Palestine and the Rome Statute: Israel could indict Palestinians

Why has the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague not received positive confirmation from Riad Malki, the Foreign Minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), to go ahead with a war crimes investigation against Israel? Easy answer: Because the PA knows that war crimes investigation is a two-way street and that there is no statute of limitations against investigations into the actions (contemporary and historical) of Gaza-Palestinians and of West-Bank-Palestinians.

In recent weeks, the PA Justice Minister (contradiction maybe???), Saleem al-Saqqa, and the PA General Prosecutor, Ismaeil Jabr, had formally asked the ICC to investigate Israel for its actions during the Gaza offensive (Operation Protective Edge). In order for any investigation to be launched the ICC required formal approval from the head of state, the head of government and the foreign minister, and so Riad Malki – as Foreign Minister – had gone to the ICC in the Netherlands to discuss the recent offensive against Gaza-Palestine.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the legal procedures required for the so-called ‘State of Palestine’ to join the ICC and to sign the Rome Statute in order to take action against perceived Israeli war crimes.

An earlier attempt by the PA to join the ICC had failed because ‘Palestine’ was not recognised as a country, but in November 2012 it obtained the status of non-member observer of the UN General Assembly (a status never conferred on Tibet, Kashmir, Kurdistan, or Tamil Eelam) and this status allowed it to join the ICC and other international agencies and treaties (and presumably to cripple them forever after with tortuous debate over spurious accusations against Israel).

Anyway… after meeting the ICC Chief Prosecutor, the Gambian Fatou B. Bensouda, Malki claimed that there had been clear evidence of war crimes perpetrated by Israel in Gaza-Palestine. In her turn, Bensouda said, in a short official statement, that the ICC did not have jurisdiction over the alleged war crimes as the PA had not signed up to the Rome Statute. Nor had her office received any official document from the PA indicating acceptance of ICC jurisdiction or requesting the Prosecutor to open an investigation into alleged crimes following the November 2012 UN recognition.

Now… why was that, one might wonder, after all the bluff and bluster and propaganda about achieving UN recognition? Could it be something to do with the content of the Rome Statute? Of course it did.

The Rome Statute established four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. The crimes are not ‘subject to any statute of limitations’, and the ICC can only investigate and prosecute the four core international crimes in situations where states are unable or unwilling to do so themselves.

Why does this make PA Ministers hot and sweaty under the collar ? Because Israel always thoroughly investigates everyone, everything and every action after each conflict, and so the ICC would have no jurisdiction over any Israeli actions. However, if the PA were to sign up to the Rome Statute and to accept the jurisdiction of the Court, a great many Palestinians would be liable to be indicted for war crimes, and Palestinian Ministers could be indicted for the crime of aggression, because there are never any formal investigations of any actions by any of the Palestinian groups. Israel could have a field day!

Signing the Rome Statute could open up a huge can of worms with cases and accusations raised by Israel going right back to the start of the Second Intifada (2000-2005) when suicide bombings of buses and cafes across Israel wrought havoc and murdered hundreds of civilians in major cities. With the PA in charge in most of the places from where the suicide bombers were sent, it would be they who were legally culpable… and Hamas too could be indicted for crimes perpetrated in Gaza-Palestine after they took over the reins there.

Thus far, the ICC has not received any positive confirmation from Malki to go ahead with a war crimes investigation against Israel.

Silence speaks volumes.

 

The recent conflict: reflections on Israel, on the Hamas, and the western media

In the recent conflict between Hamas-led Gaza-Palestine and Israel, the Health Ministry of Gaza-Palestine claimed that there were over 2,000 fatalities, making no distinction between militant and civilian deaths. Israel believes however that between 750 and 1,000 of the Palestinian dead were in fact militant fatalities. Numbers of deaths – especially the low Israeli casualty rate – were the fixation of foreign news correspondents covering the war. While any civilian death during war is tragic, civilians have always died in war, and the statistics ought to be contrasted with those mounting in the neighbouring Syrian inter-communal conflict. Over the past 3-years, the Syrian civil war has claimed an estimated 190,000 lives, or about 70,000 more than the number of people who have EVER died in the Arab-Israeli conflict since it began a century ago.

