Astrid Essed

[5]

ILLEGALITEIT VAN DE NEDERZETTINGEN

ICRC.ORG

WHAT SAYS THE LAW ABOUT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF

SETTLEMENTS IN OCCUPIED TERRITORY?

05-10-2010 FAQ

When a territory is placed under the authority of a hostile army, the rules of international humanitarian law dealing with occupation apply. Occupation confers certain rights and obligations on the occupying power.

• International Review of the Red Cross, No 885, special issue on Occupation
• Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 49.  

Prohibited actions include forcibly transferring protected persons from the occupied territories to the territory of the occupying power. 
It is unlawful under the Fourth Geneva Convention for an occupying power to transfer parts of its own population into the territory it occupies. This means that international humanitarian law prohibits the establishment of settlements, as these are a form of population transfer into occupied territory. Any measure designed to expand or consolidate settlements is also illegal. Confiscation of land to build or expand settlements is similarly prohibited. 

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BTSELEM.ORG

”The establishment of the settlements contravenes international humanitarian law (IHL), which states that an occupying power may not relocate its own citizens to the occupied territory or make permanent changes to that territory, unless these are needed for imperative military needs, in the narrow sense of the term, or undertaken for the benefit of the local population.”

BTSELEM.ORG

SETTLEMENTS

De Illegaliteit van de nederzettingen is gebaseerd op artikelen

uit de 4e Conventie van  Geneve en het Haags Verdrag van 1907

DE VIERDE CONVENTIE VAN GENEVE

ARTIKEL 49, 4E CONVENTIE VAN GENEVE

”Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.”

ARTICLE 49, FOURTH GENEVA CONVENTION

HET HAAGS VERDRAG VAN 1907

De Staat, die een gebied bezet heeft, mag zich slechts beschouwen als beheerder en vruchtgebruiker der openbare gebouwen, onroerende eigendommen, bosschen en landbouwondernemingen, welke aan den vijandelijken Staat behooren en zich in de bezette landstreek bevinden. Hij moet het grondkapitaal dier eigendommen in zijn geheel laten en die overeenkomstig de regelen van het vruchtgebruik beheeren.”

 ARTIKEL 55, HAAGS VERDRAG 1907

IN HET ENGELS
Art. 55. The occupying State shall be regarded only as administrator and usufructuary of public buildings, real estate, forests, and agricultural estates belonging to the hostile State, and situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of these properties, and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufruct.  

CONVENTION RESPECTING THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WARON LAND AND ITS ANNEX: REGULATIONS CONCERNINGTHE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WAR ON LAND

THE HAGUE 18 OCTOBER 1907

WAT ZEGT AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Israel’s policy of settling its civilians in occupied Palestinian territory and displacing the local population contravenes fundamental rules of international humanitarian law.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”. 

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

CHAPTER 3

ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

The situation in the OPT is primarily governed by two international legal regimes: international humanitarian law (including the rules of the law of occupation) and international human rights law. International criminal law is also relevant as some serious violations may constitute war crimes.

STATUS OF SETTLEMENTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

Israel’s policy of settling its civilians in occupied Palestinian territory and displacing the local population contravenes fundamental rules of international humanitarian law.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”. 

The extensive appropriation of land and the appropriation and destruction of property required to build and expand settlements also breach other rules of international humanitarian law. Under the Hague Regulations of 1907, the public property of the occupied population (such as lands, forests and agricultural estates) is subject to the laws of usufruct. This means that an occupying state is only allowed a very limited use of this property. This limitation is derived from the notion that occupation is temporary, the core idea of the law of occupation. In the words of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the occupying power “has a duty to ensure the protection, security, and welfare of the people living under occupation and to guarantee that they can live as normal a life as possible, in accordance with their own laws, culture, and traditions.”

The Hague Regulations prohibit the confiscation of private property. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the destruction of private or state property, “except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations”.

As the occupier, Israel is therefore forbidden from using state land and natural resources for purposes other than military or security needs or for the benefit of the local population. The unlawful appropriation of property by an occupying power amounts to “pillage”, which is prohibited by both the Hague Regulations and Fourth Geneva Convention and is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and many national laws.

Israel’s building of settlements in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, does not respect any of these rules and exceptions. Transferring the occupying power’s civilians into the occupied territory is prohibited without exception. Furthermore, as explained earlier, the settlements and associated infrastructure are not temporary, do not benefit Palestinians and do not serve the legitimate security needs of the occupying power. Settlements entirely depend on the large-scale appropriation and/or destruction of Palestinian private and state property which are not militarily necessary. They are created with the sole purpose of permanently establishing Jewish Israelis on occupied land.

In addition to being violations of international humanitarian law, key acts required for the establishment of settlements amount to war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Under this body of law, the “extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” and the “transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory” constitute war crimes. As stated above, “pillage” is also a war crime under the Rome Statute.

Israel’s settlement policy also violates a special category of obligations entitled peremptory norms of international law (jus cogens) from which no derogation is permitted. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) affirmed that the rules of the Geneva Conventions constitute “intransgressible principles of international customary law”. Only a limited number of international norms acquire this status, which is a reflection of the seriousness and importance with which the international community views them. Breaches of these norms give rise to certain obligations on all other states, or “third states”, which are explained below.

SETTLEMENTS, DISCRIMINATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

States have a duty to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of people under their jurisdiction, including people living in territory that is outside national borders but under the effective control of the state. The ICJ confirmed that Israel is obliged to extend the application of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other treaties to which it is a state party to people in the OPT. Israel is a state party to numerous international human rights treaties and, as the occupying power, it has well defined obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of Palestinians. 

However, as has been well documented for many years by the UN, Amnesty International and other NGOs, Israel’s settlement policy is one of the main driving forces behind the mass human rights violations resulting from the occupation. These include:

Violations of the right to life: Israeli soldiers, police and security guards have unlawfully killed and injured many Palestinian civilians in the OPT, including during protests against the confiscation of land and the construction of settlements. UN agencies and fact-finding missions have also expressed concern about violence perpetrated by a minority of Israeli settlers aimed at intimidating Palestinian populations.

Violations of the rights to liberty, security of the person and equal treatment before the law: Amnesty International has documented how Palestinians in the OPT are routinely subjected to arbitrary detention, including through administrative detention. Whereas settlers are subject to Israeli civil and criminal law, Palestinians are subject to a military court system which falls short of international standards for the fair  conduct of trials and administration of justice.

Violations of the right to access an effective remedy for acts violating fundamental rights: Israel’s failure to adequately investigate and enforce the law for acts of violence against Palestinians, together with the multiple legal, financial and procedural barriers faced by Palestinians in accessing the court system, severely limit Palestinians’ ability to seek legal redress. The Israeli High Court of Justice has failed to rule on the legality of settlements, as it considered the settlements to be a political issue that that it is not competent to hear.

Violations of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly: Amