September 28 , 2001

Thiry-Four Years of Occupation: One Year of Intifada

One year ago today, then Likud leader, and current Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the al-Aqsa compound accompanied by over 1,000 Israeli police officers. Despite warnings prior to Sharon’s visit that Palestinians would likely view the visit as a purposeful act of provocation, and that it was likely to be met by protests, the Israeli police and government allowed the visit to go forward. As predicted, Palestinians took to the streets to protest, and Israeli police and military forces responded by firing both rubber and live bullets into crowds of unarmed demonstrators killing five Palestinians. A second day of demonstrations followed in which another ten Palestinians were killed. By the end of the first week of protests Israeli forces had killed 62 Palestinians including 13 children, and hundreds more had been injured. 
This excessive and indiscriminate response by Israeli police and military forces to Palestinian protests exacerbated angers and spurred on the intifada. Now, after one year, 645 Palestinians have been killed, and approximately 20,000 have been injured. 

During the current intifada, violations of Palestinians’ human rights by Israel have reached unprecedented levels. Both local and international human rights organizations have documented hundreds of serious violations of Palestinians’ rights including: the denial of medical care, the clearing of agricultural land and the slaughter of herds of cattle, the destruction of property, restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement, curfews, beatings, torture, willful killings, assassinations and the shelling and bombing of residential areas, hospitals (including ICRC offices) and schools. Traveling from Ramallah to Nablus, a trip of 45 minutes, now takes anywhere from three to five hours, if it is possible. For many, travel has simply stopped being an option due to the roadblocks, checkpoints and sieges on cities imposed by the Israeli military. Israeli shelling has left many Palestinians dead or wounded, and has caused extensive damage to more than 4,000 buildings. Hundreds more have been completely destroyed. If buildings destroyed by shelling are considered in combination with those destroyed purposefully by Israeli bulldozers then 843 residential buildings have been destroyed in Gaza alone.
Approximately 10,555 dunums of agricultural land have been razed in Gaza. To date, Israel forces have also assassinated 39 Palestinian activists, included high level Palestinian political leaders. The many documented human rights violations, although not all easily quantifiable, do not represent isolated cases, but are part of a demonstrable pattern of systematic abuse of Palestinians by Israel. 

These human rights abuses and the intifada quickly made visible the shortcomings of the Peace Process and the resentment and frustration among Palestinians over the lack of observable change in the Occupied Territories after almost eight years of negotiations. While Sharon’s visit served as the catalyst that sparked the intifada, in and of itself the visit was of limited importance. The primary cause of the intifada was the ongoing, systematic, and institutionalized violations of Palestinians’ basic rights that affected every aspect of daily life for Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories during the years of negotiations leading up to the outbreak of the intifada. Therefore, in order to truly understand the intifada and move forward, the intifada must be viewed within the contexts of Israel’s 34-year occupation of the Palestinian Territories, and of the political atmosphere at the time of its outbreak. 

Since taking control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 Israel has ruled the Occupied Territories with an iron fist. For Palestinians, every facet of daily life has been affected by the occupation. Travel restrictions and pass laws, extended curfews, the use of administrative detention, assassinations and torture are only some of the human rights violations that have been systematically carried out by Israel against Palestinians throughout this period. Israeli policies have left the Palestinian infrastructure severely underdeveloped and have destroyed the Palestinian economy while increasing dependence upon Israel. Military orders issued by the Occupation Authorities control Palestinians’ lives down to the smallest detail, at times limiting such actions as the picking of wild thyme and the planting of flowers. Israel’s settlement policy is also central to its maintenance of the occupation. Settlements have been used as a justification for limiting Palestinians’ freedom of movement, and have been placed in strategic locations so as to effectively divide the Occupied Territories into a series of noncontiguous areas. Additionally, settlements are inextricably linked to the blatant discrimination faced by Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories. Settlers and Palestinians live under different sets of laws and are tried in separate legal systems. There is a separate road system for settlers, and settlers are favored in Israel’s unequal allocation of water and natural resources. 

