Israel’s Refusal to Recognize the Right of Palestinian Refugees to Return
MIFTAH | 18.07.2003 20:35 | Anti-militarism | Anti-racism | Repression | World
Since July 1 the Israeli government has violated RVERY recent agreement it made by carrying out military invasions of Palestinian areas, implementing a campaign of abductions, opening fire on civilian areas without provocation, imposing curfews and not relaxing its “draconian” closure that restricts all movement for Palestinians
Israeli Parliament: there are no occupied territories
By MIFTAH
July 18, 2003
The Israeli Parliament, known as the Knesset, approved a draft legislation on Tuesday claiming that the West Bank and Gaza are not territories occupied by Israel. This decision deals a major blow to the already faltering peace process.
The proposal, presented by the ruling hard-liners of the Likud party, states that “[the] West Bank and Gaza Strip, whether historically or based on international law and agreements signed by Israel, are not occupied territories.”
Outlining red lines that must not be crossed in future peace negotiations, the approved resolution calls upon the Israeli government not to accept any concession in relation to Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and the return of Palestinian refugees.
The issue of refugees, specifically, may push back recent movements on the U.S.-backed ‘roadmap’ to peace, such as the Palestinian factions’ truce and Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and Bethlehem. There are about four million Palestinian refugees, most of whom live in surrounding Arab countries, hoping for the right to return. But this law confirms Israel’s refusal to recognize the right of Palestinian refugees to return, in fear of destroying the country’s ‘Jewish character.’
The Knesset passed the bill with a majority of 26 lawmakers, including 17 Likud members, in favour and only eight opposed. Israeli commentators consider the resolution part of the Likud party’s efforts to hinder Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from advancing with the ‘roadmap,’ which promises an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
Although the new legislation is not yet binding, it further weakens Sharon's credibility as a man of his word, especially since he recently signaled Israeli readiness to end "occupation" of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"I think that the idea of keeping 3.5 million Palestinians under occupation is the worst thing for Israel, for the Palestinians and also for the Israeli economy," Sharon said in statements carried by the Israeli Maariv newspaper on May 25.
However, political analysts suspect Sharon’s statement was merely a political manuever that would never be put to the test. But upon receiving instant criticism from his Likud party, the Israeli leader immediately retracted his statement and continued issuing orders for more settlement construction, incursions and military control of the occupied territories. Even so, as evident from the parliament’s decision, skepticism toward Sharon’s political power lingers.
Sharon received another embarrassment this week during his European tour to improve relations and gain support for Israel’s agenda in the peace process. He failed to convince Britain and Norway to cut all ties and relations with Palestinian National Authority President Yasser Arafat.
“We certainly meet with those we want to meet with. We shall not be told who we can meet with. No way we are going to change our policy,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen told AFP.
The Palestinian National Authority condemned the Knesset’s decision as another obstacle and set-back to the settlement of the decades-old conflict. With all the stumbling blocks in the peace process over the years, the PNA questions ever finding a peace partner in Israel.
“Such decisions are dangerous, destructive for the peace process and roadmap,” the PNA said in a statement quoted by Reuters.
The Knesset’s ratification of this legislation is one of many moves by the Israeli government that undermine the current peace agreements. Since July 1 the Israeli government has violated every recent agreement it has made by carrying out military invasions of Palestinian areas, implementing a campaign of abductions, opening fire on civilian areas without being provoked, imposing curfews and not relaxing its “draconian” closure that restricts all movement for Palestinians. In addition, land confiscation and destruction of Palestinian property continues unabated.
Despite promises to dismantle settlement outposts and halt construction on settlements throughout the West Bank and Gaza, the Israeli government has established 17 new outposts and called for the continuation of construction.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is expected to meet with U.S. President Bush in Washington on July 25 to discuss the implementation of the phases in the ‘roadmap.’
“This visit will be centered on the commitments made by Israel to freeze settlements in the progress in the peace process,” a Palestinian official told AFP Wednesday.
http://www.miftah.org
By MIFTAH
July 18, 2003
The Israeli Parliament, known as the Knesset, approved a draft legislation on Tuesday claiming that the West Bank and Gaza are not territories occupied by Israel. This decision deals a major blow to the already faltering peace process.
