Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

A paper on "occupation"

I know I am not an expert on international law, and I know that people have a tendency to read arguments that are above their heads that agree with their points of view and not try to find holes in the logic.

That being said, this paper about the legal definition of occupation seems to be quite comprehensive to me. So my question is...how would international law experts who disagree answer these arguments?

The synopsis:

* When an armed force holds territory beyond its own national borders, the term “occupation” readily comes to mind. However, not all the factual situations that we commonly think of as “occupation” fall within the limited scope of the term “occupation” as defined in international law. Not every situation we refer to as “occupation” is subject to the international legal regime that regulates occupation and imposes obligations upon the occupier.

* The term “occupation” is often employed politically, without regard for its general or legal meaning. The use of the term “occupation” in political rhetoric reduces complex situations of competing claims and rights to predefined categories of right and wrong. The term “occupation” is also employed in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to advance the argument that Israel bears ultimate responsibility for the welfare of the Palestinians, while limiting or denying Israel’s right to defend itself against Palestinian terror, and relieving the Palestinian side of responsibility for its own actions and their consequences. The term is also employed as part of a general assault upon Israel’s legitimacy, in the context of a geopolitical narrative that has little to do with Israel’s status as an occupier under international law.

* Iraq was occupied by the Coalition forces from the spring of 2003 until June 28, 2004, at which time authority was handed over to the Iraqi Interim Government. At that point, Coalition forces remained in Iraq, but Iraq was no longer deemed occupied. If handing over authority to a Coalition-appointed interim government ended the occupation of Iraq, would the same not hold true for the establishment of the Palestinian Authority and Israel?

* Under the Interim Agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization of September 28, 1995, it would seem that at least those areas placed under the effective control of the Palestinian Authority, and from which Israel had actually withdrawn its military forces, could no longer be termed “occupied” by Israel. Moreover, since the continued presence of Israeli troops in the area was agreed to and regulated by the Agreement, that presence should no longer be viewed as an occupation.

* The withdrawal of all Israeli military personnel and any Israeli civilian presence in the Gaza Strip, and the subsequent ouster of the Palestinian Authority and the takeover of the area by a Hamas government, surely would constitute a clear end of the Israeli occupation of Gaza. Nevertheless, even though Gaza is no longer under the authority of a hostile army, and despite an absence of the effective control necessary for providing the governmental services required of an occupying power, it is nevertheless argued that Israel remains the occupying power in Gaza.

Actually, the paper goes further in saying that the West Bank and Gaza were not legally occupied between 1967 and 1995, however a separate issue is whether Israel was obligated to treat the people in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention - which deals more with the protection of people under occupation and not with the definition of it. The ICRC argues it does, and the author does not try to disagree, but claims that this is a different issue than whether it is legally considered an occupation to begin with.

The arguments in the full paper look solid to me....so what are the counter-arguments?

(Saying that the UN defines it as "occupation" is not an argument of international law, it is a simple declaration. Not to mention that the UN has lied with respect to the definition of occupation in the past.)

James Zogby's logical fallacies

James Zogby writes in the Huffington Post:

In 1991, Israel's per capita GDP was $14,000. Three years later, after the ending of the secondary boycott and Madrid and Oslo, Israel's per capita GDP had risen to almost $16,000. Palestinians did not fare as well. In 1991, their per capita GDP was $900. Three years later, new Israeli restrictions on Palestinian labor and continued control over all access to and egress from the territories, resulted in the Palestinian per capita GDP only increasing to $1,100.

He uses this as evidence that the ending of the secondary Arab boycott of Israel helped Israel far more than it helped Palestinian Arabs, and therefore for Arab nations to be more careful about how they treat Israel.

The logical fallacies here are breathtaking, and cannot be anything but purposeful.

Firstly, let's look at his numbers themselves. From what he is saying, in the same time period that Israeli per-capita GDP increased by 14%, those of Palestinan Arabs rose by - 22%! So even by his own numbers he proves the exact opposite of what he is trying to say.

