By Nigel Thorpe
Senior English Editor
Albawaba.com - Amman
For the past quarter of a century, the staff of
the American State Department have, “Alice-like”,
climbed through the looking glass into a far from
magical world to chronicle the ebb and flow of human
rights in every corner of the globe. Their trips
through the looking glass since the end of the cold war
have charted the decline of communist influence in many
parts of the world and despite Yassar Arafat’s largely
unproductive visit to Moscow in late November, 2000,
most analysts are agreed that the influence of “the reds”
on Middle East politics in general, and the “Palestine
problem” in particular, is now minimal. In Lewis Carroll’s words, “now the red sun is gone away, and the empty sky is gray.”
John Simpson of the popular BBC World documentary series “Simpson’s World” also used the word “gray” to introduce his television program on the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Simpson comments, “My thirty years of experience in political reporting has taught me that the true situation is rarely black and white but a complex spectrum of grays.”
Women’s Rights
Nowhere is Simpson’s comment more true than in the field women’s rights where one observer’s gray is somebody’s else’s white, and yet another person’s black. The State Department’s section on the rights of women discrimination against women provide an excellent example of Simpson’s “spectrum of grays” since its survey ranges from the “Ms. Women’s Lib lobby” in the states, to the “male chauvinist” Taleban in Afghanistan. The report’s comments on the role of women in the Middle East are likely to be seen by many Arab observers as an “attempt to impose the western values on traditional Muslim societies.”
In Israel, the report observes, “there are no legal impediments to the participation of women and minorities (such as Arab-Israelis) in government; however, they are underrepresented. Women hold 15 of (the) 120 Knesset seats, compared with 9 female members in the previous Knesset. There are 11 Arabs and 2 Druze members of parliament in the Knesset.”
The report highlights the large scale “trafficking in women for forced prostitution” and concludes that “although prostitution per se is not illegal, the operation of brothels and organized sex enterprises are technical outlawed. Organized prostitution, however, continues to operate on a large scale.”
The violations of women’s rights in the occupied territories include violence, “honor killings” and lack of political representations rather than prostitution. “The problems of rape, domestic violence, and violence related to “family honor” (case where women, frequently teen-age girls, have alleged had extramarital sexual relationships) have gained greater attention in the Palestinian community as a result of a significant effort by Palestinian women’s groups; however, public discussion generally remains muted. Victims often are encouraged by relatives to remain quiet and are punished themselves or blamed for the “shame” that has been brought upon them and their families.” The report also comments that “Palestinian women endure various forms of social prejudice and repression within their own society. Because of early marriage, girls frequently do not finish the mandatory level of schooling. Cultural restrictions sometimes prevent women from attending colleges and universities. ………. Despite the fact that there is a small group of women who are prominent in politics, medicine, law, teaching and NGO’s, women for the most part are seriously underrepresented in the decision making positions in these fields.
Racial / Religious Discrimination – Religious Minorities
In Israel, the report concludes, “tensions between secular and religious elements of society continued to grow during the year. The non-Orthodox Jewish community in particular has complained of discrimination and intolerance. Evangelical Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Reform and Conservative Jews complained of incidents of harassment, threats, and vandalism directed against their buildings, and other facilities, many of which were committed by two ultraorthodox groups, the Yad L’Achim and Lev L’Archim. …….. Jewish protestors attakced mosques in Acco and Tiberias.
Prisons, Torture and Illegal Detention
Both Israeli and Palestinian authorities come in for harsh criticism in the report for their treatment of suspects under police detention. In the State of Israel, the report comments “laws and administrative regulations prohibit the physical abuse of detainees; however, security forces sometimes abused Palestinians suspected of security offences. A landmark decision by the High Court of Justice in September, 1999 prohibited the use of a variety of abusive practices, including violent shaking, painful shackling in contorted positions (“Shabbeh”), sleep deprivation for extended periods of time, and prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures. Prior to the High Court’s 1999 decision, laws and administrative regulations prohibiting the physical abuse of detainees were not enforced in security cases.
