Human Rights Get Short Shrift in
Israel: Netanyahu Harsher Enforcement, Historic
Injustices Continue
28 December 2012
By Stephen Lendman
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)
assesses human rights in Israel annually. It's 2012
report is "bleak."
It's true in virtually every category assessed.
Netanyahu and dominant Knesset hardliners spurn human
and civil rights. They do so for Palestinians, Israeli
Arabs, and most Jews.
Neoliberal harshness is policy. So are hardline
belligerence and institutionalized racism. Poverty,
homelessness, and hunger harm growing numbers in
society.
Conditions in Israel get worse, not better.
Palestinians suffer most. Horrific conditions harm
them. They're reflected in ruthless police state
policies. Militarized occupation enforces them.
In 2012 alone, 557 Palestinian structures were
lawlessly demolished. So were 172 homes. Over 1,000
Palestinians were displaced. Their land was stolen.
Israeli policies mock fundamental freedoms.
Palestinians have no rights.
Asylum seekers and African immigrants are relentlessly
persecuted. Occupation harshness silences dissent.
Affordable housing exists nowhere. Water is a precious
luxury. Peaceful social protests face harsh
crackdowns.
Israel's budget includes enormous amounts for rubber
bullets, tear gas, concussion grenades, toxic
chemicals sprays, and other implements of police state
repression.
Jews aren't exempt when they resist. In solidarity
with Palestinians, they're treated harshly. Equity,
justice, mercy, and fairness aren't in Israel's
vocabulary.
It's a model police state. It matches the worst of
regional tyrannies. It mocks democratic governance.
Israel tolerates none.
ACRI's 2012 came down particularly hard on housing. In
Arab towns and villages, restrictive planning policies
limit residential building. Effective development is
prevented.
Many Israeli Arabs have no viable option. They're on
their own to supply housing without means or ability
to overcome onerous restrictions.
Bedouin communities face especially harsh treatment.
In late summer 2011, forced Bedouin evictions began.
Thousands in Israeli-controlled Area C were affected.
They were ordered to leave. They were threatened with
force if they refused.
They were displaced to a regional garbage dump. Their
homes were demolished. They had no say. Israel wanted
their land for Jewish development.
Most Bedouins were expelled from the Negev in 1948.
Some lived on Israeli declared land. Others lived on
private Palestinian land.
Twenty Bedouin communities living in the E1 corridor
now face eviction. Whether or not construction begins,
Israel wants them out.
About 2,300 people are affected. They have no say.
Israel freely violates their rights. They're removed
at the whim of ruthless authorities. They're prevented
from building permanent housing or connecting to
essential infrastructure.
They're dispossessed on their own with no rights. ACRI
calls Netanyahu's Bedouin policies particularly harsh
and discouraging.
Around 160,000 Bedouins live in Israel. Over half live
in so-called unrecognized villages. Around 35
communities are affected. They're denied schools,
healthcare, running water, electricity, paved roads,
postal service, and other vital services.
Most are deeply impoverished. They struggle daily to
get by. Israel's Prawer Plan intends greater
harshness. Forced displacement will affect tens of
thousands of Israeli citizens.
It's a significant blow to justice. It facilitates
state-sponsored discrimination. It spurns fundamental
rights. It summarily disenfranchises long neglected
people who deserve better.
It contradicts Goldberg Commission findings. They
called Bedouin treatment unjust and ineffective. It
recommended injustices be corrected by recognizing
their communities as they exist.
Israel refuses. Historic injustices continue.
Netanyahu wants harsher enforcement. He represents the
worst of despot authority.
From day to day, Bedouin communities aren't sure
whether police, soldiers and bulldozers will show up
to evict them forcibly.
Israeli Jews and Arabs face public housing crisis
conditions. The issue was central during summer 2011
protesters. Netanyahu promised change. He lied. He did
nothing. Harsh neoliberal policies remain.
Knesset hardliners oppose affordable housing
legislation. At the same time, they "systematically
eviscerate" what's left of public housing.
Water rights were harmed when rates were raised
sharply. Nothing in place or planned protects
disadvantaged, elderly or disabled Israelis. Arab
citizens and Palestinians are entirely out of luck.
West Bank housing and water rights are more tenuous.
Palestinians are gravely affected. Israel controls
Area C. Many Palestinians live there. Brutal
persecution affects them.
Homes are demolished. Cisterns are destroyed.
Netanyahu's Levy Commission recommendations will be
followed.
His report rewrote international law. He claims
occupation "as set out in the relevant international
conventions cannot be considered applicable to the
unique and sui generis historic and legal
circumstances of Israel's presence in Judea and
Samaria spanning over decades."
"Israelis have the legal right to settle in Judea and
Samaria and the establishment of settlements cannot,
in and of itself, be considered illegal."
He recommended legalizing illegal outposts. He said
zoning officials should authorize them without further
political approval. He urged no restraints on
settlement construction.
Netanyahu praised his report, saying:
"In my opinion, this report is important because it
deals with the legalization and the legitimization of
the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria on the
basis of facts, a variety of facts and arguments that
should be seriously considered."
Dominant Likudniks support colonizing all valued parts
of Judea and Samaria Israel wants. They claim
Jerusalem as Israel's exclusive capital. They want
Palestinians gone. They'll tolerate them only on
isolated bantustans on worthless scrubland.
Levy is a former Israeli Supreme Court justice. His
rulings spurned justice. He's more facist than jurist.
He embarrasses legitimate juris prudence. He rejects
Green Line separation of Israel and Palestine.
So do Likudniks. Netanyahu and Lieberman reflect the
worst of their agenda. They're ideologically on the
lunatic fringe. They're world class thugs.
Under their leadership, free expression suffered. Both
sides of the Green Line are affected.
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are Israel's two largest
cities. They enacted new regulations. They make it
extremely hard to demonstrate publicly.
West Bank diktats ban all forms of protest. Activist
leaders and supporters are persecuted. Repression
continues against the backdrop of dual legal systems.
Laws affecting Palestinians violate fundamental
international laws and standards.
Israeli security forces target them ruthlessly.
Repression is official Israeli policy. It's
systematically enforced. Police state harshness is
severe.
Reports from East Jerusalem reveal illegal
interrogation practices used on accused minors.
Pre-dawn arrests target them. Children young as 10 are
detained. Parental and legal contacts are denied.
ACRI discussed statements, legislative initiatives,
and policies infringing on the human rights of asylum
seekers. Most face severe repression or death if
deported to their home countries.
Propaganda viciousness targets them. They're called
criminals, disease-ridden, demographically
threatening, harmful to Israeli security, and
malignant to Israeli society.
They're desperate human beings. They threaten no one.
They deserve safe haven help. Israel criminalizes
them. Vicious mobs attack them. Security forces don't
intervene.
ACRI also discussed privatizing judicial and police
authority. Human rights are weakened in the process.
Other policies institutionalize privacy violations.
ACRI's annual reports show Israel on a slippery slope
toward full-blown tyranny. Palestinians and Israeli
Arabs suffer most. Increasingly, so are growing
numbers of Jews.
Israel isn't fit to live in. Many fed up Jews vote
with their feet and leave. Others consider doing so.
Many obtain foreign passports in preparation.
Mass exodus one day may follow. Why would anyone
accept what's intolerable? Safer environs exist
elsewhere. Even in a hazardous world they exist.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached
at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is
titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized
Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"
http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html Visit his
blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to
cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on
the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive
Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and
Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are
archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour.
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