Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace | Page 5

Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace
participated in the violent suppression of Palestinians.xiv Finally, not all internal
threats to Israeli security emanate from Palestinians. Israeli right-wing and
religious extremists, who normally target Palestinians, have occasionally struck at
government authorities and murdered Prime Minister Rabin in 1995, severely
setting back two-state negotiations.
5. Meanwhile, Palestinians’ security has unambiguously worsened since Oslo. In the
West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, Israeli military and settlers killed 2,334
Palestinians between January 2014 and August 2015, compared with 90 Israelis
dying from Palestinian attacks. The Israeli government routinely destroys
Palestinian homes, wells, businesses and farms in East Jerusalem and most of the
West Bank if they are built or repaired without Israeli permits, which are rarely
granted. Palestinian property is expropriated for Israeli parks, heritage sites,
security zones, and the enclosure wall. The Israeli military arrests adolescent
Palestinians in the night, coerces confessions by threats of indefinite imprisonment,
and holds them without trial or access to a lawyer, a translator or even a parent.
Palestinians are often held in Israel where families cannot visit, which violates
international law. Palestinians who allegedly pose a threat are often shot on sight.
Despite some security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli
military frequently conducts incursions into Palestinian areas and conducts constant
drone surveillance of Gaza and other Palestinian areas. These actions provoke
backlash and subvert any prospects for a two-state solution.
6. The borders have become less clear. The Government of Israel has not made an
official declaration of its borders. Israeli construction of a fortified wall primarily
on West Bank territory follows a path in defiance of a decision by the International
Court of Justice. Area C, 60% of the West Bank, designated in the Oslo accords
either to be part of a future Palestinian state or to be territory that the Palestinians
could exchange with Israel in a final settlement, is now shown on maps from the
Israeli Ministry of Tourism as indistinguishable from the internationally recognized
territory of Israel. The parcels of the West Bank under Palestinian control are
fragmented from each other and cut off from Jerusalem, Jordan, and the rest of the
world with whom they need to trade and communicate.
7. Israeli authorities tightly limit the access of Pal \