The Case for Palestine: An International Law Perspective

Book Description

John Quigley brings a necessary international law perspective to bear on the seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this updated edition of his important book. Since 2000, the cycle of bloodshed and retribution has spiraled increasingly out of control. Quigley attributes the breakdown of negotiations in 2000 to Israel’s unwillingness to negotiate on the basis of principles of justice and law. He argues that throughout the last century, established tenets of international law—and particularly the right of self-determination—have been overlooked or ignored in favor of the Zionists and then the Israelis, to the detriment of the Palestinians.

In this volume, Quigley provides a thorough understanding of both sides of the conflict in the context of international law. He contends that the Palestinians have a stronger legal claim to Jerusalem than do the Israelis; that Palestinian refugees should be repatriated to areas including those within the borders of Israel; and that Israel should withdraw from the territory it occupied in 1967. As in his earlier volume, Quigley provides an extensively documented evaluation of the conflict over the last century, discussing the Zionist movement, the League of Nations’ decision to promote a Jewish homeland in Palestine, the 1948 war and creation of Israel, and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights during the 1967 war.

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding study of the Israel-Palestine conflict.......2006-07-13

This excellent survey is a new edition of John Quigley's 1990 classic, `Palestine and Israel'. The author, who is Professor of Law at Ohio State University, examines the origins of the Zionist-Arab conflict in Palestine, the League of Nations' decision to promote a Jewish homeland in Palestine, the 1948 war and the establishment of Israel, the status of Arabs in Israel, the 1967 war, Israel's illegal occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and the way to resolve the Palestine-Israel conflict.

During and after the 1948 war, Israeli forces drove 780,000 Palestinian Arabs out of the most densely populated areas of Palestine: only 60,000 remained. As the commander of the Palmach, the elite unit of the Israeli army, admitted, "We did everything to encourage them to flee."

From 1950 onwards, when Palestinians attempted to cross into Israel to attend to their land, Israel repeatedly attacked its Arab neighbours. The UN Security Council condemned these attacks saying, "reprisals have proved to be productive of greater violence rather than a deterrent to violence." This remains true right up to today's brutal Israeli assaults on Gaza and Lebanon.

Mordecai Bentov, who was a cabinet minister when Israel attacked the Arab states in 1967, wrote that Israel's `entire story' about `the danger of extermination' was "invented of whole cloth and exaggerated after the fact to justify the annexation of new Arab territories."

Quigley attributes the breakdown of negotiations in 2000 to Israel's refusal to negotiate on the basis of principles of justice and law. He contends that the Palestinians have a stronger legal claim to Jerusalem than do the Israelis; that Palestinian refugees should be repatriated to areas including those within the borders of Israel; and that Israel should withdraw from all the territories it occupied in 1967.

He argues that throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, Israel and its allies have overridden the basic tenets of international law, particularly the right of self-determination, to the detriment of the Palestinians. He concludes that the conflict can only be ended by establishing a viable Palestinian state.

A stunning history in a legal context that will blow readers away.......2006-03-08

John Quigley, professor of Law at Ohio State University and a leading American expert in humanitarian law, has written a 2005 update of his 1990 The Case for Palestine. Quigley introduces this book with the hope that it will be used to further peace between Israel and Palestine through better understanding of the situation. The book is highly readable, despite numerous but unobtrusive academic footnotes; the story Quigley relates will stun many who thought they understood much of this historical background.

Quigley starts at the beginning of the Zionist movement, when the first Zionists considered (and tried to obtain at least one of) various locations for a Jewish homeland. This initiative met with success not from a groundswell of support from any Jewish community, but from the persuasion of British officials that a client state near the Suez Canal and oil fields would be useful to British interests. The British requested the British Mandate in 1922 which allowed the Zionist state to develop safely.

Quigley shows that the real start of Israel was not from the UN but was from US President Harry Truman. The UN General Assembly Resolution 181, which laid out a partition of Palestine in 1947 was merely a recommendation that did not even pass! The US had decided that the proposed partition was unworkable and its own UN delegates were about to help draw up a trusteeship for Palestine when President Truman stunned everyone by recognizing Israel after Israel declared itself a state in May of 1948. According to Quigley, Israel had neither title nor legal claim to any part of Palestine until Arafat's recognition at the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Quigley notes that the rationale for Israel's existence as a Jewish refuge was enhanced by Zionist and Israeli actions. Jewish immigration after WW II was often as a result of either the lobbying of foreign governments to curtail the opportunities for refugees to move to countries other than Israel or Israeli intelligence operations that created the belief that Jews were under attack in various countries.

