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PHRC comments on MPs' replies to questions of principle

The Palestinian Human Rights Campaign wrote a letter on March 22 to twelve MPs seeking answers on matters of principle. One MP referred us to another party member and so altogether thirteen MPs were contacted. The letter read as follows:

“On March 18 this year, the Israeli Army issued a notice to Youssef Ali Badrawi condemning his house in the West Bank village of al-Ras to demolition because it lies in the path of Israel's advancing wall. In its July 2004 ruling, the International Court of Justice (World Court) in The Hague, Netherlands, held that construction of Israel's wall is "contrary to international law", in part because it "destroyed and confiscated" property, it greatly restricts Palestinian movement and it "severely impedes the exercise by the Palestinian people of [the] right to selfdetermination".

1. Do you support the International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the illegality of Israel's wall, which is being built, not along the Green Line but upon Occupied Palestinian land?

2. If you do not support the World Court ruling, what is your position regarding the World Court and international law in general, including the Geneva Conventions?

3. Do you consider that the householder concerned or members of his family have a right to resist the destruction of their home by Israel ? If not, why not?”

    Taking each political party in turn, the PHRC looks at the responses of those MPs questioned in the sample:

Eternal shame – Zionism's young victims

    As Israel prepares for its 60^th birthday in May already, in the first four months of the anniversary year, In Occupied Palestine has reported 63 deaths and more than 12 injuries (including 14 beatings) of Palestinian youngsters under Occupation. These are listed below.

    Israel asserts that its Occupation forces do not target Palestinian civilians. The indiscrimate use of disproportionate firepower, however, makes the inevitability of large numbers of civilian deaths unavoidable. Israel's disclaimers lack credibility and the toll of dead and maimed Palestinians bears witness to the truth.

    This report deals principally with the deaths and injuries of young people. For a more complete record covering the far higher total of all victims, please refer to other sources including In Occupied Palestine's daily reports.

• Beatings: Israel will no doubt claim that the beating of children (one as young as 10) is necessary for security. The torture of two youngsters by Israeli soldiers is also recorded.

• Sniper fire: Snipers aim at the person. Israel's child victims, targeted even in their own homes, are further proof that Israel has no respect for human life or the Geneva Conventions.

Dancing on graves – Israel celebrates 60 years

By Leslie Bravery – April 14, 2008

Political ideology

The signatories to Israel's May 14, 1948 Declaration of Independence, identified themselves thus:

“. . . We members of the People's Council, representatives of the Jewish Community of Eretz-Israel and of the Zionist movement . . .”

    The key to understanding the Israeli state and its relations with both the Palestinian people and its neighbours lies in the reference to the Zionist movement. Founded by Theodor Herzl in the late nineteenth century, Zionism holds that hostility to Jews is natural and inevitable and that Jews can only be secure through the creation of a Jewish state. The movement shared the outlook of European colonialism and most people would be astonished to learn of revisionist (as it became) Zionism's affinity with the fascist movements of the early twentieth century, its eventual co-operation with Nazism and its betrayal of non-Zionist Jews.