Earlier today (Tuesday, May 15th) ICAHD submitted its statement to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to convene in Geneva next month. ICAHD called the Council to reflect on the legality of prolonged Israeli occupation,  a possible new type of crime against humanity. 

The statement, authored by Adv. Emily Schaeffer from the Michael Sfard Law Office and ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain provides information for consideration by the Human Rights Council in advance of its 20th Regular Session. The statement focuses on Israeli illegal policies and practices of property demolition and forcible transfer, and the impact of prolonged occupation. 

Epshtain will appear before the Council in Geneva in early July, to highlight Israel's policies and practices in violation of international law, and to question the very legality of prolonged and indefinite occupation. ICAHD will provide the Council with pertinent information on the plight of Palestinians' under the effective control of Israel. 

The statement concludes with a recommendation to the Human Rights Council to reflect on the legality of  prolonged Israeli occupation, which has outlived the armed conflict that spawned it by 45 years, and with no time limit in sight, and explore the possibility that prolonged and indefinite occupation has morphed into a new type of crime against humanity.

To read the statement press here… 

Palestinian residential structures in Area C of the the West Bank, east of Jerusalem, are under looming threat of immediate demolition. Structures include EU-funded residential structures provided in response to previous demolitions in the area. The Palestinian-Bedouin communities living in the hills to the east of Jerusalem are at an exceedingly growing risk of forced ethnic displacement. The communities have been informed by the Israeli authorities that they have no option but to leave the area, as part of a larger plan to forcibly tranfer, in defiance of international law, Bedouin communities living in Area C (Jerusalem periphery, Jordan Valley, and south Hebron Hills), where Israel retains control over security as well as planning and zoning.

The Israeli Civil Administration (ICA)  issued eight eviction orders to the Kurshan compound of the Khan al-Ahmar Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin community, in the afternoon of Sunday May 6th. The orders affect the eight families of the community, who have been part of a recent shelter rehabilitation project, designed to replace sub-standard shelter with eight residential structures. The Kurshan families have used this location seasonally since the 1960s, and have been permanent in their current location since 1992. The ICA officers informed those present in the community that “the community had built illegally, and that Area C was not for Palestinians.” Furthermore, ICA informed the Az-Zayyem Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin community on May 3rd, that a demolition will take place in their community, effective immediately, following the lift of an injunction order protecting the structures. These are also structures funded by the international community, following demolitions in November 2011. 

Az-Zayyem demolitions, November 2011

Settlers from Regavim, a militant organization based in the nearby settlement of Kfar Adumim, harassed the Khan al-Ahmar Kurshan residents earlier today. They photographed all structures in the community. At the time, ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain, and Field-Coordinator Salim Shawamreh were providing protective presence in the community, and were told by settlers, that they were gathering information on Bedouin structures with the intent of approaching the ICA to urge them to demolish community homes.

An appeal filed by the lawyer for the community against the eviction orders was rejected this afternoon, May 8th, and the ICA is most likely to demolish the eight family homes as early as tomorrow afternoon. According to recognized legal opinions the current planning and permit regime, and other Israeli practices and policies in Area C, violate International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law on several counts (more information available here). It is the duty of third states to ensure respect of international law. The EU Heads of Mission Report on Area C (July 2011) strongly recommended that EU member states promote economic development in Area C, and increase visibility and accountability for the delivery of aid and development architecture in Area C.

ICAHD has called the EU to immediately exert diplomatic pressure on Israel, and call it to account for the threatened demolitions in Khan al-Ahmar as well as in Az-Zayyem. The EU should seek assurance from Israel that the ICA will not demolish these, and other Palestinian structures in Area C. ICAHD will continue to provide protective presence in the community, along with partner organization. 

For more information on the growing risk of displacement faced by Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin, please refer to the ICAHD publication 'Nowhere Left to Go'.

For a normative and political analysis of Israel's displacement policy and practice in the Occupied West Bank, please find the ICAHD publication 'Demolishing Homes, Demolishing Peace'.

