[IPSM] PALESTINE: reminder Saturday 1pm DEMO AGAINTS THE WALL

[aaron at resist.ca]

ISRAEL :  above the law!
CANADA :  remains silent...

Denounce Israeli Apartheid and Canada's complicit silence!
Saturday, 9 July 2005, at 1:00 PM
Departing from Dorchester Square (corner of Peel & Rene-Levesque)

This coming July 9th will mark the first anniversary of the historical
ruling of the International Court of Justice stating that "the Wall" built
by Israel in Palestine is illegal, that it must be demolished and that all
Palestinians wronged by its construction must be compensated. One year
later, the wall still stands and its construction continues, threatening
to lock up an entire people.

http://stopthewall.org/photos/510.shtml
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/maps/351.shtml

The Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine calls on everyone who can
to demonstrate against the Israeli apartheid wall, and against the Israeli
occupation of Palestine.

Poster to download :   http://www.imopa.ca/July_posterICJ%20march.jpg

The Wall and International Law

In June 2002, under the pretext of ensuring its safety, Israel begins the
construction of a "security barrier", a wall reaching 8 meters high, which
will be more than 700 km long and will turn the occupied West Bank into a
huge prison.  With 80% of the wall's path deviating from the 1967
Armistice Line, the wall places on the "Israeli side" almost 10% of the
West Bank, totalling surrounding some villages. According to the United
Nations, 680 000 Palestinians will directly experience the impact of this
wall, being cut off from their agricultural lands, from their jobs, their
schools, their clinics, etc.  Upon completion, in about one year, it will
have cost more than 3 billion dollars.  A monstrous
implementation of the apartheid policies of the Israeli occupation, this
wall is totally illegal.  Here are some basic facts on this.

On 8 December 2003, the United Nations' General Assembly requests an
advisory opinion on the wall from the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
in The Hague. Ninety countries vote in favour of requesting such an
opinion, 8 countries vote against, and 74 countries abstain,
including Canada.

During the following weeks, a few countries write to the International
Court of Justice to challenge its competence in ruling on such matters; a
few other countries - including Canada, on 29 January 2004 -
"respectfully request that the Court exercise its discretionary power and
refuse to answer the request for an advisory opinion at the present
stage"!

On 9 July 2004, 15 judges of the International Court of Justice make their
decision public :

·        They find that the ICJ has jurisdiction to give the advisory
opinion requested (unanimously);

·        They decide to comply with the request for an advisory opinion
(For: 14 judges out of 15. Dissenting: one, the US judge);

·        They rule as follows :

o       "The construction of the wall being built by Israel, the
occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and
around East Jerusalem, and its associated regime, are contrary to
international law" (For: 14 judges out of 15. Dissenting: one, the US judge);

o       "Israel is under an obligation (...) to cease forthwith the works
of construction of the wall, (...) to dismantle forthwith the structure"
(For: 14 judges out of 15. Dissenting: one, the US judge);

o       "Israel is under an obligation to make reparation for all damage
caused by the construction of the wall" " (For: 14 judges out of 15.
Dissenting: one, the US judge);

o       "All States are under an obligation not to recognize the illegal
situation resulting from the construction of the wall (...); all States
parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention (...) have in addition the
obligation (...) to ensure compliance by Israel with international
humanitarian law as embodied in that Convention (For: 13 judges out of 15.
Dissenting: two, the US and Dutch judges);

o       "The United Nations, and especially the General Assembly and the
Security Council, should consider what further action is required to bring
to an end the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the
wall (...)" (For: 14 judges out of 15. Dissenting: one, the US judge).

On 20 July 2004,  the General Assembly of the United Nations calls on
Israel to comply with the advisory opinion of the International Court of
Justice: 150 countries vote in favour of this resolution, 6 countries vote
against, and 10 countries abstain... including Canada!

So the construction of the wall is illegal. Just as are actually illegal
the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the
construction of Jewish settlements in these occupied territories, the
annexation of East-Jerusalem, the denial of Palestinian refugees' right to
return, the appropriation by Israel of the underground water in the
occupied territories, the thousands of arbitrary detentions and the
torture inflicted to Palestinian prisoners, the collective punishment such
as the destruction of the homes or the orchards of the families of
presumed « terrorists » and the complete closures of towns and villages,
the extra-judicial executions of presumed « terrorists » (at times, with
missiles and one-ton bombs), etc.

And what does Canada do?

Faced with all of this, Canadian policy is fundamentally hypocritical and
favorable to the State of Israel.  For even if Canada states that it is
against the occupation, the settlements and the wall, it totally fails to
fulfil its obligations under international law by taking no measures "to
ensure compliance by Israel". On the contrary, it maintains privileged
commercial relations with Israel (free trade agreement) and even tries to
prevent the Palestinian people from resorting to
international law to condemn Israeli crimes and illegal actions.

By repeatedly and solely insisting on a "negociated settlement",
Canada's rhetoric hides two fundamental facts..  One, that this is not a
"conflict" to be resolved between "parties", but that Israel is an illegal
occupying power in Palestine. And two, that Israel harbours no real
intention to negociate, but rather aims at buying time and using this time
(and the 5 billion dollars of annual US aid!) to further advance its
project of dispossessing the Palestinian people.  The number of illegal
Jewish settlers has practically doubled in the occupied territories since
the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993...  And while the media are
talking about the current lull and the announced
withdrawal of a few thousand settlers from Gaza, they remain silent on
what even Israeli organisations such as Gush Shalom see as Israel's plan
of annexation of a large part of the West Bank!  Anticipating another wall
or other means of annexing the Jordan Valley, on the east side of the West
Bank, the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign estimates
that once these constructions are completed, combined with the Jewish
settlements in the West Bank (approximately 400 000 settlers), the
Jewish-only roads, and the so-called "military zones", this will amount to
the de facto annexation of 46% of the West Bank.

Canada's position is actually becoming more and more similar to that of
the US.  Already, in April 2002, in the aftermath of the horrific
punitive incursion of the Israeli army in Jenin, Canada was one of only
two countries (out of 53) at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
to oppose the sending of a special investigating team to
Jenin.  On December 1st 2004, at the UN General Assembly, it was one of
the seven countries (out of 174) to vote against a standard annual
resolution reiterating the mandate of the Committee on the Exercise of the
Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. The six other
countries opposed were: Israel, the US, Australia, Micronesia, the
Marchall Islands, and Palau...

What to do ?

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, international law is clear.  But
neither the UN nor its member States ensure its application. Some are even
unconditional allies of Israel.  In this context, despite the heroic
resistance of the Palestinian people, the balance of force is not
favorable to their cause and simple negociations will not bring them
justice. So we must launch information and pressure campaigns on the key
economic and political players in our respective countries to force them
to openly break ties with Israeli colonialism and apartheid. The
Palestinian people have obtained a ruling from the International Court of
Justice on the wall. Now it falls upon us to use this ruling to advance in
this direction.

The Wall Must Fall.
Canada must demand this.  Let's see to it!

Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/ipsm-l/attachments/20050708/6b925efe/attachment.html>