Now let's look at the bigger picture. He is implying that Israel's GDP increased because the Arab boycott had been removed. But Israel's per-capita GDP had been increasing steadily before, during and after this time period, showing no causality at all:

Israel	2007	23,383
Israel	2006	20,863
Israel	2005	19,612
Israel	2004	18,804
Israel	2003	17,926
Israel	2002	17,259
Israel	2001	19,143
Israel	2000	19,871
Israel	1999	18,085
Israel	1998	18,418
Israel	1997	18,627
Israel	1996	18,579
Israel	1995	17,601
Israel	1994	15,689
Israel	1993	14,424
Israel	1992	14,939
Israel	1991	13,905
Israel	1990	12,611
Israel	1989	10,973
Israel	1988	11,266
Israel	1987	9,402
Israel	1986	7,944

The only dip that Israel experienced in its growth of GDP was during the depths of the second intifada.

If one wants to see what drives the Palestinian Arab GDP, look at the same time period:

Occupied Palestinian Territory	2007	1,359
Occupied Palestinian Territory	2006	1,261
Occupied Palestinian Territory	2005	1,288
Occupied Palestinian Territory	2004	1,213
Occupied Palestinian Territory	2003	1,117
Occupied Palestinian Territory	2002	1,029
Occupied Palestinian Territory	2001	1,168
Occupied Palestinian Territory	2000	1,307
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1999	1,376
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1998	1,348
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1997	1,312
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1996	1,238
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1995	1,230
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1994	1,123
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1993	936
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1992	1,105
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1991	932
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1990	899
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1989	860
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1988	940
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1987	925
Occupied Palestinian Territory	1986	871

There are two major dips in the Palestinian Arab per-capita GDP - in 1989 and in 2000-2001. They both coincide perfectly with the first and second intifadas!

So if you want to draw conclusions from the statistics, the inescapable conclusion is that Palestinian Arab terror is the major driver for a reduction in Palestinian Arab standards of living. Conversely, relatively peaceful periods show that the Palestinian Arab GDP steadily increases when they aren't as focused on killing Jews.

If Zogby wants to help his Palestinian Arab friends, he should be encouraging them to stop their obsession with violence.

The fact that he isn't doing that speaks volumes.

Fatah and PLO infighting coming to a head

For the past few months, there have been efforts to put together a Fatah conference in Ramallah. They have not had such a conference for twenty years, and Mahmoud Abbas is determined to schedule one for August.

The major problem is that Fatah's leadership in Tunisia, led by Farouk Kaddoumi, doesn't want the conference to be held in the West Bank. He blasted Abbas in a speech in Amman a couple of days ago, and Abbas' people blasted him back.

The two have been in a power struggle for a long time. Kaddoumi is actually Fatah's chairman, succeeding Yasir Arafat, and he is secretary general of the PLO. Abbas is trying to use this meeting to marginalize the PLO factions abroad. Kaddoumi is threatening to make his own alternate Fatah meeting.

Not too many people realize that the PLO formally delegates power to the Palestinian Authority. In some ways, Abbas is subordinate to Kaddoumi.

Kaddoumi has no interest in peace with Israel, of course, and he has stated explicitly what most "moderate" Arabs feel: "At this stage there will be two states. Many years from now there will be only one."

Not only is this a fiasco in the making, but it is proving that Abbas is hardly recognized as a leader even within his own faction. So much of the West is invested in the idea of Abbas, and about the power struggle between Fatah and Hamas, but no one is even considering the problems that Fatah has internally that weaken it further.

Of course, the Western media have been mute about this upcoming conference, so the severe problems that could arise are not even on the radar of most Western leaders.

