BRIEF REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND FINDINGS OF
RUSSELL TRIBUNAL ON PALESTINE (RToP)
by Carol Martin, Cape Town
Held 5-6 November 2011 at District Six Museum, Cape Town
South Africa
Proceedings ran smoothly throughout the days of 5 – 6 November (Saturday and Sunday), and included the EID celebration on Sunday morning at the District Six Mosque at the kind invitation of the Muslim community involved in the Tribunal events. The service was followed by a breakfast. A multi-faith gathering of Jurors, guests, and volunteers enjoyed this festive occasion before proceedings started on Sunday morning. The previous evening’s events presented a cultural musical evening with a Middle Eastern flavor for South African and international legal and political dignitaries, guests, and organization committee members.
Eleven Jurors sat at the Tribunal to hear human rights accounts from some 22 invited witnesses and experts. The jurors came from South Africa, Mali, Algeria, USA, UK and Northern Ireland, Spain, and Belgian, and included as honorary president of the Tribunal, Mr. Stephane Hessel from Paris, himself a walking history of European incursions against Jews during World War II, and a promoter of subsequent peace initiatives to build a longer lasting culture of non-violence in the world. Jurors specialized in international law and human rights at practitioner, governmental, academic, and other advisory levels.
Twenty two witnesses and legal experts who reported to the Jurors about their witness and experiences included an array of nationalities involved with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. These included legal and political analysts and NGO directors from Israel, the UK, Palestine, Gaza, Argentina, France, Belgium, and South Africa.
The purpose of the Tribunal in Cape Town, its third sitting since March 2010 (the second in London in November 2010) was to address the question: “Are Israel’s practices against the Palestinian People in breach of the prohibition on Apartheid under International Law?” As stated on its website: www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com, the main aim of the the RToP is to reaffirm the supremacy of international law as the basis for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by identifying failings in the implementation of international law in addressing Israel’s political and military occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPT), and condemns all parties responsible for these failings, in full view of international public opinion.
Media from various international and local sources reported the proceedings. Several reported challenges to the RToP proceedings, jurors, and witnesses. An Arab Israeli Member of the Knesset (MK), Ms. Haneen Zoabi, was threatened with revocation of her Israeli citizenship, as a result of her scathing witness about the discriminatory practices Arab Israeli citizens still face; the RToP website was hacked during its live streaming on the internet causing a shut-down; one heckler at the proceedings had to be removed from the Press Conference for unruly behavior; and presumably FBI death threats were extended to American Juror, the first African-American woman to serve for the Georgia State House of Representatives, who also served 6 terms in the US House of Representatives (www.politicsweb.co.za).
At the end of the proceedings, a Press conference was held, at which time the Tribunal head juror, UK barrister Mike Mansfield, announced that a letter was being sent immediately to South African President Jacob Zuma requesting his intervention with Israeli authorities that Israeli and Palestinian witnesses return to their homes safely, without incriminating reprisals for their testifying at the Tribunal
§ Five former EAs with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) were present at the Tribunal proceedings. The photo, from left to right, sites:
- Terry Crawford-Browne, peace activist and campaigner against corruption in the South African arms deal scandals, worked first in Jerusalem in 2009-10 (October-January; Team 33) and then Bethlehem in 2010 (September-December; Team 37)
- Eddie Cottle, media specialist, worked in Jayyus in 2008
- Carol Martin, human rights/creative arts activist and educator, worked in Jayyus in 2011 (July-Sept; Group 40)
- Richard Cogill, an Anglican priest and activist, worked in Bethlehem in 2005 (May-July; Group 12)
- Luleka Nyhila, a senior officer in Cape Town’s municipality, theologian, and studying for the priesthood, worked in Jayyus in 2007 (September-December)
Other Cape Town-based EAs were out of town during the Tribunal
Content of Proceedings
The Tribunal was opened by jurors, Pierre Galand of the Belgium-based organizing committee, and Stephane Hessel from France with decades of work in peace-building, culture and non-violence, including the writing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu gave an impassioned talk about the importance of understanding oppression in all of its forms.
Topics in the two days included:
1. Setting the Legal Context: The Palestinian Right to Self-Determination Raji Sourani, considered to be the Gaza Strip’s foremost human rights lawyer, explained the content of the right, the nature of its denial in the Palestinian context, and its relation to apartheid and persecution.
