Human Rights for Palestine

UELSU Motion passed at our Annual General Meeting (AGM) 31/10/02.

UELSU Notes

1. On December 10 1948 the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the same year the state of Israel was founded as an explicit part of Britain's colonial programme of the time.

2. The state of Israel has continually breached international law and is currently in breach of five UN Security Council Resolutions, including resolution 194, passed 11 December 1948, which gives Palestinians of the 1948 Nakba Diaspora the right to return to their land. UN Security Council Resolution 194 states, "Refugees wishing to return to their home and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date. And compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property."

3. The state of Israel is also in breach of numerous articles of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including article 13: which specifically states, "Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state." And, "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including (their) own and to return to (their) country." The state of Israel currently bars Palestinian people, both Christian and Muslim, from access to basic amenities including water and the right to move freely and is under investigation by Amnesty International for numerous accounts of human rights abuses.

4. The state of Israel was created with a United Nations plan to partition the land by allocating 56.4% to Israeli settlers. Jewish people in Palestine at the time owned 7% of the land. Palestinians were forced to flee the country as the state of Israel illegally took control of 78% of the land.

5. Of the remaining 22% of land left for the Palestinian people the state of Israel has continually breached International Law by allowing further expansions of its borders.

6. The United Nations has indicted Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the massacre of over 2,000 Palestinians in the Refugee Camps Sabra and Chatilla in 1982. The UN qualified the massacre as "Genocide". The state of Israel's high court found Ariel Sharon guilty of War crimes.

7. The number of Palestinians living as refugees constitutes the single largest refugee population in the world.

8. The Palestinian people have been violently oppressed for over 50 years. The land they lived on taken from them and the culture they cherish systematically destroyed.

9. Palestinian activists have routinely been rounded up and imprisoned without access to lawyers or basic legal human rights. Nelson Mandela has said of Marwan Barghouti, an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative council and a Palestinian activist currently under illegal arrest since April 2002, "What is happening to Barghouti is exactly the same as what happened to me. The government tried to de-legitimise the African National Congress and its armed struggle by putting me on trial"

10. The Palestinian people have suffered insurmountable human rights abuses and violations of international law. Since February 2002 alone over 6000 Palestinian people have been illegally detained without charge. The actions of the state of Israel have been condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Federation of Human Rights, International Committee of Jurists, World Organisation Against Torture, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, Reporters Without Borders and Medecins Sans Frontiers.

11. Israel has the fourth strongest military in the world and receives aid from the United States that totals more aid than the entire African continent.

12. The Likud Party of which Ariel Sharon is a member has voted never to allow the existence of a legitimate Palestinian state.

13. The death ratio of Palestinians to Israeli has been published as 10 to 1.

14. Presently over 500 soldiers of the state of Israel's armed forces refuse to serve in the illegally occupied territories in protest of the state of Israel's continued illegal occupation and oppression of Palestinian people and culture.

15. The mental health of children living under military occupation and in a state of abject poverty without sufficient water is severely threatened and research from many organisations has lead to the conclusion that many children will grow up with irreparable mental scaring.

16. Noam Chomksy, Professor of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA has said "It is not confrontation between two local adversaries and even between those too there is nothing remotely like symmetry. Israel is a major military power, backed fully by the global superpower (United States). For 35 years, it has occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinians are alone, defenceless." May 7 2002.

17. That non-Jewish Israeli's cannot buy or lease land in the state of Israel.

18. Last year trade between Britain and the state of Israel increased 20%. The Britech trade agreement means there is now a £15.5 million joint fund to encourage co-operation between British and the state of Israel's hi-tech (weaponry) companies.

19. Since the 1993 Oslo accords the state of

Israel's settlement building on Palestinian land has increased.

20. The cause of death of Palestinian people that is most frequently recorded is loss of blood due to vital medical provisions being disallowed to reach the Palestinian communities they are intended for.

21. The state of Israel is the only country in the Middle East officially recognised as having achieved its aim of acquiring nuclear arms, or "weapons of mass destruction."

