The New Nation - Internet Edition

Palestine ignored

Marwan Bishara

Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, recently delivered his report to the General Assembly.

He cited continued "abuse of international humanitarian law" associated with the "separation wall", "children fatalities due to Israeli use of excessive force" to quell nonviolent demonstrations, and abuses at border crossings.

Despite the details and warnings in the report, Israel's policy of incarceration, targeted assassinations, and near starvation of millions of Palestinians has gone unabated for too long under the eyes of the international community.

This is the longest occupation (and refugee problem) since the establishment of the UN itself; four decades old … and counting.

Failure to resolve the Palestinian- Israeli conflict and "Israel's 40-year occupation" would, in the words of Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, "continue to hurt the reputation of the United Nations and raise questions about its impartiality" Israel has disregarded with total impunity dozens of UN resolutions "censuring", "calling", "urging", "recommending" , or "condemning" its attacks, settlements, deportations, and occupation.

Unfortunately, all pleas and demands for humanitarian and political interventions have fallen on deaf ears.

Israel has managed to exploit the short-sighted framework of the peace process to bypass all relevant Security Council resolutions such as 465 of 1980 that strongly deplored all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure, and status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories - including Jerusalem- occupied since 1967.

It also rejected resolution 476, which reaffirmed the necessity to end Israeli occupation of Arab territories.

Resolution 242 of 1967 has been the only resolution that was accepted by the US and Israel as the basis of the diplomatic process, but this has been systematically violated.

The unsettling settlements

Annual Israeli reports on settlement activity have shown that they have been expanding despite relevant UN resolutions warning of the "inadmissibility of Israel's acquisition of territory by force".

Recently the Israeli government announced new expansions of its illegal settlements; according to Israeli reports and despite official claims to the contrary, illegal Jewish settlement has accelerated at unprecedented pace under the government of Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister.

This has led to a tripling of illegal settlements since the so-called peace process started in 1991.

In his report, Falk said:

"The extent of the settlement encroachment on West Bank and East Jerusalem territorial scope is difficult to calculate with precision due to the continuous process of expansion."

"The prevailing best estimate is that settlement land claims (together with Palestinian land seized for the construction of the separation wall) confiscate 14 per cent of the territory of the West Bank, which is itself only 22 per cent of the original British Mandate of Palestine."

According to recent figures there are currently some 200 settlements, 100 outposts, and 29 Israeli military bases.

The cost of sustaining the settlement network is about $556 million a year, and the number of settlers is estimated to be between 480,000-550, 000.

The rate of settlement expansion is placed at approximately four per cent per year, both with respect to land and population.

There are a variety of special problems raised by the settlements that contribute to violence of settlers toward Palestinians and the violence of Palestinian resistance.

The city of Hebron has been a persisting flashpoint where 700 settlers are protected by 300 Israeli soldiers in a city of 150,000 Palestinian inhabitants.

Perhaps, the most telling statistic compiled by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is that Palestinian land taken by Israel for settlements, for closed military zones (including almost the entire Jordan Valley), and for Israeli-declared nature preserves, now renders 40 per cent of the West Bank inaccessible and unusable for residential, agricultural, commercial, or municipal development. "

Washington's partiality

Since the early 1970s, Washington has vetoed 42 UN Security Council resolutions critical of Israeli policies, some of which were drafted by its European allies.

If one accepts the claim that Cold War rivalries had contributed to UN paralysis with respect to the Israeli Palestinian- Arab conflict, (all 690 Soviet-Arab resolutions adopted from 1947-1990 have been ignored by the West), then how can one justify sidelining the UN since the fall of the Soviet Union?

After all, most major post-Cold War conflicts have seen direct UN involvement: Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and of late, Lebanon and Sudan.

But the UN, it seems, cannot deal with the occupation and suffering of Palestine.

Following the end of the Cold War, the Palestinian- Israeli conflict was removed from the halls of the world body and entrusted to Israel's allies in Washington.

