Onwards and onwards

It's that time of year again: B'Tselem, the Israeli information centre for human rights in the Occupied Territories, has released its annual report summarising the developments of the past 12 months. As usual, it makes for grim reading.

Here, without further ado, are the stats:

•  In 2007, there was an increase of 13 percent in the number of Palestinians held in administrative detention without trial, which averaged 830 people. [so much for those 'prisoner releases'...]

•  66 staffed checkpoints and 459 physical roadblocks on average controlled movement inside the West Bank . There was little improvement in Palestinians' freedom of movement, despite the promised easing of restrictions.

•  Israeli settlement population grew by 4.5% (compared with 1.5% population growth inside Israel ), a more moderate increase than the previous year.

•  Israel continues the freeze policy on family unification, denying tens of thousands of Palestinians the right to a family life. However, in what was termed a one-time gesture, Israel approved family unification for some 3,500 Palestinian families.

•  The number of houses demolished in East Jerusalem rose by 38 percent, to 69 homes. [houses also continued to be demolished in the West Bank, as well as inside Israel itself]

•  Palestinians continue to face severe discrimination in the allocation of water in the West Bank , causing serious hardship in the summer.

•  The number of Palestinians killed in intra-Palestinian clashes was the highest throughout the Intifada.

The growth of the Israeli settlement population looks set to continue into 2008, with Prime Minister Olmert boasting earlier this week that President Bush has already agreed to Israel's annexation of the major settlement blocs in the West Bank, "an amazing achievement for Israel" and a disaster for the Palestinians. Just yesterday Ha'aretz reported that the Israeli government has published tenders for 440 new apartments and a hotel in occupied East Jerusalem, and Ehud Olmert has been clear in his refusal to halt the expansion of the settlements, as demanded by the Roadmap. "I don't think when people are talking about settlements they are talking about Ma'aleh Adumim", he explained (hence, I suppose, this).

The number of house demolitions decreased markedly from 2006. According to B'Tselem, the IDF demolished 50 Palestinian houses in 2007, leaving 209 people homeless, compared to 612 houses the year before. However, this tally appears to exclude the 272 farmers made homeless after Israeli forces destroyed the village of Khirbet Qassa, west of the separation wall. The reduction is primarily the result of Israel's military disengagement from Gaza in 2007. In 2006, 318 houses were destroyed in Gaza for alleged "military purposes", most of them during operations 'Summer Rains' and 'Autumn Clouds', while last year saw no military demolition of houses in Gaza at all. It can also be explained as part of the U.S./Israeli attempt to undermine support for Hamas by engaging with the PA and toning down the violence in the West Bank, while increasing the suffering of the residents of the Gaza Strip.

Now, casualties. In 2007, up to December 29, Israeli forces killed a total of 373 Palestinians, 290 of them in Gaza. This represents a significant reduction from the previous year, a consequence once again of the absence of a full-scale military campaign of the magnitude of 'Operation Summer Rains'. Rather, the policy last year was to simply starve the population of Gaza en masse. As B'Tselem notes, although the conflict killed fewer people in 2007 than the year before,

"there has been deterioration in many other measures of the human rights situation in the Occupied Territories. The primary one is the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, which has declined to an all time low, following Israel's siege on the area."

On December 31 Fawzy Al-Aqqad, aged 69, became the 56th Palestinian to die in 2007 as a result of the closure of Gaza, which shows no sign of ending despite numerous appeals by Hamas for a ceasefire.

Of the 373 Palestinians killed by Israel, 131 (about 35%) did not participate in the hostilities and 53 were minors.

During the same period of time, Palestinians killed a total of 13 Israelis, seven of whom were civilians. This represents the lowest number of annual civilian casualties since the beginning of the Second Intifada.

In other words, the ratio of Israelis to Palestinians killed in 2007 was almost 1:29. The ratio of Israeli to Palestinian civilians (or, technically, protected persons) killed was 1:19. To illustrate this graphically:

Hang on - there's shurely shome mishtake here? As we all know, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a war of two sides, a give-and-take, a tit-for-tat, a back-and-forth, a self-perpetuating cycle of revenge, etc. etc. These graphs almost make it look like there is no 'war' at all, but rather an aggressive and brutal occupation and some pretty feeble resistance to it. Perhaps if we put it in a pie chart...?

Nope, that's one blue pie. In any event, it's clear that when it comes to violence against both civilians and combatants, Israel holds a near monopoly. This shouldn't be surprising, given that Israel possesses the fourth ranking army on the planet and is occupying an essentially defenceless Palestinian population, and yet it's worth pointing out given the fact that most media reporting of the conflict is of the "both sides..." variety mentioned above. In fact, as the data above shows, there is no symmetry here, and to create one by indulging in lazy clichés like "[the conflict] is usually a tale of two stories" is to severely distort the factual reality.

