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