Sundbyberg 060320
Diakonia position paper on Israel / Palestine
The
purpose of the position paper is to provide a summary of Diakonia’s views on
the conflict in the area, the occupation of the Palestinian territories and way
forwards.
The
document does not make an analysis of poverty and discrimination inside
The
aim is to serve as a tool for communication with partner organizations,
decision makers, colleagues and other relevant actors Diakonia engages with in
order to further develop the thinking and work around solutions of the
conflict.
Please
note that this document is a “living document” and that it will be subjected to
alterations in line with the constant development of Diakonia’s work and
changes in the regional context.
Explanations:
-
When we refer
to
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The OPT (
-
Although the
Wall will appear in different shapes along it’s route, we are using the
definition “wall” from the ICC ruling of
4.2 Human rights and
International Humanitarian Law..
4.2.3 Extrajuridical
executions
4.2.4 Palestinian
Authority and the death penalty
4.2.5 Occupation
policies creates poverty
4.3 Social and economic
justice
4.5 Conflict
transformation and peace
4.5.1 Non violence and the right to resist
5.3.1 Acceptable to both “sides”
5.3.2 Viable two state solution
6.3 Human rights and
International Humanitarian Law..
6.4 Conflict
transformation and peace
6.5 Social and economic
justice
Diakonia
work for the right of both people to live in peace and security within
internationally recognized borders.
-
Both sides accepting the right to existence of the
other state
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The end of the Israeli occupation of the
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End of the Israeli settlements.
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A negotiated peace agreement considering, the future
of the Palestinian refugees, the right and access to land and natural
resources, the status of Jerusalem.
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The respect for all religious groups and their free
access to the holy places
It
is high time to deal with the old view of the conflict that you have to make a
choice – either that you support
Diakonia
has a vision of a life in dignity for all people. The main target group for
Diakonia’s work is the poor and oppressed and those subjected to violence in
different forms. The main objective is to change the political, economic and
social structures that hinder a fair and sustainable development.
It
is of fundamental importance that Diakonia starting point is not to take side
with any of the parties in the conflict, but the rights of the individual. Diakonia’s
objective is the promotion of international law, human rights and democracy,
gender equality and poverty eradication
Diakonias
starting point is also non violence. The
Palestinian-Israeli situation today shows the futility of violence, where
endless repression and resistance feed off each other. On top of this cycle of
repression and violence, conflict and provocation, come the bitter fruits of
poverty. Action is urgently needed to break this cycle of diminishing hope.
We need an honest analysis of
the causes of the current humanitarian crisis and we need a understanding of
the structural problems behind them. In particular, what is required is support
for the active engagement of all key partners in a renewed peace process where international
law and in particular international humanitarian law is in the centre of the
process.
The
continuation of the occupation, the building of the Wall, the fragmentation of
the Palestinian territory are not only causing suffering, poverty and
frustration – it’s also a formal violation of international law.
Diakonia
engagement and activities for a just peace must take into account how the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict sometimes is used in the debate in
Diakonia
must act vigorously to counter those arguments and ideas. But to criticize the
Israeli occupation and promote the respect for international humanitarian law
is not anti-Semitism. To criticize Palestinian suicide-bombs, corruption and
gender imbalance is not equal to Islamofobia.
The
way to peace is to support the forces on both sides that choose to work for
coexistence. Those who choose peaceful methods and those that support
international law.
The
influences from 3 different religions in the existing conflict can’t be
overlooked.
However
the influence of the religion is not easily defined and can also influence in
totally different directions.
We
can recognize that much of the hope in this bitter conflict comes from the
religious groups where the strain for peace and reconciliation over political,
cultural and religious borders are driven by their interpretation of their
faith urging all human beings to respect life and dignity of the others.
Diakonia
has a special goal to support groups and networks like those.
However,
the religions can also be used to facilitate hate, to dehumanize and disrespect
the others. Numerous acts of terror and crimes have been justified by a
perverted religious argumentation and interpretation. We are deeply worried by
the growing influence of extremism using religious references.
But
we also know that fatigue, poor education and a lack of trust in legal right
and the civil society are easily exploited by extremists, using a religious
terminology. Those are causes Diakonia addresses in our work.
As
an organization with our roots in the Christianity Diakonia has a special
responsibility to counter and prevent misuse of the Christian faith to justify acts
of violence, discrimination or nationalism.
