab citizens married to Palestinians from the Occupied Territories from living with their spouses in Israel, and forced families to either live apart or leave the country altogether.

AI visits

AI delegations visited Israel and the Occupied Territories in May, September and October.

What happened next …

Following the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (1929–2004) in November 2004, Mahamoud Abbas was elected Palestinian president and participated in talks with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon (1928–) in 2005. By late 2005, in an unprecedented and encouraging move, Sharon ordered eight thousand Israeli settlers to move out of the Gaza Strip and four small communities in the West Bank near Jenin. On January 4, 2006, Sharon suffered a massive stroke and fell into a prolonged coma. Ehud Olmert served as acting prime minister in his place.

Also in January 2006, Palestinian parliamentary elections were held. Palestinian Arabs elected members of the Hamas Party to a majority of the parliamentary seats. Hamas, considered a terrorist group by many countries, still retained the view that justice and peace could be established in the Middle East only by destroying the state of Israel. The chance for peace seemed greatly reduced unless Hamas moderated its stance and recognized Israel's right to exist.

In late 2006 Hamas had not altered its position against Israel. Countries that had previously sent money to the Palestinian government to support the Palestinian Arabs had halted payment until Hamas moderated its position. The economy of the area was greatly suffering.

Did you know …

• Referring to the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Golan Heights as "occupied territories" is highly controversial. Palestinian Arabs refer to these territories as unlawfully occupied by Israelis. They characterize Israel as a foreign occupier. Israel on the other hand views the territories as land taken in self-defense during the 1967 war. Israelis believe they have the right to settle the territories.
• Much of the world's oil reserves are found within the borders of Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and the Muslim country of Iran (Iranians are Persian, not Arab, but support the Arab cause because they share the Muslim religion.) These countries support the Palestinian Arab cause. Since many Western countries such as the United States, Great Britain, and France depend on Middle East oil for their energy needs, they are forced to give attention to difficulties faced by the Palestinian Arabs even though they overwhelmingly support Israel's claim of a right to a secure existence.
• Israeli officials frequently place restrictions on movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, such as road closures and setting up checkpoints. These restrictions impede Palestinian Arabs access to employment, healthcare, education, and other services. Restrictions contribute to severe poverty, unemployment, and hunger among Palestinian Arabs.

Consider the following …

• A conclusion as to whether Arabs or Israelis have a stronger set of claims to the area known as Israel depends in part on one's own view of the area's history going back several thousand years. Divide into groups, review historic claims, and debate this most complex topic.
• The two basic peace initiatives at the start of the twenty-first century were the Geneva Accord of November 2003 written by representatives of Palestinian Arabs and Israelis and the Road Map to Peace of 2002 initiated by the United States. Research each and comment how each is faring.
• In April 2002, Israel began construction of a security barrier, a high wall, to keep Palestinian Arabs intent on causing harm to Israelis from crossing into Israel from the West Bank. Do you think this will provide more security to Israelis? How might this affect Palestinian Arabs who must cross the area for jobs or school?

For More Information

BOOKS

Cattan, Henry. The Palestine Question. New York: Croom Helm, 1988.

Gelvin, James L. The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Lesch, Ann M. and Dan Tschirgi. Origins and Development of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Wasserstein, Bernard. Israelis and Palestinians: Why do they fight? Can they stop? New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.

WEB SITES

"Israel/Occupied Territories." Amnesty International's Human Rights Concerns. http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/israel_and_occupied_territories/document.do?id=ar&yr=2005 (accessed on December 12, 2006).

Extrajudicial: Not approved by courts.

Injunction: Court order.

Petition: Written request signed by a number of people.

Bail: Payment guaranteeing the person will show up when requested.

With impunity: Without punishment.

Infrastructure: Public developments such as roads, airports, and bridges.

Reprisal: Retaliation against an enemy.

Rapporteur: Investigator.

Disproportionately: Unjustly severe.

Revocation: Cancellation.

Institutionalized: Formalized.