Expert UN panel established to investigate ‘implications’ of settlements on Palestinian human rights

{ 19 comments... read them below or add one }

1. seafoid says:

   July 10, 2012 at 1:33 pm

   + Show content

   Israel will just point to the Rwanda genocide and say the Ziobots have done nothing wrong in Erez Israel

   It is such a pity for him and his relationship with posterity that Hitler wasn’t advised by the IDF press office.
   • Mooser says:

     July 11, 2012 at 1:07 am

     + Show content

     Besides, what about San Remo? And didn’t the Israeli government already investigate this? And who is closer to the situation and has more at stake, the Israelis or the UN committee? Obviously the UN report will be invalid. They’re not close enough to the facts on the ground to know right from wrong. And has “latent anti-Semitism” been accounted for?
2. Hostage says:

   July 10, 2012 at 1:55 pm

   + Show content

   But ironically, the fact that Israel has the power to prevent the investigators from entering the West Bank shows once again that, yes, Palestine is occupied. What would the Levy report say to that fact?

   The Levy report hasn’t been published or translated yet, but Dr. Alan Baker’s involvement suggests that it’s based upon the long-since discredited and shopworn Missing Reversioner Theory and the Balfour Declaration. The 15 ICJ justices flushed that proposition down the toilet in their 2004 advisory opinion. 14 of the justices tossed-in Dr. Baker’s 230-page written submission for good measure. It’s probably no coincidence that Alan Baker and the reversioner theory bobbed-up together again on Netahyahu’s commission. How embarrassing.
3. Broucardt says:

   July 10, 2012 at 3:02 pm

   + Show content

   This is the biggest hoax ever. We do not need a commission to study the impact Zionist policies have had upon the native Palestinian population, many of which are not allowed to return to their ancestral homeland. The answer is playing out right in front of our faces. A commission will be easily swayed by the Zionist Lobby, and it will not yield many results. The fact remains that the international community must come down on Tel Aviv NOW. Toothless commission reports will be received as ‘anti-Semetic,’ the usual attack levied upon those who dare to criticize Israeli policy. Once that attack is lodged, people will run away from the issue to avoid being unjustly tarred as a ‘Jew-hater.’ Nobody desires to stand in the company of Germany’s 20th Century ghosts, not even Germany. Additionally, my experience with commissions is that they bide time until crisis settles itself. They often divert attention from what is truly important. The UN panel certainly has enough information against Israel and its over 1200 UN resolutions that were flat out ignored by Tel Aviv, the real rogue state in the region.
   • chinese box says:

     July 10, 2012 at 8:43 pm

     + Show content

     After 45 years of occupation they are establishing a commission on settlements?

     And this is the UN that Finkelstein believes is going to enforce international law?
     • Hostage says:

       July 11, 2012 at 1:33 am

       + Show content

       After 45 years of occupation they are establishing a commission on settlements?

       No the UN Security Council established the first 3 member commission on settlements in 1979:
       

       4. Establishes a Commission consisting of three members of the Security Council, to be appointed by the President of the Council after consultations with the members of the Council, to examine the situation relating to settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem;

       5. Requests the Commission to submit its report to the Security Council by 1 July 1979;

       6. Requests the Secretary-General to provide the Commission with the necessary facilities to enable it to carry out its mission.

       7. Decides to keep the situation in the occupied territories under constant and close scrutiny and to reconvene in July 1979 to review the situation in the light of the findings of the Commission.

       – S/RES/446 (1979) link to unispal.un.org

       Every UN organ has declared the settlements illegal, but they conduct periodic fact finding missions to document the evidence of the effects of continuing colonization on the cultural, political, and economic life of the Palestinian people. The UN drafted the Rome Statute which made the transfer of parts of the Occupying Power’s population into the territories a punishable offense within the jurisdiction of the ICC.

       And this is the UN that Finkelstein believes is going to enforce international law?

       Last year the President and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said that if Palestine was recognized as a state by the UN, it could join the ICC and demand that all crimes committed on its territory since July 2002 be investigated and the responsible individuals prosecuted. Ali Abunimah and Omar Barghouti took turns writing editorials opposing UN recognition of the State of Palestine. That’s the BDS movement that is helping Netanyahu get away with bloody murder.

       P.S. The first person prosecuted and convicted by the ICC was sentenced to 14 years in prison today. One day that could be an Israeli official if we pressure our governments to support the UN statehood bid and arrest and prosecute Israelis responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
       • chinese box says:

         July 11, 2012 at 7:27 am

         + Show content

         @Hostage

         Thanks, I wasn’t aware of that information.
4. Philip Munger says:

   July 10, 2012 at 3:05 pm

   + Show content

   Christine Chanet, Unity Dow and Asma Jahangir are outstanding choices for heading this task force. Abe Foxman, however, is not pleased:

   “We have very little faith in the impartiality of those selected by the Human Rights Council to head up its fact-finding mission tasked with investigating Israeli settlements,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “The Council’s decision to dispatch a mission of this nature reeks of hypocrisy, and is further tainted by the expressed biases against Israel of those charged with overseeing this latest chapter in the UNHRC’s anti-Israel agenda. Two of the panelists are already on record with distorted statements and reports regarding Israel.”