PalArab leaders: We can wait for a state

MEMRI translates an interview with PA negotiator Saeb Erekat which is terrifically important. It summarizes it like this:

In a June 25, 2009 interview with the Jordanian daily Al-Dustour, Palestinian Authority negotiations department head Saeb Ereqat said that the previous Israeli government, under Ehud Olmert, had offered PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas territory equal in size to 100% of the land occupied in 1967, by means of a land swap. Ereqat explained, however, that the PA would not agree to a land swap before Israel recognized the Palestinians' right to sovereignty over all the territory occupied in 1967. He added that there had been a steady erosion in Israel's position over the years, to the point that it had recently offered the Palestinians 100% of the territory; therefore, the Palestinians had no reason to rush into accepting the Israeli proposals. He stressed that the Right of Return and monetary compensation for the refugees were not mutually exclusive, and that the Palestinians would insist on receiving both.
Addressing the issue of Hamas, he said that nobody was asking it to recognize Israel, but that any government in which Hamas was a partner would have to recognize Israel and the commitments undertaken by the PLO.

According to Palestinian Arab leaders, Olmert offered far more than Barak agreed to in early 2001. Olmert offered the equivalent of 100% of the disputed areas.

And even that was not enough for the poor, stateless Palestinian Arabs.

In other words, the PA's chief negotiator is utterly unwilling to negotiate. He says that the Palestinian Arabs have nothing to lose by waiting.

From their perspective, they have an American president who is willing to push Israel to do everything they want. From their perspective, successive Israeli governments keep offering more and more to them anyway. From their perspective, the second Intifada was a success and terrorism pays big dividends.

Combined with Abbas' interview in the Washington Post in May we see that this is official Palestinian Arab policy: just say no.

The bitter irony is that Westerners and leftist Israelis are in a huge rush to grant a Palestinian Arab state to a people who aren't in any hurry to accept one.

The contrast to the Zionist leaders of the 1930s and 40s could not be starker. For the Jews, the establishment of a state - even one with borders impossible to defend from enemies on all sides - was a top goal. The entire reason it was so important was for the protection of the Jewish people themselves.

The West looks at Palestinian Arabs as having a huge grievance that must be addressed in order to soothe Arab demands. But the Palestinian Arab leaders do not think that their people are in any particular distress. They don't care about a state - they care about the symbolism of receiving everything they demand from Israel. Hence Erekat's insistence that a land swap of any kind is unacceptable before such a state is established on the Green Line borders exactly. And before even that happens, they will insist on the right for a few million more Palestinian Arabs to flood Israel itself.

For Palestinian Arabs, there is no downside to saying no. To them, their obstinacy has been rewarded over and over again.

The obvious reaction from Israel is to raise the stakes. Tell them that if they are willing to wait, Israel is willing to wait as well for a leadership that cares more about their people than about the idea of forcing Israel to lose. Tell them that the longer they wait, the more land they will lose. And follow up on it.

At the same time, let the international community know how Palestinian Arab leaders are thinking. Show that they have failed their own people again. Emphasize that they have shown zero interest in building a state. And, above all, make Israel's red lines as stark as the PalArab leaders make theirs. If the result is an impasse - so be it. It is not as if Palestinian Arabs on the West Bank are suffering - they clearly aren't.

As an aside, Erekat also shows the exact reason why a land swap is disastrous for Israel - it changes the situation back to before 1967 when the Arabs did not accept the Green Line and were "negotiating" as well as fighting to keep pushing the borders back to the Mediterranean. The major benefit of the Six Day War was that the Green Line finally became sacrosanct. Before that, it was simply an armistice line; now the international community accepts it as a real border. Once Barak offered a land swap, he set the psychological clock back to 1966, and all of a sudden Israel proper is negotiable, not just the territories.

Zionist attack cows invade Lebanon

Zionist attack cows, protected by Merkava tanks of the mighty IDF, have been accused sipping water from a Lebanese lake, according to Lebanese media.

Israeli cows guided by Israeli shepherds have been crossing the border in an act southerners are condemning as a violation of the country's sovereignty, especially since the cattle is being protected by the Israeli Army. The bovine "incursions" have even provoked Lebanese dogs that have now made it their mission to make the cows return where they came from.

Lebanese shepherds are also very concerned with falling water levels in the area as a result of the straying Israeli livestock.

