Palestinian statehood and need for continued reform

News has just come through on the vote at the UN recognising Palestine as a “non-member State” and Palestinians are celebrating the streets.  Several European states decided in the past few days not to oppose the vote that President Mahmoud Abbas has described as issuing "a birth certificate for the State of Palestine".

 

Leaders within the Palestinian Authority need to use this moment to press ahead with reconciliation and reform.  The Palestinian Authority is restricted in its ability to govern by the Israeli occupation and cannot be said to be truly sovereign even within the West Bank.  However even within the constraints imposed by occupation it must demonstrate its competence to represent diverse Palestinian interests well.  Over the past decade the Palestinian Authority has developed from a dysfunctional body with no popular mandate to an administration that shows an increasing capacity to deliver essential services, albeit highly dependent on outside donors and the willingness of the Government of Israel to pass aid funds on.  Currently corruption within the Palestinian Authority still remains a significant problem although some progress has been made.  

If the people of Palestine are to capitalise on their non-member State observer status at the UN, the Palestinian Authority must walk the walk that even UN “non-membership” implies and demonstrate to the world it is ready to move to full sovereignty.  The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights documents the abuse of basic rights in both the West Bank and Gaza.  These include; police violence (beatings etc), the use of torture by security services, the constraint on press freedom (particularly with respect to articles supportive of either Hamas or Fatah in the West Bank and in Gaza respectively) and the use of military courts without due legal process.  To be in compliance with the core values of the UN, Hamas must be unequivocal in its renouncement of attacks against civilians and show greater willingness to promote the path of non-violence.

There have been positive developments.  In October local elections were held in 92 of353 municipalities in the West Bank for the first time for 6 years.  But they were boycotted by Hamas who alleged threats, intimidation and arrests of potential candidates. 

At the UN, President Abbas is first and foremost asserting the rights of all Palestinians to self-determination but he is also appealing for the Palestinian Authority to be recognised as a body capable of managing the internal affairs of a future sovereign Palestinian state.  For this appeal to be taken seriously Fatah and Hamas must work on implementing the reconciliation agreement of May 2011 (and subsequent agreements since), achieve progress on human rights, accountability and transparency, and conduct free and fair elections.  This would, no doubt, result in further pressure on Israel to end the occupation.

Trading Away Peace

In 1993 the Oslo agreements were marked with the historic handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn.  Israel agreed to withdraw from defined areas of the West Bank and Gaza and to allow elections to take place to enable a Palestinian Authority to have some degree of autonomy.  At the time the population in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories was 282,000.  Today it is over 500,000. 

Israeli Government policy has encouraged the expansion of settlements in the West Bank although this expansion is recognised to be illegitimate under international law by the United States, EU and UK government.  It is claimed that settlements restrict Palestinian movement to such an extent that they now call into question the viability of the two-state solution.

Today 22 agencies and churches have published a report detailing the EU’s trading relationship with Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The report reveals that the volume of EU trade with illegal settlements is 15 times that of trade with Palestinian communities in the West Bank.  

The faith-based groups in the UK supporting this report are Christian Aid, Quakers and the Methodist Church.  They are asking for national governments within the EU to make the importation of settlement produce illegal.  Meanwhile, in the short term, we are calling for the labelling guidance on Israeli settlement produce that has been introduced by the UK and Denmark to be extended across the EU. This enables consumers to determine, in the case of products originating from the West Bank, whether a product has been sourced from Israeli settlements or from Palestinian areas.  The Methodist Church in Britain endorses this report in line with Methodist Conference resolutions that have called for progress towards peace and justice in the region and the avoidance of goods sourced from settlements.  The agencies supporting this report do not support a general boycott of Israel. 

I have previously mused on the roles that the EU might play today in supporting a durable solution in Israel/Palestine.  This focus on trade with settlements represents one possible contribution from the EU which is Israel’s largest single trading partner.   Trade with Israel and Palestine should continue to be a force for increased understanding and co-operation.  A refusal to trade with illegal settlements would send the strong signal that the EU views adherence to international law as one vital aspect in achieving justice and resolution to conflict.

Greetings from Hebron

Yesterday I was in Hebron. We walked down Shuhada Street, the main thoroughfare of the city having left our Palestinian colleague from The Holy Land Trust behind. As he is Palestinian he is not allowed to walk down this street in the main centre of Hebron. He had to go through the back alleys to meet us later at the Ibrahimi Mosque. We arrive at the Ibrahimi Mosque (the Tomb of the Patriarchs) a site that is holy to both Muslims and Jews.  In 1994 a Jewish settler shot 29 Palestinians dead while they prayed. Following that act, Israeli authorities turned one third of the Mosque into a synagogue. As we pass Hebrew music is blaring from a PA system and a young Jewish settler is dancing in the now empty street in the shadow of the mosque.

We continue around a corner and up a hill. There are Palestinian homes either side but here the rules are different. The residents are permitted to walk on the road but not to drive. Only Jews are permitted to drive. Many barriers, restrictions on travel and house demolitions are imposed across the West Bank in the name of security. Like this road on which you can walk but not drive, these measures do not make sense. The purpose is to make life so difficult for the residents that they choose to sell their homes and move away.

Deacon Eunice Attwood, Revd David Tomlin,
Mr Abdul Karim Al Jaabari, Revd Alison Tomlin

We arrive at a square section of grass covered land, about 4 acres in size. It is all Palestinian territory but to the east and west of this land are Jewish settlements, illegal under international law.