The few resolutions critical of Israel that were not vetoed by Washington have been utterly ignored by Israel.

Only when the peace process failed to yield a solution did the Bush administration allow the UN to join the management of the so-called peace process, and even then, merely as a junior partner in a newly formed International Quartet that includes the European Union and Russia, all of whom are already members of the UN.

UN is necessary

The only time the UN was allowed a role was in 1997 when it sent a few international unarmed observers to the occupied city of Hebron; but they weren't mandated to speak publicly about the ongoing violations.

Paradoxically, Israel itself was created by a 1947 UN recommendation for partitioning Palestine, and was accepted as a new UN member on the basis of its commitment to respect its resolution, and specifically the non-binding General Assembly resolution 194 regarding the return of Palestinian refugees.

In the 60 odd years since, Israel has done all but comply with resolution 194 despite its reaffirmation and reiteration dozens of times since.

A quick look at today's Middle East makes it clear that such obstructions of international law and marginalisation of the UN served neither party and did not help the pursuit of peace and security in the region.

But what would a UN role be and how would it contribute to peace in the region?

After bilateral negotiations and unilateral venues tried and failed to reach a just solition, the multilateral and legalistic UN approach should be given a chance.

A step in the right direction would be to convene an all-encompassing international conference that addresses all aspects of the conflict.

Palestine deserves the same UN-approved international protection afforded to other suffering peoples of the world.

Perhaps the Security Council could begin by reading Falk's urgent recommendations to end the occupation and arrive at a just solution to the conflict, beginning with the need for Palestinian self- determination.

Falk's recommendations

In his report, Falk urged that the General Assembly should ask the International Court of Justice for legal assessment of the Israeli occupation of Palestine territory from the perspective of the Palestinian right of self-determination.

He also suggested that Security Council assistance should be sought to seek implementation of the 2004 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the legal consequences of the construction of a call in Occupied Territory.

More pointedly, Falk also shed light on "persisting gross violations of the Geneva Conventions over a long period of time". He called for "serious consideration should be given to the legal obligations of the Parties to these treaties 'to ensure respect' for the substantive undertakings as called for in common Article 1 [of the UN Charter]".

Falk also said: "An initial step might be to urge the Government of Switzerland as repository for the Geneva Conventions to convene a meeting of State Parties with the purpose of exploring how to carry out their legal duties, given the persistent and severe violation of the legal regime of occupation by Israel."

He also urged that "serious note should be taken by all relevant agencies of the United Nations of the failure of Israel to fulfil its pledges at the Annapolis Summit to halt settlement expansion, to ease freedom of movement on the West Bank, and to attend to the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians under occupation."

Finally, Falk placed the onus on the UN as an international body mandated to "explore its own responsibility with respect to the wellbeing of the Palestinians living under unlawful conditions of occupation, particularly bearing on abuses of border control, freedom and independence of journalists, and the general crisis in health care, especially in Gaza."

The special rapporteur also emphasised the humanitarian and health crisis in Gaza after more than a year of an Israeli siege,

He said that it should be the UN's highest priority to resume economic assistance to the people of Gaza.

He said: "In the face of an impending humanitarian catastrophe, the responsibility to do what is possible to mitigate human suffering is serious."

"This is a responsibility toward the civilian population of Gaza, and is not dependent on whether Hamas satisfies the political conditions set by Israel or whether the ceasefire holds."

(The writer is Al Jazeera's Senior Political Analyst, in Washington. The views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of Al Jazeera.)

War in Georgia: Moscow's shock tactics

Though there may be a spring in the step of Russians now, the reality is that their military and society are not nearly as strong as they would like to think. By David Watts

REVERSING LOSSES: Of late Moscow has been handing out passports to many South Ossetians so as to give a modicum of credibility to Russian claim that they were acting in defence of their own

Welcome to the old world order or international politics as it always has been except in the view of right-wing think tanks and strategists along the Potomac.

