40th anniversary
of Caritas Jerusalem
Human
rights and the conflict of poverty
Forty
years of occupation
International
perspective
Denis Viénot, former
president of Caritas Internationalis
Jerusalem, September 8th
2007
Despite the so difficult situation prevailing in
Palestine there are some signs of hope. The Amman Call issued in June 2007 at the
World Council of Churches International Peace Conference "Churches
together for Peace and Justice in the Middle East" starts with a clear
analysis: “Almost sixty years have passed
since the Christian churches first spoke with one voice about Arab-Israeli
peace. For the last forty years the Christian churches have called for an end
to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
This meeting was a place for clarification of common
actions. Interesting is to note some of their premises as they clearly
underline failures in the respect of the human rights:
·
UN resolutions are the basis
for peace and the Geneva conventions are applicable to the rights and
responsibilities of the affected people.
·
Palestinians have the right of
self-determination and the right of return.
·
A two-state solution must be
viable politically, geographically economically and socially.
·
Jerusalem must be an open,
accessible, inclusive and shared city for the two peoples and three religions.
·
The Israeli settlements in the
occupied Palestinian territories are illegal, and constitute an obstacle to
peace.
·
The "Separation
Barrier" constructed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories is
a grave breach of international law and must be removed from the occupied
territory.
Israel has been occupying the West bank, including
Jerusalem East, and the Gaza strip since 1967. It has strengthened its
effective control unlawfully, through the construction of settlements for
450 000 Israelis and by-pass roads, the construction of walls and fences,
the confiscation of land and resources, the demolition of thousands of homes
and the establishment of over 550 checkpoints and other impediments to movement
in the West bank alone. Israel remains an occupying power, exercising control
over the border, restricting exit and entry and controlling the sea and the air
space.[1]
Israel, as the occupying power, is responsible for the
protection of civilians and it has systematically refused to respect its
obligations under international humanitarian law and has perpetrated numerous
human rights violations, many of which constitute war crimes under
international humanitarian law.
In April 2006 I visited
Caritas Jerusalem with the Caritas Internationalis advocacy group driving the peace
campaign of the confederation. I wrote then in a French newspaper: “The wall which separates Israel and the
Palestinian territories is described as a tool of security. In fact it is a
tool to steel lands or sources of water, to separate Palestinians communities,
to refrain the selling of agricultural produces. The wall does not follow the 1949 armistice line but
goes North – South by making zigzags decided unilaterally by the Israeli
government. Condemned by the International Court of
Justice on July 9, 2004 the wall continues its inexorable advance without
meeting effective international protests.”[2]
Looking at this situation of deep crisis and at
its history it is a bit strange to realize that the international community
finances a colonial situation. It supports heavily both parts, finally it
finances the conflict. The United States and Israel have for instance just signed
a new agreement on defense which consent to an increase of 25% of the military
help going now up to 30 billions of dollars for the next ten years. In adition to the huge ongoing support, 15 000
dollars per person per year roughly.
But the global international community is generous
with the Palestinian population through the Official Development Assistance /
ODA: the Palestinian gets the biggest amount in the world, 142 US dollars per
year, followed by the Sudanese with 37 dollars when the Ethiopian gets 16 dollars
or the Bangladeshi or the Haitian 4 dollars.
In fact, the
international community finances the consequences of the Israeli occupation,
namely 142 $ per year and per person to maintain alive the Palestinians in
prison: according to Jan Egeland, former UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian
Affairs, “Gaza, a prison with an open sky”. It finances the rebuilding of
infrastructures which the conflict and the occupation will destroy again and so
on, power station of Gaza or treatment plants of water etc.
Therefore,
142 $ seems to be the price to maintain in life a people having with no access
to work, to a good health system for everybody, to a good education system for
everybody.
Finally,
142 $ could be seen as a high level compared to the ODA of very poor countries
but it is a low amount compared with the 400 $ per Israeli that the United
States will spend to maintain the occupation of the Territories.
Thus, one
assessment: the international community is schizophrenic.
***
From an international perspective some general analysis
or remarks are necessary in order to derive ideas for a better understanding of
the drama, the only way to build hopes or paths for true solutions grounded on
realities.
First of all one has to be
clear. Despite its victory Israel is facing a deadly danger towards the dead
end of the peace, its transformation into a small military regime wedged in a banal colonial
speech. This will make impossible a peaceful reintegration in its region and
the recognition of its borders by the United Nations[3].
In its
internal policy Israel again marginalizes the Palestinians, putting them in a
poverty situation. This is generally speaking a violation of the human rights according
to M. Arjun Sengupta, Special Rapporteur at the second session of the Council
of the Human Rights of the United Nations[4].
Roughly half of the Palestinian families living in Israel are in a poverty
situation, compared to the 15% of the Jewish families!
From
the Palestinian side a double trap blocks the population in a double war: the
colonial one around the Israelian colonies in expansion in the West Bank,
Jerusalem East and along the wall, and a dramatic civil war. For the time being
Israel is the winner but has no way to conduct its opponent to the
capitulation.
From
the United Nations side it remains unacceptable to have a long list of resolutions
rejected automatically de facto by one of the Member State. The last ones
related to the wall for instance.
From a global
perspective about conflicts, research conducted by the World Bank shows that the
combination of poverty, economic decline and dependence
on exporting natural resources drives conflict across all
regions.
Many of the poorest
countries are locked in a vicious circle in which poverty causes conflict and
conflict causes poverty.
·
The book “Breaking the conflict trap” analyzed 52 major civil wars between
1960 and 1999. The typical conflict lasted about 7 years and left the countries
poor and disease-ridden.
·
The incidence of civil war globally has been
rising over the past 40 years. In the past 15 years, 80% of the world’s 20
poorest countries have suffered a major civil war.
·
Countries coming out of war face a 50% chance
of relapsing in the first 5 years of peace.
·
Even with rapid progress after peace, it can
take a generation or more just to return to pre-war living standards.
In the case of
Palestine and Israel the historical and religious dimensions are stronger as
well as the danger of the disappearance of the Christians.
This conflict is
specific and of high symbolic dimension, in addition to the so numerous and
horrible drama it has generated.
It is a key conflict for the two people.
At Easter in 2007, Msgr Michel Sabbah, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
said: “The issue is simple, as is the answer to resolve it. Two peoples are at war with each other, and one of them occupies
the house of the other. The solution
would be for each one to occupy his
own house, the Israelis their house and the Palestinians theirs.”
It is a
key conflict for the region and the world, related to its links with the
terrorism and foreign policies of so many countries.
Again the Amman Call
gives some orientations concerning the respect of the human rights, of the
legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. Four key words can be extracted:
·
Liberation of all peoples of
this land from the logic of hatred, mutual rejection and death, so that they
see in the other the face and dignity of God.
·
Illegal occupation which has
stolen two generations of lives in this tortured place, and threatens the next
with hopelessness and rage.
·
Bridges to be build among all
peoples in the region. Extremism on all sides produces chaos. It threatens to
divide us and to destroy bridges among peoples that would lead to
reconciliation and peace.
·
Peace is possible. Christians
and Muslims and Jews have, can and will understand one another and live
together as neighbors.
Peace, bridges, illegal occupation, liberation. The human
rights are not negotiable.
And it
is the case in Palestine as in all the conflicts in progress, Colombia, Darfur.
And it is the case vis-à-vis all the situations of poverty, in all the
countries of the world.
The human rights are indivisible.
____________________