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Amnesty International in Israel and the Occupied Territories |
| AMNESTY.org |
Today is International Human Rights Day. In 1948, on this day, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was born out of the ashes of suffering of the Second World War. That same year, the Palestinian human rights problem was born and, to date, remains unaddressed.
We marked this symbolic date in Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Our day started in the way that it starts for those few Palestinians that have permits to cross to Israel: queuing and waiting at Erez to cross between Israel and Gaza. The first of our colleagues to go through the second screening is asked to wait and stand aside by a private security guard who sees AI's latest briefing.
While she waits, they start checking another colleague's bags, including our files, and see more reports, causing more calls over the guard's radio -- so we clarify that all of us are carrying AI reports! A young Israeli soldier apologises for this. Four hours later and we're out, but we can only imagine what it must be like for ordinary Palestinians who face this daily.
As we make our way from Herez to the north of the West Bank, we drive through a well-developed part of Israel - it feels like being in Europe and is definitely a far cry from Gaza, with its poor roads and obvious overcrowding and poverty.
We arrived in the town of Jayus, a town of approximately 3,500 people where the fence/wall has separated the town's inhabitants from their citrus and olive groves that now lie on the other side. A farmer comes up in a tractor and tells us how he can no longer farm his land properly because he can't access it properly. Only people with the right passes can cross to their land through a gate which is meant to be open 12 hours a day, yet, in reality, we are told it is much less and not every day.
 | | Israel and the Occupied Territories |
The farmers tell us that they think they are being forced to abandon their orchards so that they can be incorporated into the nearby settlement, as they are trying to force them to use a gate that will add an extra three hours for them to get to their fields on the other side of the fence/wall.
The town's mayor also tells us of his concern about natural resources since the fence/wall absorbs fertile land and water resources.
As we stand by the fence/wall, we ponder the real meaning of human rights.
What did human rights mean for those queuing in Gaza? What did they mean for that little girl in wheelchair trying to get to Israel to have an operation and separated from her mother in the queue and taken to a windowless room by an armed guard to be security-checked? What did human rights mean for the farmer in his tractor who couldn't farm his land? What did they mean for the Israeli boy in Sderot lying in hospital recovering from a qassam rocket attack?
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the most concrete expression of people's aspiration to live with dignity. Yet it is being trampled because of the lack of principled leadership that has not been willing to find a solution to this problem.
Around the world, whether in Darfur or Israel/Occupied Territories, civilians have borne the brunt of human rights abuse. Yet people live in hope that their leaders will respond to their call for decisive action that will ensure the human rights of all people are respected.
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