Supplementary joint memorandum submitted
by International Service (IS) and Palestinian Centre for Human
Rights (PCHR)
Inquiry issue: The Control that the Network
of Settlements in the Occupied Territories Have Over the Basic
Conditions for Development of the Palestinian Economy: Agricultural
Land, Water, Movement of Persons and Goods, Environmental Impacts.
SETTLEMENTS AND THEIR IMPACT ON CONDITIONS
FOR DEVELOPMENT IN THE GAZA STRIP
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
(A copy of the full report submitted to the Committee
has been placed in the Library of the House of Commons)
IS and PCHR express their grave concerns regarding
the ongoing Israeli government programme of settlement growth
in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). IS and PCHR assert
that the existence, maintenance and expansion of these illegal
Jewish settlements in the OPT is the primary factor in the ongoing
deterioration in the human rights and humanitarian situation of
the Palestinian civilian population in the OPT, and remains a
fundamental obstacle to economic, social and political development.
All Jewish settlements located in the OPT constitute
a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, namely a war crime,
as clarified in the first Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions,
which expressly states that ". . . the following shall be
regarded as grave breaches . . . the transfer by the Occupying
Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory
it occupies, in violation of article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention
. . ."[62].
The illegality of the settlements has been repeatedly reaffirmed
by the international community, including through UN resolutions
and statements issued, individually and collectively by the High
Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions[63].
However, despite this clear understanding of the status of the
settlements, they have been allowed to remain. Furthermore, the
settlements have continued to expand, and new settlements continue
to be established throughout the OPT.
Measures; military, economic and social; employed
in the furtherance of the Israeli government's settlement programme
have systematically violated the fundamental freedoms of Palestinians,
individually and collectively, throughout the OPT. This apartheid
style network of control through segregation and subjugation includes
direct control over natural resources, including land, water,
over the economy, including agriculture, fishing and other industries,
over movement of people and goods. Particularly for those Palestinian
communities which settlements have been established directly adjacent
to, such as the Mawasi area on which this report[64]
focuses, these measures have crippled the economy, eliminated
social and political life, effectively imprisoned entire Palestinian
communities in isolated locales and created a humanitarian crisis,
whilst simultaneously denying effective and timely relief and
humanitarian assistance. At its least, the settlement programme
and the methods of maintenance and expansion of the programme
effectively facilitate the total control of all aspects of Palestinian
life throughout the OPT.
Israeli settlers began to establish these illegal
colonies on land forcibly confiscated from Palestinians in the
OPT from the late 1970s. Since that time the number of settlements
in the OPT has continued to increase and the area of territory
under the control of these settlements has continued to expand
exponentially. In most instances, as in the Gaza Strip, the settlement
programme was focused in areas of particular strategic or economic
value. Certain locations were chosen on religious bases.
The Oslo agreement and its division of the OPT
into different zones of Israeli, Palestinian and joint control,
increased the segregation between settlers and Palestinians and
encouraged the settlers to appropriate more land for their own
expansion. Particularly since the beginning of the current Intifada
in 2000, citing the "security" of the settlers, the
Israeli army has set up large numbers of military outposts and
checkpoints, closed roads, and cleared large areas of land to
act as "buffer zones" between the settlements and the
Palestinians communities and towns. New settlements have been
established throughout the OPT. All of these actions have served
to exert greater control over greater areas of Palestinian territory.
It must be remembered throughout, that the settlement
programme continues to ensure that these measures of control are
exerted in a discriminatory manner; there remains a huge disparity
in the quality and standard of living between the two population
groups—the illegal Israeli settlers and the Palestinian
civilians. Due to massive government economic subsidies, and other
support, Israeli settlers enjoy a very high standard of living,
in many respects considerably better than that of many Israelis
within Israel. In contrast, normal, functioning social, economic
and political life for Palestinians remains impossible due to
the increasing Israeli settler and military presence.
Encouraged and assisted by significant state
subsidies[65],
the settlements have flourished and succeeded in establishing
larger and more widespread Jewish communities on Palestinian lands
in the area, whilst simultaneously reducing Palestinian access
to natural resources, resulting in de-development and unprecedented
poverty levels amongst Palestinians.
As detailed in this report, the matrix of control
over Palestinians in the OPT is formed of several different elements.
Access to natural resources; separate legal systems (military
courts for Palestinians compared with the Israeli state judicial
system for Israeli settlers); movement restrictions, including
ID cards and travel permits, curfews, checkpoints and road closures;
land confiscation and house demolition; physical violence and
harassment; are all used collectively, under the premise of "security",
to maintain and expand direct control over the Palestinian population.
The results for Palestinian life; for development, for the economy,
for human rights, for family life; are devastating.
This report provides a detailed analysis of
the impact of the settlement programme on the lives of Palestinian
civilians in the OPT. The report chooses as its focus the Palestinian
community of the Mawasi, in the southern Gaza Strip. Life for
the Palestinians in this isolated enclave, surrounded by illegal
Jewish settlements and cut off from the rest of the Gaza Strip,
reflects the broader picture of the reality of the settlement
programme. In particular, the policies of dispossession and expulsion
detailed in this report have facilitated gradual territorial expansion
and de facto annexation of Palestinian land in southern Gaza Strip.
In these respects, the Israeli government and military activities
in the Mawasi area, reflect the policies and practices employed
throughout the OPT. These policies of apartheid segregation, settlement
expansion, closure and curfew, dispossession of lands and homes
can be seen throughout the Gaza Strip and West Bank including
East Jerusalem.
August 2003
62 Protocol Additional I to the Geneva Conventions
of 12 August 1949, article 85(4)(a). Also see articles 49 and
147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Back
63
See statement issued following the 5 December 2001 meeting of
the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention held
in Geneva. Back
64
Not printed. Copy of the full report placed in the Library. Back
65
Specific information regarding state subsidies to settlers in
the Gaza Strip is not readily available. However, it is generally
accepted that these subsidies include tax benefits, greater investment
in welfare services, cheap loans and rents for land and properties.
According to information published by Peace Now approximately
US$500 million was invested by the State in the settlements in
2001, in tax breaks and supplements and other non-military related
investments. In particular housing in settlements received more
than twice the government investment in housing in Israel. See
"Peace Now: Almost half a billion dollars for Jewish settlers
in 2001", Agence France Presse, January 23, 2003. Back
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