Holy Land

There are 7,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, 3,500 of them on hunger strike. They demand humane treatment in accordance with international conventions on the treatment of prisoners.

So far there has been no audiovisual leak on the treatment and conditions of confinement in Israeli jails. In the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib scandals in Iraq one would be naïve to assume that the hunger strikers are being capricious.

Of course, there are many who are understandably appalled by the indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets by Palestinian terrorists.

It may seem ironic or worse to some people that attention has been drawn to this situation by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Loathing and disgust at the bombings may drive some people to question the credentials of any such organisation. How can one point to the violations of one's rights when constant outrages are carried out in one's name?

In the reductionist process of opinion forming through television it is far too easy to oversimplify and bundle all parties into two opposing categories: Palestinians and Israelis. In each category every individual is burdened with the crimes of his fellows and the moral liability for every event associated with the label he or she carries.

Too simple. It is a bit like saying that every Maltese was a Mintoffian when Dom Mintoff was Prime Minister. Is everybody glad to bear responsibility for the public image of Malta portrayed by the Nationalist government today? Do we unanimously approve of the ostentatious purchase of the Brussels building?

Two wrongs do not make a right and the multitude of wrongs inflicted by Palestinians and Israelis on one another in the current war of attrition leave nobody with any absolute rightness. None of it justifies further inhumanity.

Israel has the major burden because it is a state and militarily dominant. While Palestinian terrorists can be described as criminals whether or not they enjoy popular or Palestinian government support, the state of Israel cannot retaliate in the manner of a terror organisation without destroying its own legitimacy and its right to international recognition as a state.

Israel can do anything it likes to the Palestinians. It often does. Just a few hours away we have a neighbouring state afflicted by terrorism which responds to it by destroying its own legitimacy. In no civilised country is it conceivable that the state could have a policy of retortion on the families of criminals. Destroying the family homes of suicide bombers is comparable to the Nazi community punishments in their occupied territories in retaliation to resistance movement attacks. Those were considered war crimes. The state bombings in Gaza and the West Bank have become a regular event on our television screens. Where else in the world can one expect helicopter gunships to fire rockets into residential areas in retaliation for criminal activity?

This is only the more spectacular evidence of the attitude of the government of Israel in dealing with its foes. It either does not realise the effect on onlookers or it does not care. It appears not to care in the least that in the estimate of world public opinion Israel has moved from being the recipient of sympathy as an oppressed nation to being viewed as the oppressor. The very fact that it was the victim of the world's worst crimes in human memory only makes its present oppressor status all the more scandalous.

The discrediting of Arafat, the establishment of a connection between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the blame for the failure of the Camp David negotiations, the documentation of heinous acts of terrorism, nothing can justify the action of a state beyond the rule of law.

The failure of the state of Israel to treat its prisoners humanely will not be forgotten. It is a violence not only on the prisoners themselves but also on all who have to witness it without being able to do anything about it. Israel can and does. It is a slap in the face of all onlookers who cherish the rule of law and recognise its importance to their own safety and security. It is definitely a slap in the face of the Maltese who depend wholly on the maintenance of the international rule of law for their very survival as an independent state.

There is precious little we can do to change things in Israel/Palestine but we can make our opinion known. The humane treatment of prisoners is a sine qua non whoever they are and whatever crime they may have committed. Nothing justifies torture, endless solitary confinement or deliberate humiliation. Nothing justifies the confinement of prisoners incommunicado in such a way as to expose prisoners to unreported inhumane treatment.

Support for the hunger strikers is an endorsement of a peaceful protest not of acts of terrorism which they may or may not have committed. It would be a major step forward for all the parties concerned if Israel recognised that a positive outcome from such protests advocates their use in preference to violence. An early concession by Israel on the treatment of prisoners would not be a sign of weakness but a signal to its foes that it is possible to hope for a return to legitimacy and a reversal of the spiral of violence.

The intervention of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs in favour of such action would enjoy massive popular support in Malta and allow us the satisfaction of having done our utmost to provoke a peaceful solution however small our contribution may be.

Dr Vassallo is chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party.

harry.vassallo@alternattiva.org.mt