Israel builds settlements, PA guards them ~ by Khalid Amayreh

June 17, 2013 by occupiedpalestine 0 Comments

“Settling” constitutes a warcime according to international law and ICC statute. Even under US’ own military legislations’
Law resources below this article

[ PIC 17/06/2013 – 10:22 PM ]
Follow @palinfoen Follow @palinfoar

By Khalid Amayeh in Occupied Jerusalem

PLO official Nabil Shaath threw a bombshell this week when he told Israeli reporters in Ramallah that the Palestinian Authority (PA) spends a large portion of its meager budget on guarding Israeli colonies against possible attacks by Palestinian resistance fighters.

Shaath, who is known for his honesty and candidness, said the PA was spending more funds on protecting Israeli settlements than it was on education and health in the occupied territories.

Fatah spokespersons said Shaath was trying to tell the Israeli public that the PA was doing all it could to keep the peace and honor signed agreements with Israel .

This is really a shocking, though not surprising- admission which should embarrass all Palestinians, especially those still giving the PA the benefit of the doubt and thinking that the PLO is still the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

We all know that the PA is filling the ether with never-ending complaints about Jewish settlement expansion. So one wonders how the world will take the PA seriously ever after this scandalous revelation, which really illustrates the moral and political schizophrenia overwhelming the PLO-PA leadership. Others, who are less diplomatic, would not hesitate to consider the matter a brazen treason to the Palestinian people and their aspiration for independence and freedom.

The PA used to call itself “the Palestinian National Authority.” Now, The State of Palestine” is replacing the PA as the official name of the semi-autonomous regime. Unfortunately both names are devoid of substance as the Israeli occupation continues to control every street and neighborhood in the West Bank .

It is really disgraceful that the PA regime always strives to appease the Israeli occupiers, not only by allocating hard-earned or politically-motivated aid money for protecting Jewish colonies but also by continuing to arrest and round up Palestinians deemed supportive of Islamic groups.

This is actually more than disgraceful. In the final analysis, we are protecting child-killers, land-grabbers, and terrorists who vandalize our mosques and torch our grain fields and live orchards.

As to terrorizing Palestinians on behalf of Israel, it shows that the PA is decidedly at Israel’s beck and call, which means that the PA is actually answerable to the Zionist regime, its whims and vagaries when the Ramallah regime ought to be responsible to the Palestinian people.

Apart from the political dimension, one can’t really find the right words to describe the scandal of PA willingness to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on protecting the security of Israeli settlements in the West Bank when more than 70% of Palestinians live under the poverty line.

More to the point, the PA, including the new government headed by Rami Hamdallah, lacks the courage to tell the truth to the Palestinian masses about its umbilical subservience to Israel.

Instead, the PA continues to indulge in cheap rhetoric and lies about Palestinian statehood when even the most casual observers have come to realize that establishing a viable and territorially contiguous state is no longer a realistic possibility in light of the massive expansion of Jewish settlements and the adamant rejection by Israel of any compromises that would allow the Palestinian people to reclaim even a small part of their usurped rights.

In fact, the PA is not only deceiving the Palestinian people. It is also deceiving Arab states and the Muslim public opinion by insisting that donated Arab aid would enhance Palestinian steadfastness and thwart colonialist Zionist schemes. Well, the truth, the naked truth, is that Arab and non-Arab aid money is used to enhance the security of Jewish settlements, not Palestinian steadfastness.

Well, the next time a PA official comes to ask for more money from Arab states; he should be asked how much money the PA spends on education as opposed to protecting Nazi-like Jewish settlers hell-bent on ethnically cleansing our people from our ancestral homeland.

The Palestinian people, thoroughly exhausted by an economic meltdown and cheated by the world community as well as its own leadership, should also bring the PA to account and ask it about the merits of keeping up and funding 70,000 security personnel whose main job is protecting Israeli settlement security.

This week, PA economy minister reportedly met with his Israeli counterpart and agreed on more “economic coordination.” This shows that the PA never learns from its mistakes.

Following the hapless Oslo Accords, the PLO promised the Palestinian people that the West Bank and Gaza Strip would soon become the Hong Kong and Singapore of the Middle East. The truth of the matter, however, is that the occupied territories effectively became the Somalia of the Arab world as poverty, economic depravity and unemployment skyrocketed as never before.

The former PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad eventually reached the conclusion that it was impossible to build a prosperous economy under a sinister foreign military occupation.

Now, the new government in Ramallah is walking in the same path, which proved catastrophic, thinking that Palestinians can achieve economic prosperity in the absence of Palestinian sovereignty and freedom of movement.

Politically, the PLO-PA establishment is behaving like Alice in Wonderland. PA officials, including Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, continue to make daily statements claiming that there is still a chance for reaching a peaceful settlement for the protracted conflict when every observer and every pundit, Palestinian and Israeli alike, know well that time has passed peace by, due to massive settlement expansion.

