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Yeah the wall is ILLEGAL (by Latuff)

Latuff | 10.07.2004 01:50 | Anti-racism | Repression

Copyright-free artwork by Brazilian cartoonist Latuff, on behalf of brave Palestinian people and their struggle against U.S. backed IsraHell's terror.

First of all, the Wall must fall!

ICJ: ISRAEL MUST STOP BUILDING WALL NOW

Saturday 10 July 2004

The World Court has ruled that Israel must immediately stop its construction of the West Bank barrier, saying it is tantamount to annexation and in violation of international humanitarian law.

The Hague-based court ruled on Friday that parts encroaching on Palestinian territory should be dismantled and Israel must pay compensation for damage caused by the West Bank wall.

"The wall … cannot be justified by military exigencies or by the requirements of national security or public order," said Judge Shi Jiuyong of China

"The construction of such a wall accordingly constitutes breaches by Israel of its obligations under the applicable international humanitarian law."

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) also rejected Israel's contention that it did not have jurisdiction to rule on the legality of the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank.

Judge Shi said: "The Court cannot accept the view ... that it has no jurisdiction because of the 'political' character of the question posed ...".

"The court accordingly has jurisdiction to give the advisory opinion," he said.

Israel has said it will not accept a ruling from the ICJ on the network of fences, ditches and concrete wall it says it is building to keep out bombers. Palestinians call it a land grab that destroys their hopes of a viable state.

DECISION HAILED

The Palestinians hailed the ruling of the UN's top court, saying it should be followed by the imposition of international sanctions.

"This is a historic day and an historic decision that has been delivered by the world's highest legal authority," prime minister Ahmed Qorei said from his West Bank offices as the judges in the Hague read their non-binding judgement.

Earlier, with media reports predicting a ruling unfavourable to Israel, a top adviser to Yasir Arafat said Palestinians would seek UN sanctions against the Jewish state. "As of today, Israel should be viewed as an outlaw state," Nabil Abu Rdainah said.

PLO legal advisor Anwar Darkazally said the ruling was significant, considering it was the UN General Assembly that took the case to the World Court.

"Its not Palestine against Israel, but its the world against Israel," he said.

Citing the 1971 verdict against South Africa which eventually led to sanctions against the country and the ultimate fall of the apartheid regime, Darkazally said the latest ruling could also have far reaching impact.

"It's very like that the Palestinian Authority will take the ruling to the General Assembly, and try to get them to issue a resolution condemning Israel and calling for dismantling of the wall," he said.

Palestinians brand the barrier a precursor to annexation of land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and where they seek a viable state under a US-backed "road map" peace plan.

While the World Court acknowledged Israel's duty to protect its citizens, it said Israel must do so within the law and should compensate Palestinians for homes and land lost or damaged by the building of the 100-metre wide strip of walls, ditches and fences.

Only American judge Thomas Buergenthal dissented from his 14 international colleagues' opinion, a leaked document of the ruling showed.

An Aljazeera correspondent in the Hague reported that Buergenthal surprised the others with his dissenting comments. He differed on all the points raised by the majority except the authority of the court to try the case.

In a three-page statement judge Buergenthal echoed and adopted the Israeli position that the Arab judge in the panel Nabeel Arabi, was biased against Israel, reported the correspondent.

REACTIONS

Egyptian international law specialist Abd Allah Asha'al told Aljazeera that the ruling was the biggest defeat for Israel internationally.

The ruling was a great victory for the Palestinians, Asha'al said.

Asha'al denied that the court ruling was non-binding. He cited the case of Namibia where the court's opinion had an impact on its eventual independence from South Africa.

Arab League spokesman Ash'al said the UN was committed to the court's ruling.

For its part, the Arab League said the ruling represents a "victory for international law".

"After the legal picture has become clear, the international community should consider how to get Israel to abide by international law," Hossam Zaki, a spokesman for Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa, said.

Strong support for the court's ruling has also come from Palestinian sources, our correspondent reported.

"There were some clauses in the ruling that went beyond Palestinian expectations," Kamil said.

The White House, however, brushed aside the ICJ ruling, saying it didn't think it was the right forum for addressing the issue.

"We do not believe that that's the appropriate forum to resolve what is a political issue. This is an issue that should be resolved through the process that has been put in place, specifically the road map," White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

(Aljazeera + Agencies)

Latuff
e-mail: latuff@uninet.com.br
Homepage: http://latuff2.deviantart.com

Comments

Hide the following 12 comments

what "Palestinian people"???