The proposal, presented by the ruling hard-liners of the Likud party, states that “[the] West Bank and Gaza Strip, whether historically or based on international law and agreements signed by Israel, are not occupied territories.”
Outlining red lines that must not be crossed in future peace negotiations, the approved resolution calls upon the Israeli government not to accept any concession in relation to Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and the return of Palestinian refugees.
The issue of refugees, specifically, may push back recent movements on the U.S.-backed ‘roadmap’ to peace, such as the Palestinian factions’ truce and Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and Bethlehem. There are about four million Palestinian refugees, most of whom live in surrounding Arab countries, hoping for the right to return. But this law confirms Israel’s refusal to recognize the right of Palestinian refugees to return, in fear of destroying the country’s ‘Jewish character.’
The Knesset passed the bill with a majority of 26 lawmakers, including 17 Likud members, in favour and only eight opposed. Israeli commentators consider the resolution part of the Likud party’s efforts to hinder Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from advancing with the ‘roadmap,’ which promises an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
Although the new legislation is not yet binding, it further weakens Sharon's credibility as a man of his word, especially since he recently signaled Israeli readiness to end "occupation" of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"I think that the idea of keeping 3.5 million Palestinians under occupation is the worst thing for Israel, for the Palestinians and also for the Israeli economy," Sharon said in statements carried by the Israeli Maariv newspaper on May 25.
However, political analysts suspect Sharon’s statement was merely a political manuever that would never be put to the test. But upon receiving instant criticism from his Likud party, the Israeli leader immediately retracted his statement and continued issuing orders for more settlement construction, incursions and military control of the occupied territories. Even so, as evident from the parliament’s decision, skepticism toward Sharon’s political power lingers.
Sharon received another embarrassment this week during his European tour to improve relations and gain support for Israel’s agenda in the peace process. He failed to convince Britain and Norway to cut all ties and relations with Palestinian National Authority President Yasser Arafat.
“We certainly meet with those we want to meet with. We shall not be told who we can meet with. No way we are going to change our policy,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen told AFP.
The Palestinian National Authority condemned the Knesset’s decision as another obstacle and set-back to the settlement of the decades-old conflict. With all the stumbling blocks in the peace process over the years, the PNA questions ever finding a peace partner in Israel.
“Such decisions are dangerous, destructive for the peace process and roadmap,” the PNA said in a statement quoted by Reuters.
The Knesset’s ratification of this legislation is one of many moves by the Israeli government that undermine the current peace agreements. Since July 1 the Israeli government has violated every recent agreement it has made by carrying out military invasions of Palestinian areas, implementing a campaign of abductions, opening fire on civilian areas without being provoked, imposing curfews and not relaxing its “draconian” closure that restricts all movement for Palestinians. In addition, land confiscation and destruction of Palestinian property continues unabated.
Despite promises to dismantle settlement outposts and halt construction on settlements throughout the West Bank and Gaza, the Israeli government has established 17 new outposts and called for the continuation of construction.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is expected to meet with U.S. President Bush in Washington on July 25 to discuss the implementation of the phases in the ‘roadmap.’
“This visit will be centered on the commitments made by Israel to freeze settlements in the progress in the peace process,” a Palestinian official told AFP Wednesday.
http://www.miftah.org
MIFTAH
Homepage:
http://www.Miftah.org
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
zionism
18.07.2003 21:03
The claim of "constant exploitation" removed the parasitic lifestyle of the "chosen people" from the the center of attention of other nations as well as of the class claimed by Marxism. But it continued to reign as the leader of speculative finance capital, bound to no territory or national community. It also led the Marxist organization that spanned all boundaries of land and ethnicity, just as "Jahwe" rules over the universe.
The growing wealth of the Jews, along with the increasing influence that their wealth gave them led to a certain loosening of Jewish cohesiveness. Increasing numbers went from the Mosaic to the Christian faith purely to gain further advantages. There was a certain "assimilation," and a "liberal" Jewry also developed that accepted those precepts of Jewish doctrine that were pleasant and comfortable, but rejected those that caused discomfort, without however leaving the Jewish faith. Karl Marx-Mordechai's doctrines were even reflected in the Jewish organization "Paole Zion" among the poor Jews found only in the East who had not accomplished anything.
