Defending
Human Rights In Palestine
By Sonia Nettnin
07 August, 2007
Countercurrents.org
(Chicago) – Israeli Human Rights Attorney Gaby
Lasky spoke about the challenges Palestinians face under Israeli occupation
and Israeli settler violence.
Lasky is the former secretary general of Israeli Peace
Now and a former lieutenant of the Israeli Defense Forces.
Now she represents Israelis, Palestinians and internationals involved
in non-violent resistance to Israeli occupation in Israeli courts.
She spoke on behalf of an Arab-Jewish grassroots organization called
Ta’ayush
(in Arabic, means “life in common”), to raise money for
their legal fund. Ta’ayush works to eliminate racism and segregation
through the creation of an Arab-Jewish
partnership. Also, here is more information about the reasons
for the legal fund.
“One of the activities that it (Ta’ayush) has been doing
for the last year is dealing with secular and army violence against
Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills,” Lasky said. “Most
of the settlers are violent settlers…and they go around with machine
guns and weapons everywhere they go…they believe everything belongs
to them.”
Last Thursday, two settlers from the illegal outpost of Mitzpeh Yair
attacked
UN workers. Lasky was told that one of the settlers called
for other settlers, who came with stones. They did not allow for the
UN vehicle to cross, so one settler crushed the windshield glass on
the driver’s side, and then came at him with a weapon.
“You can imagine what happens to Palestinians children or Palestinians
mostly alone,” Lasky said. “Settlers take advantage of those
situations and I can tell u as a lawyer nothing happens to them.”
Israeli Settlers Lead the Israeli Army
How are settlements created?
Settlers decide they want to expand the existing settlement, so they
set up a tent or a house and a generator “…and then it becomes
an outpost office settlement,” Lasky added.
Even though the Israeli Army and the Israeli Government knows it is
illegal, the army sends soldiers to care for the settlers. Then the
Israeli Government paves roads, connects the settlers to electricity
and installs telephone lines to them. Settlers do not install wires,
cables, lines, and pylons all by themselves: they have Israel’s
continued support for these colonies.
“The settlers bring the army with them wherever they go, even
if the army and the government understand the settlements are illegal.
These outposts are made not only to conquer more land, to create a path
for all Jewish-built territories in the Occupied Territories so that
even if some government decides to end the occupation it will be very
difficult,” Lasky said. “It will be very difficult to create
a viable, Palestinian state because there will be so many settlements
that have annexed Palestinian land.”
For example, in the Hebron area there are an estimated 300 Israeli soldiers
caring for the settlers, Lasky explained. In Susya, Palestinian families
have been expelled from their cave and hut dwellings, but somehow these
Palestinians - farmers and sheepherders - managed to return to their
homes.
In the Hebron area, Palestinian children are scared of the settlers,
so now they must travel 10 km to reach two schools. However, they are
accompanied by adults because of the Israeli-pogrom violence. Moreover,
“…the settlers don’t like to see any Palestinian presence.
There have been many violent frictions they (the settlers) are using
their guns and a lot of violence against the children and the people
accompanying them…people have been hospitalized from the violence
from the settlers,” Lasky said.
The IDF could not be reached for comment.
With regards to Israeli outposts and settlements, Palestinians have
petitioned Israel’s Civil Administration to evacuate the settlements,
so “they have 30 days to evacuate or demolish before they go to
court,” Lasky said. “But of course the Civil Administration
has not done anything and it is harder to move the settlers out of the
area after the 30 days.”
In contrast, it is almost impossible for Palestinians to acquire building
permits to build new homes. If they build a new home, they face the
threat of demolition and eviction orders. Hence, they take the chance
of losing everything when they build.
Israeli Settlements, Outposts and International Law
According to a Peace
Now Report there are over 120 Israeli settlements in the
West Bank with a population of over 260,000 settlers (excluding East
Jerusalem) that costs US $556 M/year. Moreover, there are over 100 Israeli
outposts in the West Bank. Article
49 of The Fourth Geneva Convention states “the Occupying
Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population
into the territory it occupies,” and “individual or mass
forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from
occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that
of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of
their motive.”
The Israeli Government is a signatory of The Fourth Geneva Convention
and the UN General Assembly has pointed out Israel’s
violations of International Law.
Lasky explained that there are two different kinds of law: contract
law and customary law. Customary law applies to countries all over the
world, but contract law has to be implemented within a country’s
legal system. “Israel has not made the necessary legal activities
to make the Geneva Convention part of Israel’s legal system,”
she added.
When Israel presented its report of how it has enacted the Geneva Conventions
into their country’s legal system, Lasky explained that Israel’s
position to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights is “the Convention does not apply to the Occupied Territories;
it applies in Israel but not the Occupied Territories.” However,
Israel has been told, time and time again, the Geneva Conventions applies
to the Occupied Territories.
Palestinian Prisoners
Lasky touched on this topic because she represents Palestinian and Israeli
non-violent resistors in the Israeli courts.
Several media sources stated there are an estimated 10,000 Palestinian
prisoners within Israeli prisons. The conditions of Israeli jails for
Palestinian prisoners can be found in a report issued by the Palestinian
Prisoner’s Society.
Further information about the use of torture on Palestinian prisoners
and administrative detainees can be found at The Public
Committee Against Torture in Israel and Palestinian narrative
accounts of abuse and torture can be found at PPS.
“There are 1,000 administrative detainees in Israeli prisons today
without being charged, indicted, without seeing any evidence against
you, they can keep you in prison six months and prolong it for another
six months without knowing the charges against you,” Lasky said.
“I have appeared in administrative courts. You are in another
planet. This is not law you don’t have any substantial rights.
When you do try and ask questions the army attorney says that it’s
secret evidence and they can’t show it.”
Lasky said it is important that people look at the details of the cases
that come to courts. Palestinians have been indicted and charged of
terrorist activity as a member of a terrorist organization because they
are members of political parties on university campuses.
When asked why she continues to do legal defense work despite the disappointing
outcome, Lasky said: “Well I think that when I am able to release
on bail a Palestinian I think it’s a great success. I am really
happy about it when I can bring the bail down from $5000 NIS (New Israeli
Shekel) to $1000 NIS I am happy. When I go to these lower courts I deal
with people in their everyday lives.”
Unrecognized Villages
There are an estimated 100 unrecognized Arab villages inside Israel.
In this context, unrecognized means the Israeli Government does not
recognize these villages on any Israeli maps. Even if the people in
these villages pay taxes, most of the villages do not have paved roads
and/or access to electrical services and water.
According to the documentary, The
Unrecognized, written by Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab
Minority Rights in Israel, 72,000 Arab-Israelis are without drinking
water. The people deal with a variety of health and sewage problems
due to the lack of access to water, electricity, medical clinics and
hospitals. Hidden munitions in the land put the Arab populations at
risk also.
Lasky talked about the Israeli artist colony of Ein Hod, where the Palestinian
village of Ayn Hawd once stood almost 60 years ago. Although most of
the 900 – 950 indigenous inhabitants of Ayn Hawd were expelled
from their land to neighboring countries and refugee camps, some of
the descendants of the Palestinian inhabitants now live in the new Ayn
Hawd, only 1.5 km away.
Director Rachel Leah Jones created the documentary, “500
Dunums on the Moon,” about Ayn Hawd and Ein Hod.
Lasky brought up Ayn Hawd because Ta’ayush is one of the few organizations
that helps pave roads to these unrecognized villages and tries to help
the people rebuild their communities.
Sonia Nettnin writes about social, political, economic,
and cultural issues. Her focus is the Middle East.
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