Open-Ended Issue

Israel, as an occupying Power, has undertaken countless measures attempting to change the legal status, demographic composition and character of the territory >>

“Israeli policies are designed to limit the number of Palestinians living in areas earmarked for settlements or in their vicinity”. -- The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) >>

Israel has confiscated Palestinian land >>

Israel has exploited natural resources of the Palestinian land >>

In the Palestinian Occupied Territories peopel experience a number of institutionalised violations of their right to water including: destruction by military and paramilitary settlers of Palestinian water sources, - non-provision of water infrastructure and facilities for local solutions, - lack of maintenance of existing infrastructure, - outright prevention of Palestinians from drilling and constructing water-delivery facilities in areas of Jewish settler colonies, - discriminatory distribution and insufficient water supply to Palestinians, - pollution and contamination of Palestinian aquifer through the combined -- dumping of lethal waste, -- hazardous use of chemical fertilisers and -- over-pumping leading to salinisation. >>

Access to safe and sufficient water, including drinking water, is an essential element of adequate housing >>

Across the occupied West Bank, raw untreated sewage is pumped every day out of the Jewish settlements, along large metal pipes, straight onto Palestinian land. From there, it can enter the groundwater and the reservoirs, and become a poison. >>

Only six per cent of Israeli settlements in the West Bank adequately treat their sewage. -- According to Friends of the Earth, report >>

Israel demolishes houses >>

The Israeli government had demolished 18,000 Palestinian houses since the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza began in 1967. -- According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) >>

“The Israeli authorities have for many years applied a discriminatory policy of house demolitions, permitting, on the one hand, many tens of Israeli settlements to be built on Occupied Palestinian territory in flagrant violation of international law at the same time as they confiscate Palestinian lands, forbidding the Palestinian population to build and destroying their houses. The cleared land is often used to build illegal Israeli settlements. International law prohibits occupying powers from building settlements for their own citizens on the territories they occupy.” -- Amnesty International, website, >>

"There is nothing quite like the misery one feels listening to a 35-year-old [Palestinian] man who worked fifteen years as an illegal day laborer in Israel in order to save up money to build a house for his family only to be shocked one day upon returning from work to find that the house and all that was in it had been flattened by an Israeli bulldozer. When I asked why this was done—the land, after all, was his—I was told that a paper given to him the next day by an Israeli soldier stated that he had built the structure without a license. Where else in the world are people required to have a license (always denied them) to build on their own property? Jews can build, but never Palestinians. This is apartheid." -- Edward Said, in "The Nation" >>

The situation in the West Bank, Palestine is one of apartheid >>

[…] And the word “apartheid” is exactly accurate. You know, this is an area that’s occupied by two powers. They are now completely separated. Palestinians can’t even ride on the same roads that the Israelis have created or built in Palestinian territory. The Israelis never see a Palestinian, except the Israeli soldiers. The Palestinians never see an Israeli, except at a distance, except the Israeli soldiers. So within Palestinian territory, they are absolutely and totally separated, much worse than they were in South Africa, by the way. -- Jimmy Carter, interview with Amy Goodman >>

Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one - progressive, liberal - in Israel; and the other - cruel, injurious - in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day. -- Michael Ben-Yair, attorney general from 1993-96 >>

Israel has established a dual system of law in the occupied territories >>

Palestine has become isolated ghettos in which the Palestinian inhabitants cannot enter or depart without Israeli permission >>

Israel's army has turned every Palestinian village and town into a fenced-in, or blocked-in, detention camp. -- Shulamit Aloni, former Minister of Education under Yitzhak Rabin >>

Israel imposes a total curfew on Palestinians whenever the settlers, who have illegally usurped the Palestinians' land, celebrate their holidays or conduct their parades. -- Shulamit Aloni, former Minister of Education under Yitzhak Rabin >>

Israel has created special roads in the West Bank on which no Palestinian can travel >>

Palestinians are not allowed to be transported in Israeli vehicles -- A new order issued by the GOC Central command >>

Israeli settlers mistreat Palestinian civilians >>

Throughout the West Bank, Jewish settlers attacks Palestinian civilians and their property. >>

Israeli settlers rustle (= steal) livestock belonging to rural Palestinians >>