July 25, 2024
On Sunday June
23rd there was a sale of Palestinian land in Los Angeles, California. The
promotional materials included a photograph that looked a lot like Gaza’s
shores.
According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that fits the
image of Zionists wanting to clear out the land for more settlers—an ethnic
cleansing operation of murder and starvation against the entire population of
Gaza and the West Bank.
Although the
sale was held at Adas Torah synagogue, the event was not a worship service. It
was a venue that was hosting the My Home in Israel real estate agency which
promotes prospective home ownership in Israel (occupied Palestine).
Yet,
pro-Palestinian protesters at the real estate event were met with violence from
zionists while the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) stood by and offered
them no protection. The corporate media vilified the protesters and
inaccurately labeled them as anti-semitic terrorists preventing worship in a
synagogue. The Zionists present attacked media as well. An open letter by the
human rights group, Unmute Humanity, encouraged CBS News to end its complicity
in the lies and distortion of events: “Contrary to your report, the peaceful
demonstrators, which included Palestinian and many Jewish community members
advocating for the basic human rights of Palestinians, were not blocking the
synagogue. Instead, they were brutally attacked by a pro-Israel mob explicitly
calling for the genocide of Palestinians. This included people being forcefully
pushed, sprayed with mace, verbally assaulted, and harassed as they were
followed to their cars. Ample video documentation supports these claims.”
The real estate
event hosted by the synagogue advertised land sales in Palestine through My
Home in Israel. This organization is notorious for supporting illegal
settlements, not only here in Los Angeles, but nationally in the U.S. and
internationally. The occupation in Palestine took effect in 1948, and for the
past 75 years the occupation has grown more complete with settlements and theft
of Palestinian homes.
On its website,
My Home in Israel brags about the astronomical rise in home prices, “Israel’s
housing market has seen a significant shift, with the number of new homes sold
reverting to levels last seen five years ago, yet at prices that are 40% higher
… Overall, 23,250 new homes were sold in the first quarter of 2024 … The
market’s return to five-year-old sales figures, coupled with a significant rise
in prices, highlights the dynamic nature of Israel’s housing market as it
adapts to changing economic conditions and demand.”
That “dynamic
nature” of economic conditions and demand are exactly what was planned.
According to a United Nations report on March 8, as of September 2023 there
were approximately 700,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem.
“The West Bank
is already in crisis. Yet, settler violence and settlement-related violations
have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical
possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state,” U.N. human rights
chief Volker Türk said. Turk stated that the use of settlements on occupied
land amounted “to a war crime under international law.”
Those shocking
levels of Israeli violence took off in the year prior to September 2023, just
about one month before the united Al Aqsa Flood military response by a united
Palestinian force, including Hamas, began on October 7th. Another UN report
stated that violence from Israeli settlers had displaced over 1,100
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2022. The report documented
approximately three settler-related incidents per day resulting in the emptying
of five Palestinian communities, six were rendered half-empty and seven more
have lost a quarter of their population.
Peace Now is an
Israeli rights group that monitors illegal Israeli settlement expansion. The
group noted that Israeli land seizures in the Palestinian territory this year
are the greatest, by far. “The size of the area designated for declaration is
the largest since the Oslo Accords, and the year 2024 marks a peak in the
extent of declarations of state land. Since the beginning of 2024, Israel has
declared 23,700 dunams (acres) of the West Bank as State Lands.”
Once property is
designated as state land, Israel no longer recognizes it as privately owned by
Palestinians. Regarding the land theft declaration on June 25th, Israel’s
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a position in the Defense
Ministry stated on social media, “Building the good country and thwarting the
establishment of a Palestinian state. MTA is meeting this morning to approve
over 5,000 housing units,” he wrote, using an acronym for The Higher Planning
Council.
The ad in the
Jewish Journal for the Los Angeles event on June 23rd states, “Come and meet
representatives of housing projects in all the best Anglo neighborhoods in
Israel.”—the use of “Anglo” with the implication of better neighborhoods is
fitting for a country that practices apartheid, white supremacy and genocide.
“My Home in
Israel” real estate events are also happening on the east coast as well. The
PAL (Palestinian Assembly for Liberation) Law Commission, filed cease and
desist letters to the real estate company that hosted My Home In Israel events
and to the synagogues that rented the company space. The tour visited Teaneck,
New Jersey, Lawrence, New York, Brooklyn, New York, and Toronto and Montreal in
Canada.
