JPN: Ran HaCohen on Settlers, Hamas’ Diplomacy, Killing Academics in Iraq and Norman Finkelstein on Boycott

Palestine/Israel News and Information

21/1/06

JPN: Ran HaCohen on Settlers, Hamas’ Diplomacy, Killing Academics in Iraq and Norman Finkelstein on Boycott

Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2006

www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/content.jsp?content_KEY=219&t=about.dwt

January 21, 2006

The views expressed here are those of the editors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Jewish Voice for Peace.

<>Hebron for Beginners (Antiwar.com) Ran HaCohen analyzes the recent confrontations between the IDF and Jewish settlers in Hebron

<>Hamas drops call for destruction of Israel from manifesto (Guardian, UK) While not changing their charter, Hamas tries to be diplomatic as it prepares to enter the Palestinian government

<>Information and Action in defense of academics in Iraq (direct e-mail) News and petition regarding the mass killings of academics in Iraq

<>Human Rights Violations, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity (CounterPunch) Norman Finkelstein argues for a boycott of Israel

<>More Important Articles Links to other important news articles for today

[JPN Commentary: The Israeli government has served eviction notices to about 50 Jewish settlers who are illegally squatting the center of the West Bank city of Hebron. Settlers have been engaging in mass, belligerent protests at the decision. As with the Gaza disengagement, this might look at first blush as if the Israeli leadership is making a genuine if limited effort to promote peace by enforcing Palestinian rights at the cost of Jewish extremist demands.

This article helps clarify the situation; again, as with Gaza, Israel is stooping to conquer – in this case, it is evicting the illegal squatters, apparently intending to replace them with “legal” settlers. (It must be remembered that both are illegal under international law.) — JN]

Hebron for Beginners

By Ran HaCohen

18 January 2006

www.antiwar.com/hacohen/?articleid=8404

Hebron is again in the headlines. More than almost any other place, this divided city represents the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a nutshell. Occupied by Israel in 1967, the Palestinian town saw its very heart taken over by Israeli settlers, whose presence there is illegal according to international law but supported by all Israeli governments. For the sake of 500 Israeli settlers, surrounded by 130,000 Palestinians, the Hebron Agreement of 1997 divided the city, with 80 percent of its area given to Palestinian policing, while the rest – in fact, the city center – remained in Israeli hands. The 30,000 Palestinian inhabitants of the center have been harassed on a daily basis by the settlers, backed by the Israeli army, which spread no less than 101 physical obstacles and 18 manned checkpoints around the Israeli-controlled area. In a clear process of ethnic cleansing, only a few thousand Palestinians still live in this part of the city (Miron Rapoport, Ha’aretz, Nov. 17, 2005).

Last week, Israel announced its intention to evict some 50 settlers who had illegally squatted Hebron’s wholesale market. The settlers of Hebron took to the streets, vandalizing and attacking mostly innocent Arabs but also Israeli soldiers and police in what an Israeli daily called “a Jewish Intifada.”

As usual, there are three versions about what’s going on in Hebron: the nationalist story, formulated in terms of Jews against Arab Gentiles and of long historical memory; the liberal story, phrased in terms of the State, Israelis, Palestinians, and the Rule of Law; and the reality, which is concealed somewhere in the small print.

The Nationalist Story

The nationalist account is anchored in the long history of Jews versus Gentiles. Its roots are in the days of Patriarch Abraham, but we’ll skip the mythic past and get to the present, which starts in 1929. Till then, the story goes, Jews and Arabs lived peacefully in Hebron, but on Aug. 1, 1929, the idyll ended when the Arabs butchered a huge number of Jews (the background and the precise number – 67 in this case – do not really matter, since they add up to all the other Jews killed in other places and times in what a great Jewish-American historian once called the “lachrymose conception of Jewish history”).

The area disputed these days – Hebron’s wholesale market – belonged to the Hebronite Jewish Community since 1807, so that the presence there of its self-proclaimed successors, the settlers, is all but natural. Only the heartless, defeatist, un-Jewish government of Israel fails to see that and wants to uproot the Jews from their own houses and give them back to the offspring of the 1929 murderers, letting the killers take possession.

Since the settlers’ policy of “nonviolent resistance” to their “deportation” from Gaza and some West Bank settlements last August did not bear the desired fruits, now is the time to deter the government and the Israeli public by showing them that the price of any further eviction would be intolerably high. Unlike Arabs, Jews have almost every imaginable right in the Land of Israel – but not the right to evict other Jews from their homes, or to give Jewish land to Arabs.

The Liberal Story

The liberals have a shorter historical memory but a more legalist and humanist orientation. There is no denying that the wholesale market area belonged to Jews. However, in 1948, when the State of Israel was established, Israelis owned just a small percentage of the country’s area. Once most of the Palestinians left (or were driven out, as better-informed liberals would add), Israel used legal, pseudo-legal, and illegal measures to take over almost all Palestinian possessions: lands, houses, and property. Even Palestinians who fled their homes and stayed inside Israel were declared “present absentees” so that their property could be taken. If property rights are to be applied to the market in Hebron, they should be applied universally. Since Jews appropriated enormous amounts of Arab possessions, the property principle in Hebron would pave the way to Arab demands in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, and in fact all over Israel.

Moreover, the wholesale market in Hebron was squatted by the settlers contrary even to Israeli law. The government admits that and repeatedly announces its intention to evict the squatters. Recently, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz made a commitment to the High Court of Justice to remove the settlers from the market by Feb. 15. The time has come. Sharon’s moderate government, now under his centrist successor Olmert, luckily understands these moral, legal, and political considerations and is at last willing to take action. The Hebron settlers are hooligans anyway, and the government should be praised for finally showing them who runs this country. It’s high time Hebron’s wholesale market is returned to its Palestinian merchants, another small but significant step in Israel’s long-overdue return to its 1967 borders.

The Reality

Two beautiful stories indeed; alas, both of them miss reality. Remember that the squatters could take over the wholesale market simply because the Palestinian merchants had been driven out. The market had been closed by Israel in 1994 as a confidence-destroying measure following the Goldstein massacre, in which a Jewish settler murdered 29 Palestinian worshippers in the Patriarchs’ Tomb in Hebron (apropos “killing and taking possession”). In the Hebron Agreement of 1997, Israel pledged to return the market to the Palestinians and let it be reopened; a wall should have separated it from the settlers’ homes. However, Israel respects treaties only in extremely exceptional cases, and Hebron is not such a rare exception.