Zionism resulted from thinking about the position of the Jews within their host peoples and from knowledge of their financial and political power. It was an attempt to balance these facts and combat the spiritually divergent tendencies in Jewry. Its founder Herzl spoke more or less openly in various places in his diaries: "Where it exists, one can no longer abolish the legal equality of the Jews. This is not only because it goes against the modern mind, but also because all Jews, rich and poor, would immediately be forced into revolutionary parties. There is really nothing they can do to us. In the past one took their jewelry from the Jews; can one today take their movable wealth? The impossibility of getting at the Jews has only strengthened and embittered hatred. Anti-Semitism grows daily, even hourly, in the population. It will continue to grow since its causes continue to exist and cannot be eliminated." (Th. Herzl, The Jewish State ). "I do not wish to write about the history of the Jews. It is familiar. I must mention only one thing: In our two thousand years in the Diaspora, there has been no unified leadership. That is what I think is our primary misfortune." To overcome this "misfortune," Herzl founded political Zionism.
Non-Jewish observers and writers on Zionism who see political Zionism only as an attempt at "national renewal" rather than an effort to establish a unified Jewish leadership as well as Jewish rule over the world, are therefore incorrect. The confusion of political Zionism with Palestine can be understood only through the Jewish prophecies in which Jewry is assured of control over all the goods of this world. Knowing that the time was near, and would culminate in taking possession of Palestine, Zionism developed the nonsensical notion of an "historic claim" to the "promised land," to which Jews "without any outside pressure" would gradually immigrate.
In the ideology of political Zionism, Palestine fulfilled the role of an indispensable part of prophecy, just as certain rules are the guarantee for success of the magical ceremonies of primitive peoples. Political Zionism never intended Palestine to be the destination of all Jews, rather it merely wants to make Palestine the center of Jewish world policy. That must naturally be protected by a strong Jewish population. The Zionist publication Jüdische Rundschau wrote: "No one at any time has proposed that all Jews today should emigrate to Palestine." Nabum Sokolow, Weizmann's colleague and current chairman of the Zionist Committee, said it clearly in 1921: "The Jewish people wants to return to Palestine, the Jewish people will have its center in Palestine. Large parts of Jewry will live as a Jewish periphery in the world. They must be cared for, their dignity and their national rights must be assured."
This is also clear from the text of the state treaty Jewry concluded with England, the so-called Balfour Declaration: "His Majesty's Government favors the establishment of a national home in Palestine for the Jews, and we will make the greatest efforts to reach this goal, although it is clearly understood that nothing will be done that will affect the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political standing of Jews in any other country."
That provides a correction to the idealization of Zionism, which springs from a different race. From a political standpoint, it would be in the interests of the whole world, of all the host peoples, if the Jews now scattered throughout the whole world were to voluntarily emigrate to some habitable territory. If political Zionism were not interested in such a solution to the Jewish Question, it would be in the interests of the host peoples to point it in that positive direction. The only question would be whether Palestine is the proper gathering place, which no one would likely maintain. Palestine is not able to absorb all the Jews in the world, entirely aside from the fact of increasing Arab opposition to Jewish infiltration. The Arabs are after all the undisputed owners of the land. But what other territory would be appropriate? And at the instant Palestine ceased to be the the goal of Jewish emigration, political Zionism would collapse, since Palestine is seen as a means for the fulfillment of prophecy. Without that, the whole enterprise would lose its point. Jewry itself would make the most passionate and bitter attacks, and before long any undertaking that ignored Palestine would be crippled by Jewry itself. Palestine incorporates for Jewry its special position. Ignoring this would be ethnic suicide for Jewry, since political Zionism also has as a goal maintaining and strengthening Jewry's special situation.
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/zionism.htm
Abu Ali
Ninety per cent of Palestinians reject the 'right of return'
18.07.2003 21:18
Furious Palestinian refugees stormed the Ramallah offices of pollster Khalil Shikaki on Sunday morning, trying to stop him from releasing a new survey showing that most Palestinian refugees are ready to abandon claims to return to Israel.