….. These practices often led to excess.” Prison conditions, particularly for Arab-Israelis and Palestine were described as ’poor’.”
The US State Department also reported that “Israeli security forces abused Palestinians in detention (in the occupied territories) suspected of security offenses. …There were numerous credible allegations that police beat persons in detention. Prison conditions (in the occupied territories) are poor. Prolonged detention, limits on due process, and infringements on privacy rights remained problems. ……….. Three Palestinian security detainees were reportedly died in Israeli custody during the year. On January 14, Lafi al-Rajabi died in a detention center near Nablus; his body reportedly bore cuts and bruises. On June 19, Sami As’ad reportedly hanged himself in Kishon prison; according to newspaper reports he previously had attempted suicide. On August 11, Ramez Fayez Mohammed Rashing Elrizi died in al-Nafha prison under ambiguous circumstances. The Israeli government did not publish official autopsies in these deaths.
The policing of the occupied territories is complicated by the fact that “the body of law governing Palestinians in the territories derives from Ottoman, British Mandate, Jordanian, and Egyptian law, and Israel military orders.” The legal codes of Gaza also differ from those of the West Bank. Although numerous attempts have been made to simplify this ‘legal potpourri”, the Palestinian Authority (PA), has made little progress to date.”
The report also has harsh words for the PA’s policing of its territories. “One Palestinian died in PA custody under ambiguous circumstances. PA prison conditions are poor. PA security forces arbitrarily arrest and detain persons, and prolonged detention is a problem. Lack of due process is a problem. The courts are perceived as inefficient, lack staff and resources, and do not ensure fair and expeditious trials. The PA executive and security services frequently ignore or fail to enforce court decisions.”
Economic Factors
Nowhere in the report is the “Israeli / Palestinian divide” more obvious than in the economy section. “Israel,” the report concludes, “has an advanced industrial economy, and citizens enjoy a relatively high standard of living with a per capita income of over $17,000. Unemployment remained at about 9 percent during the year.” The report also highlighted Israel’s “high reliance on (lowly paid) foreign workers” and “the longstanding gap in levels of income in the Jewish population and between Jewish and Arab citizens.” Although comparatively poorly paid by Israeli standards, Arab-Jews are still extremely well off when compared with the Arab populations in the occupied territories.
The economy of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in the words of the report is “small, poorly developed, and highly dependant on Israel. ……… Especially during periods of tension, Israel restricts the movement of persons and products into Israel and Jerusalem form the West Bank and Gaza, which frequently affects the ability of Palestinians to reach their jobs in Israel. .. Due to the ongoing unrest in the occupied territories, Israeli imposed 88 days of tightened, comprehensive closure during the year (2000), compared with 15 days in 1999.
According to the report’s statistics, the unemployment rate in some areas of the occupied territories is approaching 60% and approximately 40% of the Palestinian population are living below the poverty level. The economic situation worsened further because “Israel security forces destroyed Palestinian-owned agricultural land. Settlers also caused economic damage to Palestinians by attacking and damaging greenhouses and agricultural equipment, uprooting olive trees and damaging other valuable crops. The settlers did not act under government orders in the attacks; however, the Israeli government did not prosecute the settlers for their acts of violence.”
Travel Restrictions and Foreign Travel
The “Israeli/Palestinian divide” is also starkly obvious in the section of the report dealing with travel restrictions and the opportunity for foreign travel. “(Israeli) citizens are free to travel abroad and to emigrate, provided they have no outstanding military obligations and are not restricted by administrative order. During the year (2000), the government generally continued to permit Muslim citizens to perform the Hajj. However for security reasons, the government imposes some restrictions on its Muslim citizens who perform the Hajj, including requiring that they be over the age of 30.”