Both the nationalist and the liberal stories are wrong on the most crucial point: they both err to believe that Israel intends to give the market back to the Palestinians. Israel has nothing of the kind in mind. All Israel needs now is a good show that looks like the liberal fantasy; especially on the eve of the general elections, it is desirable to be portrayed as a resolute, moderate, and law-abiding government. But it’s the nationalist, colonialist fantasy that is being realized. In a combined effort of Israel’s government, police, army, and settlers, Israel had a major success in ethnically cleansing Hebron’s center of its Palestinian inhabitants. Reopening the market might revive trade at the heart of the city and reverse Israel’s achievement.

What’s the solution? Attentive Ha’aretz readers could find it out just days before the issue got to the headlines (Jan. 5, 2006):

“The Defense Ministry has terminated the lease with the Hebron municipality that enabled the Palestinian merchants to work in the city’s wholesale market. This means that the merchants from the wholesale market will not be able to return to their shops even if the Israel Defense Forces do evict the settlers squatting there.”

So that’s what Israel is up to: to get the High Court of Justice off its back, the State would simply replace the squatters by “authorized” settlers. The Civil Administration already commented that “The announcement was given the Hebron municipality in keeping with the state’s reaction to the petition to the High Court of Justice.” Indeed, Ha’aretz adds, “It is not clear whether the lease may be legally terminated, and it is possible that doing so will open a prolonged legal debate that could last years” – but this only means years in which the settlers and the army can drive out the rest of the Palestinians from the center of Hebron.

And why, you may wonder, do the settlers take to the street? In addition to the broader background of the young, radicalized generation of settlers, which feels humiliated after the disengagement and is eager to vandalize and terrorize, Ha’aretz gives a more specific reason:

“The settlers in Hebron did not reject the possibility of evacuating the squatters from the wholesale market if other Jewish settlers, who rent the shops and buildings legally, take their place. However, the settlers are demanding that the new families move in as soon as the old ones leave, to make sure the shops are inhabited at all times, […] but […] the settlers have not received a written compromise proposal to this effect.”

So all the actors get their fair show: the High Court can be portrayed as defender of justice. The settlers can be portrayed as fanatic zealots who lose in the end. The government can be portrayed as strong and pro-peace. And while the whole world salutes, Israel can further dispossess the Palestinians.

Postscript

The success of the present fake show seems to exceed all expectations. The whole world interprets the swap of one group of settlers for another as a great step toward peace. Consequently, Ha’aretz’s Hebrew edition of Jan. 17 quotes senior Israeli army officers saying that “they have not yet received instructions from the political echelon regarding when to evict the settlers from Hebron wholesale market. They estimate that it won’t happen before the Palestinian elections next week.” After all, if the world can be deceived so easily, why should Israel stop the game of tears?

[JPN Commentary: Hamas is moving toward a more pragmatic stance as it prepares to become a major force within, rather than outside of, the Palestinian Authority. The tone of the headline may suggest that Hamas is changing a fundamental stance, specifically the point in their charter which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state in all of what was once Palestine under the British Mandate—i.e. including what is now Israel. This is not the case.

Indeed, the current position taken in their election platform is not actually new. Before his assassination by Israel, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas’ spiritual leader, spoke of a very long term of cease-fire with Israel if a Palestinian state were to be established. This, however, is the first time that Hamas has formally entered the electoral arena, and so it is the first time that it has become an “official” stance.

For all the saber-rattling and threatening that Israel and the US have done at the prospect of Hamas becoming a major force in the PA, this is actually a very necessary development if there is ever to be real peace. For years, the PA has been dogged by corruption, a situation which has severely impacted their legitimacy among the Palestinian people. As a result, there was always the fear that any negotiated agreement made by the PA leadership would not be accepted by the Palestinian public. With Hamas and with some of the new leaders emerging in the leading Fatah party, corruption will confronted. This will have the effect of creating the most representative negotiating team Israel and the US have ever dealt with.

Further, most observers agree with Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian cabinet minister and member of the secular Palestinian People’s party, who is quoted in this article as saying that he believes that Hamas is on its way to disarming. Indeed this is quite likely if Hamas is accepted in the government and security apparatus of the PA—they have already indicated a willingness, in such a circumstance to accept the principle of “one government, one military.”

It should be noted that there is every reason to believe that the smaller, less political Islamic Jihad will accelerate their own violent actions in the absence of Hamas’ participation, and the unsettled situation within the Fatah party likely means that the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade will also continue with its operations for the time being. But a legitimate government, truly representing and supporting the Palestinian populace, would have the political will and, more important, the means to stop such attacks if Israel and the US negotiate in good faith.

It has often been said that one does not make peace with a friend or partner, but with an enemy. Rather than wailing about Hamas being part of the Palestinian government, Israel and the US should seize this opportunity to dive, in a substantive way not possible before, into negotiations with the new Palestinian “government.” Early indications are that, instead, Israel and the US will use Hamas’ presence in the PA as an excuse not to negotiate and to continue in the Sharon tradition of unilateralism. Someone might want to remind Israel of the “terrorist” backgrounds of some of its past Prime Ministers, such as Menachem Begin and, in particular, Yitzhak Shamir. One should not forget that suicide bombings targeting civilians are war crimes which go well beyond the permissible boundaries of armed opposition to an occupation. But one should recognize that there can be no peace with only some Palestinians. If Hamas represents enough of the Palestinian population to be a close second in representation in the Palestinian Legislative Council, then they must be dealt with. Refusal to do so only forces Hamas back to the bombs. — MP]

[JPN Commentary: Close to two decades behind the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), with which talks were previously outlawed by former Israeli legislatures, the fundamentalist Palestinian Hamas organization has now dropped destruction of the state of Israel from its manifesto. This article by Chris McGreal, provides both an overview of and responses to this potentially significant step, as the planned date of general elections in Palestine draws near.

McGreal reports that Palestinian cabinet minister Ghassan Khatib, of the secular Palestinian People’s party, believes Hamas has had to face reality and will have to embrace a negotiated settlement with Israel. He welcomes Hamas’ entry into the electoral system as “a positive development whereby they [will] have to abide by the rules of the majority and respect the arguments of the administration they are part of, which includes a state built on 1967 borders. It will take time but Hamas will no longer have their own militia. It will be solely a political force.”