Among
other’s Diakonia will never accept “replacement theology” as a philosophy to
discriminate the Jewish belief or facilitate Antizionism, or the “Christian
Zionism” as an excuse to support Israeli territorial claim, deny the rights of
the Palestinians, or to facilitate Islamophobia.
Today
both
However
the democratic content and democratic elections make them both unique in the
region.
Both
The Palestinian Authority (PA) got limited power in certain areas of
The PA has also been characterized by corruption and nepotism.
Especially from leading members of the Fatah party.
The elections of the new president, parliament and local elections in
2004-2006 have changed the Palestinian political side from a “one party system”
to a system with recognised democratic structures.
The Israeli occupation creates challenges for the democratic development
in the OPT. It has created support for militant groups by undermining people’s
belief in a peaceful solution of the conflict. Also the unwillingness and
inability from the international community to protect the right of the
Palestinians has undermined the belief in democratic and legal structures.
In the elections February 2006 Hamas got a large proportion of the votes
to the legislative assembly. Hamas are known being responsible for a number of
brutal attacks against civilians that must be characterised as “war crimes”.
But it was also a democratic election. Diakonia will closely analyze how the
current situation will inflict our policies and working methods.
In
The constant conflict with international law endangers the Israelis
society by undermining the respect for the legal system.
The feeling of impunity for the settler’s behaviour and the modest
consequences once in court undermines the respect for the equality in the legal
system.
The double standard in treatment of Arab and Jewish Israeli citizens are
a base for a growing racism.
International humanitarian
law and international human rights law (hereafter referred to as human rights)
are complementary. Both strive to protect the lives, health and dignity of
individuals, albeit from a different angle.
Humanitarian law applies
in situations of armed conflict and occupations, whereas human rights, or at
least most of them, protect the individual at all times, in war and peace
alike.
International
Humanitarian Law prohibits the punishment of a protected person for the offence
he or she has not personally committed. Therefore collective punishments are
forbidden according to the Fourth Geneva Convention and
Most of the Palestinians who suffer and are made homeless through house
demolitions are not suspected or wanted persons, but their family members or
neighbours. They are being punished only because they live with or close to a
suspected or wanted person.
In its advisory opinion of
The wall has serious
consequences for Palestinians living in the neighborhood of the wall. Many
thousands are separated from their agricultural lands by the wall and are
denied permits to access their lands. Even those who are granted permits
frequently find that gates within the wall do not open as scheduled. As a
result, Palestinians are gradually leaving land and homes that they have
occupied for generations.
The
harm to the farming sector is liable to have drastic economic effects on the
residents – whose economic situation is already very difficult – and drive many
families into poverty. More than 1 million people out of the 3 million
Palestinian living in west bank are estimated to be directly effected by the
wall (Källa: OCHA).
The
annexation of the
During the course of the second
intifada, Israel officially adopted a policy of assassinating Palestinians
suspected of belonging to the armed Palestinian organizations.1 Israel argues that the members of these organizations
are combatants and are, therefore, a legitimate target of attack. However,
International
law does not ban the death penalty. International law does, however, put
stringent restrictions on implementing it, and encourages states having the
death penalty to revoke it. Accordingly, the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights requires that only the most grievous offences be subject
to the death penalty. Also, the death penalty may be imposed only where the
rules of due process of law, as set forth in Article 14 of the Covenant, are
strictly adhered to, and provided that the defendant has the right to appeal
the court’s decision.
This
is today not fulfilled by the Palestinian authority.
For
the past decades
There
are some 150 settlements in the
Existing
settlements are being visibly expanded and new settlements built. In August 2005
the Israeli Government evacuated 8,000 settlers from
It
is clear that the majority of settlements are there to stay – and to grow. Despite the unanimous ruling of the
International Court of Justice in July 2004 that settlements are illegal.
The
annexation of land, building of settlements, the whole network of settlement
roads is today probable the largest problem against a two state solution. This
is far from en viable state the international community has promised the
Palestinians.
International law (4th Geneva convention and UN security
council) stipulates that a occupation power is not allowed to transfer own
population into occupied territories.
In violation of the UN decision the Israeli government have consistently
continued to build and expand these illegal settlement with now a total
population of 400 000 persons on the WestBank and
Deliberate
ethnographical changes shall not be rewarded, for example settlers can not have
a vote or saying regarding the final status of areas they colonize.