In spite of this, western news organisations have long decided that the Arab-Israeli conflict is much more important than say the killing of women in Pakistan (more than 1,600 women murdered there last year alone), many raped or burned, or the on-going rubbing out of Tibet by China and of the very idea of a Tamil Eelam by Sri Lanka, carnage in Congo and the Central African Republic, and the over 60,000 deaths in the Mexican drug wars. Nope… for westerners the most important story in the world is Israel, and for many local authorities in Scotland and other parts of the UK it is extremely important to show solidarity with Israel’s fascist opponents by flying their green, red, white and black flag.

What is especially important for the western press in the Israel-Palestinian story is Israel itself. There is never any real analysis of Palestinian society or its fascist ideologies, or any profiles of armed fascist Palestinian groups, or investigations into the Palestinian government (Mahmoud Abbas is still President in West-Bank-Palestine 5-years after the end of his term!! When is the next election to be held in Gaza-Palestine? Or, is it ok that the Hamas election victory was the last election victory celebration ever to be held there?). The western press narrative – and the one that we gobble up and support – is that ‘the Palestinians’ exist as passive victims.

While western media focus on the flag-waving jubilant Gazan mobs who actually believe they have won a victory (surely only the sort of victory that the ‘Black Knight’ in the Monty Python sketch might get excited about!!) the reality is very different. Once again, with all the flowery Arab rhetoric stripped away, the real victor is Israel. Fact:… All of the Hamas conditions for a cease-fire were rejected, and the organisation sued for a truce without any of its demands being met.

The way the war was fought by Israel has given pause to Hamas and the heads of the more powerful Hezbollah about engaging soon in another military clash with Israel. As Gaza-Palestinians reflect on the damage to their lives and property resulting from the Hamas decision to launch rockets from the Strip’s most populated areas, they might just think about conveying the message to their government that they want to avoid making any more sacrifices.

The Hamas leadership will certainly be shaken to see their rockets rendered largely impotent by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system (the system that some western observers said that Israel ought to give Gaza too !!! What planet do they live on??). Shaken too they will be by the destruction of the attack tunnels in which they invested massively, and used cement and other materials that would have been better utilised by the civilian population. In addition several of their most senior figures were killed in targeted attacks after Israeli intelligence penetrated their inner sanctum.

Israel’s willingness to carry out a sustained, punishing air and ground war, at great cost in casualties and to the international image of the country, will have underscored to both the Hamas and Hezbollah that when kidnapping and targeting civilian populations is employed, Israel will act.

Israel’s new war

As Israel enters yet another round of action against militants in Gaza, here in Scotland the Minister for External Affairs and International Development, Hamza Yousaf MSP, has entered the fray by opening Scottish hospitals to the injured and wounded of Gaza. He wasn’t able to say though if Scottish hospitals would also be open to those seeking proper medical care from Democratic Congo, Syria or Iraq. His intervention was clearly designed to give voice to his own prejudiced opinion – Gaza good, Israel bad.

Meanwhile, from Canada, there was a rather more balanced intervention which condemned the brazen and indiscriminate attacks that Hamas continues to wage on Israel. It highlighted the fact that rocket attacks have been aimed Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, thus proving for all to see that the Gaza-Palestine government (which is supposed to be part of an all-Palestine unity government seeking peace with Israel) targets innocent civilians.

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has also focussed on the Hamas policy of indiscriminately targeting Israeli civilians with weaponry, and its use of its own Gazan population as human shields. Both of these, Netanyahu has rightly stated, are clear breaches of international law. His remarks were aimed at the West-Bank-Palestine leader, Mahmoud Abbas, who threatened to accuse Israel of ‘genocide’ in the International Court of Justice – always assuming he can acquire Palestinian membership of the body of course. The rest of us could rightly ask though: Where is the genocide? Isn’t this a cruel use of the term ‘genocide’, wholly diminishing the concept and making a mockery of those peoples who have undergone actual genocide – in Rwanda, in Cambodia, in Armenia? Shouldn’t the Palestinian leaderships be taken to the international courts for breaches in international law?

