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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NOVEMBER 29TH
By Arjan El Fassed
Today, 29 November 2000, we observe the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. On this day, 53 years ago, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted resolution 181(II), which came to be known as the Partition Resolution. That resolution provided for the establishment of a "Jewish State" and an "Arab State", in Palestine, with Jerusalem as a corpus separatum under a special international régime. Of the two States intended by this resolution, only one, Israel, has come into being.
The Palestinian people, who now number almost eight million, live in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, in the 1948-area what became known as Israel; in refugee camps in neighbouring Arab states and in exile in other parts of the world.
Tomorrow is just another day that provides us with the opportunity to remind the world the fact that the question of Palestine is still unresolved and that the Palestinian people is yet to attain and exercise its inalienable rights as defined by the General Assembly namely, the right to self-determination without external interference, the right to national independence and sovereignty, and the right to return to their homes and property from which they had been displaced. Full respect for and the realization of these inalienable rights of the Palestinian people are indispensable for the solution of the question of Palestine.
In late September 2000, the visit by Israeli war criminal Ariel Sharon to the holy site of Al-Haram al-Sharif and the following Israel's excessive and disproportionate violent agression against the Palestinian people, killing 280 Palestinians and wounded more than 8000. Once again we are reminded that peace does not come without justice. Once again we are reminded that no peace will be just and durable when it is not based on a foundation of universal human rights and international law, that is built on morality and ethical conduct.
We are also reminded that Israel continues to ignore United Nations resolutions that call for the end of occupation and the full implementation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. As long as the international community refuses to take action on behalf of the Palestinians, a just and long lasting peace cannot be established.
The UN Human Rights Committee noted that self-determination was a crucial principle of collective human rights. In its general comment on Self-Determination adopted in 1984, the Committee emphasised that the realisation of the right of self-determination "was an essential condition for the effective guarantee and observance of individual human rights".
The right to self-determination can not be given away, being a non-negotiable human right recognised in order to enhance economic, social, cultural, political and civil rights. Autonomy is a concept repugnant to the exercise of the right of self-determination of peoples. The principle of self-determination of peoples was expressly included in the UN Charter, by article 1(2). The Palestinians had not acquired their independent nationhood at the conclusion of the British Mandate and the transfer of the Question of Palestine to the UN in 1948. Their right to self-determination had not been abrogated or dissolved at that time. On the contrary, it became active, in possession, and awaits implementation.
The Oslo Accords could never derogate from the right to self-determination which asserts the right of the Palestinian people to freely decide on their own political, economic, social and cultural status. UNGA 2767 adopted on 8 December 1970 "recognises that the people of Palestine are entitled to equal rights and self-determination in accordance with the Charter of the UN." This was reaffirmed more strongly in UNGA 2787 of 6 December 1971.
The existence of large numbers of Palestinian refugees impedes the exercise of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination. The right of self-determination is seriously impaired if the majority of the people concerned are unable to return to their homes from which they were forced to fled.
The unique nature of the West Bank and Gaza situation is Israel's occupation and the question of how it is to be juxtaposted with the Palestinian right of self-determination. That is where the right of self-defence is considered. Such a right is not identical with state's security. Security is a political and military interest which Israel has in common with all other states. It is the reason advanced for Israel's refusal to withdraw from occupied Palestine. Self-defence and security are not identical, either in nature or content. It is not a claim that Israel is exercising its inherent legal right of self-defence by its continued occupation of Palestine. Such a claim would not correspond with the facts of the present situation.
The continued occupation by Israel is not proportionate to the threat to it. The response of Israel is excessive and the threat not immediate. The present Israeli response of force, i.e. by remaining in occupied Palestine, would require to be justified, in fact and in law. Israel's reliance upon its "security" is an attempt to equate a political aspiration with a legal right. A belligerent occupation which rests solely on the "security" of Israel cannot be considered to oust the legal right of self-determination of the Palestinian people. Security may be a political interest and bargaining counter, but it is not a legal basis for Israel's continued occupation of Palestine.
Through the intifada the Palestinians have challenged the violations of their basic liberties and rights by the occupation. It reflected the Palestinians' total rejection of the disruptive and abusive policies of the occupation. Final and interim status negotiations should not become a rescue mission to save the oppressor from the consequences of his actions, nor should a nation's sovereignty be held hostage to the political manipulations and priorities of its oppressor. Any agreement that relinquishes the inalienable and legitimate rights of the Palestinians will be unreliable and will have no legal status.
It was easy to make the Palestinians pay for 2,000 years of persecution. The Palestinians have felt the enormous power of this vengeance, were not the historical oppressors of the Jews. They did not put them in ghettoes and did not force them to wear yellow stars. They did not plan holocausts. But they had one fault. They were weak and defenseless in the face of real military might, so they were the ideal victims for an abstract revenge.
The West has a mean attitude that cannot be disputed, even meaner are those who demand that we keep quiet and give this peace process yet another chance. We cannot deny that the US is today the world's only superpower, we also cannot deny that nations have their own will and if they are incompetent militarily they are still able to express themselves by other means. If governments to choose to remain silent, this should not be the case with the people of these countries.
Utrecht, 29 November 2000 * Dr. Arjan El Fassed is a Palestinian activist who lives in Holland.