So why is the PLO-PA refusing to see the obvious? Are they blind? Are they drunk? Are they stupid?

LAW

“States may not deport or transfer parts of their own civilian population into a territory they occupy.”

Summary

State practice establishes this rule as a norm of customary international law applicable in international armed conflicts.
International armed conflicts

The prohibition on deporting or transferring parts of a State’s own civilian population into the territory it occupies is set forth in the Fourth Geneva Convention.[1]

It is a grave breach of Additional Protocol I.[2]

Under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, “the transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” constitutes a war crime in international armed conflicts.[3]

Many military manuals prohibit the deportation or transfer by a party to the conflict of parts of its civilian population into the territory it occupies.[4]

This rule is included in the legislation of numerous States.[5]

Official statements and reported practice also support the prohibition on transferring one’s own civilian population into occupied territory.[6]

Attempts to alter the demographic composition of an occupied territory have been condemned by the UN Security Council.[7]

In 1992, it called for the cessation of attempts to change the ethnic composition of the population, anywhere in the former Yugoslavia.[8]

Similarly, the UN General Assembly and UN Commission on Human Rights have condemned settlement practices.[9]

According to the final report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Dimensions of Population Transfer, including the Implantation of Settlers and Settlements, “the implantation of settlers” is unlawful and engages State responsibility and the criminal responsibility of individuals.[10]

In 1981, the 24th International Conference of the Red Cross reaffirmed that “settlements in occupied territory are incompatible with article 27 and 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention”.[11]

In the Case of the Major War Criminals in 1946, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg found two of the accused guilty of attempting the “Germanization” of occupied territories.[12]

References

[1] Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 49, sixth paragraph (cited in Vol. II, Ch. 38, § 334).

[2] Additional Protocol I, Article 85(4)(a) (adopted by consensus) (ibid., § 335).

[3] ICC Statute, Article 8(2)(b)(viii) (ibid., § 336).

[4] See, e.g., the military manuals of Argentina (ibid., §§ 346–347), Australia (ibid., § 348), Canada (ibid., § 349), Croatia (ibid., § 350), Hungary (ibid., § 351), Italy (ibid., § 352), Netherlands (ibid., § 353), New Zealand (ibid., § 354), Spain (ibid., § 355), Sweden (ibid., § 357), Switzerland (ibid., § 357), United Kingdom (ibid., § 358) and United States (ibid., § 359).

[5] See, e.g., the legislation of Armenia (ibid., § 361), Australia (ibid., §§ 362–363), Azerbaijan (ibid., §§ 364–365), Bangladesh (ibid., § 366), Belarus (ibid., § 367), Belgium (ibid., § 368), Bosnia and Herzegovina (ibid., § 369), Canada (ibid., §§ 371–372), Congo (ibid., § 373), Cook Islands (ibid., § 374), Croatia (ibid., § 375), Cyprus (ibid., § 376), Czech Republic (ibid., § 377), Germany (ibid., § 379), Georgia (ibid., § 380), Ireland (ibid., § 381), Mali (ibid., § 384), Republic of Moldova (ibid., § 385), Netherlands (ibid., § 386), New Zealand (ibid., §§ 387–388), Niger (ibid., § 390), Norway (ibid., § 391), Slovakia (ibid., § 392), Slovenia (ibid., § 393), Spain (ibid., § 394), Tajikistan (ibid., § 395), United Kingdom (ibid., §§ 397–398), Yugoslavia (ibid., § 399) and Zimbabwe (ibid., § 400); see also the draft legislation of Argentina (ibid., § 360), Burundi (ibid., § 370), Jordan (ibid., § 382), Lebanon (ibid., § 383) and Trinidad and Tobago (ibid., § 396).

[6] See, e.g., the statements of Kuwait (ibid., § 405) and United States (ibid., §§ 406–407) and the reported practice of Egypt (ibid., § 402) and France (ibid., § 403).

[7] See, e.g., UN Security Council, Res. 446 , 452 and 476 (ibid., § 408), Res. 465 (ibid., § 409) and Res. 677 (ibid., § 410).

[8] UN Security Council, Res. 752 (ibid., § 411).

[9] See, e.g., UN General Assembly, Res. 36/147 C, 37/88 C, 38/79 D, 39/95 D and 40/161 D (ibid., § 412) and Res. 54/78 (ibid., § 405); UN Commission on Human Rights, Res. 2001/7 (ibid., § 413).

[10] UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights, Final report of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Dimensions of Population Transfer, including the Implantation of Settlers and Settlements (ibid., § 415).

[11] 24th International Conference of the Red Cross, Res. III (ibid., § 419).

[12] International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, Case of the Major War Criminals, Judgement (ibid., § 421).

Still live in fairy-tale-land about Israel? Time to wake up: The Map of the “Greater Israel” even is hammered on the currency:All facts at Storify continuously updated. Read what Israeli ‘leaders’ have said and done even before (peace) talks and how their actions contradict the reality and ugly facts which they try to hide from you: