The Stephen Lendman Blog<\/p>\n
Terrorizing, displacing, assassinating and mass-slaughtering Palestinians is how Israel operated throughout its history.<\/p>\n
Relief is nowhere in sight for long-suffering Palestinians, victims of Israeli apartheid ruthlessness \u2014 with full support and encouragement by the US-dominated West.<\/p>\n
According to the Rome Statute of the International Court, apartheid is a crime against humanity, a major breach of international law.<\/p>\n
The Statute\u2019s Article 7 states the following:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u2018crime of apartheid\u2019 means inhumane acts\u2026committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2010, UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine Richard Falk said \u201capartheid that exists in the Occupied Palestinian Territories\u2026makes the allegation increasingly credible despite differences between the specific characteristics of South African apartheid and that of the Occupied Palestinian Territories regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
A report by Falk and Virginia Tilley \u2014 titled \u201cIsraeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid\u201d \u2014 concluded the following:<\/p>\n
Operating extrajudicially, Israel is an apartheid state that\u2019s waging slow-motion genocide against Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Gazans harmed most of all, a new report by Al-Haq\u2019s Legal Research and Advocacy Department highlighted an example of Israeli state terror against their long-suffering people.<\/p>\n
Titled \u201cKhudair Warehouse: Israel\u2019s Chemical Attack on the Gaza Strip,\u201d Al-Haq\u2019s report followed an investigation by the human rights group into widespread IDF destruction during 11 days of aggression on Gazans in May 2021.<\/p>\n
The Khudair agrochemical warehouse was one of many Strip targets struck at the time, Al-Haq explaining:<\/p>\n
It \u201ccreated a chemical cloud that spread chemical waste over the people and environment of Gaza, poisoning the population, amounting to the indirect use of a chemical weapon, prohibited under international law.\u201d<\/p>\n
On May 15, 2021 \u2014Nakba Day \u2014 six IDF shells set the warehouse ablaze.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing the attack, a chemical plume formed from the fire at the warehouse which soon spread over northern Gaza, moving southwest from the location of the warehouse, covering an area of around 5.7 kilometers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel willfully and maliciously created a toxic chemical cloud with intent to harm the health and well-being of Gazans affected by it \u2014 a war crime by any standard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attack on the Khudair warehouse, and other industrial targets of a similar nature, indicates a direct attempt to use the chemical contents of civilian objects against the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip in the form of an indirect chemical weapon,\u201d Al-Haq stressed.<\/p>\n
The human rights group called on\u00a0 International Criminal Court and UN Commission of Inquiry to fully investigate the incident and hold Israel accountable for a war crime as defined by international criminal law.<\/p>\n
Attacks on civilians in any form are crimes of war and against humanity.<\/p>\n
Like US-dominated NATO regimes, Israel is guilty time and again of willfully attacking civilians in pursuit of its diabolical aims.<\/p>\n
Separately according to the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, a hearing was held last week in Beer Sheva Magistrate\u2019s Court on Israel\u2019s intention to forcibly displace about 500 Ras Jrabah Bedouin residents to make way for exclusive Jewish development and occupancy \u2014 on stolen Palestinian land.<\/p>\n
Residents lived there for generations.<\/p>\n
According to Adalah attorneys, evicting Ras Jrabah residents from their own land flagrantly breaches their legal right \u201cto dignity, property and housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
They called for cancelling eviction and demolition orders.<\/p>\n
One resident testified as follows, saying:<\/p>\n
\u201cOur village has been around for decades, and my family and tribe have lived here for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey worked our lands and raised our sheep that graze from these lands.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city of Dimona was built on our lands, belonging to the Al-Hawashleh tribe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, any attempt to present us as trespassers or invaders is incorrect.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe population of the village is one, cohesive social unit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is built on mutual help among all the families.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evacuation of the village will sever these ties and harm the social structure of the families and all of the residents of the village.\u201d<\/p>\n
