Upgrade Palestinian rights

[Violet_Crumble]

As it freezes an upgrade of relations with Israel, the EU should now demand respect for human rights, especially for children


Seth Freedman guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 February 2009 09

The disproportionate and indiscriminate actions by Israeli forces during Operation Cast Lead rightly earned Israel's leaders international opprobrium, and in some cases the verbal outrage was backed by concrete sanctions. Having last year declared an upgrading of relations with Israel, the EU decided last month to put the process on hold in the wake of the carnage in Gaza.

The freeze was cautiously welcomed by many NGOs working to promote human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, which applauded the EU's decision but questioned the motivation. According to Gerard Horton, a lawyer for Defence for Children International (DCI), the worry is that the suspension is merely a political ploy, "and that once the dust settles , the process of upgrading will restart once more".

DCI speculates that the temporary halt could even have been implemented to assist Israel in the long term, since Israel's current plunge in popularity would have hampered the chances of pushing through various aspects of the upgrading bill. In DCI's opinion, the real issue isn't simply the onslaught on Gaza, but a wider, decades-old systematic abuse of human rights on the part of Israel, which – until it is remedied – ought to prevent any unconditional enhancement of relations between the EU and Israel.

Any upgrade with Israel is, according to the EU's partnership agreement, contingent on Israel displaying appropriate regard for human rights: "Relations between the parties … shall be based on a respect for human rights and democratic principles, which guides their internal policy and constitutes an essential element of this agreement."

It is no secret that Israel shows a flagrant disregard for such human rights benchmarks, as DCI's own tireless work in the field demonstrates. The group has documented countless incidents of individual illegal punishments against Palestinian minors, which go hand in hand with Israel's overall policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian people by way of the 40-year-old occupation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/25/israel-palestinian-territories