CAIRO, 13 July 2004 — Snaking through the Holy Land is a “made in Israel” gray eyesore, which Israel calls a fence and the Palestinians correctly term a wall. This tall 600 kilometer-long, 100 meter wide, $1 billion obscenity splits entire Palestinian communities, cuts farmers off from their land, sons and daughters from their parents, children from their schools and prevents students reaching their universities. Most of it has been built on Palestinian-owned land and it is feared that over time Israelis and the international community will perceive the monstrosity as marking a de facto border dividing Israel proper from the rest of the West Bank.
Israeli spokespersons have defended the structure as essential for Israel’s security, promising if what they call “the terror” stops, it will be torn down. Yet after four months of relative quiet from Palestinian militants, the Israelis credited the barrier as having done the trick, using the lack of suicide bombings within Israel to bolster its defense. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that following the Israeli leadership’s public espousing of this view, on July 11, Tel Aviv witnessed yet another scene of carnage, no doubt designed to prove to the Israelis that their wall will not provide the security for which they long.
On June 25, 2002 the US President George W. Bush gave a speech on a two-state solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict during which he said: “Today, the Palestinian people lack effective courts of law and have no means to defend and vindicate their rights”. He was absolutely right, so who can blame the Palestinians for taking their case for the wall’s dismantling to the International Court of Justice? Surely people subjected to the blatant theft of their land and homes have the right to challenge the thieves somewhere on earth! Not so, apparently.
As predicted, the International Court condemned the ‘separation fence’ as being an illegal entity, which must be torn down, but instead of lauding the judgment, a spokesman for George W. Bush dismissed the ruling by saying the International Court was not the right forum.
We are left to enquire what is the right forum? The International Court called on the UN Security Council and General Assembly to intervene but given the vehement pro-Israel bent of both the US administration and the Kerry-Edwards team the US would simply veto any condemnation of the wall by the Security Council.
It’s interesting to note that although Bush once termed the wall as troubling, he has made no attempt to prevent it being built. In his 2002 speech, he said: “As we make progress toward security, Israeli forces need to withdraw fully to positions they held prior to Sept. 28, 2000. And consistent with the recommendations of the Mitchell Committee, Israel settlement activity in the occupied territories must stop.
“The Palestinian economy must be allowed to develop. As violence subsides, freedom of movement should be restored permitting innocent Palestinians to resume work and normal life.”
How hollow do those words, paying mere lip service to Palestinian aspirations, sound today when many Palestinians have been corralled into enclaves, most are unemployed and some are actually starving!
In reality, neither the International Court of Justice nor the UN Security Council have teeth, so can we expect fair play from the Supreme Court of the country touted as the “only democracy in the Middle East” and one which “shares America’s values”. Last month, the Supreme Court criticized the route of portions of the wall while, at the same time, bolstering its legality.
So if the UN Security Council and the International Court of Justice hold little or no sway over the Israeli government while Israel’s Supreme Court is essentially biased, where can the Palestinians turn for their rights? They are repeatedly being told by the US administration to reject violence for peaceful means of getting their case across but neither the violent road, the international route, nor peaceful protest have any effect when up against Israel’s egotistic and self-centered intransigence.
It is increasingly apparent that there is one set of laws applicable to Israel and its mentor the US and another for the rest of the planet. And it is this mix of double standards and hypocrisy, which is coloring Israel as a rogue state and increasing anti-Americanism worldwide. As long as the US persists in calling Palestinian militants “terrorists”, while saying never a word about Israel’s bloody aggression on the back of American-made tanks, Apache gun-ships and F16s, it is never going to be perceived as the reasonable arbiter it once was.
America’s invasion of Iraq on the false pretext that it harbored weapons of mass destruction, while casting aspersions on Iran concerning its nuclear program, has discredited good old Uncle Sam throughout the Arab world. It is Israel, which has some 200 nuclear-tipped missiles and allegedly has stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons, not Iraq and Iran, yet the US, like Israel, perpetuates the lie that these don’t exist.
Mohammed El-Baradei of the international nuclear watchdog the IAEA recently met with Ariel Sharon in Israel, which turned out to be little more than a public relations exercise as a sop to Iran.
He certainly didn’t get the guided tour of Dimona and was instead fobbed off with the suggestion that Israel would back a nuclear-free region once a comprehensive peace prevailed. Unfortunately, El-Baradei isn’t known for calling a spade a spade.
In the final analysis, the interests of those with the bombs and the guns, partnered with the superpower, will always prevail. Forget the notion of right and wrong because it doesn’t exist in this new world disorder. Forget words like “justice”, “truth” and “fair play” as these have been rendered virtually meaningless.
The bottom line is this: The US and Israel are united in tamping down on Palestinian rights to suit their own ends and will ignore the well-being of the greater Arab world for as long as they deem expedient. As grotesque as the concrete panels of their apartheid wall truly are, there is a more fearsome wall dividing Arabs from the US and Israel. While the one side seeks oil, water, pipelines, land, military bases and absolute control, the other dreams of a peaceful and prosperous region.
The International Court has spoken but nobody is listening. In a perfect world Israel should be subjected to economic sanctions and penalties but in ours it is destined to receive yet more US aid, written-off loans and state-of-the-art weapons. As long as oppression, extra-judicial assassinations, the murder of civilians and land theft are being rewarded while courts representing the international community are rendered irrelevant, the world will become an ever more dangerous place for us all. Justice like water will always seek an outlet. We can only pray the dam gates open slowly but never break.
(Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Mideast affairs. She welcomes feedback at [email protected])
