The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #117493   Message #2546615
Posted By: CarolC
22-Jan-09 - 09:29 PM
Thread Name: BS: Israel Moves in.
Subject: RE: BS: Israel Moves in.
The Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem do not have any rights. Israel can and does control where they can live, or even whether or not they can have a place to live, how they can make their living (or prevent them from making a living), whether or not they can have water or other necessary utilities, whether or not they can see their families in the other territories, or even other parts of the same territories, whether or not they can fish in their own waters, whether or not they can leave the territories and go to other countries.

Israel can and does control whether or not they can receive medical care, go to university, marry Israelis and live with them in Israel, live with spouses that are from other parts of the occupied territories, import or export goods to or from other countries, whether or not they can have the taxes they collect from their own people. If the Palestinians democratically elect a party the Israelis don't like, the Israelis can and have completely blockaded them and prevented them from being able to carry on making a living, and prevented them from being able to bring the basic necessities of life into Gaza, so they do not have the right to vote for the party of their choice.

Under Israeli military rule, Palestinians do not have the right to life. The Israeli military can and does kill them for any reason or for no reason, can does humiliate and abuse them for any reason or no reason. Settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem can and do do the same, and none of the people who do these things are ever punished. Settlers in the West Bank can do whatever they want to Palestinians there without ever experiencing any consequences.

Israel can and does kidnap and imprison Palestinians for no reason and without any charges being made against them, and they can and do hold them for as long as they like. The Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons have no rights to any kind of due process.

The measure of whether or not someone has any rights is whether or not someone has any legal recourse if they are not treated as if they have rights. Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem do not have any legal recourse to correct these things. There are no codified rights that protect them from these violations by the Israeli government. There is nothing they can do to change these things because they are not recognized by the Israeli government as having rights.