Moscow has given the West a renewed lesson in realpolitik but it is far from clear who will take away the most significant gains, long-term brickbats and benefits from the revival of the Cold War in the Caucasus. But all the indications are that it will play out into a frustrating draw that will only serve to inflame the competitive instincts of either side.

With Russia's troops taking their time about leaving Georgia and Moscow making it clear that it reserves the right to keep some sort of presence on the ground it is time to assess the intermediate results of the 21st Century's first overt attempt to check the expansion of western influence.

The commentocracy appears to view the proceedings as a hands-down loss for the West: a stretch too far and the long-awaited come-uppance for the arrogant assumption of the Americans that the world is their playground which they can shape to their model at will. In the short-term this much is certain: there won't be too many small countries launching military adventures over the next few years and then sitting back and waiting for the cavalry to come over the hill. As the Georgians found out, there is no cavalry available just now and even if there were other important people have a view on that.

The Russians had been waiting to prove a point for some years, only no one in power in Washington seems to have taken them seriously. Ever since the expansion of Nato up to the borders of Russia at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow has been waiting for an opportunity to start redressing the balance.

As Professor Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute notes, the expansion of Nato into Georgia and Ukraine is 'fundamentally different' from the incorporation of the other former members of the Soviets bloc. As a result, the Russians had been steadily strengthening their links with South Ossetia over the years - most recently by handing out passports to many of its citizens so as to give a modicum of credibility to their claim that they were acting in defence of their own.

President Mikheil Saakashvili's posturing gave him the chance. A product of the American legal system, the Georgian president learned all the right buttons to push, during his sojourn in the United States, to win the hearts and minds of the neo-cons. One of the difficulties, for former president Vladimir Putin not least, was the fact that he is still a Georgian at heart. At home he used the army in an overt use of power from which even Putin would shrink on his own territory; he brought the press under control; there is but a single, state-controlled television outlet in the country and the military has been used to break up strikes; hardly the stuff of democracy. All the more frustrating then for Putin to see this man using so many devices straight out of his own Kremlin play book while waving the flags of Nato and western democracy on his doorstep.

Don't forget that when Russians last went to the polls the exercise produced such scepticism in the West that monitors were brought into play. So from the Kremlin's viewpoint the western establishment of yet another outpost on Russia's border, closing a ring which, in the Russian perception, already stretches round to the very farthest eastern outposts of Central Asia, was something that must be weakened at all cost.

The Russians, above all, want to be taken seriously as a world and military power with interests that should be respected. And this crass adventure so redolent of the clumsy, brutal Russian bear of old has certainly put down the marker that was intended. As President Dmitri Medvedev said as the Russian pullout got underway: 'We do not want to aggravate the situation, but we want to be respected and our government to be respected and our people to be respected and our values.' What values he had in mind he did not say but this is certainly not the moment to be preaching to Russia about values. And notably few western politicians did, preferring discretion as the better part of valour and recognising, as the Russians implied, that the greatest damage has been done to the country's image and reputation.

It was the most striking use of Russian power since the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and though only a 'police action' against a minor formerly vassal state, the Russian military did not cover itself with glory. The air force, in particular, must be licking its wounds. The defence ministry admitted the loss of four aircraft over five days including a Tupolev Tu 22 long range strategic reconnaissance bomber and three Sukhoi 25 ground attack aircraft. The Georgians claimed many more which seems unlikely but no Russian military official can be happy with that loss ratio. The tally may be an indicator of how successful has been the relatively brief period of western training that the Georgians have enjoyed and the effectiveness of the anti-aircraft weaponry that they bought from the Israelis. It must have been a wake-up call to the Russian military as to the potential for the improvement of the capability of the regional militaries that come into contact with Nato methods and procedures, a process that could be repeated in Ukraine and elsewhere.

