rascjepkanost okupirane Zapadne obale (Slika: BIMKOM)
PALESTINA/IZRAEL:
Child arrest (video)
Middle of the night in a-Nabi Saleh (video)
Palestinians in solidarity with European unions
Palestinci solidarni s europskim sindikatima (12. lipanj 2012.)
Koalicija palestinskih sindikata za bojkot, dezinvestiranje i sankcije, široka koalicija koja obuhvaća gotovo sve palestinske sindikate, izrazila je svoju solidarnost sa sindikatima u Europi koji se opiru pogoršanju uvjeta rada, rezovima u javnim službama i gubitku radnih mjesta. „Valovi štrajkova i prosvjeda koji se odvijaju i organiziraju diljem Europe i poraz vlada koje su zagovarale mjere štednje u Francuskoj i Grčkoj podsjetnici su na važnost i moć borbe, te na činjenicu da se obični radni ljudi protive ideološki vođenim nastojanjima da ih se natjera da plaćaju za krizu koju su uzrokovale moćne političke i financijske elite. Te iste elite profitiraju od izraelskog sustava okupacije, kolonizacije i aparthejda nametnutog palestinskom narodu i njegovih svakodnevnih kršenja temeljnih prava i dostojanstva palestinskih radnika i aktivno ih podupiru. Ujedinjuje ih politika beskrajnog rata i nemilosrdnog izrabljivanja. I mi se moramo ujediniti u zajedničkoj borbi za slobodu, pravdu i jednakost. Palestinski sindikati i sindikalni aktivisti solidarni su s vašom borbom. Vaše dostojanstvo je naše“, naveli su u svojoj izjavi. Palestinski su sindikati također zahvalili na inspirativnoj solidarnosti koju su europski sindikati palestinskom narodu iskazali u obliku bojkota, dezinvestiranja i sankcija protiv Izraela. Sindikalni bojkoti i dezinvestiranja usmjereni protiv Izraela postali su vodeći oblik solidarnosti s palestinskim radnicima. Načela i taktike BDS-a službeno su poduprli nacionalni sindikalni savezi u Južnoj Africi, Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu, Škotskoj, Irskoj, Norveškoj, Švedskoj, Belgiji, Baskiji, Brazilu i drugim zemljama diljem Latinske Amerike, te nekoliko nacionalnih i lokalnih sindikata. Sindikati diljem svijeta također namjeravaju revidirati i čak i prekinuti svoje veze s Histadrutom, izraelskim kolonijalnim sindikatom koji oduvijek igra ključnu ulogu u izraelskom sustavu ugnjetavanja Palestinaca. Histadrut je objavio izjave potpore izraelskoj 22-dnevnoj agresiji na Gazu 2008-2009. i izraelskom pokolju humanitarnih aktivista Flotile slobode 2010. Histadrut je sudjelovao u etničkom čišćenju Palestinaca tijekom Nakbe 1948, doprinosi izgradnji ilegalnih izraelskih kolonističkih naselja u kojima ima financijske interese, nije djelovao s ciljem sprječavanja sustavne diskriminacije nauštrb palestinskih građana Izraela i zadržao je sredstva u vlasništvu palestinskih radnika. Koalicija palestinskih sindikata pozvala je sindikate diljem svijeta na prekid veza s Histadrutom. Sindikati diljem svijeta provode konkretne kampanje i akcije solidarnosti s Palestincima, poput blokada izraelskih brodova od strane lučkih radnika u Južnoj Africi, Indiji, Švedskoj, Grčkoj, Turskoj i Kaliforniji, te kampanje britanskog prijevoznog sindikata protiv tvrtke Alstom, zbog njenog suučesništva u ilegalnom okupacijskom projektu izgradnje infrastrukture, norveškog sindikata Fagforbundet protiv Ahave i drugih tvrtki koje su suučesnice u izraelskim kršenjima međunarodnog prava. Sindikalne kampanje koje ciljaju suučesništvo korporacija i država u izraelskim kršenjima međunarodnog prava ključni su i učinkovit oblik solidarnosti s palestinskom borbom, a koalicija palestinskih sindikata za BDS izrazila je svoju spremnost da surađuje s članovima sindikata iz cijelog svijeta kako bi se razvile ovakve aktivnosti i ojačala zajednička borba za ljudska prava, socijalnu pravdu i dostojanstven život svugdje na svijetu.