The situation in the occupied territories, however, is very different where “Israeli authorities restrict the freedom of movement of Palestinians.” On many days last year, the report concludes, Palestinian citizens were not free to move from south Gaza to north Gaza, from Gaza to the West Bank or travel between towns and cities in the West Bank. Senior members of the PA also complained on numerous occasions about the Israel restrictions on their movements.
Basic Human Rights
Both parties are tarred with the same critical brush in the report’s section on basic human rights section.
To the dismay of many American Israeli supporters, the report commented that “the government generally respects the human rights of its citizens; however, its record worsened late in the year regarding its treatment of non-Jewish citizens.”
“In October,” the report continues, “ police used excessive force to disperse demonstrations in the north of the country that coincided with the outbreak of violence in the occupied territories, killing 13 Arab citizens and injuring over 300. There are also credible reports that police failed to protect Arab lives and property in several incidents in which Jewish citizens attacked the homes of Arab citizens.”
Israel is also strongly criticized for its policing methods in the Palestinian lands.
“Israel’s overall human rights record in the occupied territories,” the report concludes, ”was poor; although the situation improved slightly during the first nine months of the year, it worsened in several areas late in the year, mainly due to the violence that began in September. Israeli security forces committed numerous serious human rights abuses during the year. Security forces killed 307 Palestinians and four foreign nationals and injured at least 11,300 Palestinians and other persons in the year 2000.”
“Since the violence began, Israeli security units often used excessive force against Palestinian demonstrators. Israeli security forces sometimes exceeded their rules of engagement, which provide that live fire is only to be used when the lives of soldiers, police, or civilians are in imminent danger. IDF forces also shelled PA institutions and Palestinian civilian areas in response to individual Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians or settlers; 7 Palestinians and 1 foreign national were killed, and 131 Palestinians were injured in these attacks. ……… In several incidents, following attacks on Israeli civilians, including settlers, IDF helicopters fired tank rounds and rockets from helicopters at towns and cities in the West Bank and Gaza, killing and injuring a number of persons and causing significant damage to buildings.”
Not only the Israeli army, but also Israeli settlers are blamed in the report for killing innocent Palestinians. “Israeli civilians, especially settlers, harassed, attacked, and occasionally killed Palestinians in the occupied territories. There were credible reports that settlers killed at least 14 Palestinians during the year. ……… In general, settlers rarely serve prison sentences if convicted of a crime against Palestinians.”
The report again stays with its “gray scale” and maintains its attempt to be impartial by commenting “Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories harassed, attacked, and occasionally killed Israelis, especially settlers. Palestinians killed at least 18 Israeli civilians during the year.”
Delayed Ambulances and Medical Care
Some of the most tragic incidents described in the report relate to the delay of ambulances caused by both Israeli and Palestinian authorities ‘on security grounds.’ “During the demonstrations and disturbances in late September, police reportedly closed roads and entrances to some Arab villages and cities around the country (Israel). According to human rights groups, police also sometimes delayed ambulances and medical personnel from entering Arab villagers to treat persons who were injured during the clashes.”
In the occupied territories, the report accuses both Israeli and PA authorities of delaying the access of ambulances and medical personal to the victims of violence. “According to credible human rights organizations,” says the report, “Israeli security forces sometimes impeded the provision of medical assistance to sick and injured Palestinians; Palestinians claim that seven Palestinians died as a result. For example, on October 6, Israeli security forces delayed an ambulance from reaching a Palestinian who was wounded in a clash in Jerusalem; the Palestinian died later the same day. On October 14, IDF soldiers did not allow a father to bring his daughter into Nablus for medical treatment; she died the same day of a ruptured appendix.
Political and Extrajudicial Killings
The report concludes that there were “ no reported incidents of political killings during the year (in Israel).” Especially strong words of condemnation are, however, reserved for the Israeli government over its record of the extrajudicial killings of alleged Palestinian terrorists in the occupied territories. “The Israeli security forces,” says the report, “ targeted for killing a number of Palestinians whom the Israeli government stated had attacked, or were planning future attacks on Israeli settlements or military targets; a number of bystanders were reportedly killed during these incidents.”