But while Russia's shock tactics may have put a spring in the step of Russians, the reality is that their military and society are not nearly as strong as they would like to think. Up to 700,000 Russians die of alcoholism every year and there are two million registered alcoholics while as many as 1.3 million people suffer from Aids. Mortality rates are some of the worst in the world and this is a nation in decline while even its phenomenal oil revenues hide weaknesses in industry. That knowledge helps drive Russian policy-making but also helps feed Russian paranoia about encirclement and victimhood.

Not exacerbating the latter is an important part of Nato's response to the crisis which so far wants to have its cake and eat it too by both freezing relations with Moscow but maintaining links so as not to jeopardise the energy supplies on which Europe is now so dependent.

As a first step it would seem important for Nato to reach a consensus on how far and how fast to drive an expansion policy which is now in danger of damaging the very peace that it is supposed to maintain. As Prof Clarke points out, there is a substantial difference between the admission of Georgia and Ukraine and the other nations who have so far joined.

(Source: Asian Affairs)

The Afghans are suffering immensely today

I am back from Afghanistan. On behalf of those widows and children, let me thank those generous and humanitarian Ismailies who really cared about those of their brothers and sisters who have been in the highest rate of hungriness and poverty in Afghanistan .

I did receive all the sponsors' contributions and gave them to those that nobody has reached them yet or maybe they were simply ignored!

Of course our sincere thanks to both of you, Naseem and Firoz, without you this would not be happening and possible.

There are so many NGOs almost in every street; UNs, government and Imamati Institutions but I think maybe their help is not enough or they do not reach the right people or they are not what they are supposed to do.

Despite of all the fear and stress I had to get the money from the bank, thank Mawla, he made it safe for me in fact he made my stay safe. So, what I did was, I went to the bank and wore my 'burka', I got the money and while leaving the bank I put my burka in a bag and I covered myself with a shawl so that nobody can recognize me. It was it wise, right?

Anyways, let me write you how people live in that part of the world, there are so much sorrow and grieve hidden behind those innocent faces and hopelessness has covered their entire lives..

Here I am writing you some of their stories from thousands.

There is a street crossing in Kabul where there are lady beggars in each 1 meter all young women. One day I was crossing that road, that one of those ladies pulled my clot hes and begged for 1 Afghani, sometimes those beggars are dangerous but she was begging so innocently and I gave her some money. I saw her little son lying on the street !

It shocked me. I asked how come you are begging and not working? She replied that she doesn't have young appearance so people did not give job they believe that she is old and cannot work. I asked her for her home add, she gave it to me and went the other day. She has 4young children I guess, and nothing I could find in her home to sit! No single carpet or anything, all over was pieces of plastics. They sleep and sit on those. And of course it should be very hard to find food there. (photo attached)

From there I took the risk and thought of going to further distances t Well, I met so many families and after each visit emotionally I got sick and felt very disappointed… you know, they start hating the work of our Institutions and for sure NGOs and others because they believe that those organizations are meant to help them and that is why they are funded but they have not done anything for them.

So, I was going to them and pretended that we are relatives.

While visiting them I met one of the mothers, she was telling me how she lost her 2 children, husband and how struggled in life to save her children now she is suffering from cancer and her youngest daughter got a disease in her wrist, that she cannot move it anymore. She doesn't have enough money to take her to a specialist, she took her to government hospitals (free) and doctors do not care about the patients and since she has gone to doctor her situation is even worse. The mother works for a Pashton Afghan family as cleaner and she earns $25 per month, she also gets some old clothes for her children and sometimes leftover dishes. It was lunch time almost and you know what they had for lunch? Just lettuce with dry bread! And then the mother divided them between her children and every child was trying to get one bit more so nothing was left for the poor mother! (photo attached)

I went to an other house where an old couple lives, and both of them take sack every morning and collect the garbage from streets and by this way they survive. It was dark I reached to their home as I could not get hold of them during the day. They had burnt a light which did not have any effect as there was too little gas in it, moon lig ht was better than that. They were telling me they hardly can find something to eat once a day.