Quigley not only notes that Israel was the aggressor in the 1967 Six Day War which started the occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territory, but also discounts the Israeli rationale for its aggression, putting this instead in the context of Israel's various attempts to expand its territory.

Quigley describes the current grim situation of Palestinian civilians under occupation noting the legal legitimacy of their armed resistance to occupation forces, a resistance that is too often described as "terrorism" in our media. He notes that world judicial bodies give more legitimacy to those seeking their self-determination than to colonizers trying to maintain their power.

This fascinating book is filled with history in a legal context that will equip readers to speak knowledgeably about this situation. It is an important contribution to public understanding as well as media balance, which too often repeats a one-sided perspective of both history and ongoing events.

a strong case.......2005-09-10

The title of the book and the case being made is that the Palestinian peoples in the territories Israel occupied in 1967 have a right to self-determination and a future beyond Israeli occupation and colonization through settlements.

The case begins with the conquest by the British of the region in the first world war. The British made promises to european jews that they could construct a homeland in the region. The problem then (as now) is that the land wasn't empty and constructing a new country on top of an existing people and civilization is an unjust act.

He then follows the sad situation through the 1920s and 1930s. As the colonial population grew, political conflict between Palestinians and Jews grew. The British were in a situation where there was no way out. The only way to create the Jewish homeland would be through mass deportation of Palestinians which would never have been considered legal.

The book then shifts to the 1948 war. Palestinians were driven as refugees from their homes by the war. After the war they were not allowed to return. The Israeli government systematically erased their villages with explosives afterward as if somehow to erase their existance from history.

The next major issue is almost 20 years later when as a result of the 1967 war Israel finds itself in military occupation of the west bank and gaza. And this is where the case against Israel grows large. Quigley shows how Israel has systemically ignored international law in the case of the occupation. The illegal annexation of eastern jerusalem and the region around. The colonization of the west bank and gaza. and so on.

He shows how the rise of the extreme right in Israel in the 1970s turned an occupation that might have been initially about security into de-facto annexation. The territories were run as if they were proviences of Israel called Judea and Samaria. The only difference being that the population of the territories was not annexed. They were left in a sort of rightless limbo. Their land could be taken from them and they could be told they could not even build houses while Israeli settlements went up around them. Quigley shows how law was turned on its head to accomplish all this.

The case made by the book will be clear to most. But a subset of fanatics will not understand it at all. They grew up with Israeli mythology, such as books by Joan Peters, telling them that Palestinians were imaginary. The arabs living in the west bank didn't belong there and only lived there are part of a plot to destroy Israel. The territories are not occupied, they are disputed. And as disputed territory Israel can do whatever it wants there including annexation of the land (but not the people).

Others will talk about the great harm done to the rights of Israelis if they are prevented from living in land under military occupation outside their own country. They talk of the 1930s and the injustice in denying them to live as citizens of Israel under Israeli law in a territory that is not part of Israel. Their right to do so is unimaginably important.

But on the other hand, Palestinians have to accept that it is the natural order of things that in those same territories they are entitled to no rights at all. That their greatest asperation in life should be a job in construction or cleaning. Doing the dirty jobs and manual labor that Israelis are too good to do themselves.

While they steal the land through their control of the law and the occupation, they claim that the palestinians are willing sellers. How can Palestinians in the territories who have no rights under Israeli law expect justice from the occupation or even the enforcement of laws or contracts? They know the answer to that. They can't.

Quigley doesn't deal with ancient history claims to the occupied territories. He deals with the reality that there is an palestinian population in the occupied territories today. Their claims are based on the fact that they exist as people living in those territories today. They are facts on the ground that no amount of Israeli propaganda can change.

Quigley has no time also for modern frauds like Joan Peters' "from time immemorial" which "proved" that palestinians were imaginary and jews were always the majority in modern Israel and the occupied territories.

Quigley also dismisses those who deny the existance of Palestinians. He draws the correct conclusion in saying that a people who number in the millions now who live in a geographic region are a national group. And that their most basic right is the right to live where they are, not be called "arabs" and dumped in Lebannon or Jordan or somewhere else.

But for his critics, occupation isn't occupation. Settlements are really Israeli towns, Palestinians don't exist and Israel has effectively annexed the entire land of the west bank into itself but somehow not annexed a single person living there. Quigley shows what the law says and that from the law rather than from religious belief or moral history or guilt or events that happened in europe, that the Palestinians have the stronger case.

