Olive production

It is olive harvest season once again in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) and something unusual is taking place, something unique to this region. Unlike most harvests around the world which are collected either by local farmers or migrant workers, in the case of Palestine people are literally flying in from all over the globe, albeit in very small numbers, in order to participate in the olive picking season. This is not due to a cultural tradition or as a communal celebration or festival, but to a sense of solidarity. These are international solidarity campaignersⁱ who fly to the Holy Land to stand side-by-side with Palestinian farmers in order to be witnesses and, frequently, protectors for the farmers as they attempt to harvest their meagre crops while being brutalised by Israeli soldiers and illegal Jewish settlers who try to stop them.

A legal and lethal tool of Israeli repression

A largely neglected instrument of legal Israeli repression used against the Palestinian people is that of administrative detention. Thousands of men as well as women and children are held indefinitely and under horrendous conditions in detention centres dotted across the occupied territories without charge, access to a fair trial or even having been accused of committing a crime. This renders administrative detainees exceptions to the rules that would govern convicts, placing them outside the normal legal system and procedures and beyond the remit of the Red Cross. This not only means that the order cannot be challenged, but it also means that detainees are not provided with adequate living conditions, medical care, food, clothing or access to their families. The immense amount of power wielded by the military commanders able to issue administrative detention orders arbitrarily, means it has become a lethal tool of political retribution against the resistance. Moreover, it is used as a means of subjugating the people as a whole and of damaging the very fabric of Palestinian society. Israel's application of its administrative detention laws clearly contravenes both international and humanitarian law and according to certain interpretations, constitutes a war crime.

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9th – 11th July 2010: Jerusalem, Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel

Baroness Tonge (Liberal Democrat), Lord Ahmed (Labour) and Lord Hylton (Independent). Accompanied by Shazia Arshad (Parliamentary Officer, Middle East Monitor).

The trip was fully sponsored by the Middle East Monitor.

The trip was organised as an emergency visit to focus on the urgency of the plights of Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Members who are currently faced with deportation. Muhammed Abu Teir, Ahmad Attoun, Muhammed Totah, and Khaled Abu Arafeh, Former PA Minister of Jerusalem Affairs have been served with deportation orders by the Israeli authorities under claims of disloyalty to the state. Although they are elected representatives they have been ordered to leave Jerusalem where they have lived all their lives and where their families continue to reside. Muhammad Abu Teir has already been arrested by the Israeli authorities. The remaining three PLC members have now sought refuge at the Red Cross.

1. Introduction: A call for the normalisation of relations.

A mere eleven minutes after Israel declared its independence in 1948, US President Harry Truman recognised the newly created state.  That instantaneous public support has never really wavered and ever since then the two countries have shared a "special relationship", one that is unlike any other. America has stood by Israel through thick and thin; right or wrong; supporting it on all fronts: financially, politically, diplomatically and militarily. However, many observers have for a long time now believed that this has become a toxic association, whereby America's entrenched and unwavering support for Israel is actually doing the United States more harm than good. In 2003 the European Commission conducted a poll across Europe in which 59% of those interviewed said they felt that Israel, America's staunchest ally, was in fact the greatest threat to world peace.

The sole benefit of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip has light-heartedly been said to be its containment of the H1N1 Swine Flu virus. Restrictions on movement in and out of this densely populated area as well as ever widening limitations on the import of much needed goods have meant that the virus has been kept at bay until now. Nevertheless, there has been growing fear that the emergence of just one case could trigger an epidemic when it inevitably finds its way in.

By
Senussi Bsaikri
Researcher, Middle East Monitor, London




Background

The beginning of the 21st century witnessed the emergence of what has come to be known as the ‘Iranian Nuclear Crisis’. It followed the unearthing of Tehran’s nuclear aspirations when, in August 2002, an exiled Iranian opposition group named the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) revealed classified details about Iran’s nuclear program, including information about uranium enrichment and production of the chemical compound Arak heavy-water.

The Condition of Palestinian Women and Children in Israeli Jails

By
Silvia Nicolaou-Garcia
Researcher, Middle East Monitor, MEMO, London

Overview

• The treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons does not comply with international human rights or with international humanitarian law standards. This report examines how these international law violations are accentuated in the cases of detained women and children.
  
  
• Due to the fact that women and children are vulnerable subjects, they are often at risk of violence, abuse and denial of their rights at every stage of the criminal justice process.¹ The risks faced by Palestinian children in detention are having a damaging impact on their development and violate established principles of juvenile justice. In the same way, there is a complete disregard of gender sensitive health care and hygiene standards for Palestinian female detainees, sometimes resulting in pregnant women being shackled on their way to hospitals to give birth.²
  
  
• This report distinguishes between two types of violations: those occurring during the trial proceedings, including denial of fair trial and administrative detention, and those occurring during detention and in prisons, sometimes amounting to torture.
  
  
• Before addressing these substantive issues, the report reconsiders Israel’s obligations under international law, since an understanding of the latter has a bearing on the categorisation of the former.