An examination of the human-rights situation in the world reveals
that organizations dedicated to the defense of human rights are
able to function freely only in democratic societies. In countries
subjected to dictatorial regimes, where the watchfulness of
human-rights activists is most needed, they are often persecuted
and imprisoned in order to silence them. However, even in
democratic states, proud of the rule of law and of their
independent judiciary system, the protection of minority rights and
of the individual's freedom to oppose national consensus should not
always be taken for granted.
Governments and public opinion are frequently more sensitive to
human¬rights violations abroad than to those committed in
their own country. Thus in the 1970s and 1980s, British public
opinion was very much concerned with Israel's systematic violations
of Palestinian rights and freedoms, while being much less upset by
the brutal persecution of Irish nationalists in Ulster, meted out
by Britain's Special Forces. In April 1999, Israelis mobilized en
masse to protest against the situation in Yugoslavia and help the
Albanian refugees of Kosovo, fleeing Serbian persecution, with
money, food, blankets, clothes and medical supplies. However, the
plight of the Palestinians suffering from thirty years of Israeli
occupation, the hardships caused by the many closures of the
Palestinian territories by the Israeli army and police, the
d~tention of hundreds of Palestinians by military decree without
due trial, the continued demolition of Palestinian houses, the
shooting and killing of Paleslinian children aged under sixteen
during demonstrations - all these did not cause a fraction of the
sympathetic interest in Israel induced by the tragic fate of the
Kosovo refugees.
In Israel and Palestine today, several human-rights associations
are alive and kicking in the right direction - against their own
governments. It was not easy for the editors of this journal to
initiate an issue focusing on human rights. The main obstacle, both
psychologically and politically, was to deal evenhandedly with
human-rights violations by both the Israeli and Palestinian
authorities, the more so as Israel continues to control most of the
Palestinian territories in the West bank and Gaza, and the struggle
for Palestinian freedom and independence is far from
finished.
In this context, when the protracted Israeli occupation in itself
constitutes a permanent and massive violation of Palestinian human
rights, some observers believe that to stress infringements upon
human rights committed by the Palestinian Authority - as in reports
that are given prominent display by the Israeli and world media -
undermines Arafat's standing and weakens international support for
the Palestinian efforts to create an independent state alongside
the State of Israel. Former Knesset Member and well-known peace
activist Uri Avnery argues this point forcefully in an article
published by the Israeli daily Ma' ariv, on September 16, 1998. He
even labels Palestinian human-rights activists, whose reports on
human-rights encroachments by the Palestinian Authority are used by
Israeli leaders to discredit Arafat, as a new kind of
collaborators.
In response, Palestinian human-rights activist Bassem Eid claims in
Ma' ariv of September 28, 1998, that "supporters of peace are not
always supporters of human rights," and warns that to call
Palestinians who expose human-rights transgressions by the
Palestinian Authority security services "collaborators" is to
target those Palestinians for reprisals. Uri Avnery does not deny
that human-rights violations do take place under Palestinian
self-rule, but thinks it unwise to place them in the limelight at a
time when the Palestinian nation "is in the midst of a fateful
struggle for its very existence." Bassem Eid admits that a conflict
sometimes exists between political interests and human rights, but
insists that human-rights encroachments should be made public and
fought vigorously.
This is no doubt a fascinating polemic, if only because - a sign of
the times - it pits an Israeli human-rights activist who is
defending Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, against a
Palestinian human-rights activist who is criticizing the same
Authority for condoning misconduct by the Palestinian police and
security services.
Addressing violations of Palestinian human rights perpetrated by
Israel, Yossi WoIfson writes in this journal, p. 55 "Peace to be
sure is our common dream. Peace also means compromise. No side will
achieve all that it wants ... However, while national dreams may be
compromised, individual human rights should not. They are not on
the negotiating table. If human rights deserve to be protected in
time of violent confict, how much truer it is then to protect them
while establishing peace."
Ziad Abu-Zayyad, member of the Palestinian Parliament and Minister
Without Portfolio, looks at transgressions of human rights by
Palestinian institutions and believes that the fight should be
waged simultaneously on two tracks. In the round-table discussion
published in this issue of our journal on page 63, Ziad Abu-Zayyad
speaks of a continuous struggle: "On the one hand, we have to
struggle to liberate our land and build our state; on the other
hand, we have to struggle for human rights and democracy. All this
takes time and requires a huge effort. We know that it is a
struggle against ourselves and it is not easy. The Prophet Muhammad
said: 'The most difficult kind of jihad is the jihad against your
own instincts.'"
Experience shows that, like confronting racism, the defense of
human rights is a never-ending struggle. Everyday, everywhere.
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