*Update, May 10th: 

After lobbying by ICAHD and others in the UK and Europe, the British Government stated that senior British ministers were in discussion with British officials in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as well as with EU officials who were keeping fully updated on the situation. The government position was stated as follows: “The UK continues to encourage the Israeli Government to carry through on this commitment, to comply fully with their obligations under international law, and to ensure that any decision reached on the movement of Bedouin communities should be made with their full consent and not result in a forcible transfer.” EU Foreign Ministers are gathering in Brussels for a meeting on 14 May. They will discuss issues including the demolition of Palestinian homes, forced displacement and the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in Area C of the West Bank which threaten Palestinian economic development. 

The legal aid provider, JLAC, managed to obtain an injunction order for Khan al-Ahmar Kurshan community. This temporary injunction prevents the demolition of homes of the eight families that received eviction notices on Sunday 6 May. It is worth mentioning that the injunction does not have an expiration date. However, the Israeli Civil Administration has seven days to provide its response to the court regarding this decision. This response will guide any further decisions of the court. 

A Palestinian refugee family (An Natsha) residing in Beit Hanina (East Jerusalem) was forcibly evicted by Israeli authorities this morning, 18 April 2012. The home was taken over by an Israeli settler association, which plans to build around 60 housing units for settlers in the area.  Since 2001, the An Natsha family has suffered repeated settler violence and harassment at the hands of settler groups insisting that they leave their homes. These attacks have intensified in recent months and ultimately brought about today's displacement of 14 family members. 

Press here to read… 

Data desegregation: Itay Epshtain, ICAHD

This passing week saw nine homes and six animal pans demolished and 52 people displaced in the Jordan Valley villages of Fasayil al-Wusta and al-Jiftlik.

On Tuesday March 13^th five homes and six animal pans were demolished at Fasayil al-Wusta, displacing 30 people, including 20 children. This is the third time in recent months that the community, locked between the settlements of Tomer and Yafit, has suffered a demolition, in an attempt to displace its inhabitants, and expropriate their land in favor of nearby settlement expansion.

Fasayil al-Wusta ©OCHA

On Wednesday March 14^th, further demolitions occurred in the Abu al-Ajaj compound in al-Jiftlik, when four homes were demolished, displacing 22 people.

Al-Jiftlik Demolition ©Felizitas Hoffman

At the time of the Demolition, ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain and Field-Coordinator Salim Shawamreh were leading a field visit through the area for high-ranking diplomats, and responded within minutes to the demolition site,  along with partner organization Jordan Valley Solidarity, to document the occurrence and coordinate the humanitarian and advocacy response.

Epshtain and Shawamreh speaking with home owner Ayman Ideas ©Felizitas Hoffman

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman visited the occupied Jordan Valley earlier this month, and was quoted saying that Jordan Valley settlements (numbering 36) "will remain in place, and we will work to strengthen them." Lieberman was merely reiterating Prime Minister Netanyahu's position stating in January "I will sign a final status agreement only if Israel remains in the Jordan Valley."

From the beginning of the year 144 structures were demolished in the occupied West Bank, displacing 310 people according to Displacement Working Group partners. Only earlier this week, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged Israel to reconsider its policies in order to guarantee Palestinian and Bedouin rights to property, access to land, access to housing and access to natural resources. The Committee's call echoes that of UN independent experts Prof. Rolnik and Prof. Falk, earlier this year, and that of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to stop house demolitions forthwith.  

Al-Jiftlik Demolition ©Felizitas Hoffman

More information can be found in the Jordan Valley Fact Sheet, here… 

We firmly hold that Khulood has a manifested right to exercise her freedom of expression on her personal Facebook page. Calls to dismiss Khulood Badawi are nothing but a political witch hunt, and trust they will be summarily and authoritatively rejected.

Dr. Jeff Halper, Director
Itay Epshtain, Co-Director

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), published its concluding observations this morning (March 13^th), calling Israel to take immediate measures to eradicate apartheid policies or practices which severely affect the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and which violate the provisions of the Convention on the prevention of racial segregation and apartheid.

After considering the state report by Israel on compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), and the ICAHD parallel report (found here…) the Committee urged Israel to reconsider its policies in order to guarantee Palestinian and Bedouin rights to property, access to land, access to housing and access to  natural resources, and eliminate any policy of “demographic balance” from its Jerusalem Master Plan as well as from its planning and zoning policy in the rest of the West Bank.

