28th November 1999

Oh no, not Israel!

Currently, chairman of the three-member Special Committee probing Israeli "practices" in occupied territories, Ambassador de Saram says there is an extensive system of Israeli laws, regulations and administrative procedures that are not only oppressive but also discriminatory towards Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

The tragedy of the Middle East, some political observers argue, is that the United States and Western Europe, which are quick to denounce human rights abuses in Third World countries, are not as forthcoming in condemning Israel for its transgressions.

At the UN, there is one yardstick to measure Israel and another to measure Iraq, Iran, Myanmar, Cuba and Afghanistan- all of whom are crucified in the General Assembly every year in a political circus initiated by Western nations.

Perhaps the only key UN body that publicly censures Israel is the Special Committee, whose members also include Malaysia and Senegal.

Created by the General Assembly in 1968, the Committee is specifically mandated to investigate human rights violations by the Israelis.

But since its very inception- when it was chaired by the late Shirley Amerasinghe- the Committee has been barred from visiting occupied territories. At the same time, the Israelis have also defied the UN by refusing to cooperate with it. As the financially-ailing UN battles a growing cash crisis, there is a longstanding proposal by the Americans to kill the Special Committee as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

In a report to the General Assembly last month, the Committee listed a long catalogue of human rights abuses by Israel, including arbitrary detention, demolition of houses, deprivation of water and coercive methods of interrogation contrary to the UN Convention Against Torture.

"It is a terrible state of affairs," complains Ambassador de Saram, who along with the other two ambassadors customarily visit Egypt, Jordan and Syria every year to record evidence, mostly from Palestinians, who travel to these three Arab countries to complain about torture and abuses by the Israelis.

Last month Suha Arafat, wife of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, dropped a political bombshell when she accused Israeli military authorities of routinely using carcinogenic crowd-control gases in Gaza and the West Bank.

"Our people have been subjected to the daily intensive use of poisonous gas by the Israeli forces, which have led to an increase in cancer cases among women and children," she said.

The Israelis flatly deny the charge stating that "poisoning the public atmosphere does not help in bringing about success in the (current) peace negotiations."

But the Palestinians have long held that the worst form of state terrorism is the terrorism directed at them.

Last week state terrorism was one of the central issues in an ongoing debate at the UN which has so far adopted 11 conventions against terrorism. Syria and Lebanon, two Arab nations virtually at war with neighbouring Israel, want the world body to convene an international conference to help define "terrorism."

"The most dangerous form of terrorism is state terrorism - as seen in the Balkans, Kosovo and Israeli-occupied territories," says Houssam Asaad Diab of Lebanon.

Diab maintains that none of the 11 UN conventions, including the recently-finalised UN Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Funding, contain a clear definition of "terrorism" or "state terrorism".

The almost daily attacks by Israel against Lebanon, which have been occurring for more than 20 years, is a classic example of state terorrism, he says. While Lebanon has demanded an end to Israeli raids and has repeatedly called for the release of Lebanese prisoners, "the silence of the international community on the matter is proof of a double standard," Diab complains.

Ghassan Obeid of Syria says that his country was against all forms of terrorism, whether committed by individuals or groups of states.

But he points out that Syria will continue to insist on the need for a legal definition of terrorism, distinct from legitimate acts to combat foreign occupation. Along with Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and several other countries, Syria has called for an international conference- which once and for all will clearly spell out an acceptable definition of terrorism.

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