2. Apartheid in South Africa, and the prohibition of apartheid in international law Max du Plessis, an associate professor of international law at South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal, detailed the treaty and customary international law status of this prohibition. John Dugard, a juror and legal expert in human rights and international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian Territory (oPT), explained how the apartheid regime operated in South Africa’s law and policy frameworks, and then provided an overview of Israeli law and policy with respect to the prohibition on apartheid.
3. Elements of the definition of apartheid Several witnesses discussed the term ‘racial’ in the context of ‘racial discrimination’ in International Law, and the Palestinian identity as a distinct racial group, who is ‘indigenous’, and how the legal definition of apartheid applies to practices in Israel/Palestine. Two Israeli human rights activists explained the discriminatory elements of the Israeli legal system and the separate legal systems and courts for Jewish-Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the occupied territories.
4. Acts of Apartheid Dr. Allan Boesak, a well-known South African theologian and anti-apartheid activist, gave testimonies about cruel treatments, arbitrary arrests and illegal imprisonment during Apartheid South Africa. This was followed by similar testimonies in the Palestinian and Israeli contexts by Mahmoud Hassan, who heads a prisoner support center in Jerusalem.
5. Exploitation of labour of members of a racial group or groups as acts of apartheid Rafeef Ziadah explained how Israel has allowed more Palestinian employment inside Israel since the 1990’s, but that such labour is now used extensively only in the construction and services sectors of Jewish-Israeli settlements in the oPT. South African Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), discussed the conditions of employment under Apartheid South Africa. Three Israeli and Palestinian rights activists gave testimonies over the denial of the right to freedom of movement, of residence, to leave and return to one’s country, to a nationality, to work, to form recognized trade unions, to education, to freedom of opinion and expression, and to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. Shawan Jabarin was refused permission by Israeli authorities to travel to Ireland to receive an award; Argentinian Luciana Coconi had reported about apartheid against the Palestinian People, and Lea Tsemel, an Israeli legal adviser, sits on the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.
6. Measures designed to divide the population along racial lines Three witnesses spoke about the creation of separate reserves and ghettoes, the prohibition of mixed marriages, and the expropriation of landed property in Israel/Palestine as well as in former Apartheid South Africa. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela had served on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC); Jeff Halper is an Israeli Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) dedicated to resisting the Israeli Occupation and bringing about a just peace in Israel/Palestine; Jamal Juma’a is coordinator of the Palestinian organization, Stop the Wall, has been a political prisoner and campaigner with civil society organizations.
7. Persecution of Organizations and Persons by depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms because they voice their opposition to apartheid MK Haneen Zoabi, mentioned above, gave a scathing attack against her government’s acts, such as arrests, imprisonment, travel bans and the targeting of Palestinian parliamentarians, national political leaders and human rights defenders, the closures of related organizations, and the current legislation being enacted to punish those who initiate or promote boycott measures for opposition to Israeli domination. Shawqi Issa is an international law and human rights lawyer based in Bethlehem at his Ensan Center for Human Rights.
8. Persecution Rafaelle Maison explained persecution as a crime against humanity;
Similar evidence was given with regard to persecutions in the Gaza Strip by Raji Sourani; in the West Bank by Mohammed Khatib who resisted the continuous construction of Jewish-only settlements near his village of Bil’in; and Jazi Abu Kaf who advocates for land and housing rights for unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel.
9. Presentation by Israeli Government No government official attended the Tribunal.
10. Third Party Responsibility and Remedies Francois Dubuisson gave an explanation about how to proceed should Israel be proved guilty of apartheid by the Tribunal.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS CONFERENCE
A sitting convened on Monday morning following the Tribunal, headed by Michael Mansfield QC with several jurors attending. A Summary of Findings of the RToP were read out, and paper copies distributed as below. Prior to this presentation, Barrister Mansfield expressed the Tribunals’ disgust at the attack one member of the Israeli Knesset had made toward witness Arab Israeli MK Zoabi, requesting that her Israeli citizenship be revoked because of her scathing attacks against the policies of the Israeli government. In this context, Mr. Mansfield announced that the Tribunal had sent a letter that morning to President Zuma requesting his intervention with Israeli authorities. The letter was copied also to Israeli embassies in South Africa, Ireland, the UK, Spain, USA, France, and Belgium. Both Findings and this letter are found on the website: www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com
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