The ICAHD report, authored by Adv. Emily Schaeffer from the Michael Sfard Law Office and ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain provided information for consideration by the Committee in advance of its examination of Israel's periodic reports. The report focuses on Israel's failure to comply with the Convention in relation to the Occupation of the Palestinian territory, and its responsibility to respect, protect and fulfill Palestinians human rights, in accordance with international law and standards. 

Epshtain and ICAHD UK Director Linda Ramsden addressed the Committee and highlighted Israel's protracted non-compliance with obligations stemming from the Convention and other human rights instruments. While Israel persistently refuses to provide information on ICERD implementation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, ICAHD provided the Committee with pertinent information on the plight of Palestinian under the effective control of Israel. To listen to the statement, press here…

In a side event held by ICAHD in conjunction with Al-Haq, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, BADIL – Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refuge Rights, and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, a joint addendum was presented, and Committee members were encouraged to adopt aforementioned recommendations.

ICAHD Co-Director Epshtain addresses the Committee

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is a body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its State parties. All States parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights are being implemented. The Committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the State party in the form of “concluding observations”.

The Committee adopted the following concluding observations:

• The Committee reiterates  its view that the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in particular the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are not only illegal under international law but are an obstacle to the enjoyment of human rights by the whole population, without distinction as to national or ethnic origin. Actions that change the demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian Territory are also of concern as violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

• The Committee is extremely concerned at the consequences of policies and practices which amount to de facto segregation, such as the implementation by the State party in the Occupied Palestinian Territory of two entirely separate legal systems and sets of institutions for Jewish communities grouped in illegal settlements on the one hand and Palestinian populations living in Palestinian towns and villages on the other hand. The Committee is particularly appalled at the hermetic character of the separation of two groups, who live on the same territory but do not enjoy either equal use of roads and infrastructure or equal access to basic services and water resources. Such separation is concretized by the implementation of a complex combination of movement restrictions consisting of the Wall, roadblocks, the obligation to use separate roads and a permit regime that only impacts the Palestinian population. The Committee draws the State party’s attention to its General Recommendation 19 (1995) concerning the prevention, prohibition and eradication of all policies and practices of racial segregation and apartheid, and urges the State party to take immediate measures to prohibit and eradicate any such policies or practices which severely and disproportionately affect the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and which violate the provisions of article 3 of the Convention.

• The Committee is increasingly concerned at the State party’s discriminatory planning policy, whereby construction permits are rarely if ever granted to Palestinian and Bedouin communities and demolitions principally target property owned by Palestinians and Bedouins. The Committee is greatly concerned at the State party’s policy of “demographic balance”, which has been a stated aim of official municipal planning documents, particularly in the city of Jerusalem.

• In light of its previous concluding observations and considering that the current Israeli planning and zoning policy in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, seriously breaches a range of fundamental rights under the Convention, the Committee urges the State party to reconsider the entire policy in order to guarantee Palestinian and Bedouin rights to property, access to land, access to housing and access to natural resources (especially water resources). The Committee also recommends that any planning and zoning policy be implemented in consultation with the populations directly affected by those measures. It calls on the State party to eliminate any policy of “demographic balance” from its Jerusalem Master Plan as well as from its planning and zoning policy in the rest of the West Bank.

The Committee concluding observations in their entirety can be found here.

Epshtain and ICAHD UK Director Linda Ramsden at CERD side event

Concluding a ten day visit to the region yesterday (Monday, February 20^th), United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Prof. Richard Falk stated that "the information I received paints a picture of increasing efforts by Israel to deny Palestinians their right of self-determination. Ever-increasing and expanding Israeli settlements; ever-increasing confiscation of Palestinian land; ever-increasing settler violence; and ever-increasing demolition of Palestinian homes and other measures to displace Palestinians, have the manifest effect of making self-determination a decreasingly realizable prospect for Palestinians."

The Special Rapporteur met during his visit ICAHD staff members Jeff Halper, Salim Shawamreh and Itay Epshtain. In a briefing held in Amman Jordan, Halper and Epshtain highlighted to the recent trends of demolition and displacement in East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank, as well as the political program of Judaization of those areas, forestalling a just solution to the conflict (ICAHD's analysis of last year's displacement trends can be found here…). ICAHD Field-Coordinator Shawamreh informed Prof. Falk of recent occurrences in Anata, bringing about the demolition of his home "Beit Arabiya", and the homes of others ICAHD has supported throughout the years.