The UN security Council resolution 465 from 1980 says: that Israel may
not “change the physical character,
demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian
and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, …”and that Israel’s policy and practices of
settling parts of its population and new immigrants on those territories
constitute a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Population in Time of War and also constitute a serious
obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle
East”.
Settlements, road’s reserved for Israelis, Infrastructure supporting
settlements like the
Deliberate
demographical changes shall not be rewarded.
The
system with separate rights and services for Jewish settlers and Arabic
Palestinians has similarities with those of the old apartheid
The
infrastructural services like roads, water, sewage, garbage collection,
educational system is severely mismanaged in the eastern
It
is notable that the Palestinians in
The impact of the conflict is
felt by Israelis and Palestinians in innumerable ways: the worker who fears
traveling to work because of suicide bombings on buses, or the children afraid
to travel to school. But while the daily climate of fear is shared, the
economic impact is primarily felt by Palestinians: the father who works only
one day in ten; the farmer whose crops rot in the field because he may be shot
by Israeli settlers if he tries to harvest them; the school building
constructed with funds from international donors which is now shattered by army
incursions. Large swathes of farmland have been cleared, citrus and olive
groves torn out to make way for settlements and settler roads.
Almost three-quarters of
Palestinians now live on less than US$2 a day – below the official UN poverty
line. Half the population needs extra food to ensure minimum daily
requirements. A quarter of all children are anemic.
According
to the World Bank the reason for the collapse of the Palestinian economy is the
Israeli occupation policies especially
In
practice
But
(Source UN-agencies, 2004),
Palestinian
women in the West Bank and Gaza have lived all or most of their lives under
Israeli occupation and have been facing a triple challenge to demand their
rights; as Palestinian living under Israeli military occupation witch control
almost every aspect of their lives; as women living in a society governed by
patriarchal customs, and as unequal members of society subject to discriminatory
laws.
• Poverty: As a result of
growing unemployment, declining incomes, loss of property due to house
demolitions, land requisitions, the number of poor people has reached more than
2.2 million. Women household are less able to stop the continuing cycle of
poverty due to women’s lack of qualifications and opportunities and family
obligations from the continuing cycle of poverty and vulnerability.
• Low political participation:
Only a few percent of Palestinian Legislative Council members are women and
there are only two women in the Palestinian cabinet out of 24. Palestinian
Authority institutions have a representation of only 13% women, which falls
below 1% at the local government level. Women account for just over 10% of
lawyers and less than 9% of judges
• School drop-out: reports of
increasing early marriage suggests a higher drop rate past compulsory levels of
education, eventually leading to worsening economic security and family health.
Early marriage contributes to 46% of the drop-out rate for female students due to
the limitation of compulsory education and the worsening economic situation.
• Lack of access to reproductive
health services: 31% of pregnant women are anemic. Home deliveries increased
from 5.2% (2000) to over 30% (2003); 61 women delivered at checkpoints between
September 2000 and October 2004, out of which 36 were stillbirths.
• Low participation in formal
labor force: 82.7 % of women in the
• The Wall: Thousands of
Palestinians are adversely affected by loss of work, limited freedom of
movement resulting in limited access to social-, commercial-, health- and
education services. Women suffer the impact more deeply due to social
fragmentation and loss of personal freedoms.
The
conflict
Approximately
one quarter of those killed in the conflict where Israeli civilians. Two thirds
of the fatalities are Palestinian civilian population according to statistics
from the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem (29 sept 2000- 31 dec
2005).
Palestinian
groups and individuals are responsible for suicide bombs that are directly
aimed to kill and injure civilian Israeli population. This is in direct
conflict with international law and may constitutes war crimes.
The
military doctrine of
In
our work in the region and in the advocacy work in
International Humanitarian Law relates to resistance movements as a
fact that needs to be taken into account in an armed conflict. The struggle for
freedom from occupation should always be done in accordance with IHL namely,
either as mass resistance against an occupying force at the time of the
invasion, as long as the resistors carry arms openly and respect the laws and
customs of war or by members of an armed group that follows specific
conditions - a hierarchical organization, whose members carry a fixed
distinctive sign, carry their arms openly and conducting their operations in
accordance with the laws and customs of war.
Violations
of international law have been committed on both sides, many of the suspected criminals
are still alive and sometimes on public positions in the community on both
sides. The peace process must consider legal measures towards the criminals and
ensuring the right of the victims. But also a process for future reconciliation
should take place.
