Read this alarming opinion by Robert Bernstein, former chairman of Human Rights Watch, published in the NY Times on Oct. 19, 2009.

Besides the fact that the message in his article is simply not true, (one look at the HRW Middle East division page and you see that most of the publications refer to the suppression of political freedoms in the Arab countries and Iran, systematic discrimination in Saudi against Shia groups, there’s even an entire report and severe condemnation of rocket attacks sent by Hamas on Israeli civilians), what bearing does it have on the situation in the Gaza Strip? Let’s assume its true and there is some alarming bias in HRW against the state of Israel. Does it change the fact that Israel is guilty of committing numerous war crimes in Gaza this past January? No, it absolutely does not.

The argument Robert Bernstein makes is one generally waged by those blind supports of the state of Israel. They always use the same argument, it never actually surprises me. Instead of addressing the issue at hand, which is Israel’s system of racism and discrimination against its Palestinian population and Palestinian neighbors, they say: ‘why talk about Israel’s human rights violations, look at the rest of the Middle East?’ Yes, its true, Arab governments are guilty of a lot, but it does not change the fact that the Israeli government slaughtered 1600 Palestinians (including 400 children) this past January, and  they need to be held accountable for it. Just because it is a “democratic” country does not mean it needs to be held less accountable for its crimes. (Although I would argue that its democratic nature is questionable, to say the least– there are many inherently discriminatory laws in Israel, namely the law of return, which allows any Jew in the world to come to Israel to be a citizen, yet forbids the return of even one Palestinian).

But, moving on, I would ask Robert Bernstein: if Israel is indeed a democracy that upholds the rights of all, shouldn’t it be held more accountable for human rights violations? Or should we allow it to get away with presenting itself to the WORLD as a modern democratic country that values freedom and equality, while it continues to treat its Palestinian citizens as second class citizens, and continues to occupy Palestinian territory, while refusing to conduct its duties to that occupied population, as designated under the 4th Geneva Convention??

Berstein writes: “At Human Rights Watch, we always recognized that open, democratic societies have faults and commit abuses. But we saw that they have the ability to correct them — through vigorous public debate, an adversarial press and many other mechanisms that encourage reform.That is why we sought to draw a sharp line between the democratic and nondemocratic worlds, in an effort to create clarity in human rights. We wanted to prevent the Soviet Union and its followers from playing a moral equivalence game with the West and to encourage liberalization by drawing attention to dissidents like Andrei Sakharov, Natan Sharansky and those in the Soviet gulag — and the millions in China’s laogai, or labor camps.”

It is clear that he views Israel as an open society, and the rest of the Middle East as a closed one, and he believes that HRW is best left to correcting the nondemocratic societies and their faults and abuses, while leaving superior countries like Israel to correct its own faults. I would ask Mr. Bernstein: can he remember EVEN ONE time when the Israeli government corrected its own faults? The only time I recall the Israeli government even launching an investigation of its human rights violations was after severe international pressure mounted on both the US and Israel following the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, when  hundreds,if not thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese were systematically murdered and raped by the Lebanese Phalangist forces at the discretion of Israel. The Israeli government found Ariel Sharon personally responsible for the incident. His punishment: remaining on the cabinet and being elected Prime Minister in the year 2000. Is this the kind of justice you envision, Mr. Bernstein? If so, I cannot comprehend how you can even associate yourself with the words, human rights.

The Israeli government launched a silly investigation of war crime violations after Operation Cast Lead in January, and came to the abominable conclusion that none had been committed. Surprise, surprise? Ehud Barak, the Defense Minister, even boldly exclaimed, and continues to do this on a daily basis, that the Israeli Defense Forces are the “most moral army in the world.” Really? I personally have a huge problem with sticking morality and war in the same sentence, but how can an occupying army that launches an offensive war on a starving and impoverished population be anything but immoral? Not many people know this but 60% of Gaza’s population consists of children. When Israel began dropping bombs and white phosphorus munitions on the Gaza Strip, it was as if it was indiscriminately bombing a school.

Ehud Barak’s defensive outbursts came even after Israeli soldiers openly admitted to abusing and killing innocent Palestinians in the Breaking the Silence program. The Huffington Post reported “Israeli soldiers who fought in last winter’s Gaza War say the military used Palestinians as human shields, improperly fired incendiary white phosphorous shells over civilian areas and used overwhelming firepower that caused needless deaths and destruction, according to a report released Wednesday.”

Despite these disgusting confessions, the Israeli government continues to assert that not one Israeli soldier or leader will be held accountable to any international tribunal.