Does not make a reasoned case.......2005-09-07

I was puzzled by the title of this book. What case was it supposed to make? Maybe the case that there was an ancient Levantine Arab People who were unjustly treated and who now deserve Justice? Or the case that Jews are special, and must be denied the right to buy land and live on it, even in their homeland?

Well, the book begins by explaining why Jews, who were being seriously mistreated in Europe (and elsewhere) wanted to move to the Levant. But it basically says that it was fundamentally unjust for Jews to purchase land there, since that displaced the farmers who lived on it.

Now, maybe the author knows something about law. But I think what he says is so unhelpful that it does not matter how much he knows about law, or how little I know about it. Such a claim by him is either founded in law (and he says it is) or it isn't. And it really doesn't matter. If that claim is not founded in law, we ought to toss his book away. If it is founded in law, then the law has to say one of two things. Either it is illegal for any human to be born, since all of us displace folks just by existing. Or it is illegal for certain untermenschen to have any rights, which is a racist set of laws that I reject. I'm sure the German National Socialists were proud of their laws. But at some point, we have to reject bad laws. And if people who need and want land, which is for sale by willing sellers, are not allowed to purchase it, even though they are high bidders, and even though lower bidders are allowed to buy it, we need to reject such laws.

There are plenty of things wrong with Quigley's arguments. But the most fundamental is that the answers are wrong.

Quigley dismisses ancient claims to the Levant. That's fine with me. But he's selective about it. Jewish claims, Pagan claims, and Byzantine claims are considered bogus. Arab claims, on the other hand, are legitimate! That's a little silly, especially given that Arabs only lightly populated the region, were not sovereign there for centuries, and were the majority only because they didn't let Jews enter in significant numbers.

Quigley discusses the question of Levantine Arab "distinctiveness." That's a good question! After all, it is more than a technicality to say, ex post facto, that your fist always had a right to be where someone else's nose turned up! Inventing a particular Arab people and claiming that they had a right to all Jewish land and no other land seems like the same deal. Their fists have rights, Jewish noses do not. But Quigley claims that Levantine Arab distinctiveness is irrelevant because Arabs lived there! Um, that's ridiculous. Mongols lived in Russia, and outnumbered the Russians once the Mongols had killed most of the Russians. But the Mongols populated the region only lightly. It was a Mongol colony, not the Mongol homeland. And the Russians reclaimed it. It is quite relevant that the Levant was an underpopulated backwater of an Arab Empire which housed Jerusalem, the Jewish capital. It explains why Jews outbid Arabs for one parcel of land after another once they had a chance to do so.

And, oh yes, Arab aggression against Israel in 1948 and 1967 is somehow called Israeli aggression. And Israeli towns in the West Bank are called illegal.

One can't do everything in a book. One can't toss absurd and false taunts at a party to a dispute and still present a well-reasoned case. Quigely had a choice to make. He could state his complaints honestly and sincerely, and try to make a case. Or he could taunt Zionists. He chose to do the latter. That precluded him from making a case in favor of anyone. Maybe he had a bad case in the first place, but I still think he ought to have done better than this.

Stolen Youth: The Politics of Israel's Detention of Palestinian Children

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Wrong
It's refreshing to hear an unbiased voice
Praises the aggressors and blames the victims

Stolen Youth: The Politics of Israel's Detention of Palestinian Children
Catherine Cook , Adam Hanieh , and Adah Kay
Manufacturer: Pluto Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Stolen Youth is the first book to explore Israel's incarceration of Palestinian children. Based on first-hand information from international human rights groups and NGO workers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it also features interviews with children who have been imprisoned. The result is a disturbing and often shocking account of the abuses that are being carried out by Israel, and that have been widely documented by human rights groups such as Amnesty, but have never been addressed by the international community.

The book presents a critical analysis of the international legal framework and the UN system, arguing that a major failure of these institutions is their appeal to neutrality while ignoring the reality of power. The book offers an explanation for these failures by locating the issue of Palestinian child prisoners within the framework of the Israeli overall system of control as a long-term political strategy.

The book is divided into three main sections: the first chapters introduce the major issues, and propose a framework for understanding Israel's policy towards Palestinian detainees, particularly children. The second section examines the actual experience of children from the moment of arrest until their release from prison based on hundreds of affidavits collected from children released from prison. The final section of the book analyzes in detail the reasons underlying Israel's incarceration of children and the impact on Palestinian society. It outlines Israel's system of institutionalized discrimination and state torture, challenges the legitimacy of Israel's "security" argument, and argues that Israel's treatment of Palestinian detainees forms one pillar of a policy designed to quash resistance to the occupation.

