40 Years after the Israel Occupation

A rally has been held by Palestinians and Israelis on the West Bank to mark the 40th anniversary of the Israel Occupation on Palestinian land since the 1967 war. A conference in East Jerusalem was also banned by the Israeli police according to Al Jazeera.

A peaceful solution to the situation appears to be out of reach as infighting between the President Abbas Fatah’s movement and Hamas government led by the Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya continues. According to the latest Reuters report dated June 12, 2007, “Everybody is shooting everybody” on the Sydney Morning Herald, 630 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed due to the internal strife since Hamas won the 2006 elections.

At the same time, the Israeli government continues to violate international laws in the Occupied Territories. The most recent episode, being the construction of the railway system in the city of Jerusalem. According to Al Jazeera, the construction of the light rail is against Article 49 of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits the transfer of populations of an occupying power to occupied territories. While the Israeli authorities have claimed that the rail is meant to reduce traffic congestion, Palestinians feel that the former is merely trying to increase its legitimacy to ownership and presence of the land.

On the 40th anniversary of the Occupation, Al Jazeera has produced a series of online news articles and reports which highlights the conflict. The report, “Question and Answer on The Occupation in Law” serves as a timely remainder on how the Occupation is illegal under international law.

The areas would include Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which has been reaffirmed by various international organisations - including the US and the Israeli Supreme Court. The UN Security Council, the General Assembly and the International Court of Justice all reiterated in 2004 that the Palestinian Territories are “occupied” as a matter of law.

Though the IDF has pulled out of Gaza since 2005, it is still considered as occupied as

- The Oslo accords specifically affirmed that the Palestinian Territories would remain under Israeli occupation until the implementation of a final peace treaty.

- Residents are still under the control of the Israeli military which retains the ability and right to enter the Gaza Strip at will. Moreover, Israel retains control over all of Gaza’s public utilities, airspace, sea shore, and borders, including Gaza’s border with Egypt. It sets and collects Gaza’s taxes and customs and controls its population registry. It also manage Gaza’s international relations, whether or not they can open a seaport or an airport, and continues its military activity along the Gaza Strip’s coastline.

- Because the conditions which constitute the end of an occupation have been defined in international law and in Gaza’s case those conditions have not been met.

The Q & A also stated that the Occupier, in this case, the Israel government, under international law, is obligated to end the occupation as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Israel has to safeguard the rights of the occupied population during the temporary period in which the occupation is maintained.

The UN Resolution 242 of 1967 has called on Israeli to withdraw from the Occupied territories which it invaded during the 1967 June War. It is based on the principle of what it calls the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.”

Sydney Ideas - A Talk on American Torture by Michael Otterman

The talk by award-winning US freelance journalist Michael Otterman at 5th June at the Sydney Seymour Theatre, organised by Amnesty International Australia, provided an insight on the forms of psychological torture that the American government used for its “war on terror”.

Based on his extensive research, these torture techniques which is used in US detention centres such as Guantanamo Bay range from emotional and physical abuse, violence, sensory deprivation to sexual humiliation.

These torture forms which date as early the Cold War, which may not leave any “physical scars”, often have a psychological impact on the victims.

During the talk, Michael reiterated that the use of torture against terrorists may not yield the desired results. Instead, the victims would pander to what the torturer wants to hear. In instances of the ‘ticking time bomb’, extracted confessions may not prove to be accurate either. Moreover, torture carries with it, ethical and moral dilemmas.

Michael has written a book, American Torture, on this topic and his blog provides more information about the book, links to declassified documents on America’s use of torture since the cold war, tour and news updates. It has been rated as one of the best non fiction books in 2006 by the Sydney Morning Herald.

Links:

• Michael’s interview with Cage Prisoners
• ABC Radio Interview (Perspective) presented by Paul Barclay
• Michael Otterman: Why CIA abuse is medieval madness - an article for The Australian

Businesswomen and their (Potential) Prime Minister hushbands…

 

“I fully accept personal responsibility for any errors made by my company in handling the details of the employment arrangements for staff,” she said.

“I have also accepted full responsibility for rectifying any errors.”

- Theresa Rein, accepting responsibility for her business.

Madam Ho Ching is a famous and powerful women. She is billed as one of the top 100 people who “shaped the world” by Time magazine in 2007 and by Forbes as the number 24th most powerful women in 2004. As the CEO of Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government, she also happens to be the wife of the Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, who is also the son of the Singapore’s elderstatesmen cum Minister Mentor, Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

In the August 14th-20th 2004 edition of The Economist, the magazine published an article entitled, “Temasek, First Singapore, Next the World” which angered the Lees. Subsequently, the magazine issued an apology to the family for allegations that Ho Ching is appointed to the position “not on merit, but for corrupt nepotist motives for the advancement of the Lee family’s interests; and that Mr Lee Kuan Yew supported or condoned Mdm Ho’s appointment for like motives.” The magazine even agreed to pay Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew 127,000 pounds by way of damages according to a blog from Mr Brown, a popular and satirist blogger who used to own a column in the Singapore paper, TODAY, until he got the boot himself last July for “overstepping the boundaries” when he wrote a column on the increasing cost of living.

Since becoming CEO, her critics have accused her of controversial acquisition decisions including the recent troubled $3.8 billion purchase of Shin Corp or the sinking of Micropolis which resulted in a lost of $630 million.

Compare this to Mrs Kevin Rudd, the wife of the labour party leader and potential Prime Minister of Australia, Therese Rein. She owns a job agency which acquired the company, WorkDirections Australia in 2006. It was discovered that this company owed 58 staff members $70,000 of pay due to , removing “workers’ penalty rates, overtime and allowances for an extra 45 cents an hour on a common law contract”. Rudd and Theresa has since said apologised, acknowledged it was a honest mistake and that efforts have been made to rectify the situation.

Theresa has also decided to sell off her Australian part of the business to prevent possible future “conflicts of interest”. This has sparked off a debate in Australia about working women and whether the wives of politicians should “sacrifice their business achievements” for the aspirations of their husbands.

As for Ho Ching, she has yet to apologise or comment on the disastrous business decisions that have been made. Different women, different paths (fate)?