Palestinians hoped that during the “peace process” Israel’s violations of their rights would end. 
Unfortunately, these hopes were never realized as violations of Palestinian’s human rights continued unabated. Closures and travel restrictions continued to dictate daily life, despite promised settlement freezes the settler population more than doubled between 1993 and 2000, house demolitions persisted, Palestinian’s continued to face daily harassment and abuse at the hands of Israeli soldiers, and the confiscation of land increased. Israel’s refusal to acknowledge UN Resolutions and international law as the foundation upon which the “peace process” should have been built, and its failure to carry out agreed upon withdrawals also exacerbated tensions. 
While the attention of the Israeli Public was focused on the Palestinian National Authority’s refusal to accept the “generous” proposals laid out by their government at Camp David during the months leading up to the Intifada, Palestinians had for years been growing increasingly frustrated by the continued violations of their human rights and the daily abuse they suffered at the hands of Israeli soldiers and settlers. For Palestinians, Barak’s “historic concessions” were not acceptable because of their failure comply with Israel’s obligations as set out in international laws and binding documents including the Fourth Geneva Convention and UN Resolutions 194, 242 and 338. After the failure by both parties to reach an agreement at Camp David, the international community’s public blaming of the Palestinian negotiation team for the failure of the conference while they heaped praise upon Israel for making “historic concessions” increased Palestinians’ level of frustration and their belief that their rights were being ignored. 

When Sharon made his ill-fated visit to the al-Aqsa compound Palestinians’ frustrations, which for years had been building over Israel’s continued human rights violations and its refusal to comply with international law, finally boiled over. Several attempts to end the conflict have since been made, but none have yet been successful. However, another ceasefire was signed this week in the hope that the conflict can be ended through negotiations. In the ceasefire both sides have committed to a one week period of calm, which will be followed by a six week “confidence building” period. After the “confidence building” period is over both sides have agreed to sit down in an attempt to again begin negotiating a solution to the conflict. If this ceasefire holds, Israel has pledged to pull back to the positions it held prior to the outbreak of the Intifada until such time as new arrangements are negotiated. However, Israel and the international community must recognize that the positions held by Israel prior to the Intifada and the continued occupation were root causes of the frustration that led to the current intifada. A withdrawal to the positions held prior to September is unlikely to lower tensions, as it does not address any of the root causes of the conflict. To bring about a true and lasting peace international law will have to be respected, and the occupation must end. 

Israel’s continued occupation is at the crux of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israel’s human rights violations in the Occupied Territories are directly connected to its continued occupation of the Palestinian Territories and the denial of Palestinians’ right to self-determination. Palestinians’ freedom to develop and control their national resources, both human and natural, forms the foundation upon which the realization of all of their economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights are based. Israel’s denial of Palestinian’s right to self-determination has stopped Palestinians from developing and controlling their resources, effectively blocking Palestinians’ realization of their rights. Unfortunately, despite the fact that there is universal agreement concerning the illegality of Israel’s occupation and despite indisputable evidence of Israel’s human rights violations, both Israel and the international community have failed to fulfill their legal obligations towards the Palestinian people. 

The Oslo Process never openly address the illegality of the occupation in terms based in international law. International law was pushed aside, and Palestinians’ rights were made negotiable. Instead of advancing justice and ending human rights abuses, the peace process became a political struggle to limit losses and gains. If peace is to be advanced, it must be advanced according to the dictates of International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention must be respected, and Israel must comply with all applicable UN Resolutions. Future discussions of peace must follow a new path based on the ideas of right and justice. Human rights are universal, and their realization cannot be made subject to negotiation.

Under Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention all States Parties to the convention pledge to “undertake to respect and to ensure respect” for the Convention in all circumstances. Israel’s belligerent occupation of the Palestinian Territories and its continued human rights violations blatantly violate this Convention and numerous other international laws. The international community should therefore take concrete steps against Israel, including the imposition of sanctions, in an effort to force Israel to fulfill its legal obligations. Israel is also bound as a member of the United Nations to comply with all UN Resolutions. Israel continues to openly ignore this obligation. Therefore, the UN should also take steps, including suspending Israel’s membership, to force Israel to fulfill its obligations to the UN and comply with international law. 

Since its establishment in 1979 al-Haq has continually promoted the rule of law and documented and reported on Israeli violations of Palestinians’ human rights in the Occupied Territories. Through all of this period three demands made by al-Haq have remained constant. 

First, al-Haq has continually demanded that the Palestinian People’s right to self-determination be recognized, and that Israel end its illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 
Second, al-Haq has continually stated that Israel and the international community must take action to both respect and ensure respect of all provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention and international law in the Occupied Territories. Finally, al-Haq has demanded that in light of Israel’s ongoing violations of Palestinians’ rights and its failure to respect the Fourth Geneva Convention, the international community should provide the Palestinian people living under occupation with protection. Al-Haq now reiterates these demands. Real justice will only be found when the occupation is ended and international human rights and humanitarian laws are applied and enforced.