Following the briefing the UN Special Rapporteur told press that "with 80 Palestinian structures already demolished in 2012, Israel is on pace to exceed even the sharp increase of demolitions it perpetrated in 2011.  It is deeply disturbing that 30 per cent of such incidents involve the demolition of family homes. And these demolitions result in the further displacement of more Palestinians – many of whom were already refugees." 

Following the consideration of information provided by ICAHD and partner human rights organizations, Prof. Falk was quoted saying that "the information inevitably leads to the conclusion that Israel is implementing a deliberate policy of forcing Palestinians out of their homes and off their land, in order to establish more illegal settlements and to proceed with the de facto annexation of the West Bank, if not altogether, at least in relation to its substantial part, a process aggravated by a disproportional allocation of water to the settlers. In this regard, the situations in certain parts of East Jerusalem, and throughout the Jordan Valley merit sustained and timely international attention and advocacy." 

Even as I write this, the bulldozers have been busy throughout that one indivisible country known by the bifurcated term Israel/Palestine. Palestinian homes, community centers, livestock pens and other “structures” (as the Israel authorities dispassionately call them) have been demolished in the Old City, Silwan and various parts of “Area C” in the West Bank, as well among the Bedouin – Israeli citizens – in the Negev/Nakab. This is merely mopping up, herding the last of the Arabs into their prison cells where, forever, they will cease to be heard or heard from, a non-issue in Israel and, eventually, in the wider world distracted from bigger, more pressing matters.

An as-yet confidential report submitted by the European consuls in Jerusalem and Ramallah raises urgent concerns over the “forced expulsion” of Palestinians – a particularly strong term for European diplomats to use –from Area C of the West Bank (the 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli control but which today contains less than 5% of the Palestinian population). Focusing particularly on the rise in house demolitions by the Israeli authorities and the growing economic distress of the Palestinians living in Area C, the report mentions the fertile and strategic Jordan Valley (where the Palestinian population has declined from 250,000 to 50,000 since the start of the Occupation), plans to relocate 3000 Jahalin Bedouins to a barren hilltop above the Jerusalem garbage dump and the ongoing but accelerated demolition of Palestinian homes (500 in 2011).

At the same time the “judaization” of Jerusalem continues apace, a “greater” Israeli Jerusalem steadily isolating the Palestinian parts of the city from the rest of Palestinian society while ghettoizing their inhabitants, more than 100,000 of which now live beyond the Wall. Some 120 homes were demolished in East Jerusalem in 2011; over the same period the Israeli government announced the construction of close to 7000 housing units for Jews in East and “Greater” Jerusalem. “If current trends are not stopped and reversed,” said a previous EU report, “the establishment of a viable Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders seems more remote than ever. The window for a two-state solution is rapidly closing….”

In fact, it closed long ago. In terms of settlers and Palestinians, the Israeli government treats the whole country as one. Last year it demolished three times more homes ofIsraeli citizens (Arabs, of course) than it did in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The demolition of Bedouin homes in the Negev/Nakab is part of a plan approved by the government to remove 30,000 citizens from their homes and confine them to townships.

None of this concerns “typical” Israelis even if they have heard of it (little appears in the news). For them, the Israeli-Arab conflict was won and forgotten years ago, somewhere around 2004 when Bush informed Sharon that the US does not expect Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders, thus effectively ending the “two-state solution,” and Arafat “mysteriously” died.

Since then, despite occasional protests from Europe, the “situation” has been normalized. Israelis enjoy peace and quiet, personal security and a booming economy (with the usual neoliberal problems of fair allocation). The unshakable, bi-partisan support of the American government and Congress effectively shields it from any kind of international sanctions. Above all, Israeli Jews have faith that those pesky Arabs living somewhere “over there” beyond the Walls and barbed-wire barriers have been pacified and brought under control by the IDF. A recent poll found that “security,” the term Israelis use instead of “occupation” or “peace,” was ranked eleventh among the concerns of the Israeli public, trailing well behind employment, crime, corruption, religious-secular differences, housing and other more pressing issues.

