Amidst the revenge cycle an Israeli anti-Wall statement
International release
# The blood cycle rolls again # We also want to be represented in The Hague # Only by Force? - Gush Shalom weekly ad in
Haaretz *** # The blood cycle rolls again
Again - as on so many terrible occasions - the cycle of bloodshed is set rolling precisely when new peace initiatives
are in the offing. Yesterday, Israel's armed forces launched a massive invasion of the city of Gaza, in order - so the
generals declared - to defend the settlement enclave of Netzarim (an absurd enclave which Sharon himself reportedly took
the decision to evacuate). Nine Palestinians were killed in the raid, including an eleven year old child.* This morning
- another madness - a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Jerusalem bus, killing ten random Israelis and
wounding many others. This afternoon Sharon's cabinet is due to meet and - of course - to decide on another punitive
action... Meanwhile, the far-reaching peace initiative, mooted by the Saudi Crown Prince in preparation for the March
Arab summit seems swept off the agenda, and the latest efforts to revive the literally dead-locked Road Map for Peace
are set at naught. For Sharon the terrorist attack comes as "additional justification" of his Wall. We beg to differ:
the Wall is part of the provocative government poilicies.
*See Ha'aretz Editorial "Indiscriminate Killing": http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/388246.html ***
# We also want to be represented in The Hague òáøéú ìôé á÷ùä àå á÷øåá áàúø
Defending The Wall At The International Court Of Justice: Not In Our Name!
This week Gush Shalom and 12 other Israeli peace & human rights organizations sent a request to the Israeli government to represent at the International Court of Justice
in The Hague also our view on the wall. And the request was made public in a press release to the Israeli press.
Because only governments are entitled to submit materials to the Court, we asked the Israeli government to submit a
letter in our name. We pointed out that there are diverse voices in Israel on the matter, and that many, if not most,
Israelis (including the Minister of Justice in Sharon’s government) oppose the building of the Wall deep inside
Palestinian territory, which is indefensible on “security” grounds. Even if Israel claims “military necessity” in
constructing the “Separation Barrier,” it is enjoined by the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure the well-being of the
civilian population under its control which is clearly not the case here, where hundreds of thousands of innocent
civilians will be displaced, enclosed in locked enclaves and financially ruined (let alone the political implications of
the Wall).
Here follows the full text of what we sent:
1) Letter to the government 2) Appendix (Statement for the court in The Hague) 3) Translation of the press release to
the Israeli press
1) Letter to the government
January 25, 2004
To: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom
DEFENDING THE WALL AT THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE NOT IN OUR NAME!
Towards the end of February the International Court of Justice in The Hague will begin its proceedings on the issue of
the “"Separation Wall” that your government is constructing in the depths of the Palestinian areas of West Bank at an
accelerated pace. According to the Israeli media, you intend to defend your policies on the grounds that the Wall is a
security matter intended to prevent terrorist attacks. It seems appropriate, in the spirit of democratic rules, that you
also inform the Court that in their arguments your representatives do not speak for the entire Israeli public. In your
building of the Wall especially to the degree that it constitutes a political “fact”" rather than a true security
barrier and in your defiance of international law and international public opinion, your government and its lawyers do
not speak in our name.
We, the undersigned, citizens of Israel to whom the Wall is supposed to give security, reject your claims completely. If
you sincerely sought to prevent the entry of suicide bombers to Israel, you could have erected the Wall along the Green
Line, the recognized de facto border of the State of Israel, as the most prominent of your generals urged and at a
greatly reduced cost. The Wall you are constructing robs land and livelihood from hundreds of thousands of Palestinians
but also eliminates crucial resources from your own increasing impoverished and desperate society.
If your government sincerely desired an end to terrorism and security for our people, it would have actively engaged in
a political process and refrained from a unilateral act of constructing a Wall that only perpetuates the Occupation and
the conflict. In this way you would have dried up the swamp of misery, hatred and repression that motivates the attacks
and endangers our lives. This may have saved us from even the perception that we needed such a Wall.
There is no conclusion other than your true objective in constructing the Wall along its present intrusive and
indefensible route are motivated by political aims rather than genuine security concerns. The aim is to grab more and
more Palestinian land, to annex large settlement blocs and in the end to foreclose the possibility of a viable
Palestinian state. We refuse to be part of any of these endeavors, which we utterly oppose. Your representatives before
the International Court of Justice do not speak in our names or in the names of millions of Israelis who yearn for an
end to the conflict. We demand that you convey the attached letter expressing our opposition to the Wall as a grave
violation of Palestinian human rights, of international humanitarian law and of the desire of both our peoples for a
just and lasting peace.
We await your reply.
The Alternative Information Center (A joint Israeli-Palestinian organization) Bat Shalom The Coalition of Women for a
Just Peace The Fifth Mother Gush Shalom The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) MachsomWatch New Profile
Noga Rabbis for Human Rights Tandi Women in Black Yesh Gvul
2) Appendix (Statement for the court in The Hague)
Statement by Israeli Peace and Human Rights Organizations On The Construction Of The Wall In Occupied Palestinian
Territory
We, the undersigned Israeli peace and human rights organizations, wish to make our views known to the International
Court of Justice concerning the Wall currently under construction by the Israeli government in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory.
