This is to bring your attention to the fact that there is a section in
the Goldstone Report that affirms the analysis of Israel as a regime
that combines occupation, colonialism and apartheid.
This makes the Goldstone Report also very relevant for
– the BDS Campaign
– Israeli Apartheid Week
– and campaign against the JNF (which is awaiting its launch).
It will allow us to promote and keep alive the Goldstone Report and use
it while we are implementing our campaigns.
I have copied the most relevant paragraphs and encourage all of us to
quote them extensively. See below. I also recommend that all of us read
the full section B, because there’s more.
—————–
re: Goldstone Report, A/HRC/12/48, 25 September 2009
paras 198 – 2009, pp 52 – 58
subtitle B: Overview of Israel’s pattern of policies and conduct
relevant to the OPT, and links between the situation in Gaza and West Bank
in particular:
para 206: Despite prohibitions under international humanitarian law
(IHL), Israel has applied its domestic laws throughout the OPT since
1967. ( …) The application of Israeli domestic laws has resulted in
institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians in the OPT to the
benefit of Jewish settlers, both Israeli citizens and others. Exclusive
benefits reserved for Jews derive from the two-tiered civil status
under Israel’s domestic legal regime based on a “Jewish nationality,”
which entitles “persons of Jewish race or descendency”* to superior
rights and privileges, particularly in land use, housing, development,
immigration and access to natural resources, as affirmed in key
legislation.** Administrative procedures qualify indigenous inhabitants
of the OPT as “alien persons” and, thus, prohibited from building on,
or renting, large portions of land designated by the Government of
Israel as “State Land.”***
* (footnote 56): Jewish National Fund, Memorandum of Association, art. 3 (c)
** (footnote 57): For those holding “Jewish nationality” (as distinct
from Israeli citizenship), special immigration rights and privileges
are provided in the Basic Law: Law of Return (1950), as well as
development and access to resources under the Basic Law:”Israel Lands”
(1960).
*** (footnote 58): An alien person is defined as one who falls outside
the following categories:
(a) an Israeli citizen;
(b) a person who has immigrated (to Israel) under the Basic Law: Law of
Return;
(c) someone who is entitled to the status of immigrant under the Law of
Return, i.e. a Jew by descent or religion;
(d) a company controlled by (a), (b) or (c).
para 207: The two-tiered cviil status under Israeli law, favouring
“Jewish nationals (le’om yehudi) over persons holding Israeli
citizenship (ezrahut), has been a subject of concern under the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
particularly those forms of discrimination carried out through Israel’s
parastatal agencies (World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency; Jewish
National Fund and their affiliates), which dominate land use, housing
and development.* The Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights also has recognized that Israel’s application
of a “Jewish nationality” distinct from Israeli citizenship
institutionalizes discrimination that disadvantages all Palestinians, in
particular, refugees.**
* (footnote 59): In 1998, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights observed “with grave concern that the Status Law of 1952
authorizes the World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency and its
ssubsidiaries, including the Jewish National Fund, to control most of
the land in Israel, since these institutions are chartered to benefit
Jews exclusively. […] large-scale and systematic confiscation of
Palestinian land and property by the State and transfer of that property
to these agencies constitutes an institutionalized form of
discrimination because these agencies by definition would deny the use
of these properties to non-Jews. Thus, these practices constitute a
breach of Israel’s obligations under the Covenant.” (E/C.12/1/Add. 27,
para.11).
** (footnote 60): In its 2003 review, the Committee on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights also observed with particular concern that “the
status of ‘Jewish nationality,’ which is a ground for exclusive
preferential treatment for persons of Jewish nationality under the
Israeli Law of Return, granting them automatic citizenship and financial
government benefits, thus resulting in practice in discriminatory
treatment against non-Jews, in particular Palestinian refugees.”
(E/C.12/1/Add. 90, para 18).