The article quotes Gazi Hamad, a Hamas candidate in the Gaza Strip, as stating that, “The policy is to maintain the armed struggle but it is not our first priority. We know that first of all we have to put more effort into resolving the internal problems, dealing with corruption, blackmail, chaos.”

True to the pattern adopted by Israel’s parliaments and governments in the seventies and eighties, when contacts with the PLO were declared illegal and prosecuted, Israel’s current government has meanwhile banned Hamas candidates from running and declared its refusal to recognize the results of elections should they include such candidates. — RM]

Hamas drops call for destruction of Israel from manifesto

By Chris McGreal in Jerusalem

12 January 2006

www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5372294-103681,00.html

Hamas has dropped its call for the destruction of Israel from its manifesto for the Palestinian parliamentary election in a fortnight, a move that brings the group closer to the mainstream Palestinian position of building a state within the boundaries of the occupied territories. The Islamist faction, responsible for a long campaign of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis, still calls for the maintenance of the armed struggle against occupation. But it steps back from Hamas’s 1988 charter demanding Israel’s eradication and the establishment of a Palestinian state in its place.

The manifesto makes no mention of the destruction of the Jewish state and instead takes a more ambiguous position by saying that Hamas had decided to compete in the elections because it would contribute to “the establishment of an independent state whose capital is Jerusalem”.

The shift in emphasis comes as Hamas finds itself under pressure from the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and from foreign governments to accept Israel’s right to exist and to end its violence if it wants to be accepted as a political partner in a future administration.

The group is expected to emerge as the second largest party after Mr Abbas’s Fatah in the next Palestinian parliament. Opinion polls give it more than a third of the popular vote, built on a campaign against Fatah’s endemic corruption and mismanagement and failure to contain growing criminality, and by claiming credit for driving the Israeli army and settlers out of Gaza.

But the manifesto continues to emphasise the armed struggle. “Our nation is at a stage of national liberation, and it has the right to act to regain its rights and end the occupation by using all means, including armed resistance,” it says.

Gazi Hamad, a Hamas candidate in the Gaza Strip, yesterday said the manifesto reflected the group’s position of accepting an interim state based on 1967 borders but leaving a final decision on whether to recognise Israel to future generations.

“Hamas is talking about the end of the occupation as the basis for a state, but at the same time Hamas is still not ready to recognise the right of Israel to exist,” he said. “We cannot give up the right of the armed struggle because our territory is occupied in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. That is the territory we are fighting to liberate.”

But Mr Hamad said the armed resistance was no longer Hamas’s primary strategy. “The policy is to maintain the armed struggle but it is not our first priority. We know that first of all we have to put more effort into resolving the internal problems, dealing with corruption, blackmail, chaos. This is our priority because if we change the situation for the Palestinians it will make our cause stronger.

“Hamas is looking to establish a new political strategy in which all Palestinian groups will participate, not just dominated by Fatah. We will discuss the negotiation strategy, how can we run the conflict with Israel but by different means.”

Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian cabinet minister and member of the secular Palestinian People’s party, said he believed Hamas was being forced to face reality as it prepared to sit in parliament, and that it would have to embrace a negotiated settlement with Israel: “Having Hamas inside the system is a positive development whereby they have to abide by the rules of the majority and respect the arguments of the administration they are part of, which includes a state built on 1967 borders. It will take time but Hamas will no longer have their own militia. It will be solely a political force.”

But Israel’s security establishment predicts that if Hamas does as well as expected in the election it will damage the Palestinian Authority and further undermine the prospects for an agreement.

[JPN Commentary: This urgent appeal for support and action was issued by the Brussels Tribunal, the April 2004 opening session of the worldwide series of people’s tribunals described by its organizers as a www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=14 “worldwide undertaking to reclaim justice, … a horizontal network of local groups and individuals worldwide … [which] consists of commissions of inquiry and sessions held around the world investigating various issues related to the war on Iraq.” Initially signed by dozens of activists and intellectuals, the appeal includes information that I view as not only deeply significant but as also relatively unknown. It focuses on the ongoing devastation of the Iraqi intelligentsia and culture. It’s brief description of what journalist Robert Fisk has called “a campaign … to complete the destruction of Iraq’s cultural identity” is accompanied by suggestions for concrete action in support of the gravely threatened Iraqi academic community. The appeal, located at the end of this e-mail message, calls on on the world community and academia to declare solidarity and take action in opposition to the apparently systematic murder and annihilation of an entire national tradition of academic education, research and culture.

I my view the process protested by this petition as somewhat analogous to Israel’s imposing long-term partial paralysis upon the higher education institutions, hospitals, and research institutes of Palestine. While this paralysis is definitely not identical to the murder of academics, whether the latter is underwritten or merely countenanced by the occupying power, the destructive effects of both on the respective cultures and economies are similar. Both represent conditions induced by the occupation which systematically destroy civil infrastructures and disable the foundations of truly independent governance. — RM]

[Additional editor’s note: The original message contained Arabic text, which was removed due to technological limitations. Also, in the original rendering, the petition came first instead of last. — MP]

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Many academics have been killed in Iraq since the American occupation began according to the Iraqi Union of University Lecturers.

The most striking fact is that the majority of those killed where not sciencists (thus targeted for the alleged knowledge of Iraq‚s weapon‚s programme) but were involved in field of humanities (such as law, geography and history). The motives for these assassinations are unknown.

This Œwar on Learning‚, as Robert Fisk, a reporter in Iraq for the Independent called it, is making Iraqi intellectual‚s work impossible and further augments the view that a Œnormal life‚ in Iraq is far too dangerous for them. According to an article in the Times Higher Education Supplement: Œthere is a widespread feeling among the Iraqi academics that they are witnessing a deliberate attempt to destroy intellectual life in Iraq‚. Furthermore, quoting Dr Sinawi ˆ a geologist formerly employed at Baghdad University and interview by THES- the academic dismissals, the assassination of intellectuals will bring a Œdisruption of higher education in Iraq for years to come. This will dramatically affect the standard of teaching and research for generations‚.