A for the international community, the “Quartet” representing the US, the EU, Russia and the UN in the non-existent “peace process” has gone completely silent. (Israel refused to table its position on borders and other key negotiating issues by the January 26^th “deadline” laid down by the Quartet, and no new meetings are scheduled). The US has abandoned any pretense of an “honest broker.” Months ago, when the US entered its interminable election “season,” Israel received a green light from both the Democrats and Republicans to do whatever it sees fit in the Occupied Territory. Last May the Republicans invited Netanyahu to address Congress and send a clear message to Obama: hands off Israel. That same week, Obama, not to be out-done, addressed an AIPAC convention and reaffirmed Bush’s promise that Israel will not have to return to the 1967 borders or relinquish its major settlement blocs in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. He also took the occasion to promise an American veto should the Palestinians request membership in the UN – though that would merely amount to an official acceptance of the two-state treaty that the US claims it has been fostering all these years. No, as far as Israel and Israeli Jews are concerned, the conflict and even the need for pretense is over. The only thing remaining is to divert attention to more “urgent” global matters so that the Palestinian issue completely disappears. Voila Iran. 

Oh, but what about the “demographic threat,” that “war of the womb” that will eventually force a solution? Well, as long as Israel has the Palestinian Authority to self-segregate its people, it has nothing to worry about. While the Palestinian Authority plays the “two-state solution” game, Israel can simply herd the Palestinians into the 70 tiny islands of Areas A and B, lock the gates and let the international community feed them – and go about placidly building a Greater Land of Israel with American and European complicity. Indeed, nothing demonstrates self-segregation more than Prime Minister Salem Fayyad’s neoliberal scheme of building a Palestinian …something… “from the ground up.” By building for the well-to-do in new private-sector cities like Rawabi, located safely in Area A, by building new highways (with Japanese and USAID assistance) that respect Israeli “Greater” Jerusalem and channel Palestinian traffic from Ramallah to Bethlehem through far-away Jericho, by expressing a willingness to accept Israeli territorial expansion in exchange for the ability to “do business,” Fayyad has invented yet a new form of neoliberal oppression-by-consent: viable apartheid (viable, at least, for the Palestinian business class). And as in the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa, the Palestinian Authority maintains a repressive internal order through its own American-trained/Israeli-approved militia, a second layer of occupation. (During the 2008 assault on Gaza, one of the few places in the world in which there were no demonstrations was the West Bank, where they were forbidden by the Palestinian Authority. Then-Prime Minister Olmert crowed that this was evidence of how effectively the Palestinians had been pacified.)

Indeed, by clinging to the two-state solution and continuing to participate in “negotiations” years after they have proven themselves a trap, the Palestinian leadership plays a central role in its own people’s warehousing. The reality – even the fact – of occupation gets buried under the diversions set up by the fraudulent yet unending “peace process.” This only enables Israel not only to imprison the Palestinians in tiny cells; witness today’s mini-ethnic cleansing, just one of thousands of micro-events that have the cumulative effect of displacement, expulsion, segregation and incarceration. It also enables Israel to then blame the victims for causing their own oppression! When a Palestinian leadership assumes the prerogative to negotiate a political resolution yet lacks any genuine authority or leverage to do so, and when, in addition, it fails to abandon negotiations even after they have been exposed as a trap, it comes dangerously close to being collaborationist. For its part, Israel is off the hook. Instead of going through the motions of establishing an apartheid regime, it simply exploits the willingness of the Palestinian Authority to perpetuate the illusion of negotiations as a smokescreen covering its virtual imprisonment of the Palestinian “inmates.” Once the current mopping up operations are completed, the process of incarceration will be complete.

Today the only alternative agency to the Palestinian Authority is segments of the international civil society. The Arab and Muslims peoples for whom Palestinian liberation is an integral part of the Arab Spring, stand alongside thousands of political and human rights groups, critical activists, churches, trade unions and intellectuals throughout the world. Crucial as it is for keeping the issue alive and building grassroots support for the Palestinian cause that will steadily “trickle up” and affect governments’ policies, however, civil society advocacy is a stop-gap form of agency, ultimately unable to achieve a just peace by itself. We, too, are trapped in the dead-end personified by the two-state solution, reference to a “peace process” and their attendant “negotiations.” There is no way forward in the current paradigm. We must break out into a world of new possibilities foreclosed by the present options: a “two-state” apartheid regime or warehousing.

