What about “the Unalienable Palestinian Rights”?

Despite the fact that the United Nations resolutions have steadily maintained full legal support of Palestinian rights since the 1948 Catastrophe (al-Nakba), these unalienable rights remain ‘ink on paper’ without any chance of being fulfilled especially by the present Israeli government. It goes without saying that the definition of unalienable rights of any people has to meet the international legal standards adopted by all members of the United Nations which in effect created the Hebrew State itself. Indeed, the fundamental unalienable human rights have become an integral part of the constitutions of democratic nations and the foundation of the charter of the United Nations. They include the right of self determination, “the right of life and liberty”, the right of free worship, the right of being governed by law by which no one is above the law, the right of being secured and protected from any domestic or foreign aggressor and the right of return to the homeland after temporarily leaving during an armed conflict to save lives. And last but not least, the right of protection for private property.

For the purpose of this article, let us examine each known unalienable right which applies to all nations and all individuals regardless of race, creed, gender, color and ethnicity and see whether they apply or not to the Palestinian people, collectively and individually. In this regard, it is essential to start first with the unalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination that was supposed to allow them to establish the independent state of Palestine in 1948 after the withdrawal of the British mandate (occupation) forces and authorities from Palestine. This unalienable right was denied to the Palestinian people, mainly by the Western World in 1948 in a move to compensate Europeans of Jewish faith who survived the massacre of the Holocaust for which the European countries, though in varying degrees, bear responsibility directly or indirectly. This Western European ‘generosity’ came at the expense of the Palestinians’ livelihoods and resources, causing them the loss of many lives and properties and later displacement and expulsion from their historical land. The full cost of the Holocaust has been exacting a heavy price on the Palestinians, the only innocent party of this heinous European crime to this very day without a stop since the 1940s. Things exacerbated more when the Palestinian unalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” turned into imposed death, loss of every liberty coupled with utter misery in the lives of the vast majority of Palestinians wasted in refugee camps after being driven-out by force from their homes and farms. Moreover, the unalienable right to worship for Palestinian Christians and Muslims, alike, soon meant the annexation of their homes and farms and properties by the colonial Israeli regime as a fulfillment of a “Biblical Holy Scripture” which ‘promised’ historical Palestine to the adherents of the Jewish faith!! Robbing people in the name of religion is history’s oldest con game. The bells of Churches and the calls to prayer from mosques are being silenced by Israeli courts because “they disturb the peace and tranquility” of the Israeli colonial settlers for whom Palestinian lands were annexed to build their ‘settlements’/ colonies as a “Divine Entitlement” for “the chosen people of God”. It is worth noting that the unalienable right to be equally ruled by the same law does not even apply to Palestinians holding the Israeli citizenship. Again, there are laws formulated for Israelis only, especially colonial settlers, and there is no protection under the law that applies to Palestinians under the colonial/ apartheid rule of the Israeli armed forces. Little wonder then that the unalienable right to live in peace in one’s homeland and to be protected from any domestic or outside threats are also being denied to Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and to Palestinians under the Israeli military occupation. The ‘price taggers’ known by Israelis of conscience as “the hoodlums of the yeshiva (religious) schools” have been vandalizing Palestinian properties including churches and mosques with the official encouragement of the State of Israel to force more Palestinians to leave Palestine. Also, the unalienable right of return of civilians to their homeland after the end of an armed conflict has been transformed into a strategy of Judaization of the little left of historical Palestine in order to eventually ‘transfer’ the Palestinians of 1948 from Israel and drive out the Palestinians of the West Bank from ‘Eretz Israel’, or the ‘Land of Israel’, “that was exclusively promised to Jews only”!!

An increasing number of Israeli and western opinion leaders register their awareness of all the above-mentioned facts concerning the consecutive Israeli governments’ denial of the unalienable rights of the Palestinians. They also recognize the fact that the now-deadlocked peace negotiations with Israel (that have been held under the so-called peace process which was meant to create an independent Palestinian State) appear to be purposely used by Israel to carry out its designs to fully Judaize all historical Palestine.