Is the European Union committing its biggest crime?

Saturday April 25, 2009 23:25

by Abdullah Elneihum

Investigating the European Union's decision on building a European trade agreement with a country that reportedly severely abuses the most basic of human rights of another nation of people.

I thought it rather interesting during the humiliating display of arrogant rhetoric of President Ahmadinejad in the U.N.'s Anti-Racism summit. But I thought the walk-out even more interesting. Many “Western” representatives disrespected the summit to begin with because they believed that 2nd and 3rd World countries would be “blaming the West for everything”. Not to downplay the fact that many of these countries are suffering from their own questionable leaderships, the walk out however, was a display of Europe's complete lack of care and disregard to its democratic responsibilities. Is it really believable that “The West” isn't responsible for so much of the suffering elsewhere in the world?

Can these people not speak out and have their voice, regardless of where our Western principles stand? After all, if there's one thing we're all predisposed to in Europe is monotonous, droning drivel about being part of the frontier of democracy and liberty in the modern world. That said, the walk out on Ahmadinejad was in itself not only racist, but a pompous display of European elitism. The journalistic and political commentary that followed was no different.
President Ahmadinejad is not fit to represent his country in The West. His views are extreme and can be largely conspiratorial. Regardless, what kind of supposed democracy do we live in if we have a huge problem tolerating someone like this man. It is obvious to say that it is detrimental to democracy to be intolerant and unnaccepting of alternative or conflicting points of view.

A huge concern is the West's unshakable, unquestioning devoutness to Israel.
It is concrete, documented fact that over 5 million Jews died in Europe in the early 20th Century. It is also fact that 160 million people, the Jewish Holocaust included, died in wars during the 20th Century.

The argument that the Jewish Holocaust was particularly special because it singled out Jews due to their ethnicity isn't true. Looking at Nazi death tolls, Hitler murdered about 21,000,000 people, of whom were 11 million Eastern Slavs. These Slavs were ethnically targeted. It is, however, the 5 million Jews that have become much the center of media and political coverage in the last 60-70 years. [1]

A particular use of language that belittles the injustice and outrage experienced in the Middle East is heavy in, predominantly Western, mainstream media. This has (globally) allowed us to accept genocide and mass murder and other such events through complex language filtering systems.

In Article 2 of the UN's Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), it is stated that “any acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”. [2]

Countless news reports, documentaries and investigations have asserted that the State of Israel has been in breach of the human rights of the Palestinian people since the founding of the State in 1948. Europe cannot possibly play the oblivious card.

When a little village in Spain decided to commemorate “Palestinian Genocide Day” as a protest on the same day as the global “Holocaust Remembrance Day”, the Anti-Defamation League wrote:
“Applying the term 'genocide' to the Arab-Israeli conflict encourages hatred toward the State of Israel and deliberately insults those of us, both Jews and non-Jews, who seek to solemnly commemorate the victims of the Nazi campaign of slaughter."

We now live in a world where it is difficult to criticise the Israeli State in fear of being trumped as a xenophobic anti-Semite. On the other side, it is a matter of fact that there are now 4th or 5th generation Jews since the occupation of the Palestinian land and with the way things are, it would be both unreasonable, unrealistic and unethical to demand the removal of the Israeli State. But the issue hasn't been developed towards a resolve of the conflict, instead it has been concentrated on minimising or distorting the volumes of information of human rights breaches by Israel which have yet to be critically addressed and acted upon by the European Union.

In light of all the controversy of Israel's many offences and human rights breaches of the past 60 years, the E.U. still allowed Israel a privilege that other nations were denied. On the 21st of June 2000, the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement was signed, opening European trade to the State of Israel. The E.U. has yet to criticize and/or penalise Israel's handling of the Palestinian situation. Instead, there has been an active inadvertence of the Palestinian problem and support for the Israeli state, where instead of acting on the U.N. charter against genocide and the breach of its own human rights declaration, the European Union continues to callously integrate Israel further into European trade as part of its European Enlargement program.

However, recently, in March 2009, The European Commission has raised concerns over proposed demolitions of homes in Palestine that would leave up to 1000 Palestinians homeless. A declaration was made by the Presidency and the European Commission that “the EU is deeply concerned about the threat of demolition to approximately 90 houses in the Al-Bustan / Silwan area adjacent to the Old City in East Jerusalem. [...] The EU urges the Israeli authorities to prevent the demolition of Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem.”[3] The same declaration also acknowledges that the Israeli authorities have undergone a similar demolition practise in 1967. Yet, regardless of its own acknowledgements – the E.U. continues to support a country that has oppressed a whole nation of Arabs and is in breach of the most basic human rights.