Mr. Bernstein’s most appalling argument is that we should simply forget the massacre in Gaza because “In Gaza and elsewhere where there is no access to the battlefield or to the military and political leaders who make strategic decisions, it is extremely difficult to make definitive judgments about war crimes.” I disagree. It was clear who made the decision to launch Operation Cast Lead: Ehud Barak admitted that he was planning the offensive for an entire year before it happened. There are key Israeli military leaders and generals who were involved in planning and executing this baseless operation. There are people we can hold accountable. The UN Goldstone Report, and a National Lawyers Guild trip to Gaza have both asserted violations of human right on both sides. Human Rights Watch even called for an arms embargo on both Israel and Hamas. While Hamas along with the entire population of Gaza continues to be placed under a blockade, the Israeli government continues to receive military aid, almost $3 billion a year, from the U.S.

Moreover, the only reason we didn’t have access to Gaza during the offensive was because the Israeli government is very good about locking everyone out when it conducts its operations. The borders were closed the entire month during the Gaza offensive; the only images we saw of Gaza were ones on Al-Jazeera, by journalists who were stuck there, unable to leave before the operation commenced.

The UN was denied entry into Jenin in 2002 after the massacre for a few days while Israel “cleaned up.” When they were allowed to enter by the Israeli government, the UN counted under 60 dead bodies but the fact that most of the homes in the refugee camp had been turned to rubble by Israeli tanks, indicated much more. The world was so quick to denounce the Palestinians for terming what happened in Jenin a massacre, and said they were exaggerating when they alleged that the Israeli government had buried Palestinian bodies over each other and that the deaths were much more, in the hundreds. Is there any other conflict you can even think of where the world is so quick to denounce the victims as exaggerating liars? I can’t think of any but this one.

I think the former chairman of HRW needs to review his history, and perhaps he will realize that that episode in Gaza in January was not an isolated one, but a continuation of the 60+ year victimization of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government. Democracy, or not, Israel must be held accountable, because the Palestinian people have suffered enough.

This is an article I wrote for my college newspaper on January 29, 2009, a few days after Israel ended its offensive in the Gaza Strip. I don’t think I posted it before so I wanted to now. I think the message still holds true until today as we have yet to see an end to the siege. Gaza is still like an earthquake zone as Israel continues to refuse to allow in reconstruction materials. Palestinians are rebuilding their homes with MUD. It’s been 8 months since the end of the offensive and Israel has repeatedly denied Gazans their right to move forward, to attempt to rebuild their lives.

Pushing forward

Many proponents of the recent offensive in Gaza have perpetuated the view that Israel’s disproportionate response, incurring the deaths of more than 1,300 Palestinians, was justified, that it was because of Hamas that Israel was forced to kill innocent Palestinians.

Those who perpetuate this misguided view are blind to the fact that collective punishment is illegal under international law, and that nothing justifies killing innocent civilians. Moreover, they neglect to remember time and time again that the Palestinians in Gaza, along with residents of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, have been living under one of the most brutal occupations in modern history, since before Hamas even existed. If those who hold these misguided views would take the time to look at the Israel-Palestine conflict with a memory that spans farther than the past three weeks, they would realize that this recent conflict in Gaza is not some abstract war between good and evil, but a continuation of the 42 years of victimization of the Palestinian people.

It is with these two conflicting outlooks that Students for Peace and Justice in Palestine and Hoos for Israel conducted their demonstrations last week. While some HFI members claimed that they did not express their support for Israel’s offensive publicly, they handed out pamphlets that did express a political view. The pamphlets detailed the number of rockets sent by Hamas into Israel as well as the amount of trucks allowed by Israel into Gaza before the operation. These facts were taken from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Web site, the most powerful pro-Israeli lobbying group in the United States. If that is not politicization, I do not know what is.

In the SPJP memorial, tombstones were lined up to represent Israeli and Palestinian deaths. One was for the Israeli victims and 100 were for the Palestinians, because each tombstone represented 13 deaths. During the operation, 13 Israelis were killed along with 1,300 Palestinians. SPJP also formally requested HFI to join them in the memorial, but HFI respectfully declined.

SPJP put up signs on the South Lawn that read “The world stands up for Gaza.” This exact phrase was the rallying cry of the international community during the entire Israeli offensive, as three quarters of the world condemned Israel’s disproportionate response. It was uttered by millions of European, Asian, African and Middle Eastern citizens, including 10,000 Israelis, who were disgusted with the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces. The collective outcry of so many around the globe demonstrates their solidarity with the innocent victims of Israel’s shelling and bombing.