Lamis Deek, an
attorney with the PAL Law Commission, filed complaints with the Attorneys
General of New York and New Jersey requesting that these sales events cease, as
they are in violation of international law. “Imagine seeing your family’s lands
being sold online while you helplessly watch, this stirs a rage and a pain that
is indescribable It’s an injustice that should shock the conscience and
mobilize authorities and attorneys to action.”
One week after
the June 23rd real estate event by My Home in Israel, over 20 organizations
including Jewish, Palestinian, human rights and anti-racist organizations
demanded that LA City Council members vote against a resolution that was
introduced by Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky that would provide $1 million of
public funds to racist Zionist vigilante groups such as Magen Am that are
composed of former IDF and U.S. military soldiers. Magen Am boasts of its law
enforcement connections, “If, G-d forbid, an incident occurs that requires
immediate attention, Magen Am is able to push it all the way up the chain of
command. We have direct connections at the FBI and Local law enforcement,
including the LAPD, Sheriff’s Department, DA’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s
office.” The action or rather inaction of the LAPD on June 23rd confirmed that
Magen Am’s claims of law enforcement support were quite credible.
The proposal was
supposed to provide funding to protect pro-Israel Zionists from violence but
the reality is that even mainstream media outlets have clearly reported that
the majority of the violence that took place at the UCLA encampment in May and
at the Adas Torah Palestinian land auction event was clearly committed by
pro-Israel counter protestors.
According to the
Los Angeles Times the proposal by the council member was intended to mirror
Governor Gavin Newsom’s California State Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
While funding from Newson’s program won’t be available until the fall,
Yaroslavsky’s proposal would have expedited funding. After protest of the plan,
the Councilwoman modified the proposal to provide protection for all houses of
worship, but increased the funding proposal from $1 million to $2 million.
Mayor Karen Bass
immediately vilified pro-Palestinian protesters for simply protesting against
genocide and labeled their actions as “anti-semitism.” Additionally Bass
appeared at the Simon Wiesenthal Center with a further condemnation and promises
of public funding. .
Black
misleadership politics was in full effect after June 23rd. It is especially sad
when Black politicians do not remember that our history in the U.S. is a long
history of the theft of our land, enforced by Jim Crow’s twisted legality,
which looks like Israeli apartheid and the Zionist vigilantes that Biden, Bass
and Newsom want to hire to keep us silent.
But the action
at City Hall sent that proposal packing to another day. Bass and her colleagues
will have to answer to the people. We won’t be silent.
M.
Reza Behnam
The
International Court of Justice released its historic advisory opinion on 19
July 2024 just as I was finishing my essay on Israel’s theft and abuse of the
water resources of Palestine.
The
80-page opinion, “Legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of
Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,”
unequivocally states that “the State of Israel’s continued presence in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful” and should come to an end “as
rapidly as possible.”
The
“Exploitation of natural resources” section (V/B.4, 124-133) was of particular
interest to me. In it, the Court confirmed what I had set out to disclose, that
Israel has used, misused and abused its illegal control over the water
resources of Palestine to gain a permanent hold over all of the land.
The
Court concluded that the occupied West Bank (especially Area C), rich in
natural resources, has been used by Israel to the exclusive benefit of its own
population, while disadvantaging Palestinians and their communities. Area C covers 61 percent of the West Bank and
is under the complete control of Israel.
Furthermore,
the ICJ determined that Israel must relinquish control over all aspects of
Palestinians’ lives, including its most vital natural resource, water.
The
concept of water is deeply etched in the culture, politics, religion and
mythology of the Middle East. For
example, it is a tradition, in the extreme summer heat, to leave a jug of water
outside the front door or gate in neighborhoods as an offering to the thirsty.
In
Islam, water is a treasured resource. It
played a central role in the birth of the new religion, in its narratives and
rituals. Extreme drought may have been
decisive in contributing to the upheavals in ancient Arabia and in the societal
change from which Islam emerged in the early 7th century.
Water
is central to the mythology of Islam. In
Muslim lore, it was the bubbling waters of the Well of Zamzam in the Arabian
peninsula that kept the young prophet, Ismael (son of Abraham and Hajar) alive. The well, located in the Masjid al-Haram in
Mecca, Saudi Arabia, continues to miraculously generate water after 4,000
years. Water from the well is also
distributed to the Prophet’s Mosque, Masjid al-Nabawi, in Medina, the resting
place of the Prophet Mohammad.
