Israel Denies Palestinians All Rights

Israel Denies Palestinians All Rights

by Stephen Lendman

According to UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine Richard Falk, "Palestinians don't even have the right to have rights."

Militarized occupation denies them. Harshness exceeding the worst of South African apartheid describes their status. The UN and Human Rights Council do nothing to help.

According to Falk, they "failed to follow through in a way that is effective in bringing peace and justice to the peoples of Palestine, and until (they do, they have) no ethical or (other) basis for not trying (their) utmost to do so."

Palestinians are isolated on their own. In 1948, Israel stole 78% of their homeland. In 1967, it took the rest. Militarized occupation exists.

It's lawless. It's illegitimate. It continues because world leaders do nothing to stop it. They turn a blind eye to Israel's worst crimes.

They honor its war criminals. They do it disgracefully. They're complicit in their crimes. Imagine calling Ariel Sharon a hero.

Imagine being saddened by his death. Imagine saying Israel is poorer without him. Imagine praising a cutthroat killer. Imagine calling him a peacemaker.

Alan Dershowitz is a notorious Islamophobe. He's a Zionist zealot. He's an Israeli apologist. He believes in unique Jewish suffering. He's mindless of all others.

He believes waging war achieves peace. He favors torture and targeted assassinations. Francis Boyle called him an "infamous self-incriminating war criminal."

He recently retired. He'll no longer teach Harvard Law School students. He wasn't fit to teach.

He praised Sharon. He called him a "bold innovator." He helped Israel "throughout his long and distinguished career."

Israel "will surely miss the creative mind and spirit of one of the most important members of its founding generation," he claimed.

A previous article said Sharonian evil lives. Daily Palestinian suffering proves it. On January 13, Haaretz headlined "Palestinians barred from appealing property confiscation in Israeli military court."

Civil law protects settlers. Military law denies Palestinians justice. Dualism is fundamentally lawless. Double standard justice is illegitimate.

Imagine military courts for civilians. Imagine Arab-hating soldiers as judges. Imagine the worst of apartheid occupation.

In December, Central Command General Nitzan Alon issued an injunction. It prohibits Palestinians from challenging military court-ordered confiscation of their property. It legitimizes land theft.

"Judicial review of West Bank confiscations is now in the hands of the Supreme Court," said Haaretz. Israel's military calls it consistent with longstanding government policy.

Under military orders governing Occupied Palestine, commanders or persons he authorizes can steal property.

It's done by claiming involvement in illegal activity. Calling it related to terror groups permits it.  

Israeli commanders can steal money, vehicles and other property the same way. Israel calls legitimate self-defense terrorism. So is activism. Human rights workers are affected. Police states operate this way. Racist ones are among the worst.

Appealing military court decisions is futile. According to Haaretz:

"The authority of the military courts to consider such appeals was anchored in a 2010 decision by the Ofer Military Appeals Court, which ordered the return of a pneumatic drill to a Palestinian after police had taken it."

"Col. Aharon Mishnayot presided over the court that made the decision, but Col. Netanel Beniso, who is the current appeals court president, dissented."

"Beniso wrote a minority opinion saying the Central Command chief should establish a separate channel for appealing confiscations."

"Under the advice of the military prosecution, Alon decided to block appeals, effectively overruling the military court."

Palestinians can appeal to Israel's High Court. It's notoriously racist. Israel's judicial system is biased against Palestinians.

It imposes procedural and financial barriers. Access to civil justice is impeded. Redress under international law is denied.

In July 2005, Knesset members approved a 1952 Civil Torts Law ((Liability of the State) amendment. It prevents Palestinians from seeking just compensation. Cast Lead victims were denied.

So are other fundamental Palestinian rights. In January 2012, Israel's Supreme Court called Israel's Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law legitimate.

It denies citizenship rights to Palestinians with Israeli spouses. It lets the interior minister grant citizenship to Palestinians swearing allegiance to a Jewish state.

They must contribute to national security. They must spy on their own people. They must betray them.

