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STUDY GUIDE : International Law & Israel
Israeli Violations of International Law - (5) Israel repeatedly practices collective punishment against Palestinian acts of rebellion, wherein an entire community is punished for the actions of a few:
ISRAELI VIOLATION: HISTORY & THEORY In the conflict between Israel and Palestine, Israel is the aggressor - Israel is not "just defending herself", but it is the Palestinians that are just trying to defend their private property and freedoms. The way that Israel acts out its aggression while appearing defensive is through the practice of "collective punishment" wherein its "defensive" actions are so extensive in their destruction on a community level such that they thus become more acts of aggression rather than purely defensive actions. But the entire time and thereafter, Israel maintains its explanatory rhetoric defensive and self-effasing thus hiding the true nature of their actions against the targetted Palestinian community. It is because of the true nature of collective punishment that it has been made illegal as per international law (Geneva Conventions IV, art. 33 (1949)) because it involves making an entire community suffer for the activities of a few members. Thus it is a violation of the legal principle of proportionality - that the action is out of proportion in comparison to the original threat it is supposed to be a response to. In other words, Israel uses the rebellion as an excuse to crush the entire community. The historic background to this tactic is the idea of "transfer" first discussed in the late 1800's by the European Zionist organizations that eventually founded the State of Israel. The vast majority of Zionists supported some form of transfer because they believed it was necessary in order for the Zionist to maintain a demographic majority in the area of Palestine. They felt this was necessary from both a security point of view, and if they were going to fulfill their plans of starting a democratic state that still provided preferential treatment and services to one group of people over all others (the Jewish people). But "transfer", or "population transfer" - is a landowner's worst nightmare - that he will be kicked off his own land - his entire family kicked out of their home - his basic right of privacy and land-ownership violated to the worst degree, and his entire family made homeless. This is what the Zionists (the European groupsthat started Israel) and then the State of Israel have been practicing in Palestine since the beginning of the 20th century when the Jewish National Fund first began kicking tenant Arab farmers off their lands bought by the fund, and then forbade employment of any Arabs on that land. Then in addition, the British Mandate Government governing the region at that time began converting land registration in Palestine over to a European style registration system such that many Arab farmers lost their lands that way, and the Zionist groups found new opportunities to buy more lands and then kick off the tenant farmers that had been working that land often for generations. This practice continued upon the establishment of the new State of Israel when over 400 Arab villages were crushed, and aproximately 750,000 Arab villagers were made refugees. And this has continued within the State of Israel as Arab-Israeli citizens continue to lose their lands and are resettled in smaller and smaller areas (now less than 5% of the State of Israel). And it continues in the Arab occupied territories now governed by the Israeli military where Palestinians have lost more than 60% of those territories to a network of Israeli communities and military compounds linked by a web of Israeli-use only roads. And now Israel is building a wall throughout the West Bank which cuts off another 16% of the land as it closes the area between the wall and the green line. All of this sqeezes Palestinian communities into smaller and smaller areas once again, and restricts movement between them thus strangling the local economy. Almost all of the above steps are done by the Israelis with the claim that they are necessary defensive steps when they are clearly much more than that being aggressive actions to take more land and to strangle and exploit the Palestinian communities. This is the nightmare experience of the native Palestinian people - and they have understandably fought back to save their lands, businesses, and way of life - in rebellions (such as in 1936-7), and wars (1948, 1957, 1967), and now again in rebellion (the intifada-s of 1991 and now 2001). But they have always lost in the face of superior weaponry supplied to the Zionists and then the Israelis by the Europeans and now Americans. And of course the Israelis have used these rebellions as excuses to take more lands and hurt the Palestinian communities even more. These are examples of collective punishment because the Israeli military does not just go after the rebel-fighters, it punishes the entire community - it takes their land, destroys their homes and businesses and urban infrastructure, and restricts their movements thus hurting their economy and the life of their society. The Israeli military now is even making it difficult for Palestinians to get food and medical care, and thus malnutrition is spreading across the occupied territories, and often family members must watch their love ones die a terrible death completely unneccessarily. Where an entire community is made to suffer for the actions of a few rebellious members - this is called "collective punishment". And it does not quell the rebellion, but increases its strength and its support throughout the community as previously uninvolved members lose their homes and livelihoods and experience other equally innocent loved ones suffer needlessly. There are many examples of this throughout the history of the conflict. The Israeli government always claims that the tactic is neccessary for the security of the Israeli people against sworn enemies. Thus the 1948 destruction of the 400 villages and driving into exile of about 750,000 people (many left voluntarily to escape the fighting) - but the result is that the Israelis gain more land. That is generally always the result, so thus it is easy to conclude that that is the true reason behind the collective punishment - not to stop the rebellion - but to gain more land. Other important examples are the Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian lands and the separation barrier being built throughout the West Bank isolating and destroying the communities it either cuts through the middle of, or surrounds and strangles. The Israeli government claims both are only defensive and will essentially disappear once the rebellion is over and there is peace in the land, but both impose on the Palestinian people intolerable conditions of oppression, which the Israelis then exploit economically, and thus they have no choice but to rebel. But then the Israelis use this as an excuse to steal more land, and institute more oppressive measures. Thus actually the rebellion serves the Israelis well - because it gives them the excuse to take more land. This might be why they make their efforts so provocative (for example at the checkpoints) - to stimulate rebellion so they will have more excuses to take more land. But the Palestinians have no choice but to rebel because the suffering is so great. And thus the Israelis have been condemned repeatedly by the United Nations and international human rights organizations for severe breaches of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. |
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ISRAELI VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
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(C) Israel Law Resource Center, February, 2007.