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THE HANDSTAND |
NOVEMBER 2002 |
| Coalition
for Justice and Peace in Palestine PRELIMINARY MISSION REPORT October 2002 The Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine is an umbrella organization of Quebec unions and NGOs and many popular and civil society groups. It was created in March 2002 to raise the awareness of the Quebec and Canadian population to the situation of the Palestinian people. The Coalition has already organized a demonstration of 10.000 persons in front of the Israeli consulate on 27 April 2002, as well as a solidarity march with artists on 8 June 2002. Its next action was to send a mission to the region to inquire on the situation. The Mission was composed of ten persons, representing the diversity of the Coalition and of Quebec and Canadian society: Monique Richard, Chair of Centrale des syndicats du Québec, one the most important Quebec federations of labour unions, Pierre-Paul Côté, retired professor and representing the Champlain Teachers Union, Elaheh Machouf, representing the Quebec Women Federation, Benjamin Desautels, representing the Quebec College Students Association, Gervais L`Heureux, Chair of Quebec International Cooperation Organisations Association (AQOCI), Robert Silverman, Co-founder of the Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation and member of Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), Paul Lévesque, MD, emergency physician and member of Physicians for Social Justice, Francois Crépeau, Lawyer and Professor of International Law at University of Montreal, Josée Lambert, photographer, artist and peace activist, Rezeq Faraj, coordinator of the mission , co-president and co-founder of PAJU. The goals of the Mission, which took place from 6 to 18 October 2002, were to:: 1) Express our solidarity with the Palestinian people through its popular organizations and its political representatives by our support of their goals for justice and peace. 2) Allow the participants to see and document the real situation faced by the Palestinian people so as to be able to participate more actively in informing, sensitizing, and educating the Quebec and Canadian public about the situation. 3) Facilitate the establishment of a partnership between Palestinian, Quebec and Canadian organizations to lend a concrete aspect to the question of solidarity. 4) Observe in Palestine the civilian population in terms of social and human conditions emanating from the operations (occupation, curfews, checkpoints, killings, detentions, destroying homes and livelihoods, etc...) undertaken by the Israeli army in the occupied cities, towns, and villages as well as human rights abuses and violations of the Geneva Conventions relative to the protection of civilians during periods of conflict. 5) On returning, the mission will report to the Quebec and Canadian public its observations and will submit a report to the media, to the respective civil authorities as well as to various governmental bodies (Permanent Committee of the House of Commons on Foreign Affairs, etc.). The Mission has met with a diversified range of Palestinian and Israeli organizations and observed many sites of interest, including: PNGO, a coalition of Palestinian NGOs (Ramallah); Palestinian Red Crescent Society (Ramallah and Gaza); Christian Peacemakers Team (Hebron); Various community organizers at the Dhesheh Refugee Camp near Bethlehem; Palestinian families who have lost children or relatives; The President of the Palestinian Authority (Ramallah), the Minister for Social Affairs (Gaza) and the Governor of Jenin; The Head of the Canadian CIDA-funded project that helps strengthen the Palestinian Department for Social Affairs (Gaza); The Deputy Director of UNRWA (Gaza); The Federation of Palestinian Women (Gaza); The Chatee Refugee Camp; ADALA, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Beer-Sheva); The Wadi Al Naham unrecognized Bedouin village in the Negev desert; Akiva Eldar, journalist at Ha`aretz; A representative of Yesh Gvul, one of the organizations of the refusal movement; Alternative Information Centre, an Israeli-Palestinian organization which disseminates information, research and political analysis on the conflict; Ta`ayush (Living together), an Israeli-Palestinian association of direct non-violent action against the occupation; Betselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories; The Coalition of Women for a Just Peace, an Israeli organization defending human rights and against occupation. HaMoked (Center for the Defense of the Individual), an Israeli organization which provides individual assistance to Palestinian victims of human rights violations. The Mission has also met with members of the Canadian Representative Office to the Palestinian Authority, in Ramallah.  Our first observations and the testimonies
received are generally painful. Most Palestinians can only with great difficulty move out of the zone they live in and the majority cannot at all: persons living in Bethlehem are generally forbidden from going to Ramallah, even to work or obtain medical treatment. In effect, a regime of three regions has been established: the Jerusalem region, where the Palestinians hold a blue ID and can travel all over Palestine; the Palestinian territories under direct military control of Israel, where the Palestinians hold an orange ID and cannot travel to Jerusalem; the Palestinian territories under full control of the Palestinian Authority, where the Palestinians hold a green ID and cannot travel to the two other regions. Numerous permanent or flying checkpoints are making any short journey a long process. These checkpoints are often staffed by very young conscripts of the Israeli occupation forces and the decision to turn persons back is taken without recourse to any other authority. Going from Bethlehem to Ramallah and back one day (a 74 km ride), we had to cross seven checkpoints and spend almost three hours in the car. Some checkpoints do not process the vehicles waiting with sufficient speed (such as the one at the entrance of Ramallah): as most Palestinians do, we had to disembark, cross the checkpoint on foot and take another taxi on the other side. We have witnessed a woman pleading to go through as her four children were on the other side, as well as an ambulance of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society being turned back, after a long inspection of the vehicle that obliged the injured man on the stretcher and his family to disembark. We were told by students how soldiers often prevent them from going to the university, telling them that they don`t need education. Although some of them were not, many soldiers at checkpoints were indifferent or arrogant: one told us "you went to see the terrorists", another insulted our Palestinian driver in Hebrew. By-pass roads have been built to allow settlers to travel freely from Israel to their settlements. These roads are forbidden to cars not holding an Israeli license plate, cut through Palestinian lands, are fenced with barbed wire that prevent Palestinians from crossing them, obliging locals to make huge detours and pass checkpoints for what was ordinarily a short walk to their fields, family, school or dispensary.  