Meanwhile, as the new conflict with Gaza-Palestine got underway, a conference in the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv organised by the Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz, was addressed by Philip Gordon who is the White House Co-ordinator for the Middle East. He went into some detail about US efforts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal and to draw up the security arrangements that would leave Israel feeling safe enough to carry out significant territorial withdrawals. However, he also asked how Israel was likely to achieve peace if it was unwilling to delineate a border, end the occupation and allow for Palestinian sovereignty, security, and dignity. The question was raised – and the overall contribution was made – just as missiles were raining from the skies over Israel from Gaza. The hotel had been forced to shut down temporarily and the conference participants were evacuated to a safer floor. Irony or what?

Gordon ought to have gotten the message that in the terror-riven Middle East, and with the abject failure of US-Western policies in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and the rest of the area, America can never really have Israel’s back. It is up to Israel to defend its own people.

Gordon had delivered his speech after the Iron Dome missile defence system kept him safe from the Hamas weapons – rockets launched by an organisation which the US administration has implicitly legitimised, and on whose support the so-called Palestinian unity government of Mahmoud Abbas rests.

Palestinian says, ‘Recognise Israel as a Jewish state, and forget about the right of return’

A leading Palestinian diplomat – Manuel Hassassian – has said that ‘the Palestinian leadership must officially recognize Israel as a Jewish state and heavily revise current demands for a full-fledged right of return for Palestinian refugees’. Hassassian who has been the Palestinian ambassador to the UK said that this was how a truly lasting peace agreement could be achieved. It is unclear how this argument would fly with pro-Palestinian groups in Europe, North America, and Australia. Probably like a lead balloon

Alongside an Israeli counter-part – Professor Raphael Cohen-Almagor – Hassassian outlined the steps that would need to be taken for the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Israeli government to realise a final peace deal. They said that the conflict could only come to an end if both Israel and the Palestinians recognised the right of the other to self-determination – something that hitherto, the extreme Palestinian elements (in Gaza for example) had failed to do. Concession would have to be made. At the same time that Israel recognised a State of Palestine, Palestine too had to recognise the Jewish State of Israel.

Of course, the stance taken by Hassassian is quite contrary to that taken by PA President Mahmoud Abbas who has insisted that there was ‘no way’ the Palestinians would ever recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

Another area of contention was the drawing up of a plan to resettle and rehabilitate Palestinian refugees, as this issue has always posed a major obstacle to the peace process. Hassassian and Cohen-Almagor have suggested that 1948 Palestinian refugees should be allowed to settle in the future Palestinian state while other Palestinians would be absorbed by different countries based on previously set quotas. Israel, however, would not be forced to accept a massive influx of refugees and their descendants into its territory, though unification of families living on either side of the Jewish state’s border would be allowed on a limited scale.

A push for this by Hassassian is, again, contrary to the position held by Abbas, who said as recently as January 2014 that he could not negotiate away the absolute right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to sovereign Israel. The Abbas position on the ‘Palestinian’ and his/her ‘rights’ is of course at great odds with the experience of Pakistanis and Indians in the late-1940s when they too left the soil of their birth to settle elsewhere… or indeed the experience of ethnic-Germans ejected from Poland and Czechoslovakia after 1945. Pakistanis have won no absolute right of return to sovereign India.

Hassassian has also put forward the position that Israel was entitled to annexe large settlement blocs in the West Bank as part of an agreed-upon land swap scheme with the PA. The major settlement blocs – Maaleh Adumim, Givat Zeev, Gush Etzion, Modiin Illit and Ariel – which account for approximately 70 percent of the Jewish population in the West Bank and for less than four percent of its territory, may be annexed to Israel upon reaching an agreement with the PA as part of the land swap equal in size and quality.

Who will win the day – or which standpoint will win the day – in future peace negotiations though? That is the big question. Another big question for the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign to discuss on their little away-weekend in July.

Israel: SPSC and the Wood Group

As the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) settles down to plan its annual jaunt or jolly – this year to the Gulabin Lodge, Glenshee, 20-22 July – to take a little time out discussing and debating ‘important issues that inform nature of […] solidarity with Palestinians’, they may also need to think a little about how a recent action against the Wood Group in Aberdeen made absolutely no dent at all in the Scottish consciousness.