Muslims
in Gaza, much like the world over, stand prayerful in the direction of the two
venerated mosques five times daily.
However, Israel’s relentless bombing campaign since October 2023 has
made access to ablution water impossible.
To
fully understand the gravity and pain that Palestinians have endured it is
essential to remember what they have lost.
Since
European Zionist migration to Palestine in the early 20th century, life for its
indigenous people has been changed.
Israel’s
founders were mindful that their colonizing dream in Palestine was sustainable
only if they secured hegemony over the water that flowed above and beneath the
land.
At
the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, ending World War I, Zionist leaders stated
that a future Jewish state depended upon dominion over the Naqab (Negev)
Desert, Syrian Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley, Litani River in Lebanon and
the West Bank.
The
Mount Hermon basin—whose mountain range is located on the border between Syria
and Lebanon—was seen as essential to their colonizing ambitions. It is in this basin that its streams and
rivers merge to become the Jordan River.
In
December 1919, Russian-born Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first president (1949-52),
wrote to the British prime minister, Lloyd George, that “the whole economic
future of Palestine is dependent upon its water supply for irrigation and for
electric power, and the water supply must mainly be derived from the slopes of
Mount Hermon, from the headwaters of the Jordan and from the Litany [Litani]
River.” The Latani is the primary and
largest watershed in Lebanon.
After
seizing 78 percent of historic Palestine in the 1948 war, Israel moved quickly
to implement its prepared plans to control the water resources of Palestine,
which were nationalized and rationed in 1949.
The
Arab-Israeli War of 1967 also had its origins over water. Israel began work in 1953 to build an
elaborate water system, the National Water Carrier (NWC), to transport water
from the Upper Jordan River in the north to the center of Israel and to planned
colonies in the arid South. And in 1963,
it began pumping water from the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberius) into the NWC,
which posed a grave threat to Syrian, Lebanese and Jordanian water
resources. As a consequence, Israel and
the Arab states engaged in numerous clashes in what came to be known as the
“War over Water” (1964-1967).
To
thwart Israel’s scheme, in 1965, Syria and Lebanon implemented the Arab League
plan to divert water from Jordan River sources (Banias and Hasbani Rivers) to
their own territory.
In
his memoirs, Israeli general and former prime minister (2001-2006), Ariel
Sharon, revealed that the 1967 war was launched in response to Syria’s plan to
reroute the headwaters of the Jordan.
Israel attacked construction sites inside Syria that same year, leading
to the war.
Completed
in 1964, the National Water Carrier diverts 75 percent of the waters from the
Jordan River to Israel, while Palestinians are prohibited from using any of it.
Israel’s
military victory in June 1967, had the effect of placing much of the Mount
Hermon basin, the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip under Israeli control. It then declared the water resources of the
captured land to be property of the state, putting them under complete military
authority.
When
it illegally annexed the occupied Syrian Golan Heights in 1981, Israel secured
direct dominance over the headwaters of the Jordan River, fulfilling its early
Zionist designs.
Israel
has also coveted and remains determined to seize the water of southern
Lebanon—the Litani River and the Shebaa Farms.
The Shebaa Farms area has abundant ground water that flows from the
slopes of Mt. Hermon.
Historical
records from the 1950s indicate that then chief of staff of the Israel
“Defense” Forces, Moshe Dayan and others, favored conquering and annexing
southern Lebanon up to the Litani.
For
that reason, Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 (Operation Litani) and again in
1982. The Israeli occupation of southern
Lebanon continued until its forces were driven out by Lebanese Hezbollah in
2000.
Claiming
that the Shebaa Farms are part of the Golan Heights, Israel annexed it in
1981. Hezbollah continues to battle for
the liberation of this 16 square miles on the western slopes of the Hermon
Mountain range.
The
Occupied West Bank
Israel’s
objective has always been to decrease the supply of water to Palestinians so
that they will inevitably have to leave.
Tel
Aviv’s apartheid water policies were set in motion by the interim Oslo peace
accords of the 1990s, which gave Israel control over 80 percent of the West
Bank’s reserves. Under the Oslo II
Accords, division of water resources was designated as an issue for “final
status negotiations.” Final status and a
future Palestinian state were never reached, as Israel continued to illegally
appropriate Palestinian land and water resources.
The
1995 accords, meant to last five years, have remained entrenched. As a result, Israelis have access to water on
demand, while Palestinians receive predetermined allocations set out in the
“peace agreement,” that do not reflect population growth, climate change or
average daily water consumption needs.
