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Law and Disorder in the Middle East
But it is Israel's "crime against humanity" against the Palestinian people, as determined by the U.N. Human Rights Commission itself, that I want to focus on here. What is a "crime against humanity"? This concept goes back to the Nuremberg Charter of 1945 for the trial of the major Nazi war criminals in Europe. And in the Nuremberg Charter of 1945, drafted by the United States government, a new type of international crime was created specifically intended to deal with the Nazi persecution of the Jewish people. The paradigmatic example of a "crime against humanity" is what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish people. This is where the concept of crime against humanity came from. And this is what the U.N. Human Rights Commission determined that Israel is currently doing to the Palestinian people: crimes against humanity. Legally speaking, it is just like what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jews. Moreover, a crime against humanity is the direct historical and legal precursor to the international crime of genocide as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The theory here was that what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish people required a special international treaty that would codify and universalize the Nuremberg concept of "crime against humanity." And that treaty ultimately became the 1948 Genocide Convention. It should be noted that the U.N. Human Rights Commission did not go so far as to condemn Israel for committing genocide against the Palestinian people. It condemned Israel for committing crimes against humanity, which are the direct precursor to genocide. And I submit that if something is not done quite soon by the American people and the international community to stop Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people, it could very well degenerate into genocide, if Israel is not there already. In this regard, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is what international lawyers call a genocidaire, one who has already committed genocide in the past. Sharon is ready, willing, and able to inflict genocide yet again upon the Palestinians, unless we stop him! Peace Is Possible, If . . . The goal of obtaining peace with justice for all peoples in the Middle East can only be achieved on the basis of a two-state solution for the Palestinian people and the Jewish people, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and an equitable solution to the question of Jerusalem: The Two-State Solution: On November 15, 1988, the independent state of Palestine was proclaimed by the Palestine National Council (P.N.C.), meeting in Algiers, by a vote of 253 to 46. On the same day it was also proclaimed in front of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the capital of the new state, after the close of prayers. Notice the monumental importance of Al Aqsa Mosque to the Palestinian people. A remarkable opportunity for peace was created by the Palestinian Declaration of independence because therein the P.N.C. officially endorsed this two-state solution in order to resolve the basic conflict. This Declaration of Independence explicitly accepted the U.N. General Assembly's Partition Resolution 181 (II) of 1947, which called for the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in the former Mandate for Palestine, together with an international trusteeship for the city of Jerusalem. The significance of the P.N.C.'s acceptance of partition cannot be overemphasized. Prior thereto, from the perspective of the Palestinian people, the Partition Resolution had been deemed to be a criminal act that was perpetrated upon them by the United Nations. Today, the acceptance of the Partition Resolution in their actual Declaration of Independence signals a genuine desire by the Palestinian people to transcend the past century of bitter history with the Jewish people living in their midst in order to reach an historic accommodation with Israel on the basis of a two-state solution. The Declaration of Independence is the foundational document for the State of Palestine. It is determinative, definitive, and irreversible. In this regard, it should be emphasized that Israel officially accepted the U.N. Partition Resolution in its own Declaration of Independence and as a condition for its admission to membership in the United Nations Organization. The 1947 U.N. Partition Plan called for the Palestinian people to have 44% of historic Palestine for their state, a much larger share than the 20% contemplated by U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 of 1967 and 338 of 1973. Today the Palestinian people would be prepared to accept the 1967 boundaries for the state of Palestine, which would consist essentially of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The P.N.C.'s solemn acceptance of Resolutions 242 and 338 represented a significant concession by the Palestinian people for the benefit of the Israeli people. The Refugee Question: As another express condition for its admission to the United Nations Organization, the government of Israel officially endorsed and agreed to carry out U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) of 1948, which determined that Palestinian refugees have a right to return to their homes, or that compensation should be paid to those who choose not to return. Furthermore, that same article 13 (2) of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights which Soviet Jews relied upon to justify their emigration from the former Soviet Union provides that Everyone has the right...to return to his country." That absolute right of return clearly applies to Palestinian refugees living in their diaspora who want to return to their homes in Israel and Palestine. The state of Israel owes a prior legal obligation to resettle Palestinian refugees who want to return home before it undertakes the massive settlement of Jews and others from around the world.
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