Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
| ||||||||||||
Blocking Aid Workers from Israel Is a Mistake - NGOs - Global policy Forum Blocking Aid Workers from Israel Is a Mistake
By Patrick Connors
Hartford Courant
November 9, 2003Two weeks ago, an Israeli judge rejected my appeal of the decision by Israeli security officials to deny my entry to Israel for humanitarian aid work in the occupied territories. The judge's ruling followed a cursory hearing that I was not allowed to attend. The hearing featured "secret evidence" that I was not allowed to see or challenge. Sadly, my case is just one of many demonstrating that, rather than curbing government abuses, the Israeli judiciary is largely serving to legitimize systematic violations of international law. Israeli security officials have labeled me a "security threat," an absurd claim given my record. I strongly oppose all violence. I've interned for U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd and for the U.S. State Department in Africa; I've earned master's degrees from Yale and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and I've managed multimillion-dollar humanitarian aid programs for 11 years with American nongovernmental organizations in Morocco, Egypt, Mali and Gaza.
Last fall, the deteriorating Middle East situation led me from aid work to more direct human rights and nonviolent work. I volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement, helping West Bank Palestinian farmers to harvest their olives despite Israeli settler attacks and supporting Palestinians and Israelis in peacefully protesting the wall that Israel is building on Palestinian land. When I flew to Tel Aviv in March for more human rights volunteering, I was held by Israeli police and put on the next flight back to the United States. The Israeli authorities justified this treatment based on my involvement in peaceful protests and ties with nonviolent human rights groups. So I then accepted consulting work with an American aid organization rebuilding damaged Palestinian waterlines and replanting razed farmland. But in August I was again turned back by Israeli border police when I attempted to enter Israel from Egypt for this work.Though many aid and rights workers have been denied entry to Israel, I'm among the first to appeal to the Israeli courts. The court's handling of my case reveals the system's deep flaws. The judge refused to allow me to travel from Egypt for my hearing, even handcuffed and under Israeli police guard. She didn't allow two Israelis who were at the hearing, one a rabbi, to testify on my behalf. Instead, she based her decision largely on "secret materials" from Israeli security officials. Since I did nothing wrong or secret, the materials could only have been errors or distortions. But with no knowledge of the materials, we couldn't effectively challenge them. Access for humanitarian aid is a key principle of international law. Dubious "intelligence" must be balanced against Israel's obligation to give humanitarian organizations access to 3.2 million Palestinians living under military occupation. Instead, the Israeli judiciary seemingly accepts the security services' claim that nonviolent support for Palestinian rights is a security threat. Although Israel does need thorough security measures, blocking aid only deepens poverty, and crushing the nonviolent movement eliminates peaceful alternatives, threatening Israeli security.
Tragically, humanitarian access is only one of many areas in which Israeli courts sanction violations of international law that fuel Palestinian anger. Since 2000, thousands of Palestinians have been jailed for long periods based on "classified evidence" and without due process. Following court-approved guidelines, the Israeli military has demolished 4,000 Palestinian homes over three years in a manner that Amnesty International recently called "excessive, disproportionate" and "a grave violation of international human rights and humanitarian law." According to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, Israeli courts have accepted Israel's takeover of 50 percent of the West Bank and the construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, all in violation of international law. Similarly, the courts are allowing construction of a "security" wall up to four miles inside the West Bank, rather than along the West Bank border with Israel, separating tens of thousands of Palestinians from their farmland. With no effective political opposition and with a rubber-stamp judiciary, Israeli society has lost its capacity for self-regulation. While the international community rightly presses Palestinians to end attacks on Israeli civilians, we must also demand that Israel cease its assault on Palestinian human rights. The Oslo peace process showed that peace for Israelis will not come without respect for Palestinian rights. Engaged in a difficult conflict, Israel is blocking outside monitoring when it is needed most. Humanitarian aid and human rights workers must be allowed to do their work.
More Information on NGOs
More Information on NGOs in the Field
More Information on Israel, Palestine and the Occupied Territories
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
