Human Rights abuses are rampant in Israel and Palestine. Until recently, it was legal to torture, and political prisoners were brutally tormented. Many had died as a consequence. Regardless of this no-torture regulation, the Israeli and Palestinians keep refugees and prisoners to this very day. However many times Israel has been told by the U.N. to return some of the land, they ignore this. This displays Israel’s disregard for rules and laws, which creates a harder situation to solve. As Israel and Palestine are fighting about their right to land, innocent civilians are being killed in suicide bombings, and terrorist attacks. Even petty violence takes place, such as the harassing of opposing nations’ soldiers, tear gas, and it even comes down to stone-throwing. Many of the victims are toddlers and other small children. For example, recently, a 19 year old Palestinian blew himself up in Jerusalem where he had extremely orthodox Jews as neightbours. Among nine Israelis killed, quite a few were small children; there were a couple of toddlers included, and a mother and her 3 year old son had met their fate. Around 50 people were injured. As suicide bombings became more and more common, they were declared by the U.N. as criminal activity. When the Tourism Minister Rechavam Ze'evy was assassinated, the Israelis reacted in its typical way. They invaded more Palestinian land, killed dozens of people, and destroyed homes. However, Ze'evy was not a very popular man amongst the Palestinians. He has referred to them as ‘lice’ and ‘vermin’ previously, and has also openly encouraged banishing all Palestinians from the territories altogether. So it was quite understandable that Palestine had a splurge of hatred for him. Nonetheless, not only Israel suffered from killings. Assassinated by Israeli troops, Palestine lost Mr. Mustafa El-Zibri, who was 63 years old. He was a well-known Palestinian official and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. There have been other murders and attacks, a countless number, and everyday, there are at least two more.
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an important law document that is mandatory for all humanity to obey. However, exceptions such as Palestine and Israel have chosen not to listen. Both regions have broken several rules that have been recorded in the UNUDHR. Firstly and most obviously, as it is stated in article 13 of the Human Rights manuscript, “everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” This is referred to the right of refugees being able to return to their homes, which Israel is not abiding by, since they are nevertheless imprisoning Palestinian immigrants. The U.N., however much it persuades the Israelis to free their refugees, does not affect the decision of them in any way whatsoever. Israel has consistently denied the right of return. They also routinely killed Palestinians who attempted to cross its boundaries in order to return to their homes.
This issue is one of the largest related to human rights. However, many others are overlooked as well. Article 15 of the Declaration, which instructs that “Everyone has the right to a nationality,” is also broken undoubtedly as the disrespect and hatred for each others’ ethnic groups develops higher and higher. Other evident regulations that apply to civilization as well as law are also not taken notice of. Prevention of torture and ill-treatment (article 5) is not being put into action. Many civilians are still being brutally handled and dealt with. Death and ‘Right to life’ is also a concern that is not being managed at all. Death penalties occur often without reason and legal judgment. Other USUDHR decrees such as ‘Unfair Trials’, ‘Extrajudicial executions,’ ‘Rights to Liberty’, ‘Rights to freedom of thought,’ and various more are violated.
The Israelis believe themselves to be the victims of this conflict. The awareness of being surrounded by many aggressive countries haunts their minds. The basis for this fear relates to when Israel was under constant attack by its bordered states. However, the Arabs now are more than willing to make peace, as long as Israel kept to its original borders and discontinued treating Palestinians so atrociously. Since there are quite a few solutions to this, why can’t countries just resort to those solutions and have peace between people? There are complicated reasons for this. One of these is the hidden involvement of the U.S. It is impossible to talk about Israel without mentioning its status as a client state of the United States. Why would it be in America’s best interests to assist a state that persistently causes hostilities between its bordering countries and torments its Palestinian population? Originally, previous to the 1967 invasions, France was the benefactor of Israel. However, because of the relentless warnings not to invade Palestinian grounds, France backed off, and America was more than glad to take over the role as ally. Israel is the target of the U.S.A.’s aids, and receives about $9 billion a year. This is mostly used for military purposes. This is one of the reasons that many Palestinians loathe Americans. Without America, Israel would have virtually no economy ().
The question still hasn’t been answered to why the U.S. have so much concern for the nation of Israel. It has been assumed that the power-hungry United States do this so that the authoritative population of Arab countries would not defeat their position as World leader. As Arabs possess oil (one of the major resources of the world), they become powerful. What Americans fear, is that they could grow to be more dominant than them (). It may be thought that if the United Nations wanted to solve this battle, they would be able to overrule the Americans through majority. However this cannot happen, since the U.S.A. control an extremely strong rank on the U.N. Security Council, and have the ability to veto all the councils’ suggestions. If America stopped its quest for power, and thought more about civilization itself, it is said that Israel and Palestine would improve its situation greatly. In addition to this line of reasoning, other less significant gestures would also help relieve peace. The Israelis could let go of the refugees and stop attacking and invading, while the Palestinians could share and agree with the internationality of Jerusalem, so as to stop inflicting more difficulties. Other diminutive peace concepts that may not instantly change everything, but may improve the harsh atmosphere, is that people of opposing state should end the hate and disgust they feel towards each other, and start acting amicably and respectful. This way of thinking would very much improve the inhumanity that people express towards one another, and certainly improve the dangerous conflict between Israel and Palestine.
As both states have valid arguments, it is quite difficult to take sides. Israel is living in fear so as to not relive the Holocaust incident. All Palestine wants is a share of Jerusalem and the release of refugees. Either side has a somewhat understandable explanation for their behavior. Therefore, I do not support nor Israel or Palestine. I think that the Americans should take into consideration the war that could break out between the two nations, and verify the best solution to the problem, instead of flaunting their power and status and being selfish by vetoing every suggestion. When the US problem is sorted, I think Israel and Palestine will only have to get rid of and find a compromise with the minor setbacks. It will then be only a short while before the hostile barrier is smashed down, and peace is once more brought to the Middle East.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Weston, Andrew. Presentation on Israel/Palestine. [Online] Available , December 2001.
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Kessel, Jerrold. More Mideast bloodshed. [Online] Available , March 3rd 2002.
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Amnesty International. Human Rights in the Middle East. [Online] Available , 4th January 1998.
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Ibish, Hussein. The Palestinians' Right of Return. [Online] Available , February 2001.
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The U.N. The History of the UN. [Online] Available , January 2000.
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Barnhill, T. L., History of the Israel - Palestine Conflict. [Online] Available , July 2001.
