ACT NOW! Holding Israeli Corporations Accountable for Human Rights Violations
An Introduction
This ACT NOW! could be a start of a struggle to hold Israeli and international corporations responsible for human rights violations during the continuing occupation of Palestinian lands. The concept of holding businesses accountable for human rights violations has become an increasingly accepted notion since World War II. The spectrum of accountability mechanisms has ranged from trials and tribunals, based on both national and international human rights law to, in recent decades, a proliferation of codes of conduct. At one extreme are judicial proceedings, including criminal prosecutions, and civil actions for monetary compensation. At the other end are the codes of conduct, characterised by voluntary adherence although some include sanctions and enforcement mechanisms. There is increasing pressure for these codes to conform with international legal instruments. The international condemnations of Israeli settlements over decades as well as other human rights instruments overlap to provide norms and standards which govern economic life.
Settlements: Injustice and International Law
Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are illegal, unjust, and are an obstacle to peace. Successive Israeli governments, since 1948, have used the concept of Palestine being a "land without people" in order to justify continuous and illegal settlement expansion in the OPT since 1967. The Israeli government's settlement construction program has continued even after the Oslo Agreements. The existence of Israeli settlements contravenes the Fourth Geneva Convention which demands the occupier of foreign land to refrain from undertaking any procedures meant to change the status quo of the occupied territories, including the transfer of its civilians.
The actions also contravene with UNSC resolutions and the bilateral signed agreements. Such unilateral Israeli practices breach the Wye Agreement. The provisions related to unilateral actions state the following: "Recognising the necessity to create a positive environment for negotiations, neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in accordance with the Interim Agreement."
Furthermore, these procedures violate the Cairo Agreements of May 1994, which in the preamble reaffirm " their understanding that the interim self-government arrangements, including the arrangements to apply in the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area contained in this Agreement, are an integral part of the whole peace process and that the negotiations on the permanent status will lead to the implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338."
Not only do Israeli procedures violate the legitimate political rights of the Palestinian people, they also take over their property, threatening their security and life. The construction of bypass roads will devour Palestinian agricultural land, the source of their pride and living. Furthermore, the roads will necessitate the demolition of hundreds of Palestinian houses and the dislocation of hundreds of families. Israeli forces have been preventing residents from cultivating the land adjacent to their houses. Many people have been detained because of their attempts to cultivate their own land, and water supplies to the neighbourhood have been cut off.
Settlers have also been known to attack residents of the same neighbourhood. This appears to be part of an orchestrated attempt to threaten the Palestinian community in an effort to make way for settlement expansion. In the West Bank, there are an estimated 349,327 illegal settlers, many of whom hold extremist views and have formed themselves into militias and there is evidence of the stock-piling of arsenals in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Holding Israeli Corporations Accountable for Human Rights Violations
Israeli corporations are violating human rights by operating in Israeli settlements build on confiscated Palestinian land. The establishment of permanent Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) contravene international (humanitarian) law. According to that law, an occupying power is prohibited from transferring population from its territory it occupies, and from performing any act that is not intended to benefit the local population. In addition, international law prohibits creating permanent change not intended for the benefit of that population. In their settlement policy, the various Israeli governments have violated international law, in general, and international agreements to which Israel is a party, in particular. Israel continues to expropriate additional Palestinian lands, both private and public, to expand settlements, and to build bypass roads.
There is no distinction between the public and private spheres for those involved in Israel's settlement policy. In the nexus of the economic and political spheres, a profitable, symbiotic relationship for Israeli corporations operating in Israeli settlements, particularly with the Israeli military authority has been fostered. Israeli corporations operating in Israeli settlements are perpetrators of human rights violations and should be held accountable for this.