Arab Network Magazine 2021-E-Version

Working Paper
special status for Jerusalem (a
resolution upon which the State
of Israel was established, but later
it repudiated international law
after it partially implemented it
and seized more land than that
allocated to it according to the
partition resolution), Resolution
No. 194 regarding the return and
compensation for refugees, General
Assembly Resolution 3522 of
1967 condemning the Israeli
decision to annex Jerusalem, and
General Assembly Resolution
3236 of 1974 recognizing the right
of Palestinians to decide their
destiny. Further to that, there
were Resolution No. 3379 of 1975
regarding Zionism as a form of
racism and racial discrimination,
Resolution No. 4321 issued in
November 1988 regarding
support for the Uprising and
calling for Israel to end its occupation
of the Palestinian territories,
and the General Assembly resolution
in December 2017 regarding
the rejection of the American
decision to transfer the embassy
to occupied Jerusalem and
confirming the legal status of the
city. There is no room here to
accommodate a review of the
General Assembly resolutions in
support of Palestinian rights and
rejecting Israeli actions and violations,
which amount to about 500
Resolutions.
Added to that are the Security
Council resolutions, such as Resolution
242 of 1967, Resolution 338
of 1973, Resolution 478 of 1980
regarding Jerusalem, Resolution
1397 of 2002, Resolution 1402 of
2002 and Resolution 2334 of
2016 regarding Settlement, which
affirmed the illegality of settlement
in the West Bank, including
Jerusalem.
The International Court of Justice,
as well, issued its famous advisory
opinion in 2004 regarding the
illegality of building the apartheid
wall in the occupied territories, as
it constitutes an actual annexation
process, harms the Palestinians'
right to self-determination
leads to consequent serious violations
of international law. The
Court demanded Israel to remove
the wall, address the damages
resulting therefrom and redress
those affected. The Court also
called on states not to recognize
the new facts entailed by
constructing the wall, considering
non-recognition thereof as an
obligation.
In addition to the aforementioned
resolution, there are a set of
arrangements, mechanisms and
institutions for Palestine, (such as
the existence of the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency
for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA),
which is an international institution
specialized in providing assistance
and services to Palestinian
refugees, and the Special Rapporteur
for the Occupied Palestinian
Territories, and also the existence
of the seventh item, which is a
permanent item on the Agenda of
the Human Rights Council specifically
created to the Palestinian
issue, as well as the Committee on
the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People
(CEIRPP) formed by General
Assembly Resolution 3376 of
1975.
In addition, the systematic Israeli
violations of various aspects of
Palestinian life, which seriously
violate international human rights
law and international humanitarian
law, are appropriately documented
by many Palestinian
human rights institutions and
international non-governmental
institutions, as well as international
organizations. These practices
are usually condemned in the
United Nations bodies, especially
by the General Assembly, the
Human Rights Council, and sometimes
the Security Council.
Many of these violations were
documented by the Special
Rapporteur for the Occupied
Territories, and fact-finding
committees (such as the Goldstone
report on the war on Gaza
in late 2008, the fact-finding
report on the aggression on Gaza
in 2014, and the commission investigating
the events of the 2018
return marches). In addition, the
Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights
in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory is mandated by Human
Rights Council Resolutions S-9/1
and S-12/1 issued in 2009 with a
specific mandate to provide regular
reports on the human rights
situation in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, including East Jerusalem.
What is the best framework
that the Palestinians
can follow?
International law provides many
frameworks that can be used to
move in the human rights and
legal struggle in the Palestinian
cause. There is the International
law at its various levels (international
humanitarian law, international
human rights law, international
criminal law, general international
law) which provides various
tools that can be used in the
context of confronting the occupation
and pressuring to end it
and holding accountable those
responsible for it.
There are more specific frameworks
that can be particularly
utilized, and each of them has
pros and cons that this article
cannot review. However, the most
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