Implications of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine

Source: BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights

Date: 21 Nov 2006
OPT: BADIL statement submitted to the UN Human Rights Council
No. (E/24/06)

The below statement was submitted by BADIL to the UN Human Rights Council convening for its third session in Geneva on 27 November. It was also presented to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Louise Arbour, during her meeting with Palestinian human rights organizations in occupied Ramallah today.

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Third session

Statement submitted by BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, a non-governmental organization in general consultative status

Implications of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine

1. The large majority of the recent victims of Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip, including the victims of Beit Hanoun, are 1948 Palestinian refugees whose ongoing plight should alarm all parties concerned of the urgency of addressing the root causes of this protracted conflict. Palestinian refugees of 1948 and 1967 continue to lack access to effective protection, including physical, protection, and a durable solution in accordance with international law, UNGA Resolution 194 and UNSC Resolution 237. A similar cause for alarm is the continuing and repeated nature of displacement in the occupied Palestinian territories. Indeed, both Palestinian refugees and non-refugee residents of the occupied territories continue to be displaced either internally or externally as a result of house demolitions, military operations, revocation of their ID cards, particularly in Jerusalem, and the Wall and its regime, as well as confiscation of land and the construction and expansion of Israeli civilian colonies. Finally, the Palestinian refugees residing in the Gaza Strip and West Bank are subjected to frequent and extreme military attack by Israeli forces, as well as a denial of their freedom of movement.

BADIL Resource Center therefore supports the implementation of an international protection force and calls upon all members to reactivate the search for a durable solution based on the right of return, restitution and compensation of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons.

2. BADIL Resource Center calls upon States and organizations to recognize the root causes of the conflict, namely Israel's protracted occupation and colonization of Palestinian land and its historical policy of population transfer, and to take measures to ensure respect for the rights of the Palestinian people. International efforts in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be balanced. The conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories is often misleadingly described as part of the so-called 'War on Terror'. Portraying the conflict in this manner acts as a mask of the severe human rights violations being committed daily on the ground by Israeli authorities against Palestinians. States have an obligation to take a stand against breaches of international law no matter who is the violator.

3. Over the past few months the United Nations, in particular the Security Council and the Quartet, have failed to put human rights at the core of their agenda and find rapid and meaningful solutions to ongoing violations of international human rights and humanitarian law for the Palestinian people, including respect for the July 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice. As the reality on the ground unfolds, the Road Map has become an inefficient mechanism to find a just and durable solution to the conflict.

BADIL Resource Center calls upon the UN Security Council and the Quartet to put respect for and implementation of international law at the basis of the search for a just and lasting solution to the conflict. BADIL also calls upon states to take actions to bring about Israel's compliance with international law, including by supporting a protection force in the occupied Palestinian territories and other measures such as boycott and sanctions.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EGUA-6VRMRH?OpenDocument