UELSU Believes

1. That all life is interconnected and that we must have a global or holistic vision of life. That one person's struggle is the struggle of everyone.

2. The state of Israel is unjustified in its oppression of Palestine and it's illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

3. Being opposed to the strategies of the state of Israel bears no conflict with Judaism. Being pro-Palestinian does not amount to being Anti Semitic.

4. That any religious claims to the stolen land or religious arguments in support of the continued state of Israel's illegal occupation and oppression are unjustified.

5. The Palestinian people have the right to live without fear of terror, oppression or intimidation- this is not possible under the present military, economic and socio-cultural occupation.

6. The Palestinian people have the right to their own state and the right to determine their own social, economic, political, religious and cultural beliefs, structures and developments.

7. The Palestinian people have suffered under the most extreme and degrading conditions.

8. That both Israeli and Palestinian people have the right to live in peace and in security-but the continued aggression of the state of Israel is anathema to the achievement of such goals.

9. Suicide bombings are abhorrent- but they cannot be used to justify mass oppression and are the result of frustration at years of continued failure to resolve the conflict and even acknowledge the plight of Palestine. Suicide bombing also cannot be used to justify the state of Israel's continued breaches of International law and opinion.

10. That British business is directly responsible for the suffering of Palestinian people by providing military equipment and for maintaining crucial trade agreements that bolster the state of Israel's military regime.

11. To boycott goods produced in the state of Israel do not amount to anti-Semitism. Putting economic pressure onto an immoral state from outside was one of the deciding factors in South Africa abolishing Apartheid.

12. That historically people of a Jewish faith have suffered greatly through the holocaust and other pogroms based in Europe- but this does not justify or legitimise the state of Israel's continued oppression of the Palestinian people. Historically it has been noted that the one place Jewish people were not oppressed was with their Palestinian brethren of the Middle East. This unity has been eroded by incursions into the Middle East over the centuries guided by business interests. One atrocity of human rights does not justify another.

13. That Ariel Sharon should be tried for the charges of war criminal against him in an international court of law.

14. That resistance is not terrorism and Palestinian people have the right to resist as Malcolm X suggested, "By any means necessary"

UELSU Resolves

1. To invite the university management to all meetings and events held both by the Friends of Palestine society and other society's or students attempting to decipher the situation. Due to concearns, that in relation to the University's work in the area of conflict and that opperating in the realm of main stream thought, they may indirectly be aiding and abetting oppresors and therefor compromise the beliefs of the majority of their student stakeholders.

2. To continue to work closely both with Isrealis and Palestinians who wish to find just sollutions for both peoples but importantly reconise the oppression and illegal occupation must end therefore recognising the legitimacy of the United Nations.

3. To send a delegation to the area encouraging first hand experience of either the occupied territories or state of Israel. Therefore, showing solidarity to the peolple

giving them hope that those who are far away-whose governments are collectively responsible- do relate to them and wish to find a globally sustainable and peaceful sollution.

4. To help organise a wide variety of events on all campuses including conferences lectures and social events, to raise awareness of the Palestinian's continued oppression and exploitation due to Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian land, throughout our student membership.

5. To engage in a variety of strategies to support the Palestinian people, including direct and indirect actions, such as mock cheakpoints and die ins.

6. To fund raise within our community to send a delegation to Palestine, thus demonstrating the support and solidarity our community offers to Palestine.

7. If we recognise their right to an autonomous state then we must concede to their right to resist Israel's incursions and achive their goal of a legitimate Palestinian state.

8. Lobby the British government to honour the United Nations resolutions, to disengage all trade agreements with the state of Israel until they abide by International Law and Human Rights legislation, to support the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

9. To boycott the supply of all Israeli goods on our campuses until the state of Israel concurs with International Law and Human Rights legislation.

10. To attend all national demonstrations in support of the Palestinian peoople.

11. To encourage an overall understanding of oppression, so in future we can focus on other international conflicts and highlight the violence and fear our new world order is based upon. The Palestinian people are not the only people in the world suffering Human Rights abuses and sytematic attempts to destroy their way of life and land rights.