Memorandum submitted by War on Want
WAR ON
WANT
1. War on Want is a registered charity with
a mandate to relieve global poverty and promote human rights.
War on Want has been committed to working on the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (OPTs) for three decades. We work in solidarity and
partnership with organisations in the OPTs as well carrying out
campaigning and educational work in the UK on the root causes
of the poverty and human rights crisis facing the Palestinian
people.
INTRODUCTION
2. War on Want congratulates the IDC on
its 2006-07 report on the OPTs. We also welcome the IDC's decision
to follow up on its 2006-07 report so soon. This is a decision
that reflects the serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation
in the OPTs since the last report.
3. It is difficult to find appropriate words
to describe the extent of the crisis faced by the Palestinian
people. A year ago we described it as a humanitarian disaster.
Today the situation has escalated and the crisis has worsened.
4. In its 2006-07 report the IDC made strong
recommendations to the UK government. The failure of the government
to carry out these recommendations has been magnified by the government's
role in exacerbating the deteriorating situation. The UK's unfailing
support for Israel, despite its continued occupation of the OPTs
in violation of international law, amounts to a betrayal of the
Palestinian people.
5. War on Want was pleased that the IDC's
previous report on the OPTs called on the UK government to "urge
the EU to use the Association Agreement with Israel as a lever
for change and consider suspending the Agreement until there is
further improvement in access arrangements". The government
has failed to take up this recommendation, despite the deterioration
in the situation facing the Palestinian people. In light of Israel's
consistent human rights violations (which contravene Article 2
of the Agreement), we call on the IDC to reaffirm this message.
COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT
IN GAZA
6. Israel has blockaded Gaza since June
2007. Over 80% of the 1.4 million Palestinians living in Gaza
are now dependent on food aid from UN agencies. On 19 September
2007 the situation worsened when Israel declared Gaza to be "hostile
territory", leading to the reduction of the supply of fuel
and electricity to Gaza. Essential services, including water and
sanitation, are now breaking down. Border closures are having
dire effects on emergency medical cases, humanitarian supplies
and trade.
7. It is clear that Israel's new definition
of Gaza as a "hostile territory" does not distract from
the reality of the ongoing occupation of Gaza and the international
community's legal obligations. In his latest report to the UN
Human Rights Council in January 2008, John Dugard, the Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories, reaffirmed this point: "The fact that Gaza
remains occupied territory means that Israel's actions towards
Gaza must be measured against the standards of international humanitarian
law".
8. On 8 February 2008 a joint statement
by the Foreign Secretary David Miliband and the Secretary of State
for International Development Douglas Alexander responded to Israel's
reduction in electricity to Gaza: "We call on the Government
of Israel to reverse its decision immediately, to avoid any further
planned cuts, and to fulfil its obligations under international
law". Yet such statements are wholly ineffective as long
as the UK government continues its economic and political support
of Israel.
9. Given the horrific nature of Israel's
actions towards Gaza, the UK government must use all the foreign
policy tools at its disposal to bring this brutal collective punishment
to an end. This means going beyond mere words, and taking action
to bring Israel back in line with its obligations under international
law.
THE INFRASTRUCTURE
OF OCCUPATION
IN THE
WEST BANK
10. Post Annapolis, the Israeli government
has continued to build the infrastructure of occupation. The construction
of the illegal Separation Wall, the expansion of settlements,
restrictions on freedom of movement, house demolitions and military
incursions continue to have a disastrous impact on the lives of
Palestinians in the West Bank. According to UNOCHA in January
2008, there were 563 physical obstacles including checkpoints
and roadblocks inside the West Bank, as well as flying checkpoints.
11. In his latest report to the UN Human
Rights Council in January 2008, John Dugard, the Special Rapporteur
on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories,
compares the system of checkpoints to the pass laws of apartheid
South Africa, and describes the settler roads in the West Bank
as a system of "road apartheid" which was "unknown
in apartheid South Africa".
12. The British government must act immediately
to put concrete pressure on Israel to end the policy of house
demolitions and to dismantle the illegal Separation Wall and settlements
as an integral part of ending the occupation.