On 14 May 2014 little phalanxes of storm-troopers were to set off from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee – head-scarves all freshly laundered, and flags of black, white, red and green all-freshly sagging – heading for Aberdeen… for their action. That was the plan anyway. Try as you might though, it is very hard to find out any information about the exciting day. It was probably a Facebook demonstration!!!

Why has the SPSC been so upset about the Wood Group? Well… back in November 2010 the John Wood Group, which is an energy services firm, secured an engineering, procurement and construction contract valued at around US $875-million from Israel’s Dorad Energy. They were to build an 800 MW gas fired power plant in Israel. Once finished and commissioned – around now – the plant would account for around 8 per cent of Israel’s total installed power generation capacity. The plan also is for the electricity to power Mekorot, the Israeli state water company, responsible for supplying both Palestinians and Israelis with water, and to power the Keter Products factory in an Israeli settlement in the Palestinian territories partly administered by Israel.

The power station at Dorad is near Ashkelon and of course also near the border with Gaza, and that latter point is the one to really excite the SPSC. The anti-semitic organisation SPSC regards the Wood Group as ‘providing state of the art energy technology to Israel while the apartheid state enforces its brutal siege of the Gaza Strip’. The SPSC has tried to draw our attention to what they regard as a restriction from Israel on ‘fuel, electricity, and materials for essential maintenance’ to the extent that ‘Gaza is forced to endure daily and lengthy blackouts’ with havoc wreaked ‘on all aspects of life including health, education and sanitation’.

In its foaming focus on what they term ‘Israeli apartheid’ and on a ‘brutal siege’ as regards Gaza, the SPSC continues to ignore the fact that Egypt too shares a border with Gaza. Imagine the SPSC condemning Egypt!!! No brutal Egyptian siege of Gaza!!! Gazans are inconvenienced, so this becomes a ‘siege’ !!! The Siege of Leningrad was a real siege. The Battle of Stalingrad was a real siege. Think of another word for the inconveniences undergone by Gazans !!!

Siege? What siege? Gaza enjoys a higher standard of living than the Egyptian or Jordanian. The UN has stated that.

As regards fuel and electricity shortages in Gaza-Palestine and West-Bank-Palestine… if bills were paid and if pipes were left in the ground rather than be utilised in armaments production there would be enough power and water for the local need. The UN has stated that too.

Well done Wood Group for its support of the Israeli and Scottish economies.

Scottish Parliament and Israel: Debate out of tune with events in fast changing Middle East environment

As Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) sat in session on the evening of 4 March 2014 discussing motion S4M-08835 entitled ‘Thirsting for justice’ – yet another debate providing opportunity for lauding brave Gaza-Palestine and castigating nasty neighbouring Israel – the IDF (the Israel Defence Force) was operating in the Red Sea intercepting arms from Iran bound for Gaza-Palestine. A few days earlier, the Egyptian courts had declared Islamist Hamas in Gaza-Palestine to be a terrorist organisation, and had placed a banning order on it. We can only hope that after Scottish Independence, the Scottish Parliament operates a more astute foreign policy, and encourages debate with greater balance and in greater tune with international events in fast-changing environments, not least that of the Middle East.

The members’ business debate in the Scottish Parliament was called by Claudia Beamish (MSP, South Scotland) (Labour), on the motion ‘Thirsting for justice’. Also participating in the debate were: John Finnie (Highlands and Islands) (Independent), Elaine Smith (Coatbridge and Chryston) (Labour), Sandra White (Glasgow Kelvin) (SNP), Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh Northern and Leith) (Labour), John Lamont (Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (Conservative), Alison Johnstone (Lothian) (Green), Jim Hume (South Scotland) (Liberal Democrat), Cara Hilton (Dunfermline) (Labour), Jean Urquhart (Highlands and Islands) (Independent), and The Minister for External Affairs and International Development (Humza Yousaf) (SNP).

Meanwhile, as MSPs set about airing their views in support of Palestinian leaderships, in the Red Sea, following extensive preparations, and on the Israeli government’s authorisation, the IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Benjamin (Benny) Gantz, ordered the Israel Navy to intercept the Panama-flagged cargo vessel ‘Klos C’, which was carrying illicit arms concealed among other commercial cargo. The interception occurred in the Red Sea and the arms in question were M302 rockets with a range of more than 100 miles – bound for the Gazan fascist groups via Iran and Iraq, and originating in Damascus.