The E.U.'s 'Euro-Israeli Action Plan' does indeed touch on the subject of the “Middle East Situation” and claims that it will open dialogue between Palestine (popularly known as the Palestinian Authority), Israel and Europe to try and settle the conflict. The Action Plan also draws up the very politically correct criticism of Israel's previous 'counter-terrorist defences' to “[minimise] the impact of security and counter-terrorism measures on the civilian population, facilitate the secure and safe movement of civilians and goods, safeguarding, to the maximum possible, property, institutions and infrastructure.”

The Action Plan also goes on to declare that it acknowledges Israel's retaliations to “terrorism”. It is rather erroneous of the European Union to even use a word as ambiguous as “terrorism” because of its biased rhetoric. Not only does it undermine the Palestinian people's struggle but it abolishes the very idea of Israel's terrorism on the Palestinian people. The very nature of the word "terrorist" is pejorative and prompts a lack of legitimacy and morality. [4] But given the evidence of the E.U.'s self-contradicting coupling with Israel, it could very well be intentional on the part of the European Union.

On the 17th March 2005, a U.N. panel described terrorism as any act "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act." [4]

As debatable a topic as Hamas' legitimacy is, the party was nevertheless founded in Palestine to offer Palestinians an alternative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and was democratically elected in January 2006 to serve the Palestinians. Under the U.N. definition, it can be argued that Hamas is a nationalist resistance force against an extremely powerful, vicious and oppressive neighbouring opponent. The recent events in Gaza (January 2008) only fortifies this judgement.

The language to describe Palestine has also changed. It is argued that because the Palestinians have never formed an actual State, due to only existing in settlements, therefore Palestine was never a plausible country to begin with. [6] If that argument were reasonable, then what gives El Salvador, Guatemala, Congo and Algeria the right to self determination?

The scattering of Palestine is credited to the removal of Palestinians from their homelands to settle in other countries or alternatively to become refugees in their own homes through systematic Israeli legislation. Palestine can no longer be perceived as a country, because it has apparently never been one. Ergo, Palestinians are now the settlers. Even if this argument stood, it does not legitimise the confiscation and demolition of Palestinian homes and businesses and to nullify the citizenships of a whole people. These are all discriminations that breach the CPPCG. However, the European Union is undeterred to have Israel as an ally even considering its highly reported violations.

The Holocaust has often been a safe retreat from arguments on Israel. It was one of the worst human atrocities in history and its commemoration is vital. But bridging the Holocaust to every discrimination of Israel is not democratic. It is oppressive and a severe attack on liberty. The only connection that the Arab-Israeli conflict has with the Holocaust is that in post-World War II Europe, guilt had brushed Europe's Jewish problem under someone else's carpet. The Israeli settlements that followed were to be the last significant, imperialist British act on the indigenous Palestinian Arab people.

It must so be further instigated, that people who criticize Israel on the grounds of the Palestinian situation are not to be labelled Neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic sponsors of terrorism. The Jewish holocaust seems to be now like a red card, waved against anyone who disagrees with Israel's militant force, its blatant motives and the “you're either with us or against us” policies and attitude of its right-wing politics.

Upon inspecting Palestinian death tolls, 61000 mostly-Palestinian arabs have been murdered, hundreds of thousands injured and millions more forcibly removed from their homes since 1948. And yet, the illegal occupation of land, blatant human rights breaches coupled with global outrage at Israel's handling of the Palestinian people is not enough for the European Union to have reconsidered its union with Israel.

Is it possible for the Europe Union to account for its mistakes and shake Israel out of its delirious state of denial before it is too late? Will our journalists and media corporations continue to propogate the words of powerful, tyranical nations without argument in fear of breaching the so-called boundaries of the freedom of the press? Is it possible that this would happen before the ordinary Israeli citizen cries out “We didn't know!” to the world? Or will that citizen even remember the Palestinians?

__________________________________
Research:
[1] http://democraticpeace.wordpress.com/category/genocide/

[2] http://www.criminaljusticedegreehq.com/prevention-and-punishment-of-genocide

[3] http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pre...1.pdf

[4] http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Definition+of...orism

[5]http://ec.europa.eu/world/enp/pdf/action_plans/israel_e...n.pdf

[6] http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remem....html