They were refuges and their young daughter disappeared in Karachi , Pakistan in 1999. (photo attached)

There was another widow who I met and she was married only for 6 months when she lost her husband, she has a 3 months baby girl now. I asked her about her husband, she said, she did not know he had cancer and when they got married she got to know. They did not have money to take him to Pakistan so, he died. She leaves her baby home alone during the day and goes to her neighbours' houses and cleans their houses and they give her bread and sugar instead. This is how she survives and does breast feeding to her baby. (photo attached)

I unfortunately experienced that almost all of those kids, girls and boys are out of school, some because of unsafe situation, and most because of money, and poverty.

When I was helping them with some clothes, pens, notebooks and especially food, the smiles on their faces did not disappeared for about an hour and tears of happiness were on their cheeks. All these are unforgettable for me.

Well, there are some of those stories as sample of ignorance, poverty and inhumanity in Afghan society.

Once again, I am very confident in assuring you that your contributions have been given to the very, very needy and poor widows and children and for sure your contributions have made a positive change in each of those people's lives and maybe those kids who struggle with poverty, had some more food to eat for some time.

last but not least, I pray that all those kids' and mothers' prayers for your happiness and long life are accepted.

(From the Internet)

"Worsening" Afghanistan: Mullen

With violence is already on all-time high since the US-led invasion, the top US military official expects violence to further escalate in Afghanistan next year, reported The New York Times on Friday, October 10.

"The trends across the board are not going in the right direction," Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.

"I would anticipate next year would be a tougher year.

"It's been very, very tough fighting this year and it will be tougher next year unless we (develop) a way to get at all aspects of the challenge."

An intelligence assessment cited by the Times on Thursday said that Afghanistan is already in a downward spiral, seven years after the 2001 US invasion.

The classified report said the increasing Taliban attacks and corruption inside President Hamid Karzai's government have accelerated the breakdown in central authority in the country.

The report, a nearly completed version of a National Intelligence Estimate, is set to be finished after the November elections and will be the most comprehensive US assessment in years on Afghanistan.

According to the Times, the Bush administration has already launched a major review of its Afghanistan policy.

Pentagon officials have openly expressed concern over the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

"I'm not convinced we are winning it in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can," Mullen told Congress a month ago.

Taliban, ousted by the US following the 9/11 attacks, has been engaged in protracted guerrilla warfare against US-led foreign forces and the Karzai's government for the past seven years.

A recent report by the Senlis Council think-tank said Taliban has permanent presence in more than half of Afghanistan.

Failure

Mullen said that the US and its allies have failed to forge a strategic unity to defeat Taliban.

"One of the big struggles we have is developing a comprehensive approach to all of this," the admiral said.

"We're just not there.

"I don't think it's going to turn around overnight. So I would anticipate next year being a tougher year," he added.

The top US military official said that the military force is not the only solution to the Afghan conflict.

"It's the full spectrum -- the political piece, the diplomatic piece, the economic piece, in addition to the security piece -- that's got to improve dramatically."

His remarks came a day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the US would back the Afghan government's peace talks with the Taliban to solve the conflict.

"There has to be ultimately, and I'll underscore ultimately, reconciliation as part of a political outcome to this," Gates told reporters after his first day of NATO meetings in Budapest about the Afghanistan war.

"That's ultimately the exit strategy for all of us."

But Gates said the talks could not include anyone belonging to al-Qaeda, which claims responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.

"We have to be sure that we're not talking about any al-Qaeda," he said, when listing conditions for peace talks in Afghanistan.

Asked again if he thought talks were possible with the Taliban but not al-Qaeda, Gates said, "Yeah."

Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, Britain's top military commander in Afghanistan, ruled out earlier this week a possible military defeat for Taliban, adding his voice to a growing camp calling for talks with Taliban.