Source: www.nearinternational.org/alerts/iraq320040915en.php Many academics in Iraq are imprisoned, were discharged, have disappeared, or were forced into exile. This web page has been created to document these facts.

www.brusselstribunal.org/academicsList.htm Here is an incomplete list of murdered Iraqi academics

www.iraqsolidaridad..org/2004-2005/docs/represion_11-11-05.html Lista de profesores universitarios asesinados en Iraq

Further reading:

english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/48D3105B-C3BA-4B82-A01C-D8D05892A36D.htm Iraqi intellectuals under siege – Al Jazeera, 29 Febr 2004.

english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FBE0836E-F273-4A36-8347-66BE05F39475.htm Iraqi intellectuals flee ‘death squads’ – Al Jazeera, 30 March 2004.

csmonitor.com/2004/0430/p11s01-woiq.html Death to those who dare to speak out – CS Monitor 30 April 2004.

english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/03618D7F-C0A9-4F99-954D-9D028D6D2123.htm Iraqi intellectuals appeal for security – Al Jazeera 19 May 2004.

dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000013.php “It has begun.” – Dahr Jamail, 13 June 2004.

weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/694/re7.htm Where is this going? – Al Ahram 16 June 2004.

www.robert-fisk.com/articles414.htm Academics targeted as murder and mayhem hits Iraqi colleges – Robert Fisk 14 July 2004.

www.newstatesman.com/200409060018 The slaughter of Iraq’s intellectuals – The New Statesman, 06 Sept 2004.

www.csmonitor.com/2004/0921/p06s01-woiq.html Iraq losing its best and brightest, CS Monitor 21 Sept 2004.

www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43896&SelectRegion=Iraq_Crisis&SelectCountry=IRAQ IRAQ: Rising threat against academics fuels brain drain -IRIN news 28 Oct 2004.

fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/boardletters.htm%2311-05-04 Joint Statement by MESA, AAUP, AAAS, 05 Nov 2004.

science-iraq.blogspot.com/2004/12/sinister-campaign.html A Sinister Campaign, 11 Dec 2004.

www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-01-16-academics-assassinations_x.htm Approximately 300 academics have been killed – 17 Jan 2005.

www.globalresearch.ca/articles/HAS505B.html The Destruction of Iraq‚s Educational System under US Occupation – Ghali Hassan 11 May 2005.

www.brusselstribunal.org/healthworkers.htm%23healers Iraq healers have become targets, IHT 31 May 2005.

www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=16140&s2=26 Medics fleeing Iraq’s violence in their thousands, 25 Sept 2005.

www.brusselstribunal.org/pdf/Iraq_science.pdf In the line of Fire, AAAS 30 Sept 2005.

english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2C0DF1DB-10B4-45EE-B890-30BA350A44FA.htm Everyone is a target in Iraq, Al Jazeera 14 Oct 2005.

www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/publ/opendoc.pdf?tbl=RSDLEGAL&id=4354e3594&page=publ Guidelines Relating to the Eligibility of Iraqi Asylum-Seekers October 2005, UNHCR Report [PDF]

www.brusselstribunal.org/Academics.htm%23science Iraq‚s Science Community: to be or not to be

www.workers.org/2005/world/iraq-1208/ Who’s killing Iraqi intellectuals? – 03 Dec 2005.

More than 250 Iraqi college professors assassinated

www.aaup.org/Issues/international/country/Iraq.htm

The International Coalition of Academics Against Occupation (ICAAO) has issued the following statement on the assassination of Iraqi intellectuals (8/11/04):

Even after the Œtransfer of authority‚ the U.S. Government remains in de facto military occupation of Iraq. The idea that the escalation of violence can be put to an end by the Œinterim‚ government, while 140,000 U.S troops remain in control of major Iraqi cities like Mosul and Baghdad, is far from the reality on the ground.

Overlooked by the U.S. Press is the escalating assassination of Iraqi academics, intellectuals, and lecturers. More than 250 college professors since April 30, 2003, according to the Iraqi Union of University Lecturers, have been the targets of assassination. Among the 250 professors assassinated to date include: Muhammad al-Rawi, President of Baghdad University (July 27, 2003); Dr. Abdul Latif al-Mayah a Professor of Political Science at Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University (late January 2003); Dr. Nafa Aboud, a Professor of Arabic Literature at the University of Baghdad; Dr Sabri al-Bayati; a Geographer at the University of Baghdad; Dr. Falah al-Dulaimi, Assistant Dean of College at Mustansariya University; Dr. Hissam Sharif, Department of History of the University of Baghdad; and Professor Wajih Mahjoub of the College of Physical Education.

Whoever is responsible for these targeted assassinations, the U.S. and its Coalition of Allies , all of them commanding and controlling the ongoing de facto occupation of Iraq˜bear an international responsibility and obligation to protect civilians living under occupation and who are protected by the 4th Article of the Geneva Convention.

The Geneva Convention, which the U.S. and others nations have signed without reservation, holds all occupying authorities responsible for the condition pertaining to the lives of Iraqi intellectuals, professors, and civilians of all types, including the further undermining of the already sanctioned and utterly destroyed system of education in Iraq. We, the undersigned, deplore the killing of professors, intellectuals and other civilians, and urge a full Congressional investigation into the circumstances that led to the ongoing, systematic and targeted assassination of Iraqi intellectual, academics, and professors. According to Union of Iraqi Lecturers, if “the stream of assassinations‰ continues Iraqi Colleges and Universities will be left without a qualified teaching staff.

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Iraq‚s Science Community: to be or not to be British and American scientists and academics assisted the birth of Iraq‚s science community in the last century; can they help it now to be born again?

Two international initiatives to help Iraqi scientists and academics to reconstruct their community began two years ago. They were independent of each other. The first initiative was supported by American academic institutions (see main text), the second by British counterparts. International Symposium on Higher Education in Iraq is an initiative by a group of expatriate Iraqi academics working in UK. “We are following different avenues‰, says Dr. Gahzi Derwish, visiting professor of Surrey University and member of the Symposium Organising Committee. “Our aim is to explore the needs of universities in Iraq, help to set their priorities and determine how best British Universities and other organizations can help in restoring the once flourishing links between Iraq‚s academic institutions and their correlatives in the west‰.

“Higher education has been the incubator of R&D in Iraq‰, says Dr. Derwish, a veteran scientist who obtained his PhD in chemistry from the University of London and held prestigious scientific posts in Iraq for four decades. The public sector comprises 20 universities and 47 technical institutions with about 350,000 students and 18,000 academic staff. There are also 10 private sector higher education colleges with some 15,000 students.