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A-Nabi Saleh: Forces enter homes looking for demonstrators (video)
Shelter Advocacy Fact Sheet 4
The Gaza Strip remains occupied by Israel and is subject to almost daily conflict, within a context of wide reaching Israeli restrictions on access and freedom of movement. Israel is currently enforcing an access restricted area of between 300 and 1000 meters from the security fence that separates Israel from Gaza. These restrictions and enforcement, sometimes through lethal force, have prevented access to housing, land and property, as well as to schools and one third of Gaza's agricultural land.
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The Prohibited Zone - Israeli planning policy in the Palestinian villages in Area C
Between the years 2000 and 2007, the Israeli Civil Administration demolished 1,626 Palestinian buildings in Area C, which covers 60 percent of the West Bank, and where the Civil Administration has full planning authority. Although this is not a new phenomenon, the underlying factors behind house demolitions are not well known. The main purpose of The Prohibited Zone is to unveil these factors and to describe how Israel is using planning tools in an attempt to control Palestinian building and to restrict its spatial expansion. The report indicates that the main reason for the large number of house demolitions in Area C is the Israeli planning policy. In most Palestinian locales in Area C, the only planning schemes still effective are the Mandatory Regional Outline Plans approved some 60 years ago. In the past, the Israeli military regime issued thousands of building permits, based on these plans. But today, the Civil Administration's stringent and erroneous interpretation of the Mandatory plans barely allows building permits to be issued by virtue of these plans. The Civil Administration has prepared new outline plans for a small number of Palestinian villages in Area C. However, these plans do not meet the needs of the villages, and their main aim is to delimit the built-up area in the Palestinian locales and to prohibit its expansion. The primary victims of this policy are the 150,000 Palestinians who live in Area C, but it has far-reaching consequences for millions of citizens living in Areas A and B (together, 40 percent of the West Bank), which are under Palestinian planning authority. The building restrictions imposed by the Civil Administration in Area C prevent the construction of vital infrastructure for the Palestinian population of the entire West Bank, and impair the spatial connections between the various Palestinian locales. The chief aim of the Civil Administration's planning policy in Area C is to restrict the demographic growth of its Palestinian population and to guarantee large reserves of land for Israeli interests, primarily for settlements.
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El Araqib against JNF (video)
B'Tselem: Human Rights In The Occupied Territories 2011 Annual Report
In the West Bank, two and a half million Palestinians live under Israeli military occupation while settlers live in enclaves of Israeli law within the same territory. Individual acts of violence by extremist settlers periodically capture the headlines, and discriminatory and inadequate law enforcement is indeed a concern. However, the major human rights violations result from the settlements themselves: their extensive exploitation of land and water, the massive military presence to protect them, the road network paved to serve them and the invasive route of the Separation Barrier, which was largely dictated by the settlements. Israeli civilians living in the West Bank are also subject to violence. This year, five members of the Fogel family were shot and stabbed to death in their home in the Itamar settlement, and a father and his infant son were killed when their car crashed after rocks were thrown at it by Palestinians. In the Gaza Strip, some one and a half million Palestinians are almost completely isolated from the outside world. While people can now leave Gaza through Egypt, they cannot travel to the West Bank, with harsh implications for family ties, the economy and educational opportunities. Israel fully controls the movement of goods. It allows import of humanitarian aid and consumer goods, however raw materials for construction, industry and agriculture are much more limited, and exports are miniscule.