Thirsting for justice? This should mean encouraging opposition groups in Gaza-Palestine to get themselves properly organised politically in order to throw out the fascist organisation that forms the government in the entity… but the Scottish debate was more about flag-waving for Palestine.

In Gaza-Palestine, Hamas’s effective dictatorship means it is the authority responsible for infrastructure. The aid Hamas receives from international donors goes primarily into funding terrorist activities and since Hamas took control of Gaza and turned the area into a launching pad for its attacks against Israel, ordinary Gazans have suffered – Gazan water and energy services have suffered.  John Lamont MSP spoke up very well on the reasons for poor water and sewage services in Gaza-Palestine.

In Gaza-Palestine and in West-Bank-Palestine there are complex issues with water resources that are in part due to the challenging natural environment, but are also due to mismanagement of water resources by Palestinians themselves. Israel provides more fresh water to the Palestinians than was agreed under the Oslo accords, and that amount is set to rise by another 50% in the light of a deal that was struck in December between Israel, Palestine and Jordan.

The real issue that ought to be raised in any debate about access to water is Palestinian mismanagement. Even the Palestinian Water Authority estimates that at least 33% of its water is wasted due to leakage, mismanagement, defective maintenance and old infrastructure. According to the water agreement of 1995, the Palestinian Authority should be preventing and repairing leaks in domestic pipelines and recycling treated waste water for agricultural irrigation, but it repeatedly refuses international funding packages to do so. In the past too, militants have diverted pipes intended for sewage/services towards groups skilled in fashioning basic missiles.

Gaza-Palestine offers many complications. Since the Egyptian and Israeli blockade, the entity has not had sufficient fuel to sustain its electricity supply and to keep its water and sewage facilities running. The Hamas Government refuses to buy alternative fuels, because the taxes would go to the rival Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority. It also refuses to pay the Israel Electric Corporation, and owes Israel many millions of dollars. The end result is power shortage with water pumping stations ceasing operation… and Gazan streets that look like sewers. With the pumping stations out of action, fresh water no longer reaches taps. The infrastructure is there and the water is there; the issue is electricity, and the blame for that lies entirely on the shoulders of Hamas.

In the water agreement of 1995, both parties agreed to prevent any harm to, or pollution or deterioration of, the quality of all water resources, yet the Palestinians constantly breach the agreement by drilling ‘pirate wells’ in West-Bank-Palestine and Gaza-Palestine, by not treating their sewage, by contaminating the streams, and by not developing any new sewage treatment or desalination plants. The problem is not so much access to water but the willingness and ability to treat and distribute it effectively.

The anti-Israeli movement states that Israel’s refusal to grant the necessary permits or military security clearance is behind the lack of sanitation and waste-water treatment facilities. However, Israel has publicly supported the construction of desalination plants in Gaza-Palestine and is willing to provide its skills for the project, but Hamas rejects Israeli offers of assistance. The Palestinians have not made any effort to develop any new water resources. Only one sewage treatment plant has been built in West-Bank-Palestine in the past 15 years, despite there being $500 million-worth of international donor funding available for that sole purpose.

Israel has more water because it developed desalination technology and it recycles household waste water for agricultural use. Israel has stated clearly that it is happy to share expertise and is actually now providing training in both recycling and desalination to the Palestinians.

Instead Palestinian leaderships spurn Israeli assistance and spend much of their energy and money building armaments, ready for their next confrontation… as the IDF action against the vessel ‘Klos C’ has shown.

Scottish Parliament needs to think less about castigating Israel and Israeli policies and rather more start urging Palestinians towards plural-democracy, and accepting local and international obligations and responsibilities. Otherwise, however many Palestines the world eventually gets (Gaza-Palestine, West-Bank-Palestine, and Jordan-Palestine) they’ll each simply be failed states at birth.