PROMOTE PALESTINIAN
UNITY
13. In its last report, the IDC called on
the UK government to talk to Hamas representatives in their "capacity
as elected representatives" (paragraph 34). The UK government
has ignored this recommendation, along with warnings that isolation
of the elected representatives of the Palestinian people would
worsen the situation. Unfortunately those warnings have been proved
correct by events. The policy of the Quartet, including the UK
government, in isolating Hamas has itself been responsible for
creating disunity within the OPTs and leading to the dire emergency
in Gaza. The Israelis and the Quartet have acted out a clear policy
of divide and rule on the Palestinian leadership. If we are to
see an end to the humanitarian disaster and a respect for Palestinian
human rights, the UK government must promote Palestinian unity
and engage with Hamas.
THE QUARTET'S
ECONOMIC PROPOSALS
FOR THE
OPTS
14. War on Want is acutely aware of the
need to rebuild the economy of the OPTs. Restrictions on movement
and closures have ensured that trade is all but impossible. For
this reason War on Want welcomes the IDC's call on the EU to put
measures in place to make the Association Agreement between the
OPTs and the EU effective.
15. We are also deeply alarmed by moves
by the Quartet which could normalise the economic dependency of
Palestinians on the institutions of occupation. The special representative
of the Quartet, Tony Blair, has announced four proposals as a
package of economic regeneration for the West Bank. These proposals
include the development of industrial zones and the construction
of the controversial agro-industrial zone proposed for Jericho,
in the Jordan Valley.
16. One of War on Want's partner organisations
in Palestine, the Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign,
along with local councils in the Jordan Valley, is opposed to
the agro-industrial zone in the Jordan Valley on the basis that
it will entrench a reliance on economic aspects of the occupation.
The agro-industrial zone is a re-announcement of an existing Corridor
for Peace and Prosperity project developed by the Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA). The proposal is for a free trade zone,
bringing together Israeli and Palestinian business. In its report
The Quartet's Development Proposal for the Jordan Valley,
the Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign demonstrated
that the agro-industrial zone proposal included investment and
support for Israeli businesses currently operating illegally in
the West Bank as "Israeli migrant firms". Clearly, this
would be an unacceptable development. Furthermore, rather than
enabling Palestinian famers in the Jordan Valley to develop their
own business and farms, the jobs created for Palestinians by this
proposal would be as labourers in large-scale industrial zones.
17. The fertile land of the Jordan Valley
makes up a third of the West Bank, running along the eastern side
of the OPTs. The area was declared a military zone by Israel in
1967. Today, 98% of the land is under Israeli control. A War on
Want delegation visited the Jordan Valley last year and witnessed
first hand illegal Israeli settlements producing products sold
on the UK market. The delegation, which included former Secretary
of State for International Development Clare Short MP, spoke to
Palestinians whose own farms and business have been stifled by
the occupation and whose children are having to work in the Israeli
settlements for poverty wages. These settlements produce agricultural
products and other goods that are exported largely to the European
market. It is vital that any economic proposal for the Jordan
Valley is focused on changing this reality rather than entrenching
it.
18. War on Want is also very disturbed by
the UK government's own economic plan for the OPTs. A report by
the Rt Hon Ed Balls MP and Jon Cunliffe was published in September
2007: Economic aspects of Peace in the Middle East. The
report, "based in part on the UK's experiences in Northern
Ireland", outlines a five-point "economic roadmap"
of free market reforms for the OPTs but signally fails to mention
ending the occupation as the key first step towards restoring
any possibility of economic prosperity. Among other things, the
economic roadmap demands as its first priority that the public
wage bill in the OPTs be reduced—despite acknowledging that
it was public sector expansion in Northern Ireland that provided
key employment opportunities and "helped protect workers
against the strong negative economic effects of the `Troubles'".
Public sector employment is one of the only sure sources of jobs
at a time of crippling economic hardship in Palestine. The government's
suggestion that the Palestinian Authority should embark on a programme
of public sector retrenchment at this time is damaging in the
extreme.
