http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0590/9005014.htm
Israel Is Not Comparable to "Advanced
Western Democracies"
By Shaw J. Dallal, Washington Report
May 1990, Page 14
The Department of State Country Report
on Human Rights Practices for 1989
relating to Israel and the occupied
territories is replete with
contradictions. These contradictions
stem from two opposite and
irreconcilable findings: One is that
"Israel's Arab citizens have ... not
shared fully in the rights granted to
Jewish citizens." The second is that
"Israel is a democracy...whose
citizens have a range of civil and
other rights generally comparable to
those in advanced Western
democracies."
If the State Department's finding that
Israel's Arab citizens do not have
equal rights with their Jewish
counterparts is correct, it is hard to
accept its finding that Israel is
comparable to advanced Western
democracies. The Department of State
has observed that "Israel welcomes
Jewish immigrants ... to whom it gives
automatic citizenship and residence
rights," while it denies such
citizenship and residence rights to
Palestinians living in refugee camps
in the West Bank and in Gaza who were
born in Israel, and whose very lands
Israel has expropriated and holds "in
trust for the Jewish people."
The Department of State's finding that
Israel gives automatic citizenship and
residence rights to Jewish immigrants
is related to "a series of basic laws"
of the state of Israel, which define
"the responsibilities of government
institutions."
The first such law is Israel's 1950
law of return, which allows any person
"born to a Jewish mother," or one "who
converts to Judaism and who is not a
member of another religion," to
immigrate to Israel.
The second basic law is Israel's 1952
citizenship law, which allows Jewish
immigrants to Israel to acquire
Israeli citizenship automatically upon
their arrival.
The third is Israel's registration
law, which classifies Israel's
citizens as either of "Jewish
nationality," or of "Arab
nationality." Israel has no Israeli
nationality. Citizenship and
nationality are not equivalent in
Israel.
The fourth basic law is Israel's
status law, which gives Israel's
citizens with "Jewish nationality"
certain rights and privileges which
are denied to Israel's citizens with
"Arab nationality." Several of these
rights and privileges have been
enumerated in this year's and in prior
years' reports. Chief among these
rights is the ownership or use of the
very land which was expropriated from
the Palestinians.
It is these laws which compelled the
UN in 1975 to describe Zionism as a
"form of racism and racial
discrimination" in view of the 1965 UN
resolution 2106, which defined racism
as "any distinction, exclusion,
restriction, or preference based on
race, color, descent or national or
ethnic origin." The denial of
citizenship to Palestinians reported
by the State Department is based on
descent and is thus patently racist.
The Department of State does a grave
disservice to "advanced Western
democracies" by suggesting that
Israel, with its legalized racist
structure, can be favorably compared
to them.
Congress has chosen to reward Israel's racist policies
The Report contains several objective
observations about Israel's human
rights violations in Israel and in the
occupied territories which should be
noted. The "emergency regulations,"
which have been in force since 1948,
have been enforced primarily against
Israelis with Arab nationality,
permitting their mail "to be stopped,
opened, and even destroyed on security
grounds." In 1979, Israel enacted a
law, applied mostly against Israel's
Palestinian Arab citizens, allowing
"tapping of telephones for security
reasons." The Report states that
"Israel's Arabic-language press is
censored more strictly than the
Hebrew-language press." It observes
that "in 1989 the license of an
Arabic-language newspaper was revoked
on the grounds of links to an outlawed
organization."
The Report also observes that,
although the Israeli Palestinian Arabs
comprise about 18 percent of Israel's
citizens, out of a total of 120 seats
in the Israeli Knesset, the Israeli
Arabs have only six. The Report states
that the Israeli Arabs "have less
access than do other Israelis to such
social and economic benefits as
housing and new-household subsidies,
and government or security -related
industrial employment, for which
military service is either a
prerequisite or an advantage," but
which the Israeli Arabs "are not
subject to."
As in prior years, however, the
harshest part of the Report is
reserved for the occupied territories.
The Report states at the outset that
it "deals with lands under foreign
military occupation," and that "Israel
has not been recognized to have
sovereign rights over any of the
occupied territories: the West Bank,
the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and
East Jerusalem." It asserts that the
United States "considers Israel's
occupation to be governed by the Hague
Regulations of 1907 and the 1949
Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to
the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War."
The report states that the "human
rights situation in the occupied
territories remains a source of deep
concern to the United States." It
reports that "there were more
Palestinian deaths in 1989 than in
1988," and condemns the "use of live
fire." The Report describes "harsh and
demeaning treatment ... as well as
allegations of beating during house
searches ... At least ten deaths can
be attributed to beatings."
The Report states that according to
"IDF figures, 9,138 Palestinians were
being held in IDF prison facilities as
of January 1, 1990." Some prisoners
have died "while under Shin Bet
interrogation."
The Report condemns the number of
administrative detainees, totaling
"1,271 as of January 1, 1990," who
were detained without charges.
The Report states that Israel "refuses
to renew laissez-passers of
Palestinians from the occupied
territories who live or work abroad."
These restrictions do not apply to
Jews resident in the occupied
territories, whether or not they are
Israelicitizens.
Violating Our Own Laws
Despite the above findings of the
State Department, the Congress of the
United States appropriated more than
$3 billion in foreign aid to Israel in
1989. This appropriation is a clear
violation of US laws prohibiting
foreign aid to countries engaged in
the very human rights violations
enumerated in the Department of State
Report.
To its credit, the Congress of the
United States has imposed sanctions
against South Africa for its racist
policies and for human rights abuses
of its citizens. These sanctions have
been said to be at least partially
responsible for South Africa's recent
reforms. Yet the Congress of the
United States has chosen to reward
Israel's racist policies and its
flagrant human rights abuses. This
double standard is a credit to neither
the United States nor to its citizens.
Shaw J. Dallal is adjunct professor of
international relations at Utica
College of Syracuse University. He is
a former legal adviser to the
Organization of Arab Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OAPEC). Born in
Jerusalem, he came to the US in 1951
and earned a doctorate in
jurisprudence at the Cornell
University Law School.
(c) Copyright 1995-1999, American
Educational Trust. All Rights
Reserved.