“On November 9, Israeli helicopters fired rockets at a car in Beit Sahour,” the report alleges,”killing Hussein Mohamed Salim Ubayyat, a Fatah official. Two Palestinian women walking on the road were killed and seven other civilian bystanders were injured in the attack. An IDF spokesman later announced that Ubayyat had been targeted because of his prior involvement in a number of attacks against Israeli military and civilian targets.
On December 31st,2000, IDF soldiers killed Dr. Thabet Ahmad Thabet, a high-ranking member of Fatah, while he was in his car near his home.“
Freedom of Speech and the Press
The report basically gives a “clean bill of health” to Israel in its section on freedom of speech and the press. “The (Israeli) law provides for freedom of the press, and the government generally respects this right in practice,” concludes the report. A censorship agreement, however, signed in 1996 between the government and media representatives always military censorship in cases where national security is at risk. The report comments on reports in the year 2000 where “the military censor intervened in several cases relating to national defense. ……… One Palestinian-owned newspaper is required to submit its entire contents, including advertising, to the military censor by 4.00 p.m. each day. The editor claims that this process caused his journalists to practice self-censorship “ to stay out of trouble. Opposition politicians and Israeli ‘doves’ continue to critize their government’s policies in leading Israeli newspapers such as Ha’aretz.
Press freedom, the report concludes, is far more limited in the occupied territories. “Israeli authorities censored Palestinian publications and placed limits on the freedom of assembly.”
The situation in the report’s view is far from black and white since “ the PA continued to harass, detain, and abuse journalists, and critics. The PA placed some limits on the freedom of assembly and association. In February the PA police announced a ban on unlicensed public gatherings, but this action was invalidated by the Palestinian High Court two months later. “
Children’s Rights, Child labor and Education
In Israel, the report concludes, “the government is committed to the rights and welfare of children. However, in practice resources sometimes are insufficient, particularly with respect to low-income families. Government spending is proportionally lower in predominantly Arab areas than in Jewish areas, which adversely affects children in Arab villages and cities.
…… Children’s rights activists estimate that there may be several hundred prostitutes among the nation’s children, and they warn that the phenomenon is unlikely to be eradicated until the social problems that give rise to it – including child abuse and schools that give up too readily on dropouts – are addressed.
In the occupied territories, the report concludes, “the prolonged closure also affected the student’s ability to attend school and university. In areas under curfew, all classes were cancelled. Furthermore, teachers were unable to reach their schools in different villages and towns, and university students were unable to travel between Gaza and the West Bank due to the closure of the safe passage route. In terms of educational and job opportunities, many independent observers are beginning to speak of the “lost Palestinian generation” who have known only war and strife.
A fair-minded reader is likely to agree that the report is “even-handed” in its comments on human rights abuses in both Israel and the occupied territories. Identical words are used to describe alleged violations by both sides. American Arabs have repeatedly charged the US media with exercising a double standard in their reporting. As detailed in previous Albawaba reports, massacres by Israeli extremists have, for example, been described as “tragedies”, whilst massacres by Palestinian gunmen are labeled as terrorism. Careful reading of the country reports for Israel and the occupied territories shows a refreshing absence of such bias. For once, the looking glass is clear and not clouded by obvious political bias. Concern must, however, remain about a panel of judges from a particular nation sitting in judgement on the “state of the world”. Some degree of religious, culture and national bias is almost inevitable in a complex field that lacks standard, objective yard sticks ( or should it be meter sticks ) to judge human rights on an absolute scale. Since the Human Rights Report has long-term financial teeth, it is not just of purely theoretical importance, but can affect aid allocations, development grants, and a nation’s war against poverty.
It is possible that in the near future, globalization will demand that an international body such as the UN, rather than the American State Department, prepares the “state of the world message.” Many international eyes are likely to have a less biased view of the world reflected in the human rights' looking glass.
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
