A Double Standard in Human Rights

by Edmund R. Hanauer (as published in the Cleveland, OH Plain Dealer)

On Dec. 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a major step in the struggle to protect the rights of all humanity. The United States played a key role in the passage.

Defense of human rights is often given as a basis for U.S. foreign policies. President George W. Bush argues that a major reason for invading Iraq was to liberate Iraqis from oppression. The State Department issues yearly reports on the status of human rights around the world.

While the United States raises human rights issues when governments involved are "unfriendly," it remains largely silent when it comes to friends. Washington has even sought to subvert democratic governments deemed unfriendly: Iran, Chile and Guatemala, among others.

The United States has supported, even helped to power, brutal but friendly dictatorships. Saddam Hussein was a friend of the United States during the 1980s. The excuse was the Cold War; now it is terrorism, even though the state terrorism of pro-U.S. regimes kills far more people than do terrorist groups seeking state power.

A glaring example of Washington's double standard is U.S. support for Israel in the form of financial and military aid totaling nearly $3 billion a year, along with U.S. vetoes of U.N. Security Council resolutions critical of Israel's denial of the human rights of Palestinian Muslims and Christians. The United States has refused to pressure Israel to remove Jewish settlements built on confiscated Palestinian land, settlements illegal under international law.

There are three categories of Palestinians:

About 2.4 million Palestinians live under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Israel seized in the 1967 War. After Israeli settlers and troops left Gaza this summer, 1.3 million Gaza Palestinians are largely, but not entirely, free from Israeli occupation. B'Tselem, Israel's leading human rights group, reported in 1998 that Israel was violating 29 of the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its treatment of Palestinians under Israeli occupation. The situation has worsened under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

In recent months, Amnesty International deplored Israel's unwillingness to stop settler violence against Palestinians. Human Rights Watch accused Israel of failing to protect Palestinian civilians from unlawful attacks by Israeli soldiers. And the European Union criticized Israel's violations of the rights of 200,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem.

Human Rights Watch took the unusual step of publicly criticizing Sen. Hilary Clinton for defending the separation wall Israel is building, since 80 percent of it is in the West Bank, rather than on the Israel-West Bank border. The International Court of Justice declared the West Bank portions of the wall illegal. The wall limits or denies tens of thousands of Palestinians access to jobs, agricultural lands, hospitals, schools, families and friends, and even water. Palestinians trapped on the "Israeli side" of the wall must obtain special permits from Israel to reside in their own homes.

Close to 1 million Palestinians are citizens of Israel (Israeli Arabs). They are second-class citizens when it comes to education, housing, the right to own land, social services, employment and political rights. This systemic discrimination is amply documented by reports by Israeli and U.S. human rights groups, as well as by the U.S. State Department. Similar governmental policies toward Jews or blacks anywhere are rightly denounced as anti-Semitic or racist.

The third group of Palestinians is made up of 3 million to 4 million refugees whom Israel does not allow to return. In 1948, close to 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes during the Arab-Israel War, many forced out by Israeli terrorist tactics.

Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the right of people to leave or return to their homeland and was cited in support of Russian Jews seeking to leave the Soviet Union. On Dec. 11, 1948, the United Nations passed Resolution 194, which supported the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel. While the United Nations has yearly - with U.S. support - reaffirmed that right, President Bush recently opposed it.

Washington's policies toward Palestinians make a mockery of U.S. claims to uphold human rights. It tarnishes our reputation among citizens of other democracies. It makes it easier for anti-U.S. terrorist groups to find recruits: They argue that the United States hates Muslims and Arabs and cite U.S. support of Israel's displacement of Palestinians. It betrays the values of millions of Americans who expect our elected leaders to support human rights, including freedom and self-determination, for all peoples.

But the worst result of Washington's blanket support for Israel is that by supporting Israel's occupation and gradual takeover of Palestinian lands, Washington prevents the creation of a viable Palestinian state and a just and lasting peace and strengthens the hawks and weakens the doves among both Israeli Jews and Palestinians. This means more needless Israeli and Palestinian deaths.

[Hanauer, an American Jewish human rights activist, is director of Search for Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel, a Boston-based human rights group.]