DR. MAZIN QUMSIYEH,
PROFESSOR AT BETHLEHEM UNIVERSITY,
ABOUT THE CENTRALITY OF THE PALESTINE QUESTION AND RUSSIA’S ROLE

Mr. Qumsiyeh, a scientist and Palestinian political activist, recently sent us his comment on the current situation in the Middle East region.

My work as a scientist, author of many books and hundreds of articles, and as a human rights advocate who participated in civil resistance gave me insight not available to many people. This is especially true because I lived half my life in the United States before deciding to come back to my homeland Palestine to live under occupation and because I traveled for research and to give talks to over 20 countries.

During World War II, some 60 million people were killed. The war lasted 6 years. Here in Palestine, we did not have millions killed (total some 50,000) but this colonial occupation has had the unwelcome designation of the longest of the remaining conflicts in the world with the largest remaining refugee population: 62 years with nearly 7 million refugees and displaced people. Between December 1947 and December 1950, over 530 Palestinian villages and towns were destroyed. Half of the Palestinians were ethnically cleansed even before Israel was unilaterally declared a state. Palestinians call these events of the late 1940s the Nakba (Catastrophe).

The Israeli "Knesset" adopted a set of laws that are contrary to International law that ensured no refugees are allowed to return (as customarily happens at the end of a war) and that their land is confiscated for use by Jews only ("absentee property" laws). The removal of 75-80 percent of non-Jews from what became Israel by 1950 was a necessary but not sufficient condition for creating and maintaining a "Jewish state". What the nascent state did subsequently was expand its borders and continue to appropriate native Palestinian lands, expel many of them and discriminate against those who remained at all odds.

Israel has no constitution but promulgated a set of basic laws that govern it essentially "for the benefit of the Jewish people". These laws recognize members of a particular religion (including converts) as nationals of the state regardless of where they live or their current citizenship. In Israeli law, all Jews are part of Am Yisrael (the people of Israel). To get papers of citizenship all they have to do is show up in the state and claim their automatic citizenship.

Israel is now the 4th or fifth largest exporter of weapons and "security services" in the world. But Israel and its active lobbies around the globe are the largest exporters of wars and conflicts in the world. From instigating the so called "war on terrorism" that involved the invasion and occupation of two sovereign countries on misleading accusations and mythologies (Afghanistan and Iraq) to stoking conflicts in Georgia, Sri Lanka, and Columbia. The Sri Lankan government for example used Israeli weapons and expertise against the Tamils, committing horrific massacres. Israel profits financially. The Israeli economy is booming because it is based on the export of weapons and conflict. In addition, the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip nets Israel billions of dollars each year. Approximately 40 to 45 percent of all humanitarian aid into the Occupied Palestinian Territory ends up in Israeli hands. This is documented by series of publications and research on the economy of the occupation by Israeli researcher Sher Hever of the Alternative Information Center. The occupation is a big business.

The West Bank has Israeli-imposed colonial settlement infrastructure like roads, sewage systems and electric grids. This is built on top of an existing Palestine, an existing group of villages and towns in the West Bank have that been receding into the background over the past 42 years of occupation. The wall makes this literal and concrete, physically removing shrinking Palestinian areas from the landscape and making those that remain into ghettoes and prisons. In the case of Bethlehem, each cluster of villages gets turned into a ghetto with one exit and entrance only to this village or cluster of villages. There are more than 30 such cantons now in the West Bank. In the Bethlehem area, for example, the villages of Nahalin Bettir, Wadi Fukin and other places that are close to the green line [the 1949 armistice line marking the boundary between Israel and the West Bank] are isolated and surrounded by settlements. The Bethlehem district, which includes Beit Sahour and Beit Jala, is surrounded by walls and settlements from the north, the west and the south controlling 87% of the district’s land.

Israel now clearly violating over 30 UN security Council resolutions, hundreds of UN general Assembly resolutions, and ratified conventions including the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. The Palestinian Civil Society call to action of 2005 asked the International community to engage in boycotts, divestments and sanctions similar to what was applied against apartheid South Aftrica.

Russia and all countries should do this not only because it is in their own national interest but because it is also the moral and right thing to do.