Israel considers Arab rights null and void. Equity and justice don't exist. Fundamental international laws are violated.

Refusal to support Israel as a Jewish state is punished. So is mourning Israel's independence day. It's Palestine's Nakba.

Arab intellectual Constantin Zureiq coined the term. He called what happened the worst catastrophe Arabs suffered "in their long and disaster-ridden history."

It cost them all rights in Palestine. They never recovered. In many ways, thing are worse than ever. Nightmarish conditions exist.

Israeli justice denies them. Imagine a nation calling land theft legal. Imagine virtually no way to contest. Trying through Israel's High Court is "cumbersome," said Haaretz.

Petitioning Israel's Supreme Court virtually never succeeds. Procedures are rigged to deny. Palestinian lawyers can represent clients in military courts. Doing so rarely obtains justice.

Jewish lawyers alone can petition Israel's Supreme Court. Palestinians are impoverished. They can't afford to hire one.

Imagine a judicial system excluding non-Jewish attorneys. Imagine one pretending to be fair. Imagine it systematically denying Palestinians justice.

It's unclear whether Palestinians can appeal confiscation in military courts. It's futile to try. Legal experts told Haaretz they can appeal as long as they do it within three days.

According to Haaretz, the IDF said "Alon's injunction brings the appeal process in line with Israeli law, which gives the Supreme Court authority to review any terror-related property confiscation in the West Bank and in Israel."

Meretz party head Zahava Gal-On called on Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to reverse Israel's military injunction.

It "erases all trace of due process and contradicts the rule of law," she said.

It "makes the arbitrary power of the occupation absolute, and it is therefore thoroughly corrupt and corrupting."

Few Knesset members feel the same way. It's the most extremist in Israel's history. It enacted numerous racist laws. Others are pending.

Palestinians are considered non-persons. Jews alone have rights. Praying to the wrong God is criminalized. So is supporting freedom, equity and justice.

Free expression in Israel is threatened. Israel wants critics silenced.  Boycotting Israel is considered illegal. So is refusing to recognize a Jewish and democratic state.

Freedom is increasingly eroding. New Ministerial Committee legislation criminalizes use of the word "Nazi" or Nazi symbols.

Free societies don't stifle free expression. Israel increasingly criminalizes it.

Calling someone a Nazi or other name "connected with Naziism or the Third Reich in Germany or any of its leaders, or a word that sounds similar to the word Nazi" potentially faces six months in prison and a 100,000 shekel fine (around $28,000).

Symbols like swastikas are banned. So are Jewish yellow stars and clothing resembling what concentration victims wore.

They're permitted only "in the context of teaching, documentation or historical reports."

Efforts to ban the word "Nazi" and Nazi symbols began in January 2012. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) called on Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to stop the measure.

ACRI attorney Lila Margalit said free expression guarantees the right to say things others may find offensive. Holocaust symbolism deserves public debate.

Open discussion is legitimate. Criminalizing it has no place in free societies. Free expression is too precious to lose.

Nazi prohibiting legislation calls its use "more prevalent in recent years."

"The unbearable ease with which these things are used on a day-to-day basis as part of public and political discourse represents grave disrespect for the feelings of holocaust survivors and their descendants, and is worthy of condemnation."

"The world in which we live in makes it appropriate to solidify prohibitions against using symbols and terminology from the Holocaust through legislation, in order to prevent the phenomenon from spreading further."

Shimon Ohayon introduced the measure. On January 15, it was submitted for a preliminary reading.

Ohayon heads the Knesset caucus against anti-Semitism. "It is very important that Israel join many other nations in Europe in forbidding all use of Nazi symbols," he said.

They're "a danger to Jews wherever they are, and as long as these symbols are not illegal in Israel we cannot go to (other) nations with complaints about how they allow their use."

Symbols harm no one. Actions do. Legislation targeting free expression compromises all other rights.

Palestinians have none. Israelis are losing theirs. It bears repeating. Police states operate this way. Israel is one of the worst.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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