11.07.2004 01:07

March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE DOES NOT EXIST (my emphasis). The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

Face it, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "PALESTINE" OR THE "PALESTINIAN PEOPLE".

what "Palestinian people"???

11.07.2004 01:07

...

11.07.2004 08:42

Face it, there were hundreds of thousands of people living in the land now known as Israel who had there lands taken away from them, who had lived on that land for centuries.

I have been to the West Bank, and seen the Israeli army destroying the olive trees of farmers. Do you know how long it takes olive trees to grown and bear fruit? The people who lived on that land, whether you want to call them Palestinian or not, have been on that land for centuries FACT!!!

Ever since the peaceful conquest of Jerusalem from the Christians. FACT!!!

All the way through the crusades, for almost 2,000 years FACT!!!

The Jewish people had been expelled by the Romans, not the Muslims, and in fact under the Muslims the Jews gradually returned and had also been living in that land. One set of Jews have been there constantly all the way through biblical times to the present day. The Samaritans. They live in Nablus, and they have suffered under Israeli occupation as well.

Your mind is so twisted, trying to think of ways to justify theft and murder, it must really stress you out to have to think of ever more complicated arguments to hide the truth.

Hermes

..

11.07.2004 12:31

You just had it straight from the horse's mouth - there is no such thing as the Palestinian people, and this is just a tactic to destroy Israel and commit a genocide of the Jews - FACT.

Jerusalem (for example) has had a Jewish majority since the 1840s - FACT.

Jews didn't steal land, they bought it at high prices, and drained malaria-filled swamps to turn them into productive agricultural land - FACT.

There has never been any country called Palestine, there is no Palestinian language, Jerusalem has never been the capital city of any country there except Israel - FACT.

In 1922 the British chopped off 3/4s of Palestine and renamed it Transjordan - FACT.

The people that lived there were mostly Arabs that had immigrated there, and the land was mostly desolate and empty. Uncontrolled Arab immigration meant that in fact the Arab population increased by much more than the Jewish population during the Mandate period. The UN defined a "Palestinian" refugee as anyone who had been there for TWO YEARS. The Arabs expelled over 600,000 Jews from lands they had lived in for centuries upon centuries in brutal pogroms. Israel absorbed them, but the Arabs, despite having 99.9% (literally) of the Middle East, didn't absorb the Arab refugees (even though, as some of them admitted, they had indeed told them to leave), as they wanted to keep them as a thorn in Israel's side.

And the Jews were constantly trying to come to an agreement with the Arabs, and always wanted to respect them, give them equal rights and so on, but the Arabs, under the influence of the Nazi Mufti, always rejected compromise.

the uglist argument

11.07.2004 15:29

.. is one that either seeks to dehumanize or 'dissapear' the victims.

Those that practice this vile & purile line are rightly accorded the very worst of thoughts.

As it is with neo-nazies when they deny the holocaust, so it is also with those that deny the suffering and many losses of the Palestinian people.

The name for such people?

Who cares - we will never give into their arguments, their fascism or their maddness.

jackslucid
mail e-mail: jackslucid@hotmail.com

...

11.07.2004 17:02

I have met many Palestinians who have come from Jaffa, Safed, Haifa, Maggedo, and have had their homes taken from them, or in many instances, simply moved into. Many Palestinians still have the keys to their houses!!! And some of these houses are very old.

There were whole villages that were evicted, and destroyed, and built over, such as Deir Yassin. The villagers who had lived there had a history going back centuries!!!

Tell me, exactly who was living in that land between the years 600 to 1900? I seem to recall there were quite a few fights over that land, in a minor incident known as the Crusades if I remember correctly, and I guy named Saladin claimed back the land from Christian invaders. And then what, did all the people in that land just go away?!?!

But of course, you will try to deny the history of a people, just like white people tried to deny that black people had any history. You are also denying Jewish history, distorting reality, embracing a crude form of nationalism, the worst of human expressions, when Jewish people had historically achieved so much.

In the words of Einstein
"I should much rather see a reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together than the creation of a Jewish state. Apart from practical considerations, my awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power, no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain."

Hermes

misunderstanding what I said

11.07.2004 19:17

I didn't say there weren't any people there, I said there was no such thing as the Palestinian people, and that this was merely a tactic to destroy Israel - quoting the PLO guy to prove it.

There were all sorts of people in Palestine, but no "Palestinian" nationality. There were diverse and different groups that were not homogenous. Unlike the Jews, they had no historic attachment to Palestine, and many were in fact quite recent immigrants. And Palestine, as everyone reported, was a desolate and mostly empty land, that had been left to rot.

