Al-Nakba The Palestinian Catastrophe of 1948

Rethinking The Costs Of Peace
By Josh Ruebner

http://www.countercurrents.org/ruebner250509.htm

By asking earlier this month for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel in his FY2010 budget request, it would seem that on this important policy issue President Obama’s commitment is more rhetorical than substantive. Since 1949, according to the Congressional Research Service, the United States has provided to Israel more than $100 billion in military and economic assistance

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Conditioning U.S. military aid to Israel in the same way would prevent these weapons from being used to kill innocent Palestinian civilians.

As President Obama has stated, “We can't sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars, on programs that have outlived their usefulness or exist solely because of the power of politicians, lobbyists or interest groups. We simply can't afford it.” In regard to U.S. aid to Israel, this is true as much from a budgetary standpoint as it is from a moral one.

Josh Ruebner is the National Advocacy Director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. This article was first published in Detroit Free Press

For nearly 42 years, Israel's occupation policies have gravely harmed the human rights of Palestinians and caused "large-scale forced displacement....within the Occupied Palestinian Territory," even prior to Operation Cast Lead. Displacement results from:

-- incursions;

-- military clearing operations;

-- home demolitions and evictions;

-- land expropriation;

-- settlement expansions;

-- the Separation Wall;

-- settler violence and harassment;

-- closures, barriers, and checkpoints that deny free movement;

-- revocation of East Jerusalem residency rights; and

-- denial of construction permits to build on one's own land.

Operation Cast Lead alone left about 72,000 persons displaced, according to a shelter/Intern Development Programme preliminary report - conducted in 45 Gaza localities several days after the conflict ended.

International law prohibits forced displacement, yet Israel caused it by targeting densely populated areas with bombings, shellings and ground assaults. Thousands fled to UN shelters in terror. They, too, were then attacked.

Currently tens of thousands remain displaced because their homes were destroyed, and no materials are available to rebuild them. As a result, they're staying in poor, overcrowded areas in the open, or when possible, with members of extended families - already overstretched by impoverishment, inadequate food, water, electricity, and basic non-food items and facilities like mattresses, blankets, and enough space for new arrivals. The overall humanitarian situation is far more dire than before hostilities began given the vast amount of destruction, deaths and injuries over the three-week period.

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HRC Recommendations

Briefly they include:

-- Israel's cooperation with HRC investigators;

-- ending the siege;

-- allowing unimpeded access and safe passage for humanitarian aid, including food, medicines, fuel, agricultural inputs, construction materials, and whatever else is needed to sustain, rebuild, and revive the shattered Territory;

-- let sick and injured persons be treated abroad and in Israel;

-- let those wishing to do so travel and study abroad; and

-- end all violations of binding international laws and commit no breaches thereof - to include:

(1) abiding by the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution;

(2) ending the killing of civilians;

(3) no longer using human shields;

(4) ending extrajudicial assassinations;

(5) terminating the use of illegal weapons like white phosphorous; and

(6) prohibiting attacks on medical personnel, ambulances, hospitals, schools, civilian infrastructure, UN buildings, and other non-military sites.

HRC also calls on UN entities to assess Palestinian needs and contribute to the wide-scale reconstruction of Occupied Palestine, including the vast amount of damage done to Gaza. It also asks the international community for help through the Security Council, International Court of Justice, and UN human rights mechanisms - and for all states to abide by international humanitarian law and work to restore a battered Palestine. Holding Israel accountable for its war crimes is a good way to start.

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.