{"id":113118,"date":"2018-06-20T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=113118"},"modified":"2018-06-20T11:25:26","modified_gmt":"2018-06-20T10:25:26","slug":"the-international-community-should-not-stand-by-as-israel-abuses-palestinians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/06\/the-international-community-should-not-stand-by-as-israel-abuses-palestinians\/","title":{"rendered":"The International Community Should Not Stand by as Israel Abuses Palestinians"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

United Nations Security Council meeting in New York.
(Photo: Anadolu Agency, file)<\/p><\/div>\n

13 Jun 2018 – <\/em>What is taking place in Palestine is not a \u2018conflict\u2019. \u00a0We readily utilize the term but, in fact, the word \u2018conflict\u2019 is misleading. It equates oppressed Palestinians with Israel, a military power that stands in violation of numerous United Nations Resolutions.<\/p>\n

It is these ambiguous terminologies that allow the likes of United States UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, to champion Israel\u2019s \u2018right to defend itself\u2019, as if the militarily occupied and colonized Palestinians are the ones threatening the security of their occupier and tormentor.<\/p>\n

In fact, this is precisely what Haley has done<\/a> to counter a draft UN Security Council Resolution presented by Kuwait to provide a minimum degree of protection for Palestinians. Haley vetoed the draft, thus continuing a grim legacy of US defense of Israel, despite the latter\u2019s ongoing violence against Palestinians.<\/p>\n

It is no surprise that out of the 80 vetoes<\/a> exercised by the US at the UNSC, the majority were unleashed to protect Israel. The first such veto for Israel\u2019s sake was in September 1972 and the latest, used by Haley, was on 1 June.<\/p>\n

Before it was put to the vote, the Kuwaiti draft was revised three times in order to \u2018water it down\u2019. Initially, it called for the protection of the Palestinian people from Israeli violence.<\/p>\n

The final draft<\/a> merely called for \u201cThe consideration of measures to guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in the Gaza Strip\u201d.<\/p>\n

Still, Haley found the language \u201cgrossly one-sided\u201d.<\/p>\n

The near consensus in support of Kuwait\u2019s draft was met with the complete rejection of Haley\u2019s own draft resolution which demanded Palestinian groups cease \u201call violent provocative actions\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The \u2018provocative actions\u2019 being referred to in Haley\u2019s draft is the mass mobilization by tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, who have been peacefully protesting for weeks, hoping that their protests will place the Israeli siege on Gaza back on the UN agenda.<\/p>\n

Haley\u2019s counter draft resolution did not garner a single vote in favor, save that of Haley\u2019s own. \u00a0But such humiliation<\/a> on the international stage is hardly of essence to the US, which has wagered its international reputation and foreign policy to protect Israel at any cost, even from unarmed observers whose job is merely to report on what they see on the ground.<\/p>\n

The last such \u2018force\u2019 was that of 60 \u2013 later increased to 90 \u2013 members of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH).<\/p>\n

TIPH was established in May 1996 and has filed many reports on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian city, especially in Area H-2, a small part of the city that is controlled by the Israeli army to protect some of the most violent illegal Jewish settlers.<\/p>\n

Jan Kristensen, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Norwegian army who headed TIPH had these words<\/a> to say following the completion of his one-year mission in Hebron in 2004:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe activity of the settlers and the army in the H-2 area of Hebron is creating an irreversible situation. In a sense, cleansing is being carried out. In other words, if the situation continues for another few years, the result will be that no Palestinians will remain there.\u201d<\/p>\n

One can only imagine what has befallen Hebron since then. The army and Jewish settlers have become so emboldened to the extent that they execute Palestinians in cold blood with little or no consequence.<\/p>\n

One such episode became particularly famous, for it was caught on camera. On March 24, 2015, an Israeli soldier carried out a routine operation by shooting in the head an incapacitated Palestinian.<\/p>\n

The execution of Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sharif, 21, was filmed by Imad Abushamsiya<\/a>. The viral video caused Israel massive embarrassment, forcing it to hold a sham trial in which the Israeli soldier who killed Al-Sharif received a light sentence; he was later released to a reception fit for heroes.<\/p>\n

Abushamsiya, who filmed the murder, however, was harassed by both the Israeli army and police and received numerous death threats.<\/p>\n

The Israeli practice of punishing the messenger is not new. The mother of Ahed Tamimi, Nariman, who filmed her teenage daughter confronting armed Israeli soldiers was also detained and sentenced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel has practically punished Palestinians for recording their own subjugation by Israeli troops while, at the same time, empowering these very soldiers to do as they please; it is now in the process of turning this everyday reality into actual law.<\/p>\n

A bill at the Israeli Knesset<\/a> was put forward late May that prohibits \u201cphotographing and documenting (Israeli occupation) soldiers\u201d, and criminalizing \u201canyone who filmed, photographed and\/or recorded soldiers in the course of their duty\u201d.<\/p>\n

The bill, which is supported by Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, demands a five-year imprisonment term for violators.<\/p>\n

The bill practically means that any form of monitoring Israeli soldiers is a criminal act. If this is not a call for perpetual war crimes, what is?<\/p>\n

Just to be sure, a second bill is proposing to give immunity to soldiers suspected of criminal activities during military operations.<\/p>\n

The bill is promoted by deputy Defence Minister, Eli Ben Dahan, and is garnering support at the Knesset.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is that Ben Dahan\u2019s bill is entirely redundant\u201d, wrote Orly Noy<\/a> in the Israeli +972<\/em>website.<\/p>\n

Noy cited a recent report by the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din which shows that \u201csoldiers who allegedly commit crimes against the Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories enjoy near-full immunity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now, Palestinians are more vulnerable than ever before, and Israel, with the help of its American enablers, is more brazen than ever.<\/p>\n

This tragedy cannot continue. The international community and civil society organizations \u2013 independent of the US government and its shameful vetoes \u2013 must undertake the legal and moral responsibility to monitor Israeli action and to provide meaningful protection for Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Israel should not have free reign to abuse Palestinians at will, and the international community should not stand by and watch the bloody spectacle as it continues to unfold.<\/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":"

13 Jun 2018 – What is taking place in Palestine is not a \u2018conflict\u2019. We readily utilize the term but, in fact, the word \u2018conflict\u2019 is misleading. It equates oppressed Palestinians with Israel, a military power that stands in violation of numerous United Nations Resolutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":112039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}