{"id":112685,"date":"2018-06-11T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T11:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=112685"},"modified":"2018-06-09T12:30:12","modified_gmt":"2018-06-09T11:30:12","slug":"palestine-is-not-occupied-it-is-colonized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/06\/palestine-is-not-occupied-it-is-colonized\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestine Is Not Occupied, It Is Colonized"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel has already, and repeatedly, violated most conditions of what constitute an ‘Occupation’ from an international law perspective.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

On June 5, 1967, Israel launched a war and occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. (Photo: File)<\/p><\/div>\n

6 Jun 2018 – <\/em>June 5, 2018,\u00a0marks the 51st\u00a0anniversary of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.<\/p>\n

But, unlike the massive\u00a0popular mobilization<\/a>\u00a0that preceded the anniversary of the Nakba \u2013 the catastrophic\u00a0destruction of Palestine<\/a>\u00a0in 1948 \u2013\u00a0on 15 May the anniversary of the occupation is hardly generating equal mobilization.<\/p>\n

The unsurprising\u00a0death of the \u2018peace process\u2019<\/a>\u00a0and the inevitable demise of the \u2018two-state solution\u2019 has\u00a0shifted the focus<\/a>\u00a0from ending the occupation per se to the larger, and more encompassing, problem of Israel\u2019s colonialism throughout Palestine.<\/p>\n

Grassroots mobilization in Gaza and the West Bank, and among Palestinian Bedouin communities in the Naqab Desert, are, once more, widening the Palestinian people\u2019s sense of national aspirations. Thanks to the limited vision of the Palestinian leadership those aspirations have, for decades, been confined to Gaza and the West Bank.<\/p>\n

The unsurprising\u00a0death of the \u2018peace process\u2019\u00a0and the inevitable demise of the \u2018two-state solution\u2019 has\u00a0shifted the focus\u00a0from ending the Occupation per se, to the larger and more encompassing problem of Israel\u2019s colonialism throughout Palestine.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In some sense, the \u2018Israeli occupation\u2019 is no longer an occupation as per international standards and definitions. It is merely a phase of the Zionist colonization of historic Palestine, a process that began over a 100 years ago, and carries on to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law of occupation is primarily motivated by humanitarian consideration; it is solely the facts on the ground that determine its application\u201d, states the International Committee of the\u00a0Red Cross website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is for practical purposes that we often utilize the term \u2018occupation\u2019 with reference to Israel\u2019s colonization of Palestinian land, occupied after 5 June 1967<\/a>. The term allows for the constant emphasis on humanitarian rules that are meant to govern Israel\u2019s behavior as the occupying power.<\/p>\n

However, Israel has already, and repeatedly, violated most conditions of what constitutes an \u2018occupation\u2019 from an international law perspective, as articulated in the 1907 Hague Regulations (articles 42-56) and the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention.<\/p>\n

According to these definitions, an \u2018occupation\u2019 is a provisional phase, a temporary situation that is meant to end with the implementation of international law regarding that particular situation.<\/p>\n

\u2018Military occupation\u2019<\/a>\u00a0is not the sovereignty of the occupier over the occupied; it cannot include the transfer of citizens from the territories of the occupying power to occupied land; it cannot include ethnic cleansing; destruction of properties; collective punishment and annexation.<\/p>\n

It is often argued that Israel is an occupier that has violated the rules of occupation as stated in international law.<\/p>\n

This would have been the case a year, two or five years after the original occupation had taken place, but not 51 years later. Since then, the occupation has turned into long-term colonization.<\/p>\n

An obvious proof is Israel\u2019s annexation of occupied land, including the Syrian\u00a0Golan Heights<\/a>\u00a0and Palestinian East Jerusalem in 1981. That decision had no regard for international law, humanitarian law or any other law.<\/p>\n

Israeli politicians have, for years, openly debated the\u00a0annexation<\/a>\u00a0of the West Bank, especially areas that are populated with illegal Jewish settlements, which are built contrary to international law.<\/p>\n

Those hundreds of settlements that Israel has been building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are not meant as temporary structures.<\/p>\n

Dividing the West Bank into three zones, areas A, B and C, each governed according to different political diktats and military roles, has little precedent in international law.<\/p>\n

Israel argues that, contrary to international law, it is no longer an occupying power in Gaza; however, an Israel land, maritime and aerial siege has been imposed on the Strip for over 11 years. From successive Israeli wars that have killed thousands, to a hermetic blockade that has pushed the Palestinian population to the brink of starvation, Gaza subsists in isolation.<\/p>\n

Gaza is an \u2018occupied territory\u2019 by name only, without any of the humanitarian rules applied. In the\u00a0last 10 weeks<\/a>\u00a0alone, over 120 unarmed protesters, journalists, and medics were killed and 13,000 wounded, yet the international community and law remain inept, unable to face or challenge Israeli leaders or to overpower equally cold-hearted American vetoes.<\/p>\n

The Palestinian Occupied Territories have, long ago, crossed the line from being occupied to being colonized. But there are reasons that we are trapped in old definitions, leading amongst them is American political hegemony over the legal and political discourses pertaining to Palestine.<\/p>\n

One of the main political and legal achievements of the Israeli war \u2013 which was carried out with full US support \u2013 on several Arab countries in June 1967 is the redefining of the legal and political language on Palestine.<\/p>\n

Prior to that war, the discussion was mostly dominated by such urgent issues as the \u2018Right of Return\u2019 for Palestinian refugees to go back to their homes and properties in historic Palestine.<\/p>\n

The June war shifted the balance of power completely and cemented America\u2019s role as Israel\u2019s main backer on the international stage.<\/p>\n

Several UN Security Council resolutions were passed to delegitimize the Israeli occupation: UNSCR 242, UNSCR 338, and the less talked about but equally significant UNSCR 497.<\/p>\n

Resolution 242<\/a>\u00a0of 1967 demanded \u201cwithdrawal of Israel armed forces\u201d from the territories it occupied in the June war. Resolution\u00a0338<\/a>, which followed the war of 1973, accentuated and clarified that demand. Resolution\u00a0497<\/a>\u00a0of 1981 was a response to Israel\u2019s annexation of the Golan Heights. It rendered such a move \u201cnull and void and without international and legal effect\u201d.<\/p>\n

The same applied to the\u00a0annexation of Jerusalem<\/a>\u00a0as to any colonial constructions or any Israeli attempts aimed at changing the legal status of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

But Israel is operating with an entirely different mindset.<\/p>\n

Considering that anywhere between\u00a0600,000 to 750,000<\/a>\u00a0Israeli Jews now live in the \u2018Occupied Territories\u2019, and that the largest settlement of Modi\u2019in Illit houses more than 64,000 Israeli Jews, one has to wonder what form of military occupation blue-print Israel is implementing, anyway?<\/p>\n

Israel is a settler colonial project, which began when the Zionist movement aspired to build an exclusive homeland for Jews in Palestine, at the expense of the native inhabitants of that land in the late 19th century.<\/p>\n

Nothing has changed since. Only facades, legal definitions, and political discourse. The truth is that Palestinians continue to suffer the consequences of Zionist colonialism and they will continue to carry that burden until that original sin is boldly confronted and justly remedied.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of <\/em>Palestine Chronicle. He has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. Baroud is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. His books include <\/em>Searching Jenin, <\/em>The Second Palestinian Intifada, and <\/em>My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza\u2019s Untold Story. His latest book is The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story<\/a> (Pluto Press, London, 2018). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ramzybaroud.net<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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