We have witnessed how roads near certain villages are being cut by huge dirt blockades dug with bulldozers into the pavement. This was the case of all cities and villages we have visited, including Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah and was particularly so around Jenin, where all roads to the city (including dirt roads) are so blocked, with little apparent security purpose. This obliges the villagers either to go on foot, or to cut with their cars through the fields or olive groves, with much damage to their harvest and vehicles. This may prevent many villagers to access schools, markets for their products, or health services, especially in case of emergency. We have witnessed the building of the wall that is supposed to surround completely the West Bank when completed. This wall is not build on the Green Line but cut through Palestinian fields inside the occupied territories, making loops to include some settlements. We were told that there is no compensation for the land so confiscated from Palestinian farmers, and that there is no plan for an access by the farmers to their fields and olive groves situated between the wall and the green line: they will have to go to checkpoints often tens of kilometers from their home, with no certainty of being allowed to cross. In the village of Anin, we have witnessed how 5000 olive trees and 11.500 donums of land will become inaccessible to their owners. We have witnessed how the settlements in the heart of Hebron grow progressively from house to house, illegally and in complete impunity, with armed guards posted on the roofs overlooking the market. One of the settlers crossed the street towards us to shout "Nazis" at us, without any apparent reason. In one of the 45 "unrecognized" bedouin villages in the Negev, we have witnessed how houses  build
by the inhabitants had been destroyed, in the middle of
the night (we were told) by the Israeli authorities, who
want to regroup all Bedouins in 7 "recognized"
villages, in order to seize the land of the abandoned
villages. We have also witnessed how Omer, a posh and
fully serviced Israeli gated community, sits right next
to a derelict bedouin village with no water, electricity,
sewage, nor any normal municipal services, not even an
access road.We were told that the Israeli authorities control most of the water resources in the occupied territories, cutting off water to entire cities for days or weeks, as a matter of collective punishment when there have been attacks on Israeli soldiers, settlers or civilians, which was illustrated by the numerous water tanks that sit on the roof of most Palestinian houses as reserve in case of shortage. We were told that most colonies do not have water treatment facilities and drop their used waters onto the slopes of the hills on which they sit, thereby polluting Palestinian fields, waters and villages below. We have heard that settlers often shout and shoot at Palestinian farmers tending their fields near the settlements, and even attack the Israeli forces when they try to prevent them attacking Palestinians, seemingly in total impunity. We have witnessed how the Israeli occupation forces have destroyed whole blocks of houses in the centre of Jenin (over 600 houses flattened or made uninhabitable). We have seen several armored vehicles, tanks and the huge armored bulldozers that accomplished the destruction at the checkpoint where we were turned back (we were allowed in at another checkpoint 10 km away). We were told how Israeli occupation forces impose curfews on many cities and villages, forbidding inhabitants to leave their houses, to go to school or the hospital, to tend their fields (many harvests have been lost), to buy food and water. Naplus has been on quasi-continuous curfew since 20 June 2002. We were told that curfews are often imposed early in the morning, by jeeps going through the villages with loud-speakers, telling the population to stay home and the children not to go to school. We have witnessed such curfews in Hebron (H1) and in Ramallah where we had to cancel meetings and leave before a certain hour because of them. We were told that, according military sources, 7000 Palestinians (and at least one British citizen) have been detained since April 2002, mostly in administrative detention, which means a detention for up to six months without charges, renewable indefinitely for periods of six months: some have remained in administrative detention for more than five years. The military legal framework also allows officers to detain any person without reason, nor representation, for up to twelve days. We have been told that the Israeli occupation forces would enter some villages and camps, call all male population from 14 to 40 years old to come to a school or other public building, would round them up, detain them, some for a few hours, some for longer periods, check their identity, interrogate them. Although at least four habeas corpus procedures are filed each day concerning Palestinians detained by Israeli military authorities, we were told that the Israeli Government and military authorities are exerting a huge pressure on the civil and military tribunals to uphold detentions and deportations. We have been told that 76 ambulances of the Palestinian Red crescent society were damaged by the Israeli occupation forces and we have seen several of them crushed or bullet-ridden. We have been told of the numerous difficulties encountered by organizations of the peace movement that denounce the occupation: humanitarian convoy carrying food to Palestinian villages have been stopped at checkpoints, peaceful demonstrations by Israelis and Palestinians against the occupation have been dispersed by tear-gas, etc. The complete list of such observations will be detailed in our final report.  Fortunately, we have also seen encouraging
peace efforts. Israeli and Palestinian organizations
petition the courts, document human rights violations,
provide counsels for detainees, organize humanitarian or
solidarity actions or demonstrate against the occupation.