The Symposium, hosted last month by the University of Westminster in London, was attended by 170 academics, 20 of them presidents, assistant presidents and deans of Iraqi universities. Abbas Al-Hussainy, Secretary General of the Symposium and senior lecturer at Westminster University, said that they discussed with their British colleagues curriculum modernization, ways to establish higher education policies and strategies that can effectively deal with the challenges of the reconstruction period. Parallel to the political issues being debated in Iraq; special workshops in the Symposium were devoted to centralisation vs. de-centralisation, role and regulation of private universities and radical rethinking of scientific research in line with national needs.

Beyond discussing what needs to be done, some practical measures have already been taken since the first Symposium held in January 2004. Dr.. Al-Hussainy said that several training workshops, research co-operations, and academic/scientific visits for Iraqis were organised by a number of British universities (Birmingham, Nottingham, John Moor, Bangor, Westminster, Surrey, Cardiff, Greenwich). The Association of Iraqi Academics in UK and a number of British universities have arranged donation of books and scientific journals to Iraqi universities. The Association of British Publishers invited Iraqi university librarians to attend the British Book Fair and to establish contacts with UK publishers. British and European universities offered scholarships for MSc and PhD degrees to six Iraqi Universities. Furthermore, the British Council contributed six-month training courses for seven academics under the Chevening Technology Enterprise Scholarship Programme.

Dr. Derwish points out that few scholarships and training courses will not be sufficient to alleviate the tragic state engulfing Iraq‚s science community. A recent Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Baghdad stated “Iraq‚s university laboratories suffered heavy damage during the US invasion two years ago and are desperately short of essential equipment and chemicals needed to teach medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and several other science subjects. As a result, 15 students or more have to share a single set of equipment during practical experiments, three times more than the internationally recommended maximum of five‰. University teachers grumble that thousands of graduates are being turned out every year short on practical knowledge.

Iraqi scientists and academics are suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as they face the constant danger of assassination and kidnapping. According to Sami Mudhaffar, minister of Higher Education and Science Research, 54 Iraqi scientists and academics have been assassinated. In an interview to London based Arabic newspaper Ashahrq Alawsat, Dr. Mudhaffar expressed his regret for accepting ministerial responsibility “only one of 14 reconstruction projects ready for implementation has been carried out‰. The reason, he said is the “halt of ministry expenditure‰. He added, “All the talk about international donations is an empty promise. Many of the 200 contracts and agreements that were signed didn‚t benefit the country. On the contrary they added more debts to an already heavily debited nation‰.

M.A H.A

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Recent examples of killed Academics

August 5 2005

Three university lecturers were assassinated by unknowns, by shooting. The source from university of almustansiria university said that, some unknowns fired a flow of bullets, Dr Zaki Bakir Alaany,the lecturer in college of literature and Dr Hashim Abdulameer ,the lecturer in college education, while they were on their way out from the university gate. On the other hand Dr Sameer yelda was kidnapped from outside the gate of the university, the day before yesterday. It is known that 55 university professors were assassinated after the fall of the past regeme; this forced many university professors to leave IRAQ.

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University Professor in Basrah is kidnapped

Reference:

Aliraqnew

12/9/2005

Unknown armed group has kidnapped Dr professor Haithem Ooda, deputy head of chemical engineering department in the University of Albasrah while he was on his way to office on Monday.

Eye witnesses said that unknown car has stopped the professor while he was on his way to the office, then three armed men forced him to inter their car and took him to unknown direction. It is mentioned that university professors from Basrah city, south of IRAQ were targets of assassinations, arresting and eliminating by armed groups linked with the incoming parties from outside the borders together with US occupation.

University professors are worried from these accidents in the beginning of the new academic year.

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2005-09-18 – 09:43:56

30 medical doctors were killed and 220 others were forced to immigrate abroad during the past period

Bahrain Gulf News 18-09-2005

Baghdad: Qais Alazzawy, specially for Gulf News

After Dr Basil Abbas Husain ;the hurt specialist was martyred by the US forces on the fifth of this month ,by mistake as they claimed∑and the discovery of a car bomb which was about to explode the Karame hospital; the ministry of health announced a campaign to speak about the doctors who were victimised because of their human duties and who are exposed to kidnapping or forcing their families to pay ransoms also the number of doctors who left the country for good became hundreds. The deputy health minister Dr Jaleel Alshammary declared that the martyred doctors so far are 30, whereas those who were forced to immigrate or threatened to immigrate abroad are more than 220 medical doctor,. in addition to those who were kidnapped. The ministry of high education announced that the number of immigrated university professors are more than2000 so far. This obliged the ministry to close down 125 high degree branches whereas Jordan and Syria became full of the Iraqi medical doctors who are looking for jobs, so the Syrian government has opened a new hospital composed of the Iraqi doctors who immigrated from their own country. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Dean of the college of political science in the University of Mousil was saved from assassination.

Dr Talal Aljaleely; the Dean of the political science college, and his son were saved from an attempt to assassinate them by a group of armed men, after they opened fire of light weapons against them, in front of their house, which is located in the university site, while they were about to leave out.

A medical source from the hospital of educational alzahrawy hospital declared that Dr Aljaleely was shot in his back, while his son was shot in his leg. The source assured that their state became stable after they received a surgical intervention.

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12/09/2005

Dear Colleague

I would like to inform you of the sad news of the murder of Dr Wissam Al Hashimi in Baghdad in August this year.

Ina Lil Allah Waina Elaehe Rageoun..

This is another Iraqi scientist killed in Baghdad by the “organised criminal and or organised terrorists”. Another number to be add to body count of civilian Iraqis since the “Liberation” which now amounts of more than 1000 Doctors and University staff murdered and thousands of similar qualifications who have been forced out of Iraq since the “liberation..” The total death toll of civilian Iraqis ranges between 25,000-160,000 depending on your side of the political fence.

Dr Al Hashimy was until his murder the president of the Union of Arab Geologists. He persevered in serving Iraq throughout his career and helped improve the co-operation between Geologists in Arab countries. He organised several (GEOCOME) conference of the Arab Geologists Union under difficult conditions in several Arab capitols, including Cairo, Baghdad, Amman, Beirut, etc. and he was planning another GEOCOME conference in Abu Dhabi in early 2006.

Dr Wissam Al Hashimi is an internationally known experts in Carbonates, and he is well known for his important contributions to dolomite and dedolmitisation in and outside Iraq. He was killed while he was preparing his last paper “Porosities Of Carbonate Reservoirs Of The Mesopotamian Basin: An Insight Into Their Origin” to be delivered in the AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Paris in the Wednesday 14/9/05 morning session.