 

Israel and its battle with EU double standards

Although Israel has a very significant relationship with the European Union (EU) amounting almost to full co-operation through participation in EU programmes, when it comes to the Israeli presence in the West Bank, and its administration of the entity, the EU and its Baroness Ashton, High Representative for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, become a bit snooty… if not hypocritical, riven with double standards, and a certain bias against Israel.

It appears that it is OK, fine and just dandy, to sign a fishing deal between the EU and Morocco which applies beyond Morocco’s internationally recognised borders and taking in the territory of Western Sahara which has been occupied by Morocco since its invasion of the territory in 1975 (remember that war involving the Polisario Front anybody???). So, why then is it not an application of double standards when the EU excludes Jewish communities in Israeli-administered West Bank from EU trade agreements?

The EU appears to believe that the Israeli presence in the West Bank is a unique situation in the world, when clearly it is not. Indeed, the status of the the West Bank and that of the Western Sahara is actually very similar. Neither entity existed as a state prior to the presence of Israelis and Moroccans in each.

Then of course, there is Northern Cyprus! More EU and Ashton double standards! The EU gives grants and investment and funding to Turkish occupied Northern Cyprus. In fact the EU has also concluded an agreement with Armenia which occupies Nagorno-Karabakh.

 

Israel, Christmas, and time of maximum danger for the country

It is almost Christmas and, thus, a time of maximum danger for Israel. Why is that? Because, as the Christian world gazes dewy-eyed towards Bethlehem in Judea, the relative calm and the relative prosperity of the West Bank (in comparison to the standards of many in Egypt for example) is not the scene that best serves the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian narrative.

What better way to draw the attention of journalists from civil-war-torn Syria, and from the refugee camps of Jordan and Lebanon, than to stage aggravation between Palestinians and Israeli troops at Christmas time, and to launch a missile or two on Israeli civilians. After all, the refugee camps of Jordan – brim full of Syrians displaced by their own government – does not serve the interests of Palestinians, the ‘only’ displaced people that has ever lived.

We have already seen the propaganda and the effort to liven up the scene. On 21 December, the ‘Scotsman’ published a Reuters photograph of a little Palestinian boy in a Santa outfit (p.21. Christmas spirit: Palestinians demonstrate in little town near Bethlehem). He holds a Palestinian flag (of course) and stands in front of Israeli soldiers during a protest against the Israeli Barrier in the West Bank village of al-Masara near Bethlehem. The boy gazing from under a Santa hood is set against a backdrop of riot-shield wielding, gun wielding troops. Meanwhile, in the last 24-hours, as a gift from Gaza-Palestine, a Qassam missile was fired towards the Ashkelon area of Israel. Although there were no injuries, it landed at a bus stop used by schoolchildren and damaged the bus-stop itself. Earlier in December three Qassams had been fired at Israeli territory from Gaza-Palestine, with the intention of harming Israeli civilians. A day earlier, a bomb was planted on a bus in Bat Yam which exploded and injured a police officer who was trying to defuse it.

At the same time, Palestinian President-for-Life, Mahmoud Abbas, carrying on the narrative set by Yasser Arafat, released a Christmas message calling Jesus a ‘Palestinian messenger’. While Abbas implied that Israel persecuted Christians, the facts on the ground are that the Christian population of Israel is the only one which is growing and thriving in the region. In Palestine, especially in Bethlehem, where they used to form a majority, Christian populations have shrunk. Many feel uncomfortable amid growing Moslem majorities that they see as becoming more outwardly and politically Islamist… not to mention intimidating and corrupt.

Regrettably, European and North American Christian groups, and their leading clergy, have accepted the Abbas narrative rather than the Israeli one, thus hastening the inevitable decline and ultimate eradication of a Christian presence in these ancient Christian centres.

As we go into holiday mode here in Scotland, this blog wishes all Israelis and all supporters of Israel, chag sameach ve l’shanah tovah !… and please excuse the bad Hebrew.

 

SPSC nut-jobs actually support Israeli employment !!!

It would seem that activist groups like the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) are far more Palestinian than the Palestinians themselves. Indeed some of their boycott, disinvestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigning has led to the loss of jobs for Palestinians in the West Bank and the creation of job-opportunities for Israelis in Israel instead. It isn’t just this blog that claims the futility of BDS and the futility of SPSC efforts, Bishara Shlayan, an Israeli Christian Arab from Nazareth, and many Palestinian businessmen and workers claim this too.