Israeli journalists denounce the ignorance of the Israeli
population about the living conditions of the Palestinian
population in the occupied territories. Soldiers refused
to serve in the occupied territories or to carry out
specific orders and were jailed for so doing.We can draw from our mission some preliminary conclusions: The illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is at the root of all human rights violations documented, and is the core of the political conflict. A meaningful peace can only be envisaged with a complete withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the occupied territories. The settlements in the occupied territories are a major and constant source of conflict, as they, illegally and seemingly in total impunity, seize Palestinian land and houses, damage Palestinian property, shoot at Palestinian farmers, etc. The number of settlers has almost doubled since 1993. Their dismantlement is manifestly a precondition to any peace in the region. The building of the wall, of checkpoints, of dirt blockades on roads, of roads reserved to Israelis, in conjunction with the ID regime, has the effect of completely isolating most Palestinian communities from their neighbours, often cutting all access to relatives, fields, schools, markets or health services. Added to the apparent prosperity of the numerous settlements and their protection by the Israeli occupation forces, we think that, in the occupied territories, a regime akin to the South-African apartheid regime is being put in place by the Israeli authorities. Security reasons are too often invoked to prevent any meaningful judicial, media or political control of the actions of the Israeli occupation forces in the occupied territories. The information of the Israeli population about the living conditions of Palestinians in the occupied territories seems limited, as most Israeli media stress the security measures, to the detriment of any information on their consequences for the Palestinian population. We have talked to numerous Palestinians of all walks of life and have sensed a genuine desire for peaceful settlement of the conflict, that would include a recognition of the Palestinian people`s dignity, a national independence within the borders effective between 1948 and 1967, and the recognition of the right of return (either in fact or through compensation). All of them want their children to live in peace and dignity. We have been struck by their courage, determination, hope, tolerance and patience. In light of Canadian values regarding the protection of human rights and dignity, the Canadian agencies should put more effort in encouraging, financially and politically, the Palestinian and Israeli organizations dedicated to monitoring, denouncing and legally challenging human rights violations, to creating spaces of political and social cooperation between the two peoples and to informing the Israeli population of the consequences of its continuing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In light of Canadian values regarding the protection of human rights and dignity, the Canadian Government should exert more political and diplomatic pressure on the Israeli Government to encourage it to limit, denounce, investigate and sanction the human rights violations committed by the Israeli occupation forces and by settlers, as well as to apply the Rule of Law in the occupied territories, in full respect of international law (including all resolutions of the United Nations), international human rights law and international humanitarian law. We do not underestimate the difficulties of the peace process in the region, nor do we deny the legitimate security concerns of the Israeli State and population. We wish however to underscore that the policies presently applied in the occupied territories by the Israeli occupation forces seem in no way conducive of a more secure environment for Israelis and Palestinians alike, nor of a peaceful settlement of the conflict.   We have been deeply moved by the situation of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories, often shocked by the constant humiliation, suffering, impoverishment, closure and collective punishment they endure. We share the deep concern of all the individuals and organizations we have met, regarding the deterioration of the situation in the past months, characterized by the escalation of repressive measures and the militarization of the civil legal framework of the occupied territories. The silence of the international community on this issue and the absence of meaningful international political intervention to help solve the conflict is unacceptable. From this Mission, will stem several follow-up activities: dissemination of our conclusions to the Quebec and Canada population; recommendations to our governments; cooperation projects with Palestinian organizations and people to help reduce their suffering and their daily needs; contacts with Israeli organizations dedicated to denouncing the occupation; etc. <<La Presse du 23 Octobre.pdf>> Rezeq Faraj .....http://rezeq.com .International
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