He will be remembered by many Iraqi student of Geology whom he supervised and or helped with their PhD and MSc projects.

Attached is an emotional letter from his daughter Tara to Dr Sadooni.

If you are like me was thinking of attending the planned Iraqi Higher Education Conference in Baghdad later this year or earlier next year, I would rethink again.

Regards,

M W IBRAHIM

Dear Mr.Sadooni, I am Tara Al-Hashimi the daughter of the late Dr. Wissam Al-Hashimi. I’d like to inform you that my father (Dr. AL- Hashimi) has died. He was kidnapped early in the morning on the 24th Aug 2005 while going to work, his recent papers were stolen. A ransom was given but unfortunately he was shoot twice in the head and died. May his soul rest in peace. As his ID was taken from him it took us about 2 weeks to find his body in one of Baghdad’s hospitals. Lately he was very busy preparing a paper that he was going to talk about it in a meeting in Paris, Unfortunately he will not be able to attend the meeting. On behalf of myself and the family we would like that at least the abstract of his paper remains in the meeting’s agenda and to be lectured by someone else. NB: please contact me as soon as possible

Regards Tara Al-Hashimi

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University Professor was exposed to armed assault 2005-11-15 – 13:50:17

The Iraqi News Agency

Iraqi police source announced that Dr Jasim mohammed the dean of literature college of the university of al-mustansiria has escaped from an assassination attempt that caused the death of his driver, while he was wounded. The sources has pointed out that unknown armed men had attacked a car belongs to the ministry of high education, opening fire towards it, that lead to the killing of the car driver promptly and caused dangerous injuries to the dean of the college, who was transferred to the hospital. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Assasination of one of the distinguished specialists in malignant deseases

Dr Sami Aymen was assassinated by unknowns in his house, that is located in the west of tikreet city. The family of the victim declared that a group of armed group had surrounded his house and killed him in front of his sons and escaped. Dr sami aymen was one the distinguished specialists in the field of malignant and chronic diseases

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The Iraqi university staff had lost a new martyr, who was assassinated by gun men today, in the west of Baghdad. A spokesman from the ministry of interior affairs said that, criminals attacked the martyred saad yaseen al-ansary, the professor in the University of Baghdad, while he was driving his car in saydia district, accompanied by his wife, who was injured by the betrayal bullets, then transported to the hospital. A source has mentioned a police man was martyred in the same district today, by unknown criminals, while others had assassinated an engineer in al-ameen district, in addition to that, a dead body was found with his hands bound together and his eyes wrapped in sulaik district, and then shot dead. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ministry of high education announces, the assassination of three scientists from the university of Baghdad

Baghdad: The ministry of high education and scientific research had announced, the assassination of three scientists and professors, working in the university of Baghdad, during the past few days. The ministry has named the assassinates as; Dr Haikal Mohammed al-Moosawy, from the Kindy medical college, who was assassinated in alsulaik district in Baghdad, and Dr Saad yaseen al-Ansary the professor from the college of science, who was assassinated just outside his house, in addition to Dr Raad Muhsin Mutar al-Mawla, the head of the biological sciences in the college of science, who was assassinated in his clinic.
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24-11-2005

Assassination of the deputy head of the college of education in the University of Al-Mustansria Unknown armed men had assassinated the deputy head of the college of education in the Al-Mustansiria University on Wednesday night and his car driver. Major Raed Ali Salih from Baghdad police declared that; unknown armed men had attacked Dr kadhim talal husain the deputy dean of the college of education in the Al-Mustansiria University; on 6pm tonight, while he was in Alsulaikh district, in the north east of Baghdad, and shot him dead. The source added; that the car driver was shot dead in that attack as well, while the armed men had escaped after committing their crime.
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Islamic memo(special):the Islamic memo correspondent in Al- Basra city , south of Iraq said that more than 20 medical doctors and university professors, had received threats to be killed during the past two days ,by unknowns

The correspondent said that one of the distinguished heart surgeons in Al-Basra city received a written threat that says(get out of from Al-Basra city or you will be killed), whereas another professor from the university of Al-Basra city said; that he found a paper on Saturday morning saying (get out you dirty sunny, or you will be slaughtered like the camel) Our correspondent said that all the professors and medical doctors are thinking to flee from the city after the threats, that they described as serious, accusing elements of Badr brigade, the military wing of the IRSC, islamii revolution supreme council, in Iraq, that is lead by Abdul Azeez`Al-Hakeem.

It is mentioned that two of those who received the threats, were assassinated writhen the past two days; namely Dr Saad Alrubaiee and the professor of the biological sciences in the college of science Dr Omer Fakhri

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Assassination of academic from the institute of fine arts 26-12-2005 Unknown armed men had assassinated a university professor of the institute of fine arts, on Monday morning in Toopchy district in Baghdad. A source from the ministry of defence said that; armed men fired a stream of bullets towards professor Nawfal Ahmed,on eight morning, while he was getting out of his house, heading to his working office. No detailed information was available about the causes of this incident so far.

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Assassination Of University Academic 25-12-2005 Police source in Babylon had announced today; that police patrols had found the body of the university academic Muhsin Suleiman Alageely, who was working in the university of Babylon, in his house, which is located in the forest area in Hillah city.

The source added that eyes witneses said that armed unknowns had stormed the house of the university professor and killed him, before fleeing away. It is mentioned that many similar cases had occurred with no claim of responsibility..
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www.brusselstribunal.org/Academicspetition.htm
URGENT APPEAL TO SAVE IRAQ’S ACADEMICS –

www.brusselstribunal.org/Academicspetition.htm%23action Read and sign the petition Urgent call for action

A little known aspect of the tragedy engulfing Iraq is the systematic liquidation of the country’s academics. Even according to conservative estimates, over 250 educators have been assassinated, and many hundreds more have disappeared. With thousands fleeing the country in fear for their lives, not only is Iraq undergoing a major brain drain, the secular middle class – which has refused to be co-opted by the US occupation – is being decimated, with far-reaching consequences for the future of Iraq.

Already on July 14, 2004, veteran correspondent Robert Fisk reported from Iraq that: “University staff suspect that there is a campaign to strip Iraq of its academics, to complete the destruction of Iraq’s cultural identity which began when the American army entered Baghdad.”

The wave of assassinations appears non-partisan and non-sectarian, targeting women as well as men, and is countrywide. It is indiscriminate of expertise: professors of geography, history and Arabic literature as well as science are among the dead. Not one individual has been apprehended in connection with these assassinations.