In my view, while advocacy and grassroots mobilization remain relevant, several tasks stand before us. First, we must endeavor to hasten the collapse of the present situation and subsequently, when new paradigms of genuine justice emerge from the chaos, be primed to push forward an entirely different solution that is currently impossible or inconceivable, be that a single democratic state over the entire country, a bi-national state, a regional confederation or some other alternative yet to be formulated. The Palestinians themselves must create a genuine, inclusive agency of their own that, following the collapse, can effectively seize the moment. Formulating a clear program and strategy, they will then be equipped to lead their people to liberation and a just peace, with the support of activists and others the world over.

A necessary and urgent first step towards collapsing the otherwise permanent regime of oppression in Israel/Palestine is that we stop talking about a two-state solution. It’s dead and gone as a political option – if, indeed, it ever really existed. It should be banned from the discourse because reference to an irrelevant “solution” only serves to confuse the discussion. Granted, this will be hard for liberals to do; everyone else, however, has given up on it. Most Palestinians, having once supported it, now realize that Israel will simply not withdraw to a point where a truly viable and sovereign state can emerge. The Israeli government, backed by the Bush-Obama policies on the settlement blocs, doesn’t even make pretence of pursuing it anymore, and the Israeli public is fine with the status quo. Nor does the permanent warehousing of the Palestinians seem to faze the American or European governments, or the Arab League. Even AIPAC has moved on to the “Iranian threat.”

Behind the insistence of the liberal Zionists of J Street, Peace Now, the Peace NGOs Forum run out of the Peres Center for Peace and others to hang on to a two-state solution at any cost is a not-so-hidden agenda. They seek to preserve Israel as a Jewish state even at the cost of enforcing institutional discrimination against Israel’s own Palestinian citizens. The real meaning of a “Jewish democracy” is living with apartheid and warehousing while protesting them. No, the liberals will be the hardest to wean away from the two-state snare. Yet if they don’t abandon it, they run the risk of promoting de facto their own worst nightmare of warehousing while providing the fig-leaf of legitimacy to cover the policies of Israel’s extreme right – all in the name of “peace.” This is what happens when one’s ideology places restrictions on one’s ability to perceive evil or to draw necessary if difficult conclusions. When wishful thinking becomes policy, it not only destroys your effectiveness as a political actor but leads you into positions, policies and alliances that, in the end, are inimical to your own goals and values. Jettisoning all talk of a “two-state solution” removes the major obstacle to clear analysis and the ability to move forward.   

The obfuscation created by the “two-state solution” now out of the way, what emerges as clear as day is naked occupation, an apartheid regime extending across all of historic Palestine/Israel and the spectre of warehousing. Since none of these forms of oppression can ever be legitimized or transformed into something just, the task before us becomes clear: to cause their collapse by any means necessary. There are many ways to do this, just as the ANC did. Already Palestinian, Israel and international activists engage in internal resistance, together with international challenges to occupation represented by the Gaza flotillas and attempts to “crash” Israeli borders. Many civil society actors the world over have mobilized, some around campaigns such as Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS), others around direct actions, still others engaged in lobbying the UN and governments through such instruments as the Human Rights Council, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and international courts. There have been campaigns to reconvene the Tribunal that, under the Fourth Geneva Convention, has the authority and duty to sanction Israel for its gross violations. Dozens of groups and individuals alike engage in public speaking, mounting Israel Apartheid Weeks on university campuses and working through the media. And much more.

And here is where Palestinian civil society plays a crucial role, a role that cannot be played by non-Palestinians. If it is agreed that the Palestinian Authority must go if we are to get beyond the two-state trap – indeed, the dismantling of the PA being a major part of the collapse of the present system – then this call must originate from within the Palestinian community. Non-Palestinians must join in, of course, but the issue of who represents the Palestinians is their call exclusively.

Non-Palestinians can lso suggest various end-games. I’ve written, for example, about a Middle East economic confederation, believing that a regional approach is necessary to address the core issues. The Palestinian organization PASSIA published a collection of twelve possible outcomes. It is obvious, though, that it is the sole prerogative of the Palestinian people to decide what solution, or range of solutions, is acceptable. For this, and to organize effectively so as to bring about a desired outcome, the Palestinians need a new truly representative agency, one that replaces the PA and gives leadership and direction to broad-based civil society agency, one that has the authority to negotiate a settlement and actually move on to the implementation of a just peace.

