Use of Force - Israel Palestine

Introduction

The region of Israel-Palestine has been a conflict zone for political and religious reasons since the mid-20th century. Israel has been criticized by nations and international organizations, however, Israel argues that it is involved in an armed conflict with Gaza and justifies its actions as “self-defense” based on its’ interpretation of Article 51 of the UN Charter. (Khen, 2018)

This paper aims to examine the Human Rights violations by Israel in the Gaza blockade since 2007 in the context of International Law. The paper also aims to highlight the ineffectiveness and failure of major international and regional organizations to redress the situation in Gaza. This includes the UN Security Council’s failure to establish the illegality of the blockade and the lack of implementation of sanctions based on the international humanitarian law.

To show this, the paper will first describe the history of the region to provide a background of the blockade. Secondly, the paper will focus on the environmental, economic, social, cultural and political impacts in the Gaza Strip caused by the blockade. Thirdly, the paper will highlight the violations based on international human rights and humanitarian law and Israel’s defense to the violations. Then, the paper will show the ineffectiveness of major international and regional organizations in resolving the Gaza crisis. To conclude, this paper will propose recommendations to resolve the blockade in the Gaza Strip.

1. History and Background of the Region and Conflict

Up until the early 1900s, present-day Israel and Palestine, was a part of the Ottoman Empire. The region was religiously diverse with mainly Muslims and Christians and a small number of Jews population. Around this time, many occupants in this region started identifying themselves with a Palestinian identity. There was also a rise of Zionist ideology in which Jews believed that Judaism is a nationality and deserved a separate nation, resulting in an increased Jewish migration to Palestine. After World War I, the British took control of the region and called it the British Mandate of Palestine. As Jewish migration increased, differences started to rise between the Arabs and Jews in the region resulting in acts of violence. After the Holocaust, the majority of the world believed that a Jewish state needed to be established to safeguard the interest of the Jewish population. This resulted in the United Nations approving a plan to divide British Palestine into two separate states: Israel for Jews and Palestine for Arabs. Jerusalem, the holy site for Jews, Muslims and Christians, became a special international zone. (Beinin & Hajjar, 2018)

Even though Israel agreed to this plan, many Arab countries saw this move as an invasion. This resulted in the Arab-Israeli War (1948-49), in which the Arab states wanted full control of the Sinai peninsula. Israel won the war and took over a major part of Palestine including the western part of Jerusalem, Golan Heights from Syria and other surrounding provinces in the region. The areas of Gaza and West Bank were left for the Palestinian population and were controlled by Egypt and Jordan respectively. This war resulted in a decade-long conflict between Israel and Arab states, In 1967, the Arabs fought the Six-Day War against Israel. Israel won this war and occupied the entire area of Gaza and West Bank, gaining control over the people it fought a war against. Concerned with the situation in this region, many countries tried to initiate peace treaties to ensure peace in the region such as the US-brokered Camp David Accord. Since this, there was an unofficial peace treaty between Israel and the other Arab states. (Gerner, 2018)

In 1964, there was the rise of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which performed acts of terror to claim the entire area of Israel. In the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank territory, more Jews were settling in due to religious reasons and cheaper housing provided by the Israeli government.  In the period of 1987-93, the first Intifada broke out resulting in violent protests by Palestinians. Israel responded with force and resulted in the death of a proportionately high number of Palestinians as compared to Israelis. On the Gaza Strip, there was a rise of Hamas, a violent extremist group aimed to destroy Israel. (History.com, 2018)

Increased conflict in the region resulted in the signing of the Oslo Accords, allowing the establishment of the Palestinian identity in the West Bank by dividing up the areas for Palestinian controls. Both sides had extremist groups derailing the process of peace and wanted the destruction of the other side. Members of Hamas tried to sabotage this deal by performing suicide bombings. On the other side, after the second round of Oslo Accords, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by a far-right activist in Tel Aviv. (Shlaim, 2018)