And this testimony from another resident:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been living here for years and our community has strong attachments to Dimona City.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI and the other members of the local, representative committee have on several occasions expressed our desire to state officials to continue to live here, either as an independent village or as part of Dimona.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey refused to consider this option and stated that it is only possible to move us to an existing Bedouin town.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other testimonies by longtime residents were similar to the above ones.<\/p>\n
Most often, what Israel wants it gets.<\/p>\n
What it calls \u201cunrecognized (Palestinian) villages\u201d is all about wanting them eliminated and replaced with exclusive Jewish development.<\/p>\n
In 1965, they were illegitimately delegitimized by Israel\u2019s Planning and Construction Law.<\/p>\n
Twisting the rule of law to serve its interests, Israel established a regulatory framework and national plan for future development.<\/p>\n
It zoned land for residential, agriculture and industrial use, forbade unlicensed construction, banned it on agricultural land, and stipulated where Israeli Jews and Palestinians may live.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how apartheid worked in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Existing communities are circumscribed on a map with exclusive Jewish interests in mind.<\/p>\n
Areas inside the lines can be developed. Those outside cannot.<\/p>\n
For Jewish communities, great latitude has been allowed for future expansion and new communities.<\/p>\n
In stark contrast, Palestinian areas are severely restricted to deny room for expansion.<\/p>\n
Their land was reclassified as agricultural \u2014 meaning no new construction is allowed.<\/p>\n
So entire communities became \u201cunrecognized,\u201d their homes and other structures declared illegal \u2014 even what was built and in place before the 1965 law was passed.<\/p>\n
These structures are subject to demolition and inhabitant displacement at the whim of Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n
Wanting new land for Jews, what Arabs owned for time immemorial has been illegitimately taken from them.<\/p>\n
Israeli public land is administered by the Israel Land Authority (ILA).<\/p>\n
While legally obligated to treat all its citizens fairly, Jewish interests alone matter at the expense of Israeli Palestinian citizens \u2014 their rights denied in the following ways:<\/p>\n
By putting Arab areas under Jewish control through regional councils.<\/p>\n
Arbitrarily created zoning restrictions.<\/p>\n
Transferring public land adjacent to Arab communities to Jewish National Fund (JNF) ownership \u2014 for exclusive Jewish use.<\/p>\n
Connecting the cost of leasing land to military service \u2014 what discriminates against Palestinians not required to serve and few do.<\/p>\n
Declaring national priority town areas for Jews only.<\/p>\n
Delaying, restricting and prohibiting local development in Arab communities.<\/p>\n
Ignoring Arab needs in regional and national plans.<\/p>\n
Allowing Palestinians little or no representation on national planning committees.<\/p>\n
Forced evictions and demolitions of buildings without appropriate permits.<\/p>\n
In \u201cunrecognized villages,\u201d no permits are allowed Palestinians to build on or otherwise develop their own land.<\/p>\n
Entire villages face loss of their homes, land and possessions through judicial evictions.<\/p>\n
No new Palestinian communities are allowed.<\/p>\n
Existing \u201cunrecognized villages\u201d are denied essential municipal services, including clean drinking water, electricity, roads, transport, sanitation, education, healthcare, postal and telephone service, refuse removal and more because under the Planning and Construction Law, they\u2019re considered illegal.<\/p>\n
The toll on Palestinian rights and well-being has been devastating by design \u2014 to pressure or force them off land they and their ancestors owned for decades or generations.<\/p>\n
When demolitions are ordered ahead of evictions, Palestinians must bear the burden and whatever cost is involved.<\/p>\n
Israel is a signatory to the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).<\/p>\n
According to its preamble, signatory states are \u201cobligat(ed)\u2026to promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like US\/Western regimes, Israel operates by its own rules at the expense of fundamental international law.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of Ras Jrabah Bedouin residents are up against an apartheid system designed to trample on their rights in deference to Jewish interests.<\/p>\n
Like countless other Palestinians in what Israel calls \u201cunrecognized villages,\u201d Ras Jrabah residents will most likely lose their land sooner or later so Israel can replace them with Jews.<\/p>\n
A Final Comment<\/p>\n
On Sunday, thousands of extremist Israelis are holding their so-called \u201cMarch of the Flags\u201d on \u201cJerusalem Day.\u201d<\/p>\n
It commemorates Israel\u2019s theft and occupation of East Jerusalem after its long-planned-in-advance Six Day War.<\/p>\n
A day of hate-mongering by extremist Jews against Palestinians, marchers are allowed to proceed through Jerusalem\u2019s Old City Muslim Quarter \u2014 where time and again they chanted \u201cdeath to Arabs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before Jerusalem Day ends Sunday evening, violence against Palestinians may occur \u2014 supported by Israeli security forces if things turn out this way.<\/p>\n