Gabriel Helou

“ Special Rapporteur Richard Falk rebukes Dexia Bank and Belgian Government for financing illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories Richard Falk describes in his report to the UN General Assembly that the Belgian government can be held responsible for the funding by Dexia Bank of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Richard Falk also welcomed Dutch firm’s decision to pull out of an illegal Israeli project in East Jerusalem .”

“UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday transmitted a recommendation to the General Assembly during its 68th session seeking advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over legal consequences of prolonged occupation of Palestine if diplomacy fails. This was one of recommendations contained in a report by Richard Falk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, in accordance with a Human Rights Council resolution. Falk recommended that "if current diplomacy fails to produce a solution to the underlying conflict," the Assembly should "request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice as to the legal consequences of the prolonged occupation of Palestine." The ICJ already ruled in 2004 that the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank was illegal and "tantamount to annexation." The ruling did not deter Israel from continuing with its construction. F...

Here is an interesting   article   on "Jerusalem bill". However, the author should have added that Israel must rescind "Jerusalem Basic Law" enacted in 1980. The article: “By a 5-4 majority, a ministerial committee on Sunday approved a bill that proposes to require 80 Knesset members to approve any negotiations about the future of Jerusalem before the issue can even be discussed in peace talks …”

“The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported that Israeli violations against detained Palestinian children are still ongoing, despite an alleged Israeli decision to improve their conditions, and the methods of interrogation . ”

“The Palestinian Ministry Of Detainees issued a press release revealing that Israel is currently holding captive 5200 Palestinians in 17 prisons, detention camps, and interrogation facilities. It said that this year witnessed a sharp escalation in arrests as the soldiers kidnapped 2450 Palestinians, including 476 children and 49 women since the beginning of the   year . ”

Whenever you hear about Palestinian-Israeli “peace talks/peace negotiations”, remember the following lines. In the North Sea Continental Shelf Case [i] , the International Court of Justice ruled that there is an obligation on States to enter “... i nto negotiations with a view to arriving at an agreement … they are under an obligation so to conduct themselves that the negotiations are meaningful , which will not be the case when either of them insists upon its own position without contemplating any modification of it…” Therefore, the ICJ in this Case set out the scope and extent of the obligation to negotiate. Now: are the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations truly engaged into “with a view to arriving at an agreement”? Are they “meaningful”? How many pre-conditions to reaching “peace” has Israel imposed? And has Israel stopped creating irreversible facts on the ground? [i]   North Sea Continental Shelf (Federal Republic of Germany/Netherlands), Judgment...

“If the   politics of deflection   exhibit the   outward   reach of   Israel’s grand strategy of territorial expansionism and regional hegemony, the   politics of fragmentation   serves Israel’s   inward   moves designed to weaken Palestinian resistance, induce despair, and de facto surrender. In fundamental respects deflection is an unwitting enabler of fragmentation, but it is also its twin or complement .”