According to the United Nations University, some 84 per cent of Iraq’s institutions of higher education have already been burnt, looted or destroyed. Iraq’s educational system used to be among the best in the region; one of the country’s most important assets was its well-educated people.

This situation is a mirror of the occupation as a whole: a catastrophe of staggering proportions unfolding in a climate of criminal disregard. As an occupying power, and under international humanitarian law, final responsibility for protecting Iraqi citizens, including academics, lies with the United States.

With this petition we want to break the silence.

1. We appeal to organisations which work to enforce or defend international humanitarian law to put these crimes on the agenda. 2. We request that an independent international investigation be launched immediately to probe these extrajudicial killings. This investigation should also examine the issue of responsibility to clearly identify who is accountable for this state of affairs. We appeal to the special rapporteur on summary executions at UNHCHR in Geneva. www.petitiononline.com/Iraqacad/petition.html You can sign this petition online or send an email to info@brusselstribunal.org

This petition was launched by the BRussells Tribunal and is already endorsed by CEOSI (Spain), the Portuguese hearing of the WTI, Iraktribunal.de (Germany), the Swedish Antiwar committee, the IAC (USA), the International Association of Middle East Studies (IAMES), the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO) and the European Association for Middle Eastern Studies (EURAMES), and several personalities, like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Tony Benn, Eduardo Galeano, John Pilger and Michael Parenti. www.brusselstribunal.org/AcademicsPetitionList.htm See the list of principal endorsers.

Call for action to save Iraq’s Academics 1. We call upon all people, especially academics and students, to help end the silence that surrounds the ongoing crime of the assassination of Iraqi academics and the destruction of Iraqi’s educational infrastructure, and support Iraqi academics’ right and hope to live in an independent, democratic Iraq, free of foreign occupation and hegemony.

2. We urge that academic institutions and organisations declare solidarity with their Iraqi colleagues.

3. We urge that academics forge links between Iraqi educators, both in exile and in Iraq, and universities worldwide.

4. We urge that student organisations link with Iraqi student organisations.

5. We urge that educators mobilise colleagues and concerned citizens to take up the cause of the salvation of Iraq’s intellectual wealth, by organising seminars, teach-ins and forums on the plight of Iraq’s academics.

The world’s academics and intellectuals must act now to save the lives of their colleagues in Iraq. [The Brussells Tribunal, in cooperation with other organisations, has started to build a network of contacts and raise public awareness and can provide information and support to individuals and groups who wish to mobilise on this issue. We are able to act as a depository and hub for this campaign] www.brusselstribunal.org/Academics.htm

[JPN EDITOR’S NOTE: Jewish Peace News endeavors to educate our readers as to the diversity of views and arguments that swirl around the Israel-Palestine conflict. As we note at the beginning of each edition of JPN, the views of the commentators are their own, and, in the same vein, Jewish Voice for Peace does not necessarily hold the views expressed in the articles which JPN disseminates. Jewish Voice for Peace does not support a boycott of Israel at this time, although we do support and work vigorously toward selective economic actions that target the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. For a detailed description of our position on this issue, www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_19.shtml click here . — MP]

[JPN Commentary: As opening commentary I’m using the editor’s note which appeared in CounterPunch. — RG

EDITORS’ NOTE: In early January Kristin Halvorsen, current Norwegian Finance Minister and leader of the Left Socialist Party (a member of the current three-party governmental coalition), expressed her personal and party support for a Norwegian boycott of Israeli goods and services. Almost immediately the Israeli ambassador to Norway protested and Condoleezza Rice threatened Norway with “serious political consequences” if Halvorsen’s statement represented the policy of the current government. Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre then dashed off a letter to Rice (addressed “Dear Condi”), assuring her that the Left Socialist Party’s position on a economic boycott of Israel “has never been and will never be” the policy of the Norwegian government. For her part Halvorsen distanced herself from her previous statements, as top leaders of the foreign affairs department criticized her and drew parallels between a boycott of Israeli goods and the Nazi boycott of Jewish shops. Finklestein’s piece was published in Norway’s most influential newspaper Aftenposten this past week.]

Human Rights Violations, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified

By NORMAN FINKELSTEIN

www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11574.htm

January 18, 2006

The recent proposal that Norway boycott Israeli goods has provoked passionate debate. In my view, a rational examination of this issue would pose two questions:

1) Do Israeli human rights violations warrant an economic boycott? and

2) Can such a boycott make a meaningful contribution toward ending these violations? I would argue that both these questions should be answered in the affirmative.

Although the subject of many reports by human rights organizations, Israel’s real human rights record in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is generally not well known abroad. This is primarily due to the formidable public relations industry of Israel’s defenders as well as the effectiveness of their tactics of intimidation, such as labeling critics of Israeli policy anti-Semitic.

Yet, it is an incontestable fact that Israel has committed a broad range of human rights violations, many rising to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity. These include:

Illegal Killings.

Whereas Palestinian suicide attacks targeting Israeli civilians have garnered much media attention, Israel’s quantitatively worse record of killing non-combatants is less well known. According to the most recent figures of the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem), 3,386 Palestinians have been killed since September 2000, of whom 1,008 were identified as combatants, as opposed to 992 Israelis killed, of whom 309 were combatants. This means that three times more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed and up to three times more Palestinian civilians than Israeli civilians. Israel’s defenders maintain that there’s a difference between targeting civilians and inadvertently killing them. B’Tselem disputes this:

“[W]hen so many civilians have been killed and wounded, the lack of intent makes no difference. Israel remains responsible.” Furthermore, Amnesty International reports that “many” Palestinians have not been accidentally killed but “deliberately targeted,” while the award-winning New York Times journalist Chris Hedges reports that Israeli soldiers “entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport.”

Torture.

“From 1967,” Amnesty reports, “the Israeli security services have routinely tortured Palestinian political suspects in the Occupied Territories.” B’Tselem found that eighty-five percent of Palestinians interrogated by Israeli security services were subjected to “methods constituting torture,” while already a decade ago Human Rights Watch estimated that “the number of Palestinians tortured or severely ill-treated” was “in the tens of thousands – a number that becomes especially significant when it is remembered that the universe of adult and adolescent male Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is under three-quarters of one million.” In 1987 Israel became “the only country in the world to have effectively legalized torture” (Amnesty). Although the Israeli Supreme Court seemed to ban torture in a 1999 decision, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel reported in 2003 that Israeli security forces continued to apply torture in a “methodical and routine” fashion. A 2001 B’Tselem study documented that Israeli security forces often applied “severe torture” to “Palestinian minors.”