From 2000 to 2005, the second Intifada broke out and was more violent than the first, resulting in the killing of more than 3200 Palestinians. ("BBC NEWS | Intifada toll 2000-2005", 2018) After the second Intifada, Israel started building checkpoints and walls to regulate Palestinian movement and withdrew from Gaza. After a short civil war in Gaza, Hamas gained political control over Gaza and separated itself from the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. ("World Report 2006: Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories", 2018)

Present Situation

The Blockade

Soon after Hamas came to power, Israel declared Gaza a “hostile territory” and  imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip as an act of ‘self-defense’ which is now a decade long separation from the rest of the world with heavy restrictions on movement via land, sea and air. This blockade has affected the the Gazan population negatively, as Palestinians are not allowed to cross borders freely while the economy has been restrained by the trade blockade. One of the major crossings at the Palestine-Egypt border, Rafah, witnessed 1,800 cargo trucks crossing the border every day in 2004, while today the number has plummeted to zero trucks. The paranoid governments in the region have stopped a number of goods coming into Gaza. For example, no tin cans can be imported because tin from the cans could be melted and used to prepare weapons. Nearby towns on the Israeli side have suffered due to lack of cheap Palestinian labor and there has been no income flow back into Gaza due to the same. In 2007, the Israeli cabinet voted to reduce electricity and gas supplies in Gaza. Simple items such as shampoos and shoes have been blocked as well due to “political reasons”. Entry via Kerem Shalom into Gaza has been tightened, which historically used to be the main commercial crossing. In 2017, only 44% of the required cement for reconstructing buildings reached Gaza. In addition to the terrestrial blockade, Israel has reduced the fishing zone from 6 nautical miles to 3 nautical miles. (Oxfam, 2018) This despite being against the 85% Oslo Accords guidelines has largely gone unnoticed although thousands of Palestinian fishermen have suffered largely. The Palestinians tried to evade the blockade through constructing underground tunnels but the tunnels were demolished by the Egyptian government in 2014. The situation has worsened thereafter since there is no sympathy from the surrounding countries while Israeli atrocities have increased substantially. The blockade is still under place while state sanctioned smuggling for daily-use goods continues. According the UN official data, at least 15,850 gallons of  fuel should be delivered to the few critical facilities in the region to ensure hospitals and sanitation services can function properly. (Anadolu Agency, 2018)

Environmental

According to Al Jazeera, Gaza is facing an ‘environmental catastrophe’ due to the blockade. The water pollution situation in Gaza is deteriorating day by day. Only an estimated 3% of the water in Gaza is suitable for drinking since water from the Mediterranean is either salty or cloudy with manganese. In addition to this, every day, 110 million liters of untreated sewage gushes back into the sea from the coasts of Gaza due to no lack of infrastructure in Gaza to treat water. This, in return, affects the whole Sinai region through recurrent sandstorms. (Al Jazeera, 2016)

Economical

Due to constant military warfare and lack of basic resources, the Gazan economy has plummeted to its very bottom in the past decade. The choking has hampered the local agriculture industry. This has led to ever-increasing food prices. Basic goods such as instant noodles, vegetables and even rice is smuggled from Egypt.(UN-OCHA, 2017) Unemployment amongst youth males has reached 40% and almost 80% of the population survives on foreign aid. The total aid amount as of 2017 numbers was US$ 14.93 billion. This aid although distributed to responsible organizations is driven into different directions by on-ground teams due to threats from Hamas, Fatah and other organizations. Other exporting countries in the region have also tightened laws due to better relations with the Israeli state. 30 agricultural Palestinian firms who brought US$34 million into the economy in 2016 have been forced to cancel export contracts as well. (Melani Lidman, 2017) In the past year, the Israeli government issued 1,086 military orders to evacuate agricultural land in Gaza, knowing that agriculture is the main source of income for the local population. The blockade threatens to destroy the entirety of Gaza’s fishing and farming sectors.(Dapo Akande, 2010)