19. The Palestinians are not the victims
of a natural disaster. The poverty the Palestinians are suffering
is man-made. DFID has also formally stated that the occupation
is the primary cause of the poverty in the OPTs: "Poverty
in the occupied Palestinian Territories is a product of occupation
and conflict". (DFID Palestine Programme Interim update,
2006). Yet the UK government continues to refuse to take any
action to end the occupation.
20. Whilst recognising that interim actions
should be taken to ease the devastation in the Palestinian economy,
we look to the IDC to warn the government that economic measures
must not be promoted to distract attention from the root cause
of Palestinian poverty. Nor must measures be promoted by the Quartet
that will normalise Israeli settlements and the economic dependency
of Palestinians on the institutions of occupation.
THE EU-ISRAEL
ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT
21. In our submission to the IDC's 2006-07
report on the OPTs, War on Want questioned the continued operation
of the EU-Israel Association Agreement at a time when trade policy
could provide a key mechanism for exerting pressure on Israel.
Article 2 of the Association Agreement states clearly that the
provisions of the Agreement are predicated upon respect for human
rights and democratic principles, and that this constitutes an
essential element of the Agreement itself.
22. In its last report, the IDC rightly
called on the UK government to urge the EU to "use the Association
Agreement with Israel as a lever for change and consider suspending
the Agreement until there is further improvement in access arrangements".
Yet the government has since repeated its refusal to consider
suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement. This means that
we continue to reward Israel for its illegal aggression against
the Palestinian people with trading preferences for its exports
into the EU market.
23. It is important to note that in 2002
the European Parliament voted to suspend the EU-Israel Association
Agreement in protest at the massive assault on Palestinians during
Israeli operations in that year. Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza
is collective punishment and a human rights violation even wider
in scope than 2002.
24. The government must take action to ensure
that the EU upholds Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
Failure to do so undermines the EU's standing in regard to respect
for international law. We call on the IDC to reaffirm its message
that suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement should
be used as a lever to effect a genuine change in Israeli policy.
LABELLING OF
SETTLEMENT PRODUCE
25. War on Want welcomes the EU's move to
stop products from Israeli settlements in the OPTs from benefiting
from the tariff preferences offered by the EU-Israel Association
Agreement. The IDC raised a number of important issues arising
out of this development in its last report, including that, to
be effective, "information about the postcodes needs to be
widely understood in the EU" and member states should "monitor
goods being imported from Israel".
26. There are also still problems with implementing
EU directives on clear labelling of the origin of produce for
European consumers. Produce from settlements is still being labelled
"Made in Israel" when it reaches the shelves and misleading
consumers. Actions by consumers to ensure proper labelling of
settlement produce have had some success in ending this practice,
but some settlement produce is now labelled produce of the "West
Bank" instead, which equally fails to register its provenance
in illegally occupied land. It is the responsibility of the UK
government to work with the EU to ensure proper labelling of settlement
produce.
ARMS LICENSING
27. Since October 2000 the UK government
has used the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing
Criteria to judge whether arms export licences should be granted.
These set out a series of considerations which include whether
the country of destination is in breach of international law,
is involved in armed conflicts and respects human rights. On each
of these counts Israel has been found seriously wanting. The British
government must stop supplying Israel with weapons and military
components. In doing so the UK is providing direct material support
for Israel's aggression and sending a message of approval for
its actions.
CONCLUSIONS
28. The UK government must end its unfailing
support for the Israeli government and use all foreign policy
tools at its disposal to end the occupation of the OPTs.
29. It should act immediately to put concrete
pressure on Israel to end its policy of house demolitions, to
dismantle the illegal Separation Wall and settlements, and to
bring the brutal collective punishment of Gaza to an end.
30. The UK government must promote Palestinian
unity and engage with Hamas.
31. Economic measures must not be promoted
to distract attention from the root cause of poverty in the OPTs:
Israel's continuing occupation of those territories.
32. Nor must measures be promoted by the
Quartet that will normalise Israeli settlements and the economic
dependency of Palestinians on the institutions of occupation.
33. The IDC should call on the UK government
and on the EU to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement on
human rights grounds, as required by Article 2 of the Agreement
itself.
34. It is the responsibility of the government
to work with the EU to ensure proper labelling of settlement produce.
35. The British government must stop supplying
Israel with weapons and military components.
14 March 2008
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