Ismail Nasser, from Kfar Shuba, described how the Israeli cows have been crossing the border on a daily basis on their way to Baathail Lake without any consequences, while a commotion would erupt if any of his dogs were to approach the Blue Line, which was drawn by the United Nations in 2000, after Israel's withdrawal from almost all of the south.

As Nasser spoke, three cows appeared in the distance and were soon chased by the shepherd's barking dogs. As the dogs appeared to close in on their targets, an Israeli Merkava tank made its way to the combat zone only to disappear few moments after.

Nasser sighed with relief.

"There's barely enough water for me and my fellow Lebanese shepherds and each Israeli cow drinks more than 40 of our goats put together. Why doesn't UNIFIL consider this as an violation of the Blue Line?" Nasser asked.

The Municipal Council of Kfar Shuba convened late Thursday to discuss the problem, and decided to task its mayor, Izzat Qadiri, with drafting a letter to the commander of UNIFIL, Major General Claudio Graziano, as well as the commander of UNIFIL's Indian battalion, Saradib Chadra, asking them to reinforce surveillance at Hassan Gate and to put an end to the violation. Along with the letter, the council submitted proof of two holes made in the separating barbed wire at Baathail Lake.

Another member of the Zionist Attack Zoo!

(h/t Lance)

Evil Zionist Sex Gum corrupting Gaza youth

YNet reports:

Is Israel targeting the Palestinian population in Gaza by distributing libido-increasing chewing gum in the Strip? A Hamas police spokesman in the Gaza Strip Islam Shahwan claimed Monday that Israeli intelligence operatives are attempting to "destroy" the young generation by distributing such materials in the coastal enclave.

Shahwan said that the police got their hands on gum that increases sexual desire that, according to him, reaches merchants in the Strip by way of the border crossings. According to him, a Palestinian drug dealer admitted that he sold products that increase sex drive. The dealer said that he received the materials from Israeli sources by way of the Karni crossing.

A number of suspects have been arrested.

The affair was exposed when a Palestinian filed a complaint that his daughter chewed the aforementioned gum and experienced the dubious side effects.

Shahwan even claimed that Israeli intelligence operatives encourage dealers in Gaza to distribute the gum for free.

"The Israelis seek to destroy the Palestinians' social infrastructure with these products and to hurt the young generation by distributing drugs and sex stimulants," said Shahwan.

Although the YNet article says that Hamas claims the drugs have been brought through Rafah, the Palestine Today version claims that Israel ships the libido-enhancing gum through the Karni crossing.

This is not new; Palestinian Arabs have accused Israel of giving them sex gum for years. Also impotence drugs.

UPDATE: A number of people have sent links to an actual commercial of this nefarious product.

Man jailed in Iran for setting Quran to music

From AKI:

An Iranian artist has been sentenced to five years in prison for having put the Koran to music. According to 'Fardanews', the Iranian authorities considered the move "offensive to Islamic morality".

Mohsen Namju is accused of having ridiculed the Koran, "reciting it in a western and anti-Islamic style".

One of the major experts on recitation of the the Koran in Iran, Abbas Salimi, reported the musician to the Islamic court in Tehran.

The court found the artist guilty for having breached "Islamic morality".

After the sentence, Abbas Salimi was reportedly "very satisfied" and underlined the importance of "defending the sacredness of god's book".

"No-one should be able to ridicule it," he said.

Under Islamic law, music is allowed if it does not result in provoking the faithful.

Combining the recitation of the Koran and popular songs, like the Iranian artist, is not tolerated under Islamic Sharia law.

Hamas once banned violins, flutes and pianos because those instruments were not mentioned in the Quran.

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Full beards are pre-requisites for this job

From the Saudi Gazette:

Fully grown beard and fulfillment of all other Shariah requirements for personal appearance have been made compulsory for those applying for vacant positions in the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai’a).

The Hai’a recently announced some vacancies for the staff to support its existing personnel particularly for field inspection of commercial markets.