As of now, it appears there is only one agency that possesses that legitimacy and mandate: the Palestinian National Council of the PLO (although Hamas and the other Islamic parties are not (yet) part of the PLO). Reconstituting the PNC through new elections would seem the most urgent item on the Palestinian agenda today – without which, in the absence of effective agency, we are all stuck in rearguard protest actions and Israel prevails. Our current situation, caught in the limbo between seeking the collapse of the oppressive system we have, and having a Palestinian agency that can effectively lead us towards a just resolution, is one of the most perilous we’ve faced. One person’s limbo is another person’s window of opportunity. Say what you will about Israel, it knows how to hustle and exploit even the smallest of opportunities to nail down its control permanently.

“Collapse with agency,” I suggest, could be a title of our refocused efforts to weather the limbo in the political process. Until a reinvigorated PNC or other representative agency can be constituted, a daunting but truly urgent task, Palestinian civil society might coalesce enough to create a kind of interim leadership bureau. This itself might be a daunting task. Most Palestinian leaders have either been killed by Israel or are languishing in Israeli prisons, while Palestinian civil society has been shattered into tiny disconnected and often antagonistic pieces. At home major divisions have been sown between “’48” and “’67” Palestinians; Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank have been effectively severed; and within the West Bank restrictions on movement among a bewildering array of “areas” – A, B, C, C-Restricted, H-1, H-2, nature reserves, closed military areas – have resulted in virtual, largely disconnected Palestinian mini-societies. Political divisions, especially among secular/traditional and Islamic factions, have been nurtured, not least by Israel. Overall, the Palestinian population, exhausted by years of sacrifice and resistance, impoverished and preoccupied with mere survival, has been left largely rudderless as many of its most educated and skilled potential leaders have left or are forbidden by Israel to return. 

For its part, the Palestinian leadership has done little to bridge the wider divisions amongst those falling under PA rule, Palestinian citizens of Israel, residents of the refugee camps and the world-wide Diaspora, divisions that have grown even wider since the PLO and the PNC fell moribund. Indeed, major portions of the Palestinian Diaspora (and one may single out especially but not exclusively the large and prosperous communities of Latin America), have disconnected from the national struggle completely. The Palestinian possess some extremely articulate spokespeople and activists, but they tend to be either a collection of individual voices only tenuously tied to grassroots organizations, or grassroots resistance groups such as the Popular Committees that enjoy little political backing or strategic direction.    

Ever aware that the struggle for liberation must be led by Palestinians, our collective task at the moment, in my view, is to bring about the collapse of the present situation in Palestine in order to exploit its fundamental unsustainabilty. The elimination of the Palestinian Authority is one way to precipitate that collapse. It would likely require Israel to physically reoccupy the Palestinian cities and probably Gaza as well (as if they have ever been de-occupied), bringing the reality of raw occupation back to the center of attention. Such a development would likely inflame Arab and Muslim public opinion, not to mention that of much of the rest of the world, and would create an untenable situation, forcing the hand of the international community. Israel would be put in an indefensible position, thus paving the way for new post-collapse possibilities – this time with an effective and representative Palestinian agency in place and a global movement primed to follow its lead.

But given the underlying unsustainability of the Occupation and the repressive system existing throughout historic Palestine – the massive violations of human rights and international law, the disruptive role the conflict plays in the international system and its overt brutality – collapse could come from a variety of places, some of them unsuspected and unrelated to Israel/Palestine. An attack on Iran could reshuffle the cards in the Middle East, and the Arab Spring is still a work in progress. Major disruptions in the flow of oil to the West due an attack on Iran, internal changes in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, instability in Russia and even the fact that China has no oil of its own could cause major financial crises worldwide. Sino-American tensions, environmental disasters or Pakistan’s nuclear weapons falling into the hands of the Taliban with unpredictable Indian reactions may all play an indirect yet forceful role. Who knows? Ron Paul, President Gingrich’s newly appointed Secretary of State, might end all military, economic and political support for Israel, in which case the Occupation (and more) would fall within a month.   

Whatever the cause of the collapse – and we must play an active role in bring it about – it is incumbent upon us to be ready, mobilized and organized if we are to seize that historic moment, which might be coming sooner than we expect. Effective and broadly representative Palestinian agency will be critical. Collapse with agency is the only way to get “there” from “here.”

 
Jeff Halper is the Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD).