[fse-esf] A coalition of NGOs criticize the UN monitoring

[cairopalestine]

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From: Angie Balata <abalata at hlrn.org>
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 02:32:36 -0700
To: <cairopalestine at hotmail.com>

For Immediate Release
 
 
Geneva‹HIC-HLRN and NGOs declare ³international legality has failed²
 
A coalition of NGOs criticize the UN monitoring body¹s second postponement
in its review of Israel¹s compliance with the International Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), while Israel
continues its siege and bombardment of Gaza and Lebanon.
 
3 August 2006, GENEVA‹Just days before twelve representatives of
nongovernmental organizations from around the world were set to arrive in
Geneva to brief the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD) about Israel¹s compliance with the principle international antiracism
treaty, CERD agreed to the Government of Israel¹s request for an
unprecedented second postponement of its review of the State¹s treaty
compliance. The periodic review is an obligation of all of State parties to
the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (ICERD). Israel was originally scheduled for review before
CERD in February 2006, but had requested a postponement until August 2006.
 
Despite CERD¹s agreement to the Israeli government¹s delay, five members of
the NGO coalition arrived in Geneva for a briefing with CERD on Wednesday.
They formally proposed that the Committee immediately apply ³urgent action
procedures,² especially in light of the continuing gravity and escalation of
the Government of Israel¹s violations of ICERD.
 
CERD is legally authorized to invoke urgent action and early warning
procedures, regardless of whether the State appears before the Committee.
That procedure allows CERD to address grave problems requiring immediate
attention, in order to urge State compliance with the Convention and prevent
or limit serious violations.
 
The NGO coalition members addressing the CERD Committee contend that
Israel¹s indiscriminate use of force in Lebanon and Gaza and its destruction
of civilian property and infrastructure are an extension of the
institutionalized forms of racism and discrimination that Israel has engaged
to dispossess the indigenous Palestinian people since 1948. Israel¹s
bombardment of, and attack on the Lebanese and Palestinian civilian
population, according to Joseph Schechla of the Housing and Land Rights
Network (Habitat International Coalition), is part and parcel of
long-standing policies and programs instituted by the Israeli governmental
and its parastatal bodies such as World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency
to dispossess Palestinians of their land and property, in order to transfer
those properties to immigrating Jewish citizens.² ³Israel¹s discriminatory
policies underlie its attack of neighboring Lebanon,² asserts Zaha Hassan,
representative of both the International Association of Democratic Lawyers
and BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. ³The
international community and CERD must not turn a blind eye to the source of
the conflict in the region,² she added.
 
Israel¹s postponement came at a time when CERD was set to examine Israel¹s
discriminatory Basic Laws for the first time, including those that deny the
return of native-born Palestinian refugees to their own lands and
properties; as well as the laws and practices that maintain separate and
unequal legal systems for indigenous Arabs and immigrant Jews. Also on the
agenda was to be the issue of the Arab Bedouins of the Negev, who are the
most disadvantaged group in Israel, suffering from mass demolitions and
continual discrimination in land and planning policies and access to basic
services. ³The State of Israel continues to treat Arab Bedouins as
transparent citizens. This treatment continues not just within Israel, but
also at the international level, a situation that will result in greater
recrimination for the State of Israel,² says Ariel Dloomy from the Negev
Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality, one of the five NGOs briefing CERD
this week. In light of this lingering situation, the NGO coalition requested
that CERD intervene within its mandate at the current session.
 
The NGO coalition also asked the CERD Committee to evaluate Israel¹s
³Separation Policy,² redeploying its settlers to consolidate control over
occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and besieging the Gaza Strip,
while maintaining Jewish-majority zones demographically to diffuse native
Arab communities. According to the coalition, the most visible feature of
this Israeli ³Separation Policy² is the construction of the Wall of
Separation, which the International Court of Justice determined in 2004 to
be illegal, must be dismantled in occupied Palestinian territory, that
Israel must provide reparations for its victims, and the international
community is obliged not to recognize and not to render aid or assistance
the illegal situation resulting from the Wall¹s construction or its
³associated regime.²
 
More fundamental are long-standing forms of discrimination in Israel that
CERD has yet to consider in its review. Principal among them are the
institutionalized forms of discrimination that Israel maintains by way of
its two-tiered citizenship status, established through legal and
institutional privileges extended exclusively to persons designated as
having ³Jewish nationality.²
 
Israel¹s failure to submit its biennial reports as required already has
prevented the Committee from fully reviewing Israel¹s compliance with ICERD
since 1997. Since then, Israel has flouted the antiracism Convention,
particularly by dashing the rights of its indigenous (Palestinian)
population. Despite, CERD having previously invoked early warning and urgent
action procedures with respect to Israel¹s discriminatory Citizenship Law
twice before, in 2003 and 2004, it has decided, without consensus, not to
act on the current NGO request for urgent action procedures.
 
However, by dismissing the NGO request for currently needed urgent action
procedures, CERD has missed an opportunity to uphold its vital
treaty-monitoring function and indirectly contributed to Israel¹s impunity.
This legal inertia confirms that the safeguards instituted to protect human
dignity and equality in rights, freedom and welfare are presently
unavailable where Israeli State behaviour is concerned. Thus, the U.S.-based
National Lawyers Guild representative noted that ³CERD now has upheld the
sensitivities of a State party at the expense of the human rights of those
it was created to protect.² While the UN Security Council remains hostage to
sadistic U.S. stalling tactics to protect Israel¹s impunity in Lebanon, the
world¹s peoples learn that the promise of international legality, once
again, has failed them.
 
Contact: Angie Balata
Cell:     +41 (0)79 503­1485
Telefax: +41 (0)22 738-8167
E-mail:   abalata at hlrn.org <\\\"mailto:abalata at hlrn.org\\\">
 
 


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