The Policy of Confiscation

Living under the Israeli occupation, we are damned if we are alive, and we are  damned if we are dead.  This is how I felt when I was watching the parents of a fifteen-year old boy receiving the body of their son Hassan Manasrah after he was shot and killed seven months ago, but his body remained “confiscated” during all this period.  And to add insult to injury the funeral had to take place at night with only 40 persons allowed to attend. Over and above,  they had to pay a guarantee of  NIS20,000 (around $5000) which would also be “confiscated” should they violate the conditions set  for his funeral. 

Under what law in the world can this happen?  Even world-renowned  criminals who are executed are entitled to a decent burial.  As if it is not enough that ever since 1948 the confiscation of Palestinian land has been ongoing under a variety of justifications, now it seems that the  most recent innovative and demonic  measure of the Israeli occupation forces,  is to “confiscate” the bodies of Palestinian martyrs .   Of course one could consider our young men and women who have been languishing in Israeli jails, many of them without charge or trial as being “confiscated” as well. 

After a lot of international pressure the Israeli government decided to start releasing the bodies of the young Palestinians before the month of Ramadan.  Soon after three bodies were released last night including that of Hassan Manasrah, Ala’ Abu Jamal, and Fouad Abu Rajab Tamimi,   the occupation forces announced that it will not pursue the policy of releasing the bodies.  Not surprising now that the Minister of Defense is non-other than the right wing Avigdor Lieberman from the extreme right, who has very openly called for capital punishment to be applied to Palestinians only . 

A number of years ago when Jorg Haider, the notorious right wing leader,  was elected in Austria, the whole world was up in arms against him until he was forced to resign.  When it comes to Israel, there might have been  some voices objecting to the  appointment of Lieberman but certainly not loud enough to bring about a change in the decision of the Israeli prime minister.  Currently the Israeli military is still withholding nine bodies, seven of them from Jerusalem.  Why?? Can any decent and sane mind answer my question.  Isn’t killing them and punishing their families by blowing up their homes sufficient?

How does Israel get away with it?

In his new book, War Against The People, Jeff  Halper poses theis question in the introduction of the book:  “How does Israel get away with it?”   A question we so often pose ourselves,  as victims of this brutal occupation.  Indeed how does it??  The oppressive measures it has used are no more surprising, and when we think it cannot get worse, it actually does get worse.  Yet it is  unacceptable indeed that the international community should over-look such a grave injustice and allow the occupation of the Palestinian people to linger on for forty nine years after their dispossession sixty eight years ago.  Where is the world’s conscience?  And where is the United Nations that does not hesitate to impose sanctions on countries that do not abide by international law, yet seems to turn a blind eye to  the atrocities that are taking place in our region.  Under the pretext that Israel has the right to defend itself, it continues to get away with it.  And even when a resolution is passed, the UN runs short of a mechanism to implement it. 

Indeed  every country has the right to defend itself within its secure borders, but not when its borders are not defined and continue to expand;  and certainly not when it  is occupying another people and continues to covet their land, their homes and their holy places.   The daily violations by Jewish religious extremists of the status quo agreed upon in 1967 for visiting the Noble Sanctuary, one of the holiest Muslim sites,  has triggered a lot of confrontation and violence.  The agreement clearly allows Jewish visitors,  just like any other visitors, to visit the site through the visitor’s gate, with the permission of the Muslim authorities in charge of the compound of the Noble Sanctuary.  The problem is that those Jewish religious extremists continue to create havoc and to provoke the Muslim community by entering under the protection of the Israeli police from a special  entrance and  performing religious rites on the site. All this is in violation of the Status Quo agreement of 1967.   According to OCHA, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 30 Israelis, mostly  soldiers, have been stabbed to death, whereas 187 Palestinians have been shot and killed by Israeli soldiers,   during the last few months. 

“Shoot to kill” is the new policy of the Israeli army, even when the victim has been “neutralized, ”  as we saw clearly on the TV screen when  the Israeli soldier Elor Azarya  shot the Palestinian Abdel-Fattah el-Sharif from Hebron. The rally in support of  Elor at the Rabin Square in Tel Aviv claiming him as a hero is very significant, and that explains exactly how they continue to get away with it. Of course had there not been a camera on the scene, the incident would not have been documented.    A couple of days ago,  a  Palestinian pregnant mother of two children,  Maram Abu Ismail,  and her brother Ibrahim Taha entered through the wrong lane into Qalandia check point, and were  shot to death.  Even if they had planned to attack the soldiers, it would have been very easy for the soldiers to shoot at their legs and neutralize them.  But they did not give them a chance to be questioned why they were in that lane.    And to add to the inhumanity of the shooting, the Palestinian ambulance was not allowed in to assist them until they bled to death. 

Amidst all this France comes up with a new initiative for an international conference.  We can see this as getting on the hamster wheel for  an endless round of negotiations once again. For more than twenty years, the negotiations proved to be futile, and in fact disastrous as they simply  provided an opportunity for Israel to establish new facts on the ground, and to grab more land.  So if France and its allies are really concerned and serious about this initiative,  it can exert  all its effort  on putting an end to the occupation as a starter.  We have given up on the US as an “honest broker,” and there are no signs of hope coming out of the  American elections campaign. In fact without the moral and financial support of the USA, Israel would not have been able to get away with it. 

I just received the Gush Shalom ad for the week which I thought was significant and worth sharing with you:

No amount of American aid Can ensure the future of a country which lives by the sword and rejects the chance of reaching peace!

So Israel will have to make a choice:  To continue to live by the sword or to abide by the words of its prophet Micha: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micha 6:8)