By the way pointing out that "the Palestinians" are fictional is not intended to justify an expulsion of them and their replacement by the Jews, or to justify a Jewish theft of Palestine or whatever. No such theft or expulsion ever took place, and the Jews were constantly trying to come to an agreement with the Arabs, who always rejected any compromise. (although frankly, given that 650,000 Jews WERE actually expelled from the Arab world which they had lived in for thousands of years, a straight population transfer would have made sense, and, in fact, had been proposed decades earlier by a Palestinian Arab leader)

One such example of Zionist-Arab co-operation was the agreement the Zionists came to with Feisal, the ONLY Arab nationalist leader in existance at the time, and the leader of the Arabs. He agreed with pleasure to help facilitate massive and immediate Jewish immigration into Palestine (including what is now called Jordan), and the creation of a Jewish majority and a Jewish state (respecting the rights of the other inhabitants, and in fact benefiting them), and in return the Zionists would help in every way in his construction of the Arab nation. Unfortunately he later went back on his agreement.

yeah thats right

11.07.2004 20:03

Peace will arise only when the people of the world are segregated into ethnically 'pure' nation-states!

(didn't some moustached Austrian guy try this already?)

Nationalism is to war as oxygen is to fire. Grow up and share.

Tom

deflecting the argument?

12.07.2004 07:34

Is religion a reason to claim ownership of land?
Which is worse? religion or nationalism?

Are helicopter gunships a valid tool for policing a civilian population?

WHY have the jews been persecuted, for thousands of years, since they started their crazed head-banging mumbo-jumbo worship and foreskin-snipping?

Does anyone have the right to proclaim themselves "the chosen race", and consider all others to be "goyim"?
Small wonder then, that the germans emulated the jews, called themselves the master race and began to do away with the competition; because quite frankly, there is little difference between the policies of nazi germany, and the policies of the state of israel.

(Expansionism by force, armed repression, and targeted killings of their opponents.)

Here in europe, state schools have now outlawed the teaching of creationism, and All religions all steadilly being consigned to the rubbish tip of illusionary philosophies.

Before anyone turns out that tired old war cry of "auntie semite", then, please don`t. I have no less amount of negative and egregious observations for christianity, islam or any other sick little group of propheteering murderous power-crazed little shits.

b.t. fish

...

12.07.2004 12:49

Theft and expulsion did take place.

This is now historic fact.

In many instances, Jewish settlers have simply moved into old palestinian houses ( as in Safed ). In other cases, a massacre took place, the people were expelled, the village demolished, and a new settlement built on top ( see Deir Yassin ).

"Palestinian historians have now documented 537 villages leveled to the ground in 1948 by the Israeli authorities so as to prevent any possible return of Palestinian refugees. As for Deir Yassin, the late Menachem Begin boasted in his 1952 memoirs, "La Révolte," that, without Deir Yassin, there wouldn't have been an Israel and that, after Deir Yassin, the Zionist forces could advance "like a hot knife in butter." He was later advised to remove this from subsequent editions of his memoirs.

The Israeli political establishment inflicted on Palestinians four types of denial. First came the denial of our very existence. Then followed the denial of our rights. All this was accompanied by the denial of our sufferings and the denial of their moral and historical responsibility for this suffering."
-

http://www.deiryassin.org

Now, I do agree with you, that initially, Jewish immigration was peaceful, and they were even helped by Arabs, who worked to build settlements. There were a few cases in which land was brought. But you know that the land that was brought was a TINY PERCENTAGE of what is now called Israel, and I'm sure those 537 demolished villages were not purchased by anybody.

Jewish immigration was largely peaceful, and this is good. I have no trouble with anyone moving anywhere to live. I believe the problem was not caused by either the Jews OR the Arabs, but by the British, and the way they made so many false promises, and the way in which they played one side off against the other trying to follow classic divide and conquer tactics.
I also believe the basis of zionism to be fundamentally flawed. Jews have every right to live in that land. But so do all peoples. The creation of a state for Jewish people, at the expense of the people who were already living there, is wrong. To divide people up like that is racist. To say, 'They're all Arabs, why can't they live with other Arabs in Jordan', is racist, because it ignores the fact that they are people, who in many cases had lived in villages on that land for centuries. To simply classify them as 'Arab', and therefore happy to live anywhere else with other 'Arabs', dehumanises them, and pretends that people don't feel a connection to their homes and families.

It is like labelling all of us British. Therefore, we won't mind if you turf us all out of England, we can always live in Scotland and Wales.