House demolitions.

“Israel has implemented a policy of mass demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories,” B’Tselem reports, and since September 2000 “has destroyed some 4,170 Palestinian homes.” Until just recently Israel routinely resorted to house demolitions as a form of collective punishment. According to Middle East Watch, apart from Israel, the only other country in the world that used such a draconian punishment was Iraq under Saddam Hussein. In addition, Israel has demolished thousands of “illegal” homes that Palestinians built because of Israel’s refusal to provide building permits. The motive behind destroying these homes, according to Amnesty, has been to maximize the area available for Jewish settlers: “Palestinians are targeted for no other reason than they are Palestinians.” Finally, Israel has destroyed hundred of homes on security pretexts, yet a Human Rights Watch report on Gaza found that “the pattern of destruction strongly suggests that Israeli forces demolished homes wholesale, regardless of whether they posed a specific threat.” Amnesty likewise found that “Israel’s extensive destruction of homes and properties throughout the West Bank and Gaza is not justified by military necessity,” and that “Some of these acts of destruction amount to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and are war crimes.”

Apart from the sheer magnitude of its human rights violations, the uniqueness of Israeli policies merits notice. “Israel has created in the Occupied Territories a regime of separation based on discrimination, applying two separate systems of law in the same area and basing the rights of individuals on their nationality,” B’Tselem has concluded. “This regime is the only one of its kind in the world, and is reminiscent of distasteful regimes from the past, such as the apartheid regime in South Africa.” If singling out South Africa for an international economic boycott was defensible, it would seem equally defensible to single out Israel’s occupation, which uniquely resembles the apartheid regime.

Although an economic boycott can be justified on moral grounds, the question remains whether diplomacy might be more effectively employed instead. The documentary record in this regard, however, is not encouraging. The basic terms for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict are embodied in U.N. resolution 242 and subsequent U.N. resolutions, which call for a full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza and the establishment of a Palestinian state in these areas in exchange for recognition of Israel’s right to live in peace and security with its neighbors. Each year the overwhelming majority of member States of the United Nations vote in favor of this two-state settlement, and each year Israel and the United States (and a few South Pacific islands) oppose it. Similarly, in March 2002 all twenty-two member States of the Arab League proposed this two-state settlement as well as “normal relations with Israel.” Israel ignored the proposal.

Not only has Israel stubbornly rejected this two-state settlement, but the policies it is currently pursuing will abort any possibility of a viable Palestinian state. While world attention has been riveted by Israel’s redeployment from Gaza, Sara Roy of Harvard University observes that the “Gaza Disengagement Plan is, at heart, an instrument for Israel’s continued annexation of West Bank land and the physical integration of that land into Israel.” In particular Israel has been constructing a wall deep inside the West Bank that will annex the most productive land and water resources as well as East Jerusalem, the center of Palestinian life. It will also effectively sever the West Bank in two. Although Israel initially claimed that it was building the wall to fight terrorism, the consensus among human rights organizations is that it is really a land grab to annex illegal Jewish settlements into Israel. Recently Israel’s Justice Minister frankly acknowledged that the wall will serve as “the future border of the state of Israel.”

The current policies of the Israeli government will lead either to endless bloodshed or the dismemberment of Palestine. “It remains virtually impossible to conceive of a Palestinian state without its capital in Jerusalem,” the respected Crisis Group recently concluded, and accordingly Israeli policies in the West Bank “are at war with any viable two-state solution and will not bolster Israel’s security; in fact, they will undermine it, weakening Palestinian pragmatists and sowing the seeds of growing radicalization.”

Recalling the U.N. Charter principle that it is inadmissible to acquire territory by war, the International Court of Justice declared in a landmark 2004 opinion that Israel’s settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the wall being built to annex them to Israel were illegal under international law. It called on Israel to cease construction of the wall, dismantle those parts already completed and compensate Palestinians for damages. Crucially, it also stressed the legal responsibilities of the international community:

all States are under an obligation not to recognize the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem. They are also under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by such construction. It is also for all States, while respecting the United Nations Charter and international law, to see to it that any impediment, resulting from the construction of the wall, to the exercise by the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination is brought to an end.

A subsequent U.N. General Assembly resolution supporting the World Court opinion passed overwhelmingly. However, the Israeli government ignored the Court’s opinion, continuing construction at a rapid pace, while Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the wall was legal.

Due to the obstructionist tactics of the United States, the United Nations has not been able to effectively confront Israel’s illegal practices. Indeed, although it is true that the U.N. keeps Israel to a double standard, it’s exactly the reverse of the one Israel’s defenders allege: Israel is held not to a higher but lower standard than other member States. A study by Marc Weller of Cambridge University comparing Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory with comparable situations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, East Timor, occupied Kuwait and Iraq, and Rwanda found that Israel has enjoyed “virtual immunity” from enforcement measures such as an arms embargo and economic sanctions typically adopted by the U.N. against member States condemned for identical violations of international law.

Due in part to an aggressive campaign accusing Europe of a “new anti-Semitism,” the European Union has also failed in its legal obligation to enforce international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Although the claim of a “new anti-Semitism” has no basis in fact (all the evidence points to a lessening of anti-Semitism in Europe), the EU has reacted by appeasing Israel. It has even suppressed publication of one of its own reports, because the authors – like the Crisis Group and many others – concluded that due to Israeli policies the “prospects for a two-state solution with east Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine are receding.”

The moral burden to avert the impending catastrophe must now be borne by individual states that are prepared to respect their obligations under international law and by individual men and women of conscience. In a courageous initiative American-based Human Rights Watch recently called on the U.S. government to reduce significantly its financial aid to Israel until Israel terminates its illegal policies in the West Bank. An economic boycott would seem to be an equally judicious undertaking. A nonviolent tactic the purpose of which is to achieve a just and lasting settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict cannot legitimately be called anti-Semitic. Indeed, the real enemies of Jews are those who debase the memory of Jewish suffering by equating principled opposition to Israel’s illegal and immoral policies with anti-Semitism.

Norman Finkelstein’s most recent book is Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-Semitism and the abuse of history (University of California Press). His web site is www.NormanFinkelstein.com.