The layout of these two distinct demonstrations conveyed the messages of both groups; while both groups desire peace, SPJP had a more elevated goal in mind — to honor the dead, to point out the injustice of the Israeli offensive, and to remind the world that we have more work to do to ensure that human rights and justice prevail for all, including the Palestinians.

The only way to move forward is to rectify the errors of the past. Those who said that the SPJP events were not looking forward are the ones who have the solution backwards. They echo the viewpoint of the Israeli government, and many U.S. media outlets, who want the Palestinians to stop touting their pain and forget the past. They want us to forget the fact that Gaza, according to many aid agencies, now looks like it has been struck by an earthquake. They want us to forget the deaths of over 1,300 Palestinians; of the thousands injured without medical aid; of the homes, schools, and mosques that were demolished. They want us to forget that entire neighborhoods have been destroyed, and villages removed from the face of the Earth. But we can not, we will not, and we should not forget.

Our memory of the past two Israeli episodes of collective punishment inflicted on the Palestinians, the first in 2006, and the one most recently, are still fresh in our minds. And it is exactly these memories of the innocent victims of the Israeli massacres, the memories of the destruction in the Gaza Strip, which are indeed pushing us forward. They are pushing us forward in the fight for justice for all. Because peace and reconciliation have proven themselves to be meaningless words without the prevalence of justice.

Israel continues to violate international and maritime law when it hijacks boats such as the Spirit of Humanity, (which was stopped on July 30th as it headed to Gaza to bring humanitarian relief to its population,) and individual boats of Palestinian fishermen.

The video documents instances of Israeli forces firing water cannons with a biological and chemical solution at a Palestinian fishing boat.

“No one seems to have the will to stop Israel. It acts with impunity, shooting Palestinian fishermen, kidnapping them, forcing them into Israeli waters, and stealing their boats.”

In this video, Free Gaza news reports that since the ceasefire in January 2009, Israel has hijacked 21 fishing boats. Three were returned after the Palestinians were forced to sign a document stating that they would not go to court over Israel’s illegal action. Since January 1st Israel has kidnapped 54 Palestinian fishermen, in attempts to force them to collaborate with the Israeli occupation.

An IDF Civil Administration Report just released states that the current Jewish settler population of the West Bank has reached over a whopping 300,000, a 2.3% increase since January. These settlers live in 120 various settlements dispersed all over the West Bank, the ones with the largest population growth being: Modi’in Ilit and Beitar. 

Settlements, of course, are breaches of international human rights law, because they violate article 49 of the 4th Geneva Conventions, which states: “Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.” Thus, Israel is not allowed to build any settlements in occupied territory, nor transfer its population there.

Interestingly, there was an article in today’s New York Times about the two West Bank settlements aformentioned, entitled ” In West Bank Settlements, Sign of Hope for a Deal,” by Ethan Bronner and Isabel Kershner. The NYTimes reported that the residents of these communities, mostly ultra-orthodox Jews, generally “do not consider themselves settlers or Zionists and express no commitment to being in the West Bank,” and “came for three reasons: they needed affordable housing no longer available in and around Jerusalem or Tel Aviv; they were rejected by other Israeli cities as too cult-like; and officials wanted their presence to broaden Israel’s narrow border.” 

The NY Times cited instances of these ultra-orthodox Jewish settlers supporting Palestinian movements against Israel’s segregation barrier that stretches throughout the West Bank.

The article is very good news. It proves that there are numerous Jewish settlers in the West Bank that would leave if given the opportunity to do so. Removing settlements may not be as hard as some people make it out to be. There are settlers who indeed believe that they live on Palestinian land, and their primary motive for moving to the West Bank was not an aggressive one or a desire to fulfill the dream of a greater Israel.

These are points we must disclose to others, especially to those individuals who argue that the future borders of the Israeli state must include a handful of settlements along the western border of the West Bank. We must urge our politicians to lobby for U.S. support of the application of the 4th Geneva Conventions in the occupied territories, and as President Obama has stated on numerous occasions, to demand an end to all Israeli settlement construction, without exceptions for “natural growth.”