We met Abdul Karim Al Jaabari, the owner of this square plot of land.  He and his family have suffered from numerous attacks by settlers. Over the years his two wells have been destroyed, olive trees cut, windows smashed, children beaten and he is prevented from walking on his own land. The purpose of this violence is to force the family to leave, as the land has a strategic value. If taken by the settlers it would provide a route between the two settlements and create another bloc of land within Palestinian territory, further restricting Palestinian access and movement. The settlers, protected by the army, erected a tent on this land and established it as a synagogue.

The Israeli Supreme Court found the land to be legitimately owned by Abdul Karim, and the synagogue tent to be illegal. Yet despite this, the Israeli Army still prevent Abdul Karim from accessing his land and although the tent was once removed by police, it was erected by the settlers the following day.  It saddens many Jews to see what should be a holy place of worship used in a grubby attempt to capture someone else’s land.

I am visiting Israel and Palestine with the President of the Methodist Conference, Revd Alison Tomlin and the Vice-President, Deacon Eunice Attwood. For more information on our visit see their own blog. We have had significant conversations with several religious leaders and with the British Consul General. We have all visited the region in the past but on this occasion we are deeply saddened and alarmed by the intensification of the occupation and the lack of hope expressed by both Israelis and Palestinians. If there is any light to be seen it could be in the greater number of initiatives to enable the Palestinian suffering to be heard around the world.

The Jewish narrative for justice is strong and one which is a source of pride for many in the Jewish community. Maybe eventually Jewish people in Israel and elsewhere will consider the cost of the occupation of the West Bank, in terms of its blatant injustice, to be too high a price to pay. Might they then persuade the Government of Israel to bring it to an end?

Meanwhile we walk back down the hill and past the mosque where the Jewish settler is still dancing in the otherwise empty street.

Passports "Taken Out" on the Today Programme

When the story of the killing of an alledged Hamas leader, al-Mabhouh, in Dubai broke there were two things that were focussed on: the probablity that this was the act of the Israeli Security Services and that the killers used forged British and EU passports to enter Dubai.

The passports issue has played out over the past few weeks with Israeli ambasadors being summoned or invited to talk to various EU Foreign ministers, and being asked to give undertakings not to abuse EU passports in the same way again. The Israelis have continually stated that it has not been proved that their Forces were involved.

Excitement was generated by visions of a John Le Carre style assasination operation and at one point the normally sober BBC Today programe refered to al-Mabhouh being "taken-out" by Mosad. A thriller term for what was the ending of a unique, individual and entirely real human life.

As Dubai Police gather evidence in their murder enquiry and ask for Israeli co-operation in excluding Mosad agents from their equiries, I wonder if the EU foreign ministers were asking for the right undertakings. Maybe they should have said: "use our passports if you must - but promise not to travel abroad to kill people."

It is clear that in almost any circumstance the killing of an individual without trial or any semblance of judicial process is morally wrong as well as illegal under international law. But I would argue it also makes peace for Israel a more distant possibility.

I grew up in Belfast and my first interest in politics arose was when I saw the destructive cylical violence going on around me. But I ask you to consider what have happened if the state had killed the political leadership of the Republican movement, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness? Where would the Good Friday Agreement have come from? Who could the state have negociated with? Who would have had the political weight to hold the movement together as it ceased it's violence? The small violent Republican splinters who planted a car bomb last month would be just the tip of the iceberg.

Israel has long had a practice of extrajudical killings and there is no evidence that these do anything other than continue the cycle of violence. Going to great lengths to talk to the Hamas leadership rather than going to great lengths to kill them is more likely to lead to peace.

What does “Made in Israel" mean?

When I am looking for exciting and interesting politics I tend not to immediately look through German Customs Tax Law, but last Thursday I had cause to reconsider. In an important ruling by the European Court the German exchequer managed to retrieve 20,000 Euros it has been owed by Brita GmbH. It gets more interesting from here as the reason why Brita must pay these import taxes is facinating:

There is an agreement allowing some imports into EU from Israel to be tax free. This European Court rulling states that goods produced in Israeli Settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory are not made in Israel, and therefore should pay import duties. Brita's products were made in the occupied territories so the court ruled tax must be paid.

A clear ruling from Europe’s highest court that the occupied territories are not to be treated as part of Israel is significant. Other details of the case are however more important.

• The Israeli authorities when asked where Brita's imports came from would only confirm these goods originated in an area under Israeli responsibility and said nothing about the West Bank or occupied territories. Over the seven years of this case the Israeli authorities, despite having a preferential trade agreement with the EU, were at worst obstructive and at best ambivalent to the EU Tax authorities.
  
• The Israeli Foreign Ministry’s response to the judgement was “Israel regrets a decision which authorizes the persecution of Israeli products made in Judea and Samaria and a constitution of the European political campaign against the settlements”. I can’t imagine this line is a prelude to renewed co-operation over tax law.
  
• Brita GmbH stated that the imported goods were made in Israel, and pressed this point all the way through the appeals process; my German is not good enough to understand the court’s opinion as to the integrity of this statement.

Dr Phyllis Starkey MP in a UK Parliament debate on 10th Jan outlined how it is possible to ensure that settlement goods get a “Made in Israel” label and thus avoid both Import Taxes and potential consumer protests. She also provided evidence that Israel “turned a blind eye” to these practices despite enjoying preferential trade status with the EU [Hansard Link].

The UK is in the process of introducing a voluntary labelling scheme to give consumers information about where Israeli products are made. The question does “Made in Israel” also mean “Made in Illegal Israeli Settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories” is still open.

Our friends in the Quakers are taking action on settlement goods.