http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/ncoppf.htm
Palestinians' Rights Ignored
By Edmund R. Hanauer, USA Today, 07/26/00
At Camp David, President Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak pressed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to agree to a
settlement reflecting Israel's superior power, not an agreement
based on international law and human rights.
On each issue in dispute, the Palestinians are supported by
international law and human-rights covenants. In each case,
"compromises" mean denial of the legal and human rights of
Palestinians, not of Israelis.
Palestinians already made the major concession - recognition in
1993 of Israel (without Israeli acceptance of a Palestinian
state) on 78% of their former territory, British Mandatory
Palestine. A 1967 United Nations Security Council resolution
requires Israel to withdraw from all Arab lands occupied in
1967 in return for Arab acceptance of Israel. The Palestinians
have done their part.
Regarding Jewish settlements, international law prohibits Israel
from settling civilians on land seized from Palestinians; 200,000
Jewish settlers are illegally using land and water resources
taken from Palestinians.
On Jerusalem, Palestinians seek a shared city. But Israel, in
violation of international law, insists on continued control of
East Jerusalem, where 200,000 Palestinians suffer from what
Israel's leading human rights group, B'Tselem, calls a "history
of dispossession and discrimination."
During the 1948 war, Israel drove out hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians and destroyed more than 400 Palestinian villages.
Since 1948, Israel has ignored U.N. resolutions supporting the
right of Palestinian refugees to repatriation to Israel. Last
year, 1,100 U.S. religious leaders called on the United States
to press Israel to recognize the right of return for Palestinian
refugees.
The Clinton administration has opposed U.N. resolutions aimed at
getting Israel to recognize the human rights of Palestinians. The
United States gives more than $3 billion each year, which enables
Israel to flout international law, ignore world opinion and pursue
policies that would give a fraction of the Palestinian people a
fraction of their rights on a fraction of their land.
Americans should demand a better deal for the Palestinian people.
And President Clinton might heed the wisdom of Pope Paul VI: "If
you want peace, work for justice."
Edmund R. Hanauer is an American Jewish human-rights activist and
director of Search for Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel,
a Boston-based human rights group.