As
the occupying power, Israel has defined responsibilities under international
human rights law to respect Palestinians’ right to safe, sufficient and
accessible water. Israel has never ended
its illegal occupation or lived up to its obligations.
Israelis
consume ten times the amount of water than West Bank Palestinians. Israel and its colonies (settlements) consume
87 percent of the water from West Bank aquifers, while Palestinians are
allocated just 13 percent. And while
they do not have enough water to bathe their children, Jewish children splash
about in community pools.
The
national Israeli water company, Mekorot, has forced Palestinians to depend on
Israel for their water needs. It has
systematically tapped springs and sunk wells in the West Bank to supply its
population, including squatters, with a
continuous supply of water, while Palestinians receive water sporadically. The company routinely reduces the Palestinian
supply and shamelessly, sells them their own water at inflated prices. To counter the chronic water shortage, 92
percent of Palestinians store water in tanks on their rooftops.
Since
2021, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
Israeli authorities have demolished
nearly 160 Palestinian reservoirs, sewage networks and wells across the
West Bank and East Jerusalem. While
Israel continues to dig more wells, it has denied Palestinians’ drilling rights
and blocks them from harvesting rainwater.
The
expansion of Jewish colonies, Israeli industrial and military zones have
contributed to water contamination, which has severely undermined the
Palestinian agricultural sector. As
Palestinian farms wither from a paucity of water, Israeli farms receive
unlimited amounts, often to produce such water-guzzling crops as tomatoes,
oranges and cotton.
The
Gaza Strip
The
catastrophic water crisis in Gaza today predates the October 2023 war. Israel’s 16-year blockade contributed to
severe water shortages. And potable
water was hard to find after decades of Israeli invasions.
With
no surface sources of water, the coastal aquifer, on the brink of
collapse, provided 81 percent of the
enclave’s supply. Three desalination
plants and three Mekorot pipes provided the remainder. Families had to buy often questionable
drinking water from street vendors at high prices. On 9 October 2023, Israel cut off the piped
water it had been sending Gaza.
Since
Israel withdrew in 2005, it has conducted five major wars on the small
densely-populated Strip, destroying much of its infrastructure. And for years, Gazans have lived with
depleted, contaminated and salinated water because Israel has restricted the
entry of construction and other materials like cement and iron needed to
repair, maintain or develop the enclave’s water infrastructure.
The
United Nations currently estimates that 70 percent of Gaza’s water and
sanitation plants have been destroyed or damaged, including all five wastewater
treatment facilities, water desalination plants, sewage pumping stations, wells
and reservoirs. Those remaining are
short on fuel to continue operating.
Tons of untreated sewage have seeped into the ground or has been pumped
into the Mediterranean Sea.
According
to the UN, 95-97 percent of the underground water is not fit for human
consumption. Most people are now getting
drinking water from private vendors who operate small desalination facilities
powered by solar energy.
According
to Euro-Med Monitor, Palestinians have access to just 1.5 liters of water per
person per day for all needs, including drinking and personal hygiene. It is worth noting that the established
international emergency water threshold is 15 liters per person per day.
The
inability to dispose of garbage, treat sewage and deliver uncontaminated water,
in sweltering 90 degree (Fahrenheit) heat, has produced disastrous health
consequences, including Hepatitis A, cholera, typhoid, diarrheal and skin
diseases, and a stench that has made Gazans ill. Crowded together in tent camps, Palestinians
are finding it difficult to sleep because of flies, cockroaches and fear of
scorpions and rodents.
Conclusion
Ten
months of unabated bombing has ravaged the ecosystem of Gaza and its
population.
The
recent advisory opinion of the UN’s highest Court has unequivocally confirmed
that Israel’s presence in occupied Palestine is unlawful and must end, that it
must cease “settlement” expansion and evacuate all “settlers,” that reparations
are owed Palestinians and that nations are obliged not to “render aid or
assistance” in maintaining Israel’s presence in the territory.
Most
UN member states honor their obligations under international law. There is
little reason to believe that Israel and its chief enabler, the United States,
will comply, since both have a history of disregarding UN resolutions,
including an ICJ ruling in 2004 that Israel tear down a concrete barrier wall
it had erected in the West Bank to separate itself from Palestinian cities and
towns.
For
half a century, Israel, with U.S. support, and the mercenary corporate media,
has had free rein to expand and grow economically fat on the stolen natural
resources of Palestine.