One common technique used by mainstream journalists to manufacture an artifical symmetry is to exaggerate the role of the Qassam rockets in preventing movement towards peace. The Qassams are constantly brought up in an effort to 'balance' stories of Israeli crimes in Gaza or in an attempt to apportion blame for the lack of political progress equally upon "both sides" (or, often, purely on the Palestinians). Turning to the facts, we find that Qassam missiles killed precisely two Israelis throughout the whole of 2007. From mid-June to the end of October 2007 Palestinian militant groups in Gaza fired (.pdf) 400 Qassams and 510 mortars towards Israel, injuring 75 Israelis, six of whom were civilians, and killing none. During the same period, Israeli forces killed 142 Palestinians, including 12 children, and injured 293 (including 17 children). These figures suggest two conclusions. Firstly, the impression conveyed by the media that the missile attacks from Gaza are primarily targeted at civilians appears to be false, given that civilians make up only a tiny proportion of those injured by the attacks. Secondly, while strikes on civilians are illegitimate and while the effect of the rocket attacks is not just limited to those who are directly injured or killed by them, the idea that the Qassams are the reason for the lack of progress towards a political settlement is clearly preposterous. The Qassams are a desperate attempt to put up some form of resistance, largely symbolic, to the occupation, but they are not a serious threat to the security of the state of Israel. Israel's attempts to use the Qassam rocket attacks as an excuse to reject negotiations with Hamas can therefore be safely dismissed as just another red herring to avert a threatened Palestinian 'peace offensive'.

Returning to the B'Tselem report, we find that the number of permanent Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank remained roughly the same last year, while the number of roadblocks increased from an average of 445 in 2006 to 459 in 2007. This should be interpreted in the context of the 40% increase in military checkpoints and roadblocks that occurred in 2006. As B'Tselem notes, the restrictions on movement of Palestinians in the West Bank has "severely harm[ed] central social institutions and systems serving the Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories, including the health system, the economy, family networks and municipal services." According to a survey published in Yedioth Ahronoth, a quarter of Israeli soldiers serving at checkpoints in the West Bank either perpetrated or witnessed abuse of Palestinians, a practice that, according to B'Tselem, "has long become routine".

Finally, B'Tselem points to "two themes" that "emerge clearly" from an analysis of last year's human rights developments:

"The first is the use of security justifications for virtually every Israeli action in the Occupied Territories...far too often, Israel fails to appropriately balance its security needs with equally important values, including protecting the rights of Palestinians under its control. In addition, Israeli authorities often exploit security threats in order to advance prohibited political interests, such as perpetuating settlements and effectively annexing them to Israel ."

Most readers will be familiar with this tactic, a favourite among aggressive states in particular. The most obvious example of Israel's cynical use of "security" concerns to advance political objectives is the annexation wall, which Israeli ministers now openly admit is intended to function as a de facto permanent border. The fact that this was obviously the case from the start - a quick glance at its winding route around the major settlements tells you all you need to know - didn't stop the Israeli government lying for years, insisting against all reason that the route of the wall was motivated by security needs alone.

"The second theme arising from the report is the lack of accountability of Israeli security forces, in all matters relating to human rights. This can be seen clearly in the reluctance of the state to thoroughly investigate violations and to prosecute those responsible for them. The lack of accountability can also be seen in the denial of most Palestinians' right to compensation when they are injured through no fault of their own by Israeli forces."

Indeed, in December 2007 B'Tselem reported that over the past seven years, only 36 indictments were filed against soldiers for abusing Palestinians. A more recent example of IDF impunity was the absurd internal "investigation" which pronounced the army innocent of any violations of international law in its decision to flood southern Lebanon with up to a million unexploded cluster bombs, which continue to claim lives to this day.

Last year was, then, pretty disastrous for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Not only did they have to cope with the appalling internal violence between Fatah and Hamas (for which the U.S. and Israel bear no small responsibility), but Israel continued to kill innocent Palestinians with impunity and virtually the entire international community (including, shamefully, the Palestinian Authority itself) cooperated in the vicious collective punishment of Gaza. Unfortunately, the fraudulent Annapolis process aside, the evidence suggests that 2008 will bring little improvement. In the absence of sustained popular pressure inside Israel and the U.S. in favour of a genuine two-state settlement, next year's B'Tselem report will likely be as depressing a read as this one.

Cross-posted at The Heathlander