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Israel’s
Law-Breaking Collective Punishment Practices:
Continuous
Human Rights Violations in Plain View of a World Unwilling
to Take a Stand
Collective
punishment and deportation are banned as human rights
violations in Article 4 of the 4th Geneva
Convention. This
law is violated on a daily basis in the current Intifada. In
addition, Article 33 states that “No protected
person may be punished for an offence he or she has not
personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all
measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.”
It is the hopes of PHRMG that the international
community will finally stand up and take action against the
individual international law breakers and their governments
and see that such laws are adhered to.
It is a basic
rule that one person cannot be punished for the crimes of
another. Punishment
of innocent civilians, to set a precedent or as deterrent is
against Israel’s state law, international law, and
Biblical law (Ezekial 18:20).
It embodies blind vengeance, a giving up of basic
moral principles.
“Curfew “ is
a term used for the collective punishment of house arrest on
all people of a town or currently, an entire people.
Two million Palestinian people are currently
suffering under this punishment.
When a curfew is in place, residents are not allowed
out of their homes for any reason, lest they risk the fate
of two young boys who were blown off their bikes by tank
fire as they dared to get chocolate on a perceived closure
break (Jenin, 06/21/02) and that of many others who were
injured in similar incidents.
Even if someone happens to die in a home during a
closure, relatives are not permitted to leave and bury the
dead until the closure is lifted.
When a closure is lifted, sometimes after more than
two weeks, as in the village of Huwara, so residents can buy
food and not starve to death in their homes, Israeli
soldiers can quickly reinstate a closure, firing tanks into
residential areas to announce their decision, killing
children along the way.
These are the realities of a closure.
It is illegal under the Geneva Convention—and it is
immoral and cruel. Yet,
it is a very normal practice of the Israeli government and
everyone knows about it.
And although some in the international community
don’t like it, no one dares do anything to stop it.
Thus, the Israeli Armed Forces throw the Geneva
Convention into the recycling bin, rather than use it as
actual guidelines for their actions.
Another
international humanitarian law of the Israeli Armed
Forces’ continually violate is that regarding home
demolitions. Article
53 of the Geneva Convention reads “Any destruction by
the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging
individually or collectively to private persons, or to the
State, or to other public authorities, or to social or
cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such
destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military
operations.” This
illegal form of collective punishment has recently been used
to destroy the homes of entire families because they are
related to an enemy of Israel.
The Israeli government has demolished 511 homes since
the beginning of the first Intifada in 1987.
2,450 more were demolished since this time for
“administrative” reasons, usually involving the Israeli
government’s refusal to grant a building permit,
regardless of years of legal proceedings to secure one.
In Rafah alone, 54 houses have been demolished in the
month of January 2002. Another 296 homes have been permanently closed by Israeli
Armed Forces and another 118 partially closed since 1987. Home demolition is a form of collective punishment, and aside
from being internationally prohibited, it is a failure in
deterring violence—its objective.
The latest
collective punishment being seriously considered by Israel,
which is really a return to former ways, is that of
deportation. “Civilians
shall not be compelled to leave their own territory for
reasons connected with the conflict.”
(Article 17, Protocol II, 4th Geneva Convention).
Deportation has been condemned by both the US and the
UN. Israel
started the policy of deportation when they occupied the
West Bank in 1967, and from then until 1991, 1000
Palestinians were deported.
Between 1987-1993, 420 people were deported to South
Lebanon. In May
2002, 39 armed Palestinians held up in Bethlehem’s Church
of the Nativity were deported. This was a precedent in deportations, as it came with an
agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
And recently, the Israeli government proposed on July
20 to deport 21 family members and associates of those
linked to acts of violence, hoping that the threat of
deportation will harm the moral and physical support for
violent acts. What
holds Israel back is the concern that deportation will stain
Israel’s name. Not that it is illegal or morally wrong, only that it will be
bad Israeli PR. Thus,
Israel trades morality for so called “security,” as
moral perversions continue to result from the occupation.
Deportation will deprive large extended families of
their homes, communities, and means of support because they
are related to someone accused of violence.
Again, punishing innocents, just because they are
related to one who is guilty.
PHRMG demands
that the Israeli government immediately stop its illegal
practices of collective punishment. We call on both sides to stop the violence that has claimed
too many innocent lives.
PHRMG also calls on the international community,
especially the United Nations, to hold the Israeli
government accountable for its military’s actions in
accordance with international law.
Without adhering to wisely established laws, we
remain with the anarchy that is currently in our laps in
this Intifada. |
