U.S. Complicity in Israel's Gross Violations of Human Rights

Journal article by Shaw J. Dallal; Middle East Policy, Vol. 2, 1993

Journal Article Excerpt

U.S. COMPLICITY IN ISRAEL'S GROSS
VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Shaw J. Dallal

Dr. Dallal, an international lawyer, is adjunct professor of international relations
at Utica College, Syracuse University.

A ccording to U.S. law, the grant-
ing of foreign assistance, as
well as investment incentives,
to any country is conditional on
the human-rights record of the country re-
ceiving such assistance. ¹ The purpose of
making respect for human rights a condi-
tion for receiving this assistance is to con-
firm the commitment of the United States
to the United Nations Charter. In fact,
Section 502B(a)(1) of the Foreign Assis-
tance Act specifically states that "a princi-
pal goal of the foreign policy of the United
States shall be to promote the increased
observance of internationally recognized
human rights by all countries." ²

"Gross" human-rights violations are de-
fined to include: "torture or cruel, inhu-
man, or degrading treatment or punish-
ment, prolonged detention without charges
and trial, causing the disappearance of per-
sons by abduction and clandestine deten-
tion of those persons, and other flagrant
denial of the right to life, liberty, or the
security of persons." ³ This section is based
on a U.N. resolution which authorized the
Economic and Social Council "to investi-
gate situations which appear to reveal a
consistent pattern of gross and reliably at-
tested violations of human rights requiring
consideration by the Commission." ⁴

Section 503B(b) and Section 116 require
the secretary of state to submit annual
reports of the human-rights conditions in
countries proposed as recipients of foreign
assistance. ⁵ In compliance with this re-
quirement, the State Department publishes
a compilation of human-rights reports,
known as the "Country Reports." These
reports by the Department of State on the
human-rights practices of individual coun-
tries are intended to fulfill the requirements
of Sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the For-
eign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended,
as well as the legislative requirement of
Section 31 of the Bretton Woods Agree-
ments Act. ⁶

____________________

¹	Section 116 of the Foreign Assistance Act prohibits the provision of U.S. bilateral economic assistance to any country the government of which "engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights. . ."
²	22 U.S.Congress Sect. 2304(a)(1) ( 1982), emphasis added.
³	22 U.S.C. Sect. 2304(a)(1) ( 1982 and Supp. 1985), emphasis added.
⁴	See Res. 1503, 48 U.N. ESCOR Supp. (No. 1A), Para. 5, at 8, U.N. Doc. R/4832 (1970).
⁵	22 U.S.C. Sec. 2304(b) ( 1982); see also U.S.C. Sec. 2151(n)(d) (1982).
⁶	22 U.S.C. Sec. 286 et. seq. ( 1982 and Supp. 1995).

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Section 502B(c) provides a procedure
which allows Congress to obtain a state
ment from the State Department regarding
the status of human rights in a particular
country, a certification justifying providing
assistance to that country and any other
information applicable to human rights.⁷

On the basis of this year's Department of
State Report on Human Rights in Israel
and the Occupied Territories,⁸ as well as
last year's,⁹ it is hard to believe that the
State Department could, legally or morally,
justify its certification to Congress that Is
rael is entitled to receive U.S. aid.

ISRAEL'S HUMAN-RIGHTS
ABUSES IN ISRAEL

In this year's report, the Department of
State has reconfirmed its finding of last
year that the government of Israel contin
ues to deprive "Israel's Arab citizens" of
sharing "fully in the rights granted to," and
the duties "imposed on, Jewish citizens."¹⁰

Israel welcomes Jewish immigrants, in
cluding Jewish refugees, to whom it gives
automatic citizenship and residence rights
under the Law of Return. It accepts the
return of Jewish Israeli citizens who have
emigrated. The Law of Return does not
apply to Israeli Arabs. . . (p. 1016).

Israel thus refuses to allow the Palestinian
refugees, "who fled Israel in 1948-1949" to
"return" (p. 1016).

Israel's Law of Return allows only per
sons born of Jewish mothers or those who
convert to Judaism to "return" to Israel.
The result is that Muslim and Christian
Palestinians who were born in Israel or in
Palestine, and whose lands the state of
Israel has expropriated, may not so "re
turn." Israel's Law of Citizenship grants
Israeli citizenship and "Jewish nationality"
upon arrival in Israel to those born of
Jewish mothers, or to those who have con
verted to Judaism. Many Palestinians were
born in Israel or in Palestine, but left under
duress in 1947-48 and in 1967 as a conse
quence of ...

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U.S. Complicity in Israel's Gross Violations of Human Rights

Journal article by Shaw J. Dallal; Middle East Policy, Vol. 2, 1993

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