Al-Sindan said all applications will be accepted, but it is the personal interview committee that specifies requirements for accepting applicants and appointing them in jobs. He added that the committee focuses on the appearance being in line with the Shariah conditions, which include having a fully grown beard because the Hai’a staffer’s work in the field is to enjoin virtue and prevent vice.

I think this excludes Saudi women from the job.

Even the ones that might have fully grown beards can't prove it.

Greek telethon for Gaza a scam

From JTA (h/t Vicious Babushka):

A campaign in Greece to raise money to rebuild a Chrisian Palestinian hospital in Gaza allegedly destroyed by Israel appears to be a scam, JTA has learned.
The hospital that was the focus of a campaign, which included the participation of Greece’s president and foreign minister, never actually existed.

For nearly a week in February, Greece’s official state television network inundated viewers with news about a telethon that would take place Feb. 9 to raise money to “rebuild the Christian hospital in Gaza that Israelis destroyed with their bombs” during the Israeli army's operation there in January.

In its announcements, the network made clear that it was referring to a specific Christian hospital destroyed by Israel.

The telethon included recorded video messages by Greek President Carolos Papoulias and Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyianni, along with a parade of Greek politicians, singers, public personalities and trade unionists. Many used the telethon to cast broadsides at Israel.

The campaign raised $1.67 million, according to telethon organizers, who said little Greek children had gone so far as to break their piggy banks to offer $14 to Palestinians in need.

A JTA investigation revealed, however, that no Christian hospital was on the list assembled by the United Nations and the Red Crescent Society of structures in Gaza damaged and destroyed as a consequence of the Israel-Hamas war in January.
...
One thing is certain: In a six-hour telethon loaded with Israel bashing, the Greek public was deceived that money contributed would go to rebuild a Christian hospital destroyed by the army of the Jewish state.

What remains unclear is whether organizers deliberately perpetrated the fraud or the telethon had fallen into the deception by accident.

More pictures of overcrowded Gaza

Islamic Jihad allowed cameras from their Palestine Today mouthpiece to watch their training. Notice how difficult it is for them to find open space in the "most densely populated place on Earth" to practice killing Jews.

Operation link dump

Yesterday's book review took a lot out of me (and I am still thinking of other points I want to make,) and taking a day off means that there is too much stuff to comment on even if I could get my head out of micro-vacation mode. So here are some links to peruse:

Israel was kicked out of the International Federation of Journalists, and it is unclear whether it was a simple monetary dispute or whether it is political.

New blogger Jonathan Boyko looks at Javier Solana's plan to have the UN unilaterally declare "Palestine" to be a state.

The UK placed a partial arms embargo on Israel as punishment for defending itself in January from rocket attacks. Iranian media labeled this move "token."

Yisrael Medad brings us a funny Israeli TV commercial, which would be interpreted as fairly upbeat and optimistic by most people, and the Washington Post/Reuters' coverage of "outrage" over it - written by no less than five people. (I can fantasize on how comprehensive this blog would be if I had five people working on it, but apparently Reuters has staffers to spare.)

Israel Matzav shows us, via Palestinian Media Watch, a Fatah official on TV saying quite explicitly that peace is not Fatah's goal.

Barry Rubin brings us the best evidence that the Obama administration needs to read the Ross/Makovsky book.

Israel saving the world, again: Israeli scientists devise a way to have traffic generate electricity.

President Obama will be meeting with American Jews to address their concerns. Well, some American Jews. Those who believe that Jews have the right to live in Judea and Samaria are not welcome.

Anthony Weiner, who has traditionally been one of the more reliable pro-Israel Jewish congressmen, is marrying a Muslim aide to Secretary of State Clinton.

Another non-Arab territory is willing to accept "Palestinian" refugees from Iraq: Kurdistan. Isn't it amazing that the people who care most about these refugees are the people that the Arab world hates? Makes you wonder why the world still believes that Arabs have such solidarity for those of Palestinian origin.