Palestine can be a sovereign state if Israel stops the Occupation

In the Straits Times article dated November 10, “It’s not about Palestine’s existence, but whether its people can govern it’, former British Prime Minister, and current Middle East Envoy for the Quartet, Tony Blair, was reported in the paper that “the core issue is not whether a separate state called Palestine can exist, but rather whether Palestinians have the capacity to govern it”. He also said “Israel had first to be assured that its security would be guaranteed fully.”

Mr Blair’s comments are highly controversial as it makes the implicit and racist assumption that Arab Palestinians are incapable of governing themselves.

The Palestinian - Israeli conflict dated back to as early as 1948 when the latter occupied 77 percent of Palestine land. During the 1967 war, Israel further invaded and occupied the remaining territory of Palestine (which is known as the West bank and Gaza Strip) as well as the entire Jerusalem, which was subsequently annexed by Israel. Even though Israeli troops have withdrawn from Gaza and the West Bank, it still has effective control on both areas.

In Gaza, Israel has recently declared it a hostile entity, reduced and cut off its power and fuel supplies in addition to the economic blockade. Israel also controls all the 5 border crossings, the air space and coastal regions of Gaza. At the West Bank, Israel has built a wall that surrounds the area, in addition to building settlements, road checks for Palestinians and private roads only for Israelis. South African Archbishop and Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu has compared Israel’s action to the Apartheid.

As such, it is irresponsible to claim that Palestinians must first prove that it is able to govern itself since they have always been under the Occupation.

Mr Blair also remarked that one has to take into account’s Israel’s security. The argument does not hold water, as the ordinary average Palestinians do not endanger Israel’s security. While it is true that there are certain militant sectors within Palestine that have fired Qassam rockets into Israel or that suicide bombers have threatened and destroyed the lives and properties in Israel, these incidents are a direct result of the occupation. To argue that Israel’s security has to be guaranteed when it is in fact the aggressor who continually violates UN resolutions by violating the human rights of Palestinians just does not make sense.

The Palestine- Israel conflict can only be resolved through dialogue and a sustained peace process brokered by the UN that is in line with the approved UN resolutions. The Israeli government, US and EU must stop labeling Hamas as a terrorist organization and instead engage with it proactively. The western powers cannot ignore Hamas, as it is a political force and party, which has come to power through democratic elections.

Palestine can be a sovereign state. It is capable of governing itself. However, that can only happen when America stops supplying Israel with military weapons that make the Occupation possible. It can only happen if Israel stops its Occupation.

Bush’s Sanctions against Iran

Why is the Bush Administration so keen on hurting Iran? There is no doubt that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a dictator and that the Iranian regime has violated various human rights such as its clampdown of press freedom, imposition of capital punishments, and denying women their rights. Ahmadinejad has even been ridiculed by the world for denying that homosexuality exists in Iran. Yet, that has not stopped the Bush Administration from courting autocratic regimes such as President Musharraf in Pakistan to Zhu Rongji of China.

According to Straits Times article, dated 10 November, ‘EU giants told to shun Iran or risk losing US deals’, the US government has told EU multinational corporations that they stop their business operations in Iran or else risk losing their US business. According to the report, Siemens, along with Germany’s three largest banks, Deutsche, Commerzbank and Dresdener have all “bowed to US pressure”. Senior US officials including Vice- President Dick Cheney; Undersecretary for State, Nicholas Burns; and Undersecretary at the Treasury, Stuart Levey have all warned European firms from Iranian ventures. It is also reported that the British Foreign Office and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have related the same messages to their own home based corporations such as Shell, BP, Total and GDF.

While the Bush Administration claims that Iran is planning to produce nuclear weapons, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly stated that there is no evidence of such plans or that Iran possesses any nuclear weapons program. Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty that is governed by the IAEA which does regular inspection of nuclear facilities of its members. To discredit the agency’s findings, Israel’s deputy prime minister and former military chief, Shaul Mofaz, has called for the dismissal of Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of IAEA, who criticised the American administration for the 2003 Iraqi invasion. As history has shown, it turns out that Iraq does not possess any weapons of mass destruction, which was then used as the main justification to invade the country and topple the Saddam Hussein regime.

Tehran on the other hand, has repeatedly rejected accusations that it is planning to manufacture any nuclear weapons, and insisted it is pursuing nuclear technology for peaceful civilian purposes such as power generation, and as such, refused to heed U.N. Security Council demands to halt enrichment. ElBaradei has also reiterated that even if Iran wanted to build a nuclear bomb it would take years for that to happen.

This is an eerie yet similar parallel that the Bush Administration used towards Iran when it tried to justify its invasion in Iraq in 2003.

By using sanctions and threatening EU multinationals and telling them not to have any business dealings with Iran, the Administration is trying to cut off the economic lifeline of the country. Such measures are extremely dangerous as it pushes the Iranian government to pursuing a dangerous, if not isolationist path towards military extremism.

Reporters Without Borders - Press Freedom Index 2007

Reporters without Borders (RSF) has published its Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007 which showcases the state of press freedom around the world for the past year.

The top 10 in the list are all noticeably held by European nations; with Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Slovakia and Belgium leading ahead. The press in European countries are generally free with a few exceptions such as Bulgaria and Poland which has been dubbed by the organisation as “Europe’s bad boys”. Much of it could be attributed to EU, which, as a regional body, generally ensures that its member states respect human rights. Bulgaria and Poland, which are the new entrants to the regional bloc would have to acclimatise themselves to these new rules and regulations.

On the other hand, the top ten bottom of the list are held by countries with closed economies, including Uzbekistan, Laos, Vietnam, China, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.

The only exception at the bottom of the list is China which is sticking out like a sore thumb. Though its economy is progressing at an alarming rate, and is already a world major trading nation, it still persistently ranks low in terms of press ranking. This will put to test the widely held belief by academics, democracy and free trade activists who believe that economic liberalisation indirectly leads to political liberalisation and greater press freedom. While the human rights records of China is facing greater international scrutiny as it prepares for the upcoming 2008 Olympics, it appears that the Communist Party of China is not letting up on clamping down dissent. Prior to the 17th Congress, activists are arrested along with the closure of thousands of blogs and online message boards.

In this report, RSF also highlighted concerns on state persecution towards bloggers, which it says are “threatened as much as journalists in traditional media.”. It cites the example of bloggers being arrested or websites being shut in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Egypt. The press advocacy organisation claims China and Vietnam each holds 50 and 8 cyber-dissidents in prison respectively. Kareem Amer of Egypt was sentenced to four years in prison for blog postings “criticising the president and Islamist control of the country’s universities.”

In the Middle East, the Iraqi press, like the entire country itself, is engulfed in violence. More than 200 journalists and media assistants have been killed since the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003 according to RSF. In Palestine, the inter-rivalry between political factions of Hamas and Fatah have eroded press freedom through “hostage-taking, arrests, physical attacks and ransacking of news organisations”.

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