   In 2010, Chanet publicly stated in an official U.N. capacity that “it is very difficult to have a real dialogue (with Israel).” And in 2011, Jahangir presented the anti-Israel Russell Tribunal on Palestine with an unbalanced and unduly harsh assessment of Jewish control over religious sites in Israel.

   “The Council’s fact-finding mission was conceived with an illegitimate one-sided mandate and the composition of the panel confirms there should be very low expectations of a fair outcome and a good chance the mission will only serve to further inflame tensions between Israel and the Palestinians,” said Mr. Foxman.

   I can’t wait for Foxman to denounce the Levy Commission Report for its capacity to “further inflame tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.”

   link to adl.org

   I expect some Zionist groups to ramp up demands that the U.S. do as the Israelis have done – leave the UNHRC.
   • elephantine says:

     July 11, 2012 at 3:37 am

     + Show content

     It really baffles me. Does Abe Foxman actually believes the crap he says or do you think he’s fully aware of how ridiculous what he’s saying is….?… but says it anyway because – well, what else is he going to say. I can’t believe he would seriously believe what he says – does he?

     I can only shake my head… wow.
5. American says:

   July 10, 2012 at 3:25 pm

   + Show content

   “The Levy report on the Israeli occupation and West Bank settlements has everyone talking–mostly about the absurd and delusional nature of the conclusion, which is that there is no occupation.”

   LOL……if any scientist are looking for perfect subjects for research on the Stupid Gene…well, look no further than Levy & Group.
   • seafoid says:

     July 10, 2012 at 5:22 pm

     + Show content

     Zionist men whose wives are pregnant say they aren’t and that any children born are antisemites who have nothing to do with them.
6. seafoid says:

   July 10, 2012 at 3:31 pm

   + Show content

   Expert UN panel to investigate implications of settlements for Palestinian human rights.

   Israel denies that Palestinians are humans deserving of rights and says that there are supermarkets in Gaza for the ingrates.
7. Kathleen says:

   July 10, 2012 at 10:25 pm

   + Show content

   Absurd

   As Groucho Marx used to say “Who are you going to believe the Levy Commission, or your lying eyes?”
8. jimmy says:

   July 10, 2012 at 10:26 pm

   + Show content

   just read those comments on the Jpost…
   to get a sense what kind of people these zionists are…

   wow….
9. DICKERSON3870 says:

   July 10, 2012 at 11:01 pm

   + Show content

   RE: “The Levy report on the Israeli occupation and West Bank settlements has everyone talking–mostly about the absurd and delusional nature of the conclusion, which is that there is no occupation.” ~ Alex Kane

   MY COMMENT: The “delusional” Levy report is a great example of a phenomenon (“screen memories”/“turning a blind eye”) that Chris Hedges addresses in his recent article “How to Think”.

   SEE: “How to Think”, by Chris Hedges, TruthDig.com, 7/09/12
   

   [EXCERPTS]. . .Human societies see what they want to see. They create national myths of identity out of a composite of historical events and fantasy. They ignore unpleasant facts that intrude on self-glorification. They trust naively in the notion of linear progress and in assured national dominance. This is what nationalism is about—lies. And if a culture loses its ability for thought and expression, if it effectively silences dissident voices, if it retreats into what Sigmund Freud called “screen memories,” those reassuring mixtures of fact and fiction, it dies. It surrenders its internal mechanism for puncturing self-delusion. It makes war on beauty and truth. It abolishes the sacred. It turns education into vocational training. It leaves us blind. . .
   . . . The psychoanalyst John Steiner calls this phenomenon “turning a blind eye.” He notes that often we have access to adequate knowledge but because it is unpleasant and disconcerting we choose unconsciously, and sometimes consciously, to ignore it. He uses the Oedipus story to make his point. He argued that Oedipus, Jocasta, Creon and the “blind” Tiresias grasped the truth, that Oedipus had killed his father and married his mother as prophesized, but they colluded to ignore it. We too, Steiner wrote, turn a blind eye to the dangers that confront us, despite the plethora of evidence that if we do not radically reconfigure our relationships to each other and the natural world, catastrophe is assured. Steiner describes a psychological truth that is deeply frightening.
   I saw this collective capacity for self-delusion among the urban elites in Sarajevo and later Pristina during the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo. These educated elites steadfastly refused to believe that war was possible although acts of violence by competing armed bands had already begun to tear at the social fabric. At night you could hear gunfire. But they were the last to “know.” . . .

   ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to truthdig.com
   • DICKERSON3870 says:

     July 10, 2012 at 11:16 pm

     + Show content

     RE: “The ‘delusional’ Levy report is a great example of a phenomenon (‘screen memories’/'turning a blind eye’) that Chris Hedges addresses in his recent article” ~ me (above)

     THIS ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS WHAT IS ARGUABLY ANOTHER EXAMPLE (of the phenomenon – ‘screen memories’/'turning a blind eye’).
     ARTICLE: “Can Jewish Liberals Transcend the Wiesel Doctrine? Countering the Israel Lobby’s Dominance”, by Alan Nasser, Counterpunch, 5/29/12
     

     • “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivitiess become irrelevant.” ~ Elie Wiesel, From the “Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences”
     • “My loyalty to my people, to our people, and to Israel comes first and prevents me from saying anything critical of Israel outside Israel… As a Jew I see my role as a melitz yosher, a defender of Israel: I defend even her mistakes… I must identify with whatever Israel does – even with her errors.” ~ Elie Wiesel, “Against Silence”

     In the end, whether Israel’s penchant for serial atrocities encounters an effective obstacle will hinge on two types of resistance, elicited not from the fictitious “international community”, but from the active opponents of Israel’s ongoing projects, and from the withdrawal of moral and financial support for the ongoing reproduction of Israel as an apartheid Zionist State.
     Among the first type of response are the increasingly visible efforts, which gained momentum in the wake of the May 2010 flotilla murders, to promote sanctions, boycott and divestiture. . .
     . . . The second kind of response includes refusals to any longer make excuses for Israeli abominations [rationalizations - J.L.D], willingness finally to speak out in public protest, and the cessation of financial support for the rogue State. An especially powerful development would be the readiness of American Jews to announce loud and clear that Israel does not speak for them, to distance themselves from the agenda of the politically powerful Israel lobby, and to cross over into solidarity with the Palestinian people. None of this, I will suggest below, is as far-fetched as it might have seemed fifteen years ago.
     Among the key habits of thought, feeling and action that must be defeated is what we might call the Wiesel Doctrine, as expressed in the second passage at the head of this article, which pledges to “defend even [Israel’s] mistakes… [to] identify with whatever Israel does – even with her errors.” The Doctrine saturates the political consciousness of too many older (an important qualifier) liberal American Jews. These are the Jews most likely to contribute to AIPAC and for whom their perception of a given Senate, House or presidential candidate’s friendliness to Israeli policy is sufficient to determine support.
     . . . As Beinart observes, “As secular Jews drift away from America’s Zionist institutions, their orthodox counterparts will likely step into the breach.” Thus, the distance between largely secular American Jews and the Zionist establishment is likely to widen. But this will weaken the political power of the Israel lobby – inextricably linked, of course, to the Jewish establishment – only if American Jews as a whole are prepared to announce unambiguously their antipathy to their… representatives. The political and moral responsibility this places on American Jewish liberals cannot be overestimated. . .
     . . . [Peter] Bienart sees that as an American Jew he bears a special responsibility to act on the words, hypocritically penned by Elie Wiesel, cited at the head of this article: “We must always take sides…. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.” I say he’s right.

     ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to counterpunch.org
   • seafoid says:

     July 11, 2012 at 4:51 am

     + Show content

     That is a wonderful link, Dickerson. Thanks .
10. Matthew Graber says:

    July 10, 2012 at 11:12 pm

    + Show content

    So the US has another resolution to veto in the UN Security Council? This is just as delusional of an action by the United Nations as in the declaration by the Levy Report.

    If the country that is demonstrating control of the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River (what’s left of it) says that they are demonstrating that control, then why should the United Nations set up a commission to say that they are not demonstrating that control?

    I understand that it’s a matter of the the legality of the colonization of the West Bank (since we’ve done it so long, then it must be legal now). But Israel just declared itself an Apartheid State – millions of people residing on its sovereign territory with absolutely no legal rights. I think that’s a pretty good starting point for an argument, and it’s the delusion of the United States (and as coordinator of the Palestinian Authority) that is driving this UN Commission.

    Which begs the question: What opportunities for justice are there for the Palestinians if there are no realms (UN, ICC, etc.) within international legal systems for them to find justice?

    (Russell Tribunal this Fall will be an interesting indictment of the role of the United States and the United Nations).
    • Hostage says:

      July 11, 2012 at 2:57 am

      + Show content

      So the US has another resolution to veto in the UN Security Council?

      One of the purposes of a UN fact finding mission is to have an expert compile the available evidence that, unless rebutted, would form the basis of a finding by a UN organ, treaty monitoring body, or Court of law. See for example the references to the fact finding reports of the UN Secretary General, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, and the UN Special Rapporteur on “The Right to Food” in the ICJ findings of fact contained in paragraphs 132-134 (starting on pdf page 111 of 139) link to icj-cij.org