Accountability and the Peace Making Process (issue No.35, Autumn 2007)

Still no framework for peace that respects international law

Will the US-led Annapolis meeting fail, succeed, or even happen at all? Whatever the answer, one thing is clear: there is again no accountable process based on international law. In other words, the 'best' outcome will be another meaningless peace process, because it fails to take into account international law and best practice.

BADIL Report

Veiled in secrecy, the preparations of the US-sponsored international Middle East peace meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, give rise to rumors and conflicting messages. As always, the parties themselves screen optimism, and President Bush has declared the Palestinian state to be a foreign policy interest of the United States. Still, things have apparently not yet fallen into place. While a joint Israeli-PA statement suggests progress towards an agenda that will “address all core issues” (Haaretz, 18 October), it is common knowledge that Israel is unwilling to go for a detailed agreement.

Interview with Alastair Crooke

Former special Mid-East adviser to European Union’s Foreign Policy Chief, Javier Solana, and adviser to the International Quartet

Alastair Crooke facilitated various Israeli-Palestinian ceasefires during 2001-2003; he was instrumental in the negotiations leading to the ending of the siege on the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem and mediated in the negotiations leading to the cease fire declared by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in June 2003. He was a staff member of President Clinton’s Fact Finding Committee, led by Senator Mitchell, into the causes of the Second Intifada and has had direct experience of conflict over aperiod of 30 years in Ireland, South Africa, Namibia, Afghanistan and Colombia. He is currently co-director of Conflicts Forum based in Beirut. 

In recent years it has become increasingly common to emphasize that any solution to the Palestinian refugee question must be agreed upon. The Arab peace initiative and the Road Map both call for an agreed upon solution. This appears to be a common sense approach to resolving what the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) describesas “[b]y far the most protracted and largest of all refugee problems in the world today.”(¹) Solutions that are agreed upon, in contrast to imposed ones, are widely seen to be more durable, not least of which is due to the broad ownership that such approaches tend to generate.(²) The question is: agreed upon by whom? What role, if any, do refugees themselves have? 

Already in 1863, the U.S. Civil War-era Lieber Code, which influenced the subsequent Hague Conventions, instructed that, in our modern age, “private citizens are no longer carried off to distant parts.”(¹) That claim now appears majestically naïve and tragically premature. At a time when the UN Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities was considering the human rights dimensions of “population transfer,”(²)

Seeking Justice for International Crimes: Emerging Universal Jurisdiction Practice in Spain

"The fundamental idea behind justice is to dignify the memory of our deceased. It is to dignify the children, the women, the elders who were annihilated through genocide, those who were kidnapped, those who were disappeared, those who were tortured."
- Rigoberta Menchú, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (¹)

Al-Lajjun villagers continue their struggle

Lying at the foot of the plain of Marj ibn Amr, an ancient crossroads where the road from Haifa and Lebanon crosses the Damascus to Cairo thoroughfare, the village of al-Lajjun has a long history of political significance. In 1516 when the Ottomans took the area from Mamluk control, Lajjun was one of five district (liwa) towns in Palestine. During the British Mandate villagers played a significant role in the Arab Revolt–the anti-colonial struggle of 1936-1939. This legacy of resistance is proudly remembered by today’s villagers fighting a legal battle from their position as internally displaced only 6 kilometers down the road.

15 August 2007 marked the 60th anniversary of India's partition. However, little attention was paid by Palestinians this summer to the ways in which governments and people of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh tackled the legacy of "their" partition, a violent event whose repercussions are apparent 60 years on. Having shared similar struggles for decolonization and freedom from the same British imperial power, and traumatic and formative partition experiences, the peoples of pre-1947 India and Palestine have taken little notice of each other's apparently similar historical tragedies.

Palestinian human rights advocates have written off the U.S. Congress as an agent for positive change in the lives of Palestinians. Rightly so, advocates for Palestinian human rights have been disillusioned by the deluge of biased legislation and the incessant waves of military aid provided to Israel. However, dismissing Congress is not an option. Although grassroots, media, and legal activism can tarnish the U.S.’s foreign policy in the Middle East, such admirable efforts cannot change it. To the contrary, Congress can reverse the gains made by advocates in one fell swoop. Harvesting the gains of grassroots, media, and legal advocacy will require a complementary legislative strategy.

Palestinian refugee and IDP rights at the Human Rights Council of the OHCHR and the Executive Committee meeting of the UNHCR

Badil Resource Center submitted two statements to the sixth session of the Human Rights Council, held in Geneva between 10-28 September 2007.

Palestinian Refugees stranded in and fleeing from Iraq

It is to everyone's dishonour that these human beings are still rotting in Al Tanf, in Al Walid, in Ruweished and -worst of all – in Baghdad where one or more is being murdered virtually every day. Rupert Colville, “Shame, How the world has turned its back on the Palestinian refugees in Iraq”, Refugees, No. 146, issue 2, 2007, p. 24.

When I was asked to go back to two villages I had visited last year to write an article on the situation in al Aqaba and Yanoun, I was very pleased. I have been impressed by Yanoun and Al Aqaba; these villages that have resisted years of harassment and attempts to erase them from the map. Yanoun is located next to Nablus, and is surrounded by the settlement of Itemar. As a result of repeated attacks, all the residents of Yanoun were forced to leave in 2002. They all came back after a permanent international presence had been established. Since then, the villagers have stood together against the continuous threat of the settlers.

VOICES: PALESTINIAN WOMEN NARRATE DISPLACEMENT

Click here to Visit the Voices Archive online

I had my head on somebody’s lap, and I remember looking at the stars. The world seemed so big – like leaving your home which is small and structured, and going into the big wide world. It was very scary. But at the same time, as a little child, even then, looking at the sky and the stars, I was wondering what was going to happen.

Suad Andraos – exiled as a child from Jaffa

New BDS tools

New BDS Guide from Stop the Wall and War on Want: Towards a Global Movement for Palestine: A Framework for Today's Anti-Apartheid Activism

August 2007, OPT - The report considers the scope for the development of a global BDS activism strategy in accordance with the goals set out by Palestinians in their BDS calls.

UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN SUPPORT OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

INTERNATIONAL COORDINATING NETWORK ON PALESTINE

European Parliament, Brussels

August 30-31 2007

Realizing the inalienable rights of the Palestinian People:

60 years is enough! End the dispossession; bring the refugees home!

Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law

Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 60/147 of 16 December 2005