States have the duty to investigate alleged wrongdoing by their
soldiers according to their obligations under international
humanitarian law, and bring perpetrators to justice. These obligations
together form an effective deterrent against unlawful killings, torture, and
other serious human rights abuses. To reach just and long lasting
peace, impunity for perpetrators of human rights and international
humanitarian law violations, has to end. Steps must be taken, on both sides, to
hold those responsible for killings, extensive and wanton destructions of
property without military necessity, torture and other crimes accountable –
regardless of who the victims or the perpetrators are otherwise lawlessness
will spread and people will increasingly be inclined to take the law
into their own hands and peace will be even further away. In case the state
does not or cannot fulfil its obligations, the international community has a
complementary duty to bring perpetrators to justice.
Nevertheless
The
status of an open city for 2 people and 3 religions should be permanent,
ensuring access to the holy places for all.
It
is obvious that violations of human rights and international humanitarian law
are made both from Israeli and Palestinian side. The possibility to apply
diplomatic and financial pressure on the parts to increase the incitements for
respecting international law is often discussed.
In
the “Roadmap process” obstacles it’s often referred to the PA/PLO inability to
stop the terror, while
Diakonia
want to point out the outmost importance of not practicing a double standard
towards the different sides, demands and threats of sanctions should if used
apply to both parts.
Diakonias
vision is a two state solution after a just and negotiated peace, in accordance
with International Law and the UN security council resolutions
Peace
has to be negotiated and be based on international law. Unilateral declarations
that do not take into account international law for both sides will not create
a lasting peace. Agreement concluded between the authorities of the occupied territories
and the Occupying Power cannot not deprive protected persons living in an
occupied territory of their benefits under international humanitarian
law. The
international community should act with the conviction that only a
solution based on international law, negotiated by both parties, can create
justice and lasting peace. It is only with such as solution that terrorism can
be discouraged and the rights of the two people to exist and live side by
side will be fulfilled.
Both
countries must have a possibility to exist and develop a working state economy.
This includes control over borders and natural resources.
It
also includes logical borders not crating enclaves or bantustans.
Diakonia
shall be an active partner in the region, in EU and in
Diakonia
should defend the Israeli population’s right to live in peace and security
within internationally recognized borders.
In the same way we should defend the Palestinian population’s right to
live as an independent state in peace and security.
Diakonia
should contribute to this development with tools as aid and capacity building
to partners in
We
shall always try to be constructive. Not to be seen as just complaining and
pointing fingers.
International
humanitarian law and the human rights are our guiding principals. We should
strive to ensure the respect for international law, by giving the rightholders
the tools to recognize and defend their rights. We should also educate and
inform authorities, commercial enterprises and governments about their duties.
In
our work in the region and in the advocacy work in
Many
partners of Diakonia in
- the policy that Israel today imposes towards the
population in the West Bank and Gaza is hindering Palestinians to travel and
have normal trade relations with the outside world. This is a policy of siege
and boycott. This policy is allowed towards one side, without any sanctions or
practical response, from the outside world.
- That this policy of siege can continue against the
Palestinians on the same time as the military cooperation between EU-states
like
-
- Diakonia, have in its cooperation with other
protestant development organizations called for the suspension of the
association agreement between EU and Israel until Israel decides to follow the
agreement and takes fundamental steps in the right direction when it comes to
Human Rights, settlement products and custom cooperation re settlement
products. This call is still valid.
In
our work in the region and in the advocacy work in
Strategic
goal: The targets groups have an increased level of both qualitative participation
and representation in their communities.
In
our work in the region and in the advocacy work in
Strategic
goal: The targets groups in specific partner organizations and local community have
an increased awareness of gender inequality and have taken action towards the
change of unequal gender roles and for the implementation of women rights.
In
our work in the region and in the advocacy work in
Strategic
goal: Our partners are using a rights based approach in their work, are actively
promoting human rights in the fields of health and education trough targeting
marginalized groups, women, children, and youth at risk and the disabled in
their rights based demands
In
our work in the region and in the advocacy work in
Strategic
goals:
-
Our target groups in
-
Grassroots movements are incorporating humanistic values in their peace
promoting work, using non violent methods with the aim of ending the occupation.
In
our work in the region and in the advocacy work in
Strategic goal: The target groups are aware of structures effektive
economic and social rights and are participating in decision making processes.