According to Shikaki's Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll, only 10 percent of respondents would wish to rebuild their homes under Israeli rule. Just over half of respondents said they would want to return to an independent Palestinian state, while 17% said they would stay in their adopted homes, and 2% would like to move to a foreign country. The rest rejected all the options presented or did not have an opinion.
At the same time, the survey stated that the majority of refugees would support an agreement that does not address the so-called right of return, according to staff at the pollster's office.
In the survey, 4,506 people were interviewed between January and June, distributed almost equally among Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. The survey had a margin of error of less than 3% for each of the areas surveyed.
Around 700,000 Palestinians became refugees during the War of Independence in 1948. They and their descendants now number almost four million, living in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, according to the PLO.
"The refugees who didn't choose to return to 1948 lands... know that life in Israel means Israeli citizenship, Israeli laws, and an Israeli social environment," Shikaki said.
He was to present the results to journalists at his office when an angry crowd of refugees came to protest against the results and a group of youngsters stormed into the offices, smashing the windows, overturning and breaking furniture, and throwing eggs at Shikaki.
"This is a message for everyone not to tamper with our rights," one angry refugee said.
"We are here to announce that our right of return is a sacred right," said a leaflet distributed by the protesters. "We will resist any attempt to sabotage our right of return."
"They did not even see the results," Shikaki told reporters as he mopped egg from his face. He was not hurt, but cancelled the press conference.
Staff called for Palestinian Authority policemen; eyewitnesses said police arrived too late to stop the youngsters, but tried to calm tempers.
Palestinian sources said they believe some "political elements" sent the youngsters to threaten Shikaki.
"Someone sent them and provoked them. They had no way of knowing what was the real outcome of the survey," one eyewitness said.
Palestinian officials condemned the attack on Shikaki, but one official said that, "As long as there is no law and order and no better atmosphere, it is the wrong time to raise the issue. In this environment, no one can protect those who raise this sensitive issue," he said.
Al-Quds University president Sari Nusseibeh, the most prominent Palestinian to state that Palestinians must give up on the "right of return," was attacked by Fatah activists in Ramallah for making the statements and lost a lot of popularity for simply raising the issue.
He continues to lobby for the idea, reasoning that only by breaking the taboo against discussing the controversial issue will Palestinians be able to deal with it.
While Fatah and other Palestinian factions reject any compromise over the issue, refugees in Lebanon and Jordan have for a long time said that their dream is to return to a Palestinian state, not Israel proper.
Already in 1990, young Palestinian refugees in Lebanon told this reporter that their dream was to return to a Palestinian state and make a normal life there for themselves and their families.
"The polls reflect the thinking of the Palestinians, but do not determine politics... We continue to demand the right of return as part of a peace agreement," a PA source said. "Most Palestinians know that compensation and the return to the [future] state of Palestine, instead of Israel, is the practical solution [but] no one dares to say it publicly," he added.
Associated Press
sick of endless racist crap
21.07.2003 10:55
Of course, it has been posted in response to one of the endless Israeli Ministry of Information postings which, while subtler, are packed full of anti-Arab racism.
And that's not to mention the endless 400-page essays on the Evil of Islam.
And lots of comments from 'natsocnet'.. 'natsoc' = National Socialist = Nazi, geddit?
I think this is either opportunistic racists exploiting a naive concept of free speech, or an attempt to discredit IndyMedia, or most likely both. Any road up, the newswire and its readers are being played.
awake
Wide Awake
21.07.2003 12:09
I too am getting well sick of this website becoming nothing more than tired circular discussions of whether Muslims are the single evillest thing since Pol Pot or whether opposing Israeli military aggression makes one a raving anti-semite.
Pish! Pish and tosh! YOU ARE ALL BEING USED AND ABUSED!
Indymedia *is* being duped by this shit. It's getting depressing, logging on to see if there's anything interesting going on in Britain to resist the REAL ENEMIES (ie capitalism, power-hungry megalomaniacs, and RACISM of all sorts), only to find nothing more than two sets of bigots having a go at each other.
Can all the people whose head is full of poisonous crap about "zionazis" and "islamofascists" please fuck off and start your own website?
Then you can sidetrack each other as much as you like, while the rest of us get on with organising resistance to the corporate takeover of the world.
Thank you
Mad Monk