ZHU ZHEN-YAN (LISA)
                 
Law School
Research Paper Supervisor: Dr. Sekou Conde
Minzhu University of China
2006-2007 Academic Year
In 1947, after looking at various alternatives, the UN proposed the partitioning of Palestine into two independent States, one Palestinian Arab and the other Jewish, with Jerusalem internationalized (Resolution 181 (II) of 1947). One of the two States envisaged in the partition plan proclaimed its independence as Israel. The story didn’t end. In the later sixty years, especially after 1967, the conflicts between two parties escalated from time to time. For Palestine people, the sole matter brought about by the wars and conflicts is catastrophe. They could no longer lead a normal life. Everyday they are faced up with hunger, illness, unemployment even injury and death. The worsening humanitarian situation in Palestine occupied territory caused attention from international community in all levels, including UN, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs. They condemned the Israel’s misdeeds, called for some international protection for Palestinians and rendered assistance to them. This paper will focuses on principally on these matters. Apart from generally introducing the grave situation in Palestine territory, it will elaborate the devotion to the protection of human rights by these parties, examine their efficacy, make comments and finally draw a conclusion. 
   
                              Part   I
Violation of human rights in the occupied territory
In the 1948 war Israel expanded to occupy 77 per cent of the territory of Palestine. Israel also occupied the larger part of Jerusalem. Over half of the indigenous Palestinian population fled or were expelled. In the 1967 war, Israel occupied the remaining territory of Palestine, until then under Jordanian and Egyptian control (the West Bank and Gaza Strip). This included the remaining part of Jerusalem, which was subsequently annexed by Israel. The war brought about a second exodus of Palestinians, estimated at half a million. Since then, the conflicts between Israel and Palestine never end.
Concern for the human rights of the civilian population in the territories occupied by Israel during the 1967 war was first expressed by the Security Council in resolution 237 (1967), in which, among other things, it recommended to the Governments concerned the scrupulous respect of the humanitarian principles contained in the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention. In December 1968, the General Assembly established a three-member Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories and asked it to submit reports whenever the need arose. According to its reports, the Special Committee has affirmed that, especially over the last two decades, Israel has continued its policy of de facto annexation through such measures as establishing or expanding settlements, confiscating property, transferring Israeli citizens to the occupied territories, deporting Palestinians from the territories and encouraging or compelling Palestinians to leave their homeland. Such actions have violated the obligations of Israel as a State party to the Fourth Geneva Convention.( Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, Human rights questions: human rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives,18 August 2005)
On 25 February 1994, the killing of some 30 Palestinian worshippers in the Mosque of Ibrahim in Hebron by an Israeli settler, following attacks against settlers by Palestinians, was universally condemned and caused great concern for the future
of the peace process, renewing calls for some form of international protection for Palestinians. Israeli occupation forces frequently carried out punitive demolitions of Palestinian homes. The enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms by the
Palestinians in the occupied territory was also severely curtailed by measures such as closures, which separate parts of the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem, from each other as well as from Israel. The Israeli General Security Service (GSS) had used torture systematically during the interrogation of Palestinians suspected of security offences. The practice of administrative detention, without charges or trail, had also continued.
 On 19 October 2000, Mrs. Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, undertook an urgent visit to the occupied territory to take stock of the violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people by Israel.
In her report, submitted on 29 November 2000, Mrs. Robinson noted that the human rights situation in the Palestinian territory was bleak. “The most persistent allegation brought to the attention of the High Commissioner was that Israeli security forces have engaged in excessive force, disproportionate to the threat faced by their soldiers.” (HRC High Commissioner’s visit to the occupied territories, 2000) To disperse the demonstrations, the High Commissioner noted, the Israeli military authorities had used live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas, all of which had resulted in deaths and injuries amongst the Palestinians. Heavier weapons had also been used, including rockets fired by infantry and from helicopters. Armoured vehicles and heavy machine guns had been deployed throughout the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
From above all, Israel, the occupying Power, has been violating the relevant conventions and rules of international law and the generally accepted norms and principles of international behavior. In particular, its policies and practices in the occupied territory remain in clear violation of a number of carefully elaborated and universally accepted instruments of international law. These instruments include: the Charter of the United Nations; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949; the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, of 12 August 1949; the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, of 14 May 1954; the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 reflecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. According to the Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in itself constituted a violation of human rights. It was further pointed out in the report that:
    “This fact, however, has been consistently denied by the Government of Israel, whose general policy towards the occupied territories is based on the principle that the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 constitute part of the State of Israel and that therefore measures such as the establishment of colonies in the occupied territories and the transfer of Israeli citizens thereto did not constitute a process of annexation. Such an attitude represents a flagrant violation of the international obligations of Israel as a State party to the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War."(Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories (A/43/694), para. 611.)
What’s more, some 55,000 Palestinians presently resident in the municipal area of East Jerusalem have been transferred to the West Bank by the construction of the wall.( Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967,Part IV??/span>18 August, 2005) The clear purpose of these changes is to remove any suggestion that East Jerusalem is a Palestinian entity capable of becoming the capital of a Palestinian State.
The wall has serious consequences for Palestinians living in the neighborhood of the wall. Many thousands are separated from their agricultural lands by the wall and are denied permits to access their lands. Even those who are granted permits frequently find that gates within the wall do not open as scheduled. As a result, Palestinians are gradually leaving land and homes that they have occupied for generations.
The general policy of the Government of Israel continued to be based on the concept that the territory occupied by Israel since 1967 should be considered as part of the State of Israel. This has allowed Israeli authorities to advance the so-called "homeland doctrine" according to which, international law notwithstanding, the occupied Palestinian territory constitutes part of the "Jewish homeland", ceasing therefore to be”Occupied Territory”.
In its advisory opinion of 9 July 2004 the International Court of Justice held that the wall presently being built by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, is contrary to international law. Construction of the wall severely impedes the exercise by the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination and is therefore a breach of Israel's obligation to respect that right.
ICJ Adversary Opinion reads:” Construction of the wall and its associated régime cannot be justified by military exigencies or by the requirements of national security or public order” ,“Self-defense ??Article 51 of the Charter ??Attacks against Israel not imputable to a foreign State ??Threat invoked to justify the construction of the wall originating within a territory over which Israel exercises control ??Article 51 not relevant in the present case.”, “State of necessity ??Customary international law ??Conditions ??Construction of the wall not the [...]

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