It
is as simple as drinking a glass of water; so the saying goes. But not in Palestine, where the people have
been imprisoned between birth and death—for now. There are finally signs, however, of an
epilogue to the tragic Palestinian al-Nakba (the catastrophe).
Gary Fields
An Israeli soldier checking the IDs of Palestinians at the Huwara checkpoint. Photo by Gary Fields.
Lost in Joe Biden’s withdrawal from
the Presidential election, and the now-likely accession of Kamala Harris to
Democratic nominee, is the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
last week on the legality of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank,
East Jerusalem, and Gaza.* In a searing
rebuke to the State of Israel, the Court in its 83-page brief refuted Israeli
claims that the Palestinian territories under its control are “disputed,” not
occupied. More to the point, the Court
determined that the occupation regime established by Israel in these three
areas, which it considers to be “a single territorial unit,” [p. 27] is in
violation of innumerable statutes of international law.
From restrictions on basic rights of
free movement, to special pass laws for Palestinians, arbitrary and systematic
demolitions of Palestinian homes, and overt discrimination against Palestinians
as a group, the ICJ Opinion catalogs a widespread pattern of abuses by the
State of Israel as an occupier and violator of the most fundamental human
rights of Palestinians over whom it rules.
In conclusion, the Court notes, “Israel’s continued presence in the
Occupied Territories is illegal.” [p. 72ff].
From this ruling, Israel emerges as
nothing other than a pariah state, similar to that other notorious violator of
human rights, the apartheid regime of South Africa.
According to the Court, in the
Territories under its occupation, Israel has created a system of laws,
policies, and practices resulting in physical segregation and differential
legal treatment for Palestinians. By these
measures, such a system is akin to an apartheid system, that is, a regime that
subjects people to different sets of laws, policies, and practices according to
race, ethnicity or religion.
For several years now, human rights
organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights have condemned
Israel as an apartheid state.
Now, for the first time, the World
Court adjudicating the conduct of States, has affirmed this contention about
Israeli apartheid, writing in its Opinion of four days ago “that Israel’s
legislation and measures constitute a breach of Article 3 of CERD” [the
Convention for the Elimination of Racial Segregation]. Article 3 of CERD makes reference to the
illegality of “racial segregation and apartheid” and obligates state
signatories to the Convention to “undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate
all practices of this nature.” [pp. 64-65]
A breach of Article 3 of CERD means that the country is in violation of
the international convention on segregation and apartheid.
It is this part of the ICJ ruling
that is undoubtedly the most vexing for the U.S. If, according to the world’s preeminent
international legal authority, Israel has entered the legal terrain once
occupied by South Africa, then members of the international body under its
jurisdiction, UN member states are obligated not to aid and abet such regime as
was the case with South Africa. The
problem for the U.S. is obvious. America
is deeply entangled in the probable genocidal activity of a now-designated
apartheid regime. At the same time,
there is an even more immediate, and in many ways more deeply troubling problem
for the U.S.
This week, the embattled Prime
Minister of Israel, Benyamin Netanyahu addressed lawmakers in the U.S.
Congress. The Israeli PM has performed
this role on multiple occasions previously and, as in past appearances, he was
feted by a cast of mostly adoring and compliant legislators who accorded him
saintly status with multiple standing ovations and raucous calls of
approval. There is something truly
sordid in all of this. Imagine the
leader of a State now carrying the legal designation of a pariah regime and
violator of the apartheid convention, who is at helm of a military plausibly
committing genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza – with a possible
indictment over his own head as a war criminal – being feted and applauded as
if he were Mother Teresa. It is
difficult to imagine a more macabre kind of spectacle.
Finally, this invitation to the
Israeli leader and the relationship with Israel in general poses a daunting
problem for the now-likely Democratic Presidential nominee.
Kamala Harris is a lawyer and former
prosecutor. She is no doubt familiar
with at least the broad outlines of the legal entanglements now gripping
America’s most ironclad ally. As a
prosecutor, Harris seems certain to grasp the ramifications of aiding and
abetting entities and individuals designated as criminals. At certain times, the Vice President has
shown that she does have a conscience and some compassion for those abandoned
by good fortune. On the moral dimensions
of the carnage in Gaza, however, Kamala Harris has been largely silent. Her conscience and sense of moral
righteousness are going to be tested in the coming days as this spectacle in
the U.S. Congress unfolds as a prelude to November, and perhaps if fate and
fortune align in a certain way, into the future as well.
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