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B'Tselem: Under the Guise of Legality - Israel's Declarations of state land in the West Bank
Professedly, Israel acknowledges that the West Bank is under belligerent occupation and is not part of its sovereign territory. This admission implies acceptance of the obligation to act in accordance with international law, which forbids the occupying power to change the local Law in force in the occupied area on the eve of its occupation, unless necessary for security needs or for the benefit of the local population. The obligation to respect the local Law refers not only to local legislation, but also to the rulings made by the courts of the states that ruled the area prior to its occupation. Israel's declarations policy does not meet these requirements. It contradicts the Law as interpreted and applied by the British Mandate and the Kingdom of Jordan. This contradiction is evident in three principal aspects:
1. The type of cultivation that allows a private person to acquire ownership rights in land. The Mandate authorities and the Jordanian government considered patch cultivation of rocky land to meet the requirements of article 78 of the Ottoman Land Code. Both concluded that such patch cultivation grants the farmer ownership of the entire parcel. This interpretation of article 78 was also established in a ruling by the Mandatory Supreme Court. In contrast, Israel applied in the West Bank a strict reading of article 78: according to its interpretation, in rocky areas, only cultivation encompassing at least 50 percent of the total area of the parcel will grant ownership rights to the farmer. By changing the interpretation of article 78 of the Land Code, which had been customary in the West Bank before 1967, Israel justified its decision to declare large areas of rocky mountain land that were under patch cultivation as government property, despite the position of the states who ruled the West Bank prior to 1967 who considered these lands to be private Palestinian property. In this case, Israel's interpretation deviated so much from that applied in the area prior to its occupation, that it constitutes a change in the statute itself.
2. Cessation of cultivation after continuous cultivation for the prescriptive period. Israel also disregarded the judgments of the Mandatory Supreme Court and of Israel's Supreme Court, whereby a person who cultivated unregistered miri land for 10 years acquired ownership rights in the land, so that cessation of cultivation afterwards does not prejudice his rights, even if the land was not registered on his name in the land registry. By an amendment to the law, within the framework of a change to the Order Concerning Government Property, Israel created a legal situation in which cessation of cultivation for several years completely nullified the person's rights in the land, even if he or his family had cultivated it for decades before.
3. Classification of designated matruka land as government property. With respect to designated matruka land – primarily grazing land used by residents of a specific village for many years – Israeli declarations policy deviated from the way the states that previously ruled the West Bank had applied the law, and disregarded the binding court judgments. Unlike the situation with miri land, in which private persons can acquire rights, designated matruka is by definition public land assigned for the specific use of members of a particular community and is not government property. Certainly, it cannot be declared state land and allocated for the development of settlements. These statutory provisions did not prevent Israeli authorities from declaring designated grazing lands as government property, thereby revoking the public rights of residents of Palestinian communities that had used these lands for long periods of time.
Since the beginning of its rule in the West Bank and until the present, Israel has declared hundreds of thousands of dunams as state land. ...
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The declarations policy has therefore three fundamental defects: it contradicts fundamental relavent provisions of substantive Law; it conflicts with the way the states that previously ruled the area applied the Law; and it is incompatible with the rulings of the authorized courts that interpreted the Law. In many cases, declarations made by the Custodian were not merely technical actions of taking possession of land that was anyway government property. Rather, they involved change in ownership status of the land, from Palestinian private or designated public property to state land.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that these declarations were made in order to enable Israel to establish settlements in the occupied territory – an action prohibited under international law. Thus, not only were the declarations unlawful, but their motive was also illegal: to prevent Palestinian use of the land and to transfer it to the sole use of Israeli citizens. Even had all the declared state land been government property under the substantive Law, the Custodian was not authorized to allocate it for Israeli settlements.
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LIBIJA:
Analysis: Libyan minority rights at a crossroads
Since Muammar Gaddafi's fall seven months ago, Libya's non-Arab minorities, including an estimated 250,000 Tuaregs, have begun more vehemently to insist on their rights. “Gaddafi's policy was 'keep your dog hungry so that he follows you',” said one Tuareg activist, al-Hafiz Mohamed Sheikh. “This means keeping people in need. With Tuaregs, he said many times that we would have our rights, but he never fulfilled his promises. Sometimes he would favour some individuals, but not whole communities.” Flying over the ramshackle houses in Tayuri settlement in Libya's southwestern city of Sebha are the blue, green and yellow flags of the Imazighen (non-Arab minorities). During Gaddafi's time, the Imazighen, including the Tuaregs, experienced cultural and political marginalization, with the regime instituting an all-encompassing pan-Arabic ideology and refusing to recognize them as a distinct ethnic group indigenous to the country and the region.
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