Customer Reviews:

Wrong.......2005-03-14

the premise of this book is wrong.

the facts in this book are wrong.

It is biased, it is one-sided.

It's refreshing to hear an unbiased voice.......2005-03-11

This book tells an important an often-overlooked story about some of the forgotten victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It takes courage to tell the story of the young victims, the Palestinian children detained by the Israeli government. In what other "civilized" society would such human rights violations be tolerated? The book is well written and balanced in its approach to the problem, and presents a clear picture of the hardships the Palestinians, particularly young Palestinians, face.

Praises the aggressors and blames the victims.......2005-02-03

Israel doesn't want to be at war. Jews spent plenty of time and effort draining swamps and making the deserts bloom again. They didn't do that as a joke. They wanted to be allowed the human rights of life, liberty, and property in their homeland. And live in peace there.

Unfortunately, some Arabs are fighting a war against the Jews. And people are getting hurt and killed in this war. But the authors don't ask for the aggressors to call off their war against human rights. Instead, they blame it all on the Jews.

One of the chapter headings discusses the foundations of "Israel's impunity." The authors appear to wonder how Israel can get away with trying to defend its land and its people. And they have it all figured out! Listen to this:

"The answer lies in part with Israel's ability to manipulate human rights and humanitarian law and the UN bodies responsible for overseeing compliance."

Wow. You sure could have fooled me. I always wondered why the UN invited a notorious terrorist, Arafat, to lecture it in 1974. And why it came up with an embarrassingly inane resolution that Zionism was a form of racism in 1975. I wondered why the UN spent half its time defaming Israel instead of doing something useful or productive. Was it a big Israeli plot to get the UN to do all that?

And have you noticed that even Israel's capital city, Jerusalem, is special? The international community recognizes the capitals of other nations. But most don't recognize Jerusalem. Is that yet another example of Israeli manipulation?

No, all these things were done by those who, um, manipulated the UN to defame Israel and to discriminate against it.

Of course it is sad to see the book's shameless and absurd propaganda. But it somehow makes me wonder about those who are doing the complaining. Given all the demonization of Israel in the UN, just what is it that the authors want? If all this anti-Israeli bias isn't good enough for them, I can hardly imagine what their reaction would be were the international community to suddenly become color-blind and give everyone, even the Jews, rights to life, liberty, and property.

Meanwhile, two generations of Arab youth have been propagandized to damage society rather than trained to help it. And books like this are simply part of the problem.

Attacking Extreme Poverty: Learning from the Experience of the International Movement Atd Fourth World (World Bank Technical Paper)

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Attacking Extreme Poverty: Learning from the Experience of the International Movement Atd Fourth World (World Bank Technical Paper)

Manufacturer: World Bank Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Download Description

This report consists of a collection of essays on extreme poverty. The first part of the report deals with what it means to live in extreme poverty, how to reach the very poor, through programs, and interventions, and how to make private, and public institutions more responsive to their aspirations. The second part analyzes the relationship between extreme poverty, and human rights. Emphasis is placed on the contribution of the International Movement ATD Fourth World, and its founder Joseph Wresinski, to the understanding of the very poor, and what is needed for" attacking extreme poverty".

Before the Bulldozer: The Nambiquara Indians and the World Bank

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Before the Bulldozer: The Nambiquara Indians and the World Bank
David Price
Manufacturer: Seven Locks Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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From the Publisher

This is the tale of one anthropologist's attempt to defend a small, traditional society from the onslaught of development in the form of a 1,000-mile highway in western Brazil, financed in part by the World Bank. Before The Bulldozer shows how bureaucratic processes that play themselves out in Washington can destroy vast tracts of fragile land and bring misery to thousands.