Hermes

well said hermes

12.07.2004 20:51

People are people. Religious nationalism and racist nationalism are two sides of the same coin - dehumanising and divisive. End the occupation(s).

Tom

..

12.07.2004 21:34

"There were a few cases in which land was brought"

The Palestinian Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem said differently:

Evidence of Haj Amin al-Husseini Before the Royal Commission, January 12, 1937:

SIR L. HAMMOND: His Eminence gave us a picture of the Arabs being evicted from their land and villages being wiped out. What I want to know is, did the Government of Palestine, the Administration, acquire the land and then hand it over to the Jews?
MUFTI: In most cases the lands were acquired.
SIR L. HAMMOND: I mean forcibly acquired-compulsory acquisition as land would be acquired for public purposes?
MUFTI: No, it wasn't.
SIR L. HAMMOND: Not taken by compulsory acquisition?
MUFTI: No.

Even he had to admit that the Jews legally aquired the land. The land the Jews lived and settled on was legally bought by them - at high prices in fact, partly because of the "boycott" imposed, whereby any poor peasant who sold his land for the good money Jews were offering was called a "collaborator" and killed by the Mufti's men, which drove up prices, so that they rich Arab landowners (such as the Mufti's family, who sold land) could then make even more money off the Jews. The Zionists in fact urged against buying land that was currently used, if it would result in dispossesion of peasants. They bought numerous malaria-filled swamps to make them productive agricultural settlements once more.

And by the way, it takes a sick mind to blame the Jews for the feudal situation in Palestine. Zionism actually brought benefits, and anyone who was dispossed by the buying of land from absent landowners could find employment elsewhere, due to the economic boom and opportunities Zionism created.

I expect Begin's reference to Deir Yassin (or your allegation of it, I don't know whether or not its true) was due to the fact that the myth of Deir Yassin, the propaganda the Arabs spread (which some of the Arab propagandists have since admitted to inventing, e.g. the rape charges), instead of galvanising the Arabs against the Jews, caused the Arabs to flee in terror and their armies to collapse in the face of the Jews. So in no small way that propaganda actually helped save the Jews from the genocide the Arabs were fighting for.

"Jews have every right to live in that land. But so do all peoples. The creation of a state for Jewish people, at the expense of the people who were already living there, is wrong. To divide people up like that is racist."

Zionists would have agreed with that.... The Zionists NEVER wanted to expel the inhabitants of Palestine, and didn't. The whole idea behind the Balfour Declaration and the Zionist project was that the millions of Jews from the world would immigrate to Palestine, and thus a Jewish majority would be created. They had no desire at all to infringe on the rights of Arabs, and offered them equality, which they got (those that stayed). As they always stressed, and as some Arab leaders sometimes agreed, Zionism would in fact bring massive benefits to the other inhabitants.

"To say, 'They're all Arabs, why can't they live with other Arabs in Jordan', is racist, because it ignores the fact that they are people, who in many cases had lived in villages on that land for centuries."

No it's not, at all. Palestine, historic Palestine, and the Palestine the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate referred to, included transjordan, which was 76% of Palestine and which the British illegaly chopped off in 1922. That is the Palestinian state. Most of its population is in fact Palestinian as well. And they didn't live there for centuries, thats a myth, various immigrants came and went, and in fact the majority of the "Palestinians" were in fact recent immigrants from the Mandate period (UN defined a Palestinian refugee as someone who had been in Palestine for TWO YEARS).

I can't be bothered to repeat endlessly the facts about the "Palestinians", but I'll just ask you, why do you damn the Zionists and claim Israel is all evil, for expelling these "Palestinians" (which she did not), but you never raise a single word about the Arab expulsion of an equal amount of Jews, who HAD been in those lands for thousands of years, and who were expelled in pogroms, not even during a war.

Oh and I'll end with a quote, THE PRIME Minister of Syria in 1948, Khaled al-Azem, in his memoirs, published in 1973, listed what he thought were the reasons for the Arabfailure in 1948:

" ... the fifth factor was the call by the Arab governments to the inhabitants of Palestine to evacuate it and leave for the bordering Arab countries ... We brought destruction upon a million Arab refugees by calling on them and pleading with them to leave their land."

UK Indymedia

Yeah the wall is ILLEGAL (by Latuff)

Comments

what "Palestinian people"???

what "Palestinian people"???

...

..

the uglist argument

...

misunderstanding what I said

yeah thats right

deflecting the argument?

...

well said hermes

..

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