Shlayan is creating a new Arab political party in Israel and he believes that the EU boycott of Israeli businesses and institutions operating in the West Bank is counter-productive since this will mainly harm Arabs in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Palestinian businessmen and workers say that the EU’s new guidelines limiting co-operation with Jewish settlements, and the calls generally to boycott Israeli products made over the Green Line (the lines that existed pre-1967 War) are madness. The BDS campaigning totally ignores the fact that the settlement firms and Israeli industries operating in the West Bank allow Jew and Moslem Arab and Christian to work shoulder to shoulder, offer a chance for Israelis and Palestinians to work together, to talk to one another, and to trust one another.

A curious outcome of the EU decisions is that a number of firms have decamped from the West Bank and have opened in Israel instead. Among these are Unilever which moved its ‘Bagel-Bage’l factory from the West Bank to the ancient Jewish town of Safed in the Northern District of Israel, and Sweden’s ‘Mul-T-Lock’ firm which followed suit and moved its factory to Yavneh in the Central District.

This is an outcome that the fascist nut-jobs, gauleiters, and little student acolytes of the SPSC could never have imagined.

East Jerusalem prefers to be Israeli – Embarrassing for Baroness Ashton, and the SPSC

In recent days, Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has pressed Israel a bit over the issuing of new guidelines restricting European (Union) interaction with Israeli bodies lying beyond the so-called ‘1967 lines’. The lines referred to are of course not so much internationally recognised borders agreed between states, but rather cease-fire lines from an earlier conflict.

The Israeli government will of course continue to press the point about the status of these lines and how only Israel and the Palestinians themselves can come to agreement on the borders between themselves, however, many thousands of Palestinian Arabs now living in Jerusalem will be anxiously watching and listening to Ashton and the EU too.

Why? Because they much prefer to be living in Israel in a united Jerusalem, rather than living in any EU-backed Palestinian component of a divided city.

Evidence for this? Simply the fact that the Palestinian Authority itself is worried about the rise in the number of Palestinians from Jerusalem who are seeking Israeli citizenship. By 2012, some 10,000 Palestinians from Jerusalem had been granted Israeli citizenship. Indeed Hatem Abdel Kader in the ruling Fatah faction in the West Bank, has attributed the growing phenomenon to the failure of the Palestinian Authority and the Arab and Islamic countries to help the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem. He has pretty well admitted that Israel is doing more for these Palestinians than the Palestinian leadership and the entire Arab and Islamic countries.

Indeed, the number of applicants for Israeli citizenship has intensified. Palestinians living in Jerusalem enjoy the status of permanent residents of Israel. This means that they hold Israeli ID cards but do not have Israeli passports. As permanent residents, they are entitled to all the rights of an Israeli citizen, with the exception of voting in general elections. Israeli law, however, allows any resident to apply for citizenship.

In the first few years after Jerusalem became the capital of Israel, few Palestinians applied for Israeli citizenship because among their compatriots it was considered an act of treason to do so, and the PLO (the terrorist body, the Palestine Liberation Organisation) openly threatened Palestinians who obtained it. After 1993 however, and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the number of applicants increased dramatically and Palestinians were no longer afraid or ashamed to stand outside the offices of the Interior Ministry in Jerusalem to apply for Israeli citizenship.

The main reason the Palestinians rushed to apply for Israeli citizenship was their fear that Israel would also cede control over east Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority. Their biggest fear of all was they would lose all the privileges they enjoy as residents living under Israeli sovereignty, including free health care and education, and freedom of movement and work. The big plus too was that their living conditions were far better than those living under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. Areas under their jurisdiction suffered from lack of democracy and massive financial corruption. Many of those who have applied for Israeli citizenship are Christians from Jerusalem who are also afraid of ending up under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.

There is no denying that applying for Israeli citizenship, in defiance of PLO and Hamas warnings, is also a political statement on the part of the applicants. They are actually making clear that they would prefer to live under Israel (the big bad Jewish state) than under any Arab rule.

This must be huge embarrassment to the likes of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, if not for Baroness Ashton and the EU. Oh dear!