Alice Walker, poet, novelist, and feminist, also the author of The Color Purple, joined a CODEPINK delegation to the Gaza Strip following Israel’s latest deadly operation. She has written a beautiful article on her experiences during the trip, and on the correlations she found between her own experiences, and the discrimination and racism African-Americans faced and continue to face in the United States, to the plight of the dispossessed and oppressed Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

She writes:

“I speak a little about this American history, but it isn’t history that these women know. They’re too young. They’ve never been taught it. It feels irrelevant. Following their example of speaking of their families, I talk about my Southern parents’ teachings during our experience of America’s apartheid years. When white people owned and controlled all the resources and the land, in addition to the political, legal and military apparatus, and used their power to intimidate black people in the most barbaric and merciless ways. These whites who tormented us daily were like Israelis who have cut down millions of trees planted by Arab Palestinians; stolen Palestinian water, even topsoil. They have bulldozed innumerable villages, houses, mosques, and in their place built settlements for strangers who have no connection whatsoever with Palestine; settlers who have been the most rabid anti-Palestinian of all, attacking the children, the women, everyone, old and young alike, viciously, and forcing Palestinians to use separate roads from themselves.” 

The article was truly inspiring. The part I appreciated the most, and in fact, I never knew, was when she talked about her former Jewish husband, who like many Jewish Americans I know,  turn a blind eye to the war crimes that continue to be perpetuated by the Israeli government. I do not believe that criticizing Israel is the equivalent of being anti-Semitic. That notion is preposterous. If I criticize the American government, will I be deemed to be anti-American, or unpatriotic? Of course not. If that was the case, then that characterization would be true of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike.

 In fact, the majority of American Jews do not support AIPAC, and actually favor a more balanced approach towards the region. If you think I’m making this up, do the research yourself or read: Transforming America’s Israel Lobby: The Limits of Its Power and the Potential for Change, by Dan Fleshler, one of the founders of J-Street, a new Jewish pro peace lobbying group. Fleshler terms the majority of American Jews the “silent majority,” and urges all Americans, especially Jewish-Americans, to speak up against Israeli occupation and militarism, and to refuse to allow their image to be hijacked by the crazy AIPACnics. 

Alice Walker also writes: “What is to be done? Our revered Tolstoy asked this question generations ago, speaking also of War and Peace. I believe there must be a one-state solution. That Palestinians and Jews, who have lived together in peace in the past, must work together to make this a reality once again. That this land (so soaked in Jewish and Palestinian blood, and with America’s taxpayer dollars wasted on violence the majority of us would never, if we knew, support) must become, like South Africa, the secure and peaceful home of everyone who lives there. This will require that Palestinians, like Jews, have the right of return to their homes and their lands. Which will mean what Israelis most fear: Jews will be outnumbered and, instead of a Jewish state, there will be a Jewish, Muslim, Christian country, which is how Palestine functioned before the Europeans arrived. What is so awful about that?”

 Whether or not you agree with Alice Walker’s proposal for a one-state solution, you have to agree that she makes a compelling argument for it.   She uses the examples of Rwanda and South Africa, and more importantly, the recent history of Palestine betore the creation of the state of Israel to prove her point. The most common argument against a one-state solution is that it would mean an end to the Jewish state–as in a state that is ethnonationalist, and thereby racist and discriminatory, in nature. Although the one state solution is not the prominent solution envisioned by Palestinians and Israelis, there are a decent number of people who hope to see just that. Even if you are a two-state person, you have to realize that without a complete reversal of Israeli ‘facts on the ground’ in the occupied territories, as in an end to the occupation, dismantling of all settlements and Jewish only bypass roads, and tearing down of the segregation wall, there can be no viable Palestinian state. As long as Israel contniues to obstruct the creation of a Palestinian state, it will continue diminishing the possibility of a two-state solution. As former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared: ““We now have the Palestinians running an Algeria-style campaign against Israel, but what I fear is that they will try to run a South Africa-type campaign against us,” he said. If this happens, and worldwide sanctions are imposed as they were against the white-minority government, “the state of Israel is finished.”

I personally believe that arguing over one state and two state solutions is pointless. Regardless of your conviction, there are steps that need to be taken right away:

1)end to the siege of Gaza, entry of humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials. 

2)removal of settlements and Jewish bypass roads

3)dismantling of the wall

4)return of refugees wishing to return and compensation of those who do not wish to, as designated in  UN 194

5)full equality for the Palestinian citizens of Israel 

and these are all points that have been emphasized and reiterated in a countless number of UN resolutions- resolutions that are internationally recognized and we continue to fight for their implementation. As Alice Walker says : “we will speak.”  ” And we will be heard.” Indeed Ms. Walker, the fight for justice and equality will never end and we will never be silenced no matter how big the odds are against us.