Recognize the nation

by Ghassan Khatib

Human rights were always one of the main battlegrounds in the ongoing struggle

between the Palestinian people and the Israeli occupation. Firstly, this is because

throughout the occupation there have always been consistent and systematic

violations of Palestinian human rights. Secondly, Palestinians have used these

violations to attract sympathy on the international level and in order to convince

the international community that Israel's military occupation is not only illegal

but belligerent.

There are different levels of dealing with the issue of human rights from a

Palestinian perspective. The first and most obvious is the use of the criteria of

the relevant international laws, specifically the Geneva Conventions which deal,

among other things, with the legal regulation of relations between occupied and

occupier.

Israel has systematically been violating these international humanitarian laws. Most

egregiously, it has confiscated land from the occupied people and settled its own

citizens in occupied territory. From there follows a long list of other violations

including, but not restricted to, the deportation of Palestinians to outside the

occupied territories, the demolition of houses, the assassination of individuals and

restrictions imposed on socio-economic life.

There is, however, another level of human rights violations that might be more

harmful though less obvious. This is the systematic humiliation that is inflicted

upon individuals in most aspects of their daily lives, a treatment that affects the

dignity of individuals, families, institutions and the nation at large. Such

humiliation is particularly evident at checkpoints, crossing points and other

routine points of contact between Israeli occupiers and Palestinian individuals, but

is also clear in the way Israel deals with Palestinian needs on a macro level, such

as the treatment of the Palestinian Authority, the siege imposed on the elected

president of the Palestinian people, the unnecessary delays imposed on imports and

exports, the restrictions on and difficulties with the supply of water to populated

areas and so on.

The significance of this second level of human rights violation - the ubiquitous

humiliation and the assault on people's dignity - is that it has the effect of

deepening the hatred and hostility and increasing the desire for revenge and the

atmosphere of violence. Consequently, this level only serves to accelerate and widen

the ongoing vicious circle of violence.

Above all these considerations, however, probably the most damaging violation of

Palestinian human rights is the Israeli denial of the Palestinian people as a nation

with a right to self-determination and the consequent Israeli refusal to deal with

the Palestinians as a people with the same rights that any other people deserves and

would enjoy. The continuity of this denial will ensure the continuity of the

conflict. And vice-versa: an Israeli recognition of the Palestinian people as a

nation with a right to self determination and statehood in accordance with

international legality and on the borders of 1967 will lead to an end to the other

violations of Palestinian human rights, and thus the gradual end to hostilities and

the building of normal relations.

- Published 2/8/2004 (c) bitterlemons.org. Used here with permission.

Ghassan Khatib is coeditor of bitterlemons.org and bitterlemons-international.org.

He is minister of labor in the Palestinian Authority cabinet and has served for many

years as a political analyst and media contact.