Movimiento por la Paz, el Desarme y la Libertad

This speech was originally presented by Connie Hackbarth on 2 April at the Derechos hacia una Cultura de Paz conference of the Movimiento por la Paz, el Desarme y la Libertad.

Good evening. I wish to congratulate the Movimiento por la Paz, el Desarme y la Libertad (MPDL) on its 20^th anniversary and thank them for organizing this important conference, in which we can together examine the crucial importance of promoting human rights and democracy as an essential component of peace-building throughout the world. Specifically, I will speak about how Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, together with international complicity in and even support for these violations, are completely destroying any chance for a real peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

Further, as a member of the Palestinian, Israeli and international civil societies, I will also explore the challenges currently facing us in the struggle for justice in the Middle East and throughout the world.

Today’s most visible Israeli violation of Palestinian human rights is perhaps the siege of the Gaza Strip. Despite widespread condemnation and almost universal legal agreement that the siege violates international humanitarian and human rights law, the siege continues. International aid agencies have declared this to be a humanitarian crisis unprecedented in the history of Gaza—all because of Israel’s human rights violations. As the head of UNRWA has pointed out, “hungry, unhealthy, angry communities do not make good partners for peace.”

Palestinian villagers from Baqa'a are forbidden from building or farming for 180 meters on either side of settler Bypass Road 60.

Palestinian villagers from a small overcrowded village in the southern West Bank, to the northeast of Hebron, were recently threatened by the Israeli authorities with 32 house demolitions, which were to include a health clinic still under construction. The residents of this village are rapidly becoming poorer and risk losing their homes, all to create space for Israeli settlement expansion and the building of Bypass Road 60. In addition to land confiscated specifically for the building of Road 60, the Israeli authorities have designated an additional “buffer zone” of 180 meters on either side of the road, upon which Palestinians have been forbidden to build on their own land.

The Baqa’a valley, where this village lies, is a beautiful and fertile area situated to the east of Hebron, about a half-hour walk from the center of the city. The village houses approximately 60 Palestinians families, including several refugees from 1948. The inhabitants are mostly farmers, growing crops with grape vineyards, fruit and ancient olive trees. Where the soil is too rocky and steep for planting, sheep and donkeys graze freely around the homes.

In 1968, following the Israeli military conquest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the first group of Jewish Israeli settlers came to Hebron, relocating to a nearby military base to the east of Hebron, now the settlement of Kiryat Arba. This settlement, to the south of the Baqa’a valley and only a few meters from Palestinians homes, is today the biggest settlement in the area with more than 7,000 inhabitants.  To the north of the valley is the settlement of Givat Haharsina. Between them, cutting the valley in two, is bypass Road 60, built in 1996 on a north-south axis to the east of Hebron to connect the settlements with Jerusalem, and known for its frequent gatherings and protest marches by settlers. Road 60, built on confiscated Palestinian land which used to be planted with grape vines and olive groves, is now cuts off from farmers’ access.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met in Jerusalem on 30 March with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad

Barak, Rice and Fayyad met. This is how a Palestinian joke would begin these days. Unfortunately, this week, it was a real story. The joke, however, remains. Even a superficial examination of the results of the highly publicized meeting highlights the glaring gaps and the serious problematic that arises.

The statements by the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice—who is visiting the region this week—and the State Department stressed the importance of what they referred to as “quality of life and the security of ordinary people on both sides,” as a step in implementing the Roadmap. These steps include, primarily, the removal of roadblocks, improvements in checkpoint infrastructures, redeployment of Palestinian Authority security forces and expansion of their responsibilities and steps to promote economic developments.

Most Palestinians feel cynical about these statements. Past experience proves that despite repeated statements by the Israeli government about “improvements in life quality” or “loosening restrictions” on checkpoints, reality on the ground hardly changes and, if anything, everyday life has taken a turn for the worst. There is no reason to believe that things will be different this time.

Moreover, even if these pledges were to be fully implemented, they barely scratch the surface of the moves necessary to make a genuine difference, and are far from dealing with the real issues needed to achieve a just peace. How significant can the removal of 50 roadblocks be when there exist 539 illegal roadblocks dissecting the West Bank (OCHAoPT report, 11.7.07) and hindering movement between Palestinian towns and villages? And what about the complete siege of the Gaza Strip? The continuing construction of the Apartheid Wall on Palestinian lands? The ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements? Despite past Israeli commitments, new construction projects have been repeatedly authorized in the Palestinian territories, in addition to expansion of the existing 161 settlements and 96 outposts throughout the West Bank. These settlements, illegal under international law, not only take over Palestinian land and resources, but render unviable any future Palestinian state or economy.  The pledges coming out of this latest meeting almost completely ignore such critical issues.

Leaders of the Palestinian citizens of Israel marching in the demonstration in Jaffa commemorating the 32nd Land Day.

Each 30^th of March, Palestinians from all over the world commemorate Land Day with demonstrations in order to remind the international community of the ongoing Israeli injustice and oppression against them. Land Day (Yom al-Ard in Arabic), was initially established to honour the killing by Israeli troops of six Palestinians in the Galilee on 30 March 1976, during peaceful protests over the confiscation of Palestinian land from villages in this area. However, as land confiscation is part of a larger policy of Israeli colonialism in the Palestinian Territories, it has now become a day of demonstration to link all Palestinians in their struggle against the occupation and for self-determination and national liberation. Although the Israeli apartheid policies towards Palestinian citizens of Israel, Palestinians from the West Bank and Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, aimed to break and divide Palestinian society, land continued to play an important role in all their lives, and continues to be a core issue of the conflict. For this ruptured community, land is not only the main source of income, but also functions as a source of communal identity, purpose and honour.

The issue of land is the ground for any negotiation and peace process: land is the first necessary element to establish a Palestinian state with real sovereignty, and with geographical unity between the districts and between West Bank and Gaza Strip. Land is also where Palestinians have to look for the implementation of their rights, the right to their own property, the right of return, the right to self-determination, the right to work on their land and to build their homes on it.