As Israeli citizens, we are troubled that the position of the Israeli government regarding this Wall does not reflect
our views, nor does it necessarily reflect the views of the Israeli public. We represent a significant segment of the
population in Israel who object to construction of this Wall, and we call upon the Court to demand that it be
dismantled, for the reasons that follow.
The construction and location of the Wall are in grave breach of international humanitarian law as articulated inter
alia by the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Wall is actually a complex system of walls and electronic fences that surround
and isolate tens of thousands of Palestinians who are innocent of all wrongdoing. While Israel clearly has the
responsibility to defend its citizens against terrorist and other attacks, we hold that the Wall although presented to
the public as a security measure in actuality constitutes a political border that defines the Bantustan-like state that
Israel is planning for the Palestinians in the West Bank. This is evident from the route of the Wall which, by
surrounding Areas A and B, creates “cantons” (as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has referred to them) in which the
Palestinians will be confined. Indeed, the Wall reaches deep into Palestinian territory in order to encompass
“settlement blocs,” thus extending the Israeli civilian and military presence far inside Palestinian territory. This
route clearly reveals that the Wall is designed to serve political, not security, objectives. It will unilaterally
define a boundary that ensures Israeli control of the entire region between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.
Israel argues “military necessity” in its defense of the Wall. International humanitarian law, however, mandates
proportionality between military necessity and the well-being of the civilian population under occupation. The Fourth
Geneva Convention obligates the occupying power to respect and ensure the fundamental rights of the civilian population
to personal security, dignity, a livelihood, freedom of movement, and access to property, education and medical care all
irreparably harmed by the route and scale of the Wall, as well as the constraints on movement that it entails. Despite
the serious repercussions of its construction, no study was undertaken by the Israeli government to survey the impact of
the Wall on the civilian Palestinian population. In addition, the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an Occupying Power
from making its occupation permanent. The erection of a $2-3 billion system of massive barriers, walls, electronic
fences, security roads, roadblocks, checkpoints, and military installations constitutes such permanent presence,
especially when taking into account the dramatic alteration in land use, demography, induced population transfer, and
other irreversible changes in Palestinian life emanating from the presence of the Wall.
We the undersigned have approached the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs with our request to include this statement in
the materials presented to the Court. It is our contention, based upon incontrovertible evidence, that the Wall in its
present route constitutes a severe violation of fundamental human rights, serves political rather than security ends,
and throws up a major obstacle to a just and sustainable peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
We say to the Israeli government and to the Court as one: Not in our name. Justice requires not only condemnation of the
Wall, but its immediate dismantling.
For a Just Peace,
[the signed organizations]
3) Translation of the press release to the Israeli press
PRESS RELEASE - January 27, 2004
Israeli Peace Organizations To Prime Minister Sharon: Not In Our Name! Do Not Justify The Wall At The International
Court Of Justice
The “Separation Wall”" violates international law which holds Occupying Powers responsible for the well being of the
civilian population living under their control.
The Israeli peace and human rights organizations demand that the Government include their opposition to the Wall in
Israel’s brief to the International Court in The Hague . We declare to both the Israeli Government and the Court: “Not
In Our Name” will you justify the Wall in its present route that creates political facts on the ground whose
implications are a permanent occupation, repression of the Palestinians’ basic human rights and the perpetuation of the
conflict.
Yesterday, January 26, a dozen Israeli peace and human rights organizations presented a letter to Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon and Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom stating that the Separation Wall constitutes a brutal violation of the Fourth
Geneva Convention that requires proportionality between the security concerns of an Occupying Power and the well-being
of the civilian population under their control.
The Israeli peace and human rights organizations turned to the Israeli government with the demand that it include their
opposition to the Wall, based on detailed objections arising from international humanitarian law, in the materials
presented to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The letter states: We say to the Israeli government and to
the Court as one: Not in our name. Justice requires not only condemnation of the Wall, but its immediate dismantling. As
Israeli citizens, we are troubled that the position of the Israeli government regarding this Wall does not reflect our
views, nor does it necessarily reflect the views of the Israeli public. We represent a significant segment of the
population in Israel who object to construction of this Wall, and we call upon the Court to demand that it be dismantled
[signed: the 13 organizations]
# Only by Force? - Gush Shalom weekly ad in Haaretz
òáøéú á÷øåá áàúø
ONLY BY FORCE
If the Sharon government had voluntarily released hundreds of prisoners when it accepted - or pretended to accept - the
Road Map, the credit for the act would have gone to Israel and it would have created a lot of good will.
When it releases the same prisoners within the framework of a prisoners' swap, it looks (using the language so often
employed by Sharon himself) like "rewarding terrorism". All the credit is going to Hizballah.
It seems that the Palestinians are right: Sharon indeed understands only the language of power.