PRESS CONFERENCE with
Deputy Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi and lawyer Raja Shehadeh
Mustafa Barghouthi:
Israel’s new military order on the presence of Palestinians in the
West Bank is extremely serious and devoted to racism.
Barghouthi said "it
is devoted to apartheid and paves the way for an ethnic cleansing
operation against thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and
occupied Jerusalem. Furthermore, it is devoted to the separation of
Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied territories and the
separation of the West Bank from Gaza, as well as lifting
imprisonment to up to seven years against thousands of people under
the pretext of sneaking into the West Bank".
Barghouthi denounced the decision as racist, and described Israel’s actions as contrary to the laws that give the Palestinian people of Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem the right to live and stay in any part of the occupied territories, without the need for permission from the occupation that seeks to systematically transform the Palestinian territories into isolated cantons and prisons.
He further added that the
Israeli decision is tantamount to abolish the remainder of the Oslo
agreements, and confirms the fact that Israel does not recognize the
influence of the Palestinian Authority and aims to eliminate the role
of all the Palestinian institutions of legislative, executive and
judicial branches.
He explained that the
resolution was a step intended to escalate the situation and marks a
new disregard for the international community, which is still talking
about the peace process.
He made a call to counter
the Israeli decision through popular resistance and the imposition of
a boycott, sanctions and divestment policy against Israel’s attempt
to consecrate the elements of apartheid and liquidate the Palestinian
cause.
Barghouthi said he is no
doubt that this is part of a comprehensive plan aimed at phasing out
all elements of the Palestinian issue. This includes the right of
return of refugees and the rights of Palestinians in Jerusalem, and
Palestinian sovereignty over borders, the Jordan Valley area and
water sources. Now it seems that there is an attempt to curtail
people’s right of movement within the territory and convert all its
residents into a group of prisoners in a prison of the isolated.
Barghouthi said that the
Israeli decision is an affirmation of the impossibility of a fully
sovereign Palestinian state without bringing the occupation fully to
an end and eliminating any Israeli legislative or legal control over
the occupied territory. The decision debunks claims made by the
Netanyahu government that it agrees in principle to a Palestinian
state and makes it clear that its real aim is to transform the
Palestinian state into a series of ghettos and cantons.
Barghouthi noted that
state institutions and the Palestinian people are united under the
banner of the Popular Resistance in confronting the Israeli decision,
and demand explicit and immediate sanctions against Israel until the
end of apartheid.
Israeli human rights
groups say that Palestinians and any foreigners living in the West
Bank could be deemed 'infiltrators' and deported within 72 hours or
jailed for seven years if they are found without the correct permit
under the new orders. Photograph: Musa Al-Shaer/AFP/Getty Images
Israel's leading human rights groups are trying to stop
two new Israeli military orders which will make any resident of the
occupied West Bank who does not have an Israeli-issued permit liable
for deportation or jail.
The new Order Regarding
Prevention of Infiltration and Order Regarding Security Provisions,
which comes into force on Tuesday have "severe ramifications,"
the rights groups say. Palestinians, and any foreigners living in the
West Bank, could be labelled infiltrators and deported within 72
hours or jailed for seven years if they are found without the correct
permit. It does not define what Israel considers a valid permit.
"The orders … are
worded so broadly such as theoretically allowing the military to
empty the West Bank of almost all its Palestinian inhabitants,"
said the 10 rights groups, which include Ha-Moked, B'Tselem, the
Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and Rabbis for Human Rights.
Until now the vast majority of Palestinians in the West Bank have not
been required to hold a permit just to be present in their homes, the
groups say.
"The military will be
able to prosecute and deport any Palestinian defined as an
infiltrator in stark contradiction to the Geneva conventions,"
they said. The law broadens the definition of an "infiltrator"
and could allow Israel to transfer some Palestinians from the West
Bank to Gaza, or to deport foreign passport holders married to West
Bank Palestinians, or to deport Israelis or foreigners living in the
West Bank. The groups said tens of thousands of Palestinians were in
those categories.
Israel effectively
controls the Palestinian population register and since 2000, apart
from once in 2007, the Israeli authorities have frozen applications
for renewal of visitor permits for foreign nationals, or applications
to grant permanent status in the occupied territories. As a result,
many Palestinians live in the West Bank without formal status and are
now vulnerable under the new orders. The human rights groups wrote to
the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, today asking him to delay
or revoke the orders, which they said were "unlawful and allow
extreme and arbitrary injury to a vast number of people".
The Israeli military said
the purpose of the orders was "the extradition of those residing
illegally in Judea and Samaria," an Israeli term for the West
Bank. The orders had been "corrected" in order to "assure
judicial oversight of the extradition process," it said.
However, Saeb Erekat, the
chief Palestinian negotiator, said the orders would make it easy for
Israel to imprison or expel Palestinians from the West Bank. "These
military orders belong in an apartheid state," he said. "They
are an assault on ordinary Palestinians and an affront to the most
fundamental principles of human rights. Israel's endgame is not
peace. It is the colonisation of the West Bank."
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