Between Light And Shadow: The World Bank, The International Monetary Fund And International Human Rights Law (Studies in International Law)

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Between Light And Shadow: The World Bank, The International Monetary Fund And International Human Rights Law (Studies in International Law)
Mac Darrow
Manufacturer: Hart Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1841135674

Book Description

Much has been written on the human rights relevance and impacts of the policies and activities of the World Bank and IMF --or International Financial Institutions (IFIs). However while many of the human rights-based critiques of the Bank and Fund purport to link broadly defined reforms with obligations under international human rights law, rarely has this been carried out through a rigorous and in-depth application of international legal rules governing the proper interpretation of the institutions' mandates, and rarely have the policy consequences and practical possibilities for human rights integration been explored in any detail. These are the principal gaps that the present book aims to fill, by reference to a sample of the IFIs' most important and controversial contemporary activities. 'By balancing a legal academic analysis with a rigorous evaluation of policy proposals for the integration of human rights at the Bank and Fund, Darrow appeals to a broad audience of policymakers, international legal experts, and human rights advocates. He bridges a gap between theory and practice in the existing literature on the law of international institutions. 'Galit A. Sarfaty, American Journal of International Law.

Between Light and Shadow: The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and International Human Rights Law.(Book Review): An article from: Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal

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Between Light and Shadow: The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and International Human Rights Law.(Book Review): An article from: Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal
Horacio Javier Etchichury
Manufacturer: Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, published by Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal on January 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1673 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Between Light and Shadow: The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and International Human Rights Law.(Book Review)
Author: Horacio Javier Etchichury
Publication: Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2004
Publisher: Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal
Volume: 7 Page: 188(4)

Article Type: Book Review

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The IMF, The World Bank Group And The Question Of Human Rights

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The IMF, The World Bank Group And The Question Of Human Rights
Bahram Ghazi , and Bahram Ghazi Shariat Panahi
Manufacturer: Transnational Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1571051856

Book Description

The IMF, The World Bank Group, and the Question of Human Rights explores various issues facing international financial institutions and their obligations to adhere to human rights norms.

Bahram Ghazi gets to the heart of the most important issues facing the global community today: namely, how to reconcile globalization and the activities of the World Bank and the IMF with the implementation of international human rights rules. His comprehensive work explains the relation between economy, finance, and investments and their impact on the human rights situation. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the author incorporates historical, political, economic, financial, and institutional dimensions into his analysis.

The IMF, The World Bank Group, and the Question of Human Rights features a basic overview of these global financial institutions, their structures and functioning. It proceeds with examples to explain the possible violations of human rights through these institutions' activities. Included is a sizable summary of the activities of the World Bank and the IMF related to human rights, with a discussion of the political perspective of the integration of human rights inside the Bretton Woods institutions and an analysis of the IFI's responsibility regime for non-compliance with their human rights obligations and the existing accountability mechanisms. The author ultimately provides a valuable proposal for ways in which the integration of human rights standards inside these institutions may be improved.

This work tries to analyze the legal human rights obligations of the IMF and the World Bank Group institutions in the most objective way. It is particularly relevant for both NGOs and civil society, groups who do not always know what the IFIs are and what they are doing, as well as to IFIs and the private sector for whom human rights are still very vague and more often associated with politics. With its considerable insight, The IMF, The World Bank Group and the Question of Human Rights will be valuable to each of these groups, as well as to students and academics searching for a tool to achieve a greater understanding of these issues.

Bahram Ghazi received his PhD. from the Graduate Institute of International Studies at Geneva. He is a human rights officer at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva.

Book Description

With the adoption of extensive human rights standards and their wide acceptance by States and the international community, the time has come to emphasise the implementation of these standards at both national and international levels. International financial institutions and development agencies have a special role to play in this respect, considering the influence and the resources at their disposal. Increasingly, they are acknowledging this duty, not only as a service to human rights but more so in recognition of the contribution which human rights and democracy, and so by extension good governance and accountability, make to political stability and improved economies. This volume is the result of a Workshop on the Inspection Panel which was organised in Lund by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and co-sponsored by the World Bank. Its purpose is to look for common ground in areas of mutual interest and to offer a substantive collection of ideas which can prove useful for the future work of the Inspection Panel and similar institutions. Such undertakings must include human rights education and training for the officialdom of national governments and international organisations, as well as for the individuals and groups who stand to benefit from the implementation of the international standards and monitoring exercises, where independent and impartial experts scrutinise the conduct of national and international actors.

Unhealthy Policies from the World Bank.(Interview): An article from: Multinational Monitor

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Unhealthy Policies from the World Bank.(Interview): An article from: Multinational Monitor

Manufacturer: Essential Information, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008HCE22
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Multinational Monitor, published by Essential Information, Inc. on June 1, 2000. The length of the article is 2149 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Unhealthy Policies from the World Bank.(Interview)
Publication: Multinational Monitor (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2000
Publisher: Essential Information, Inc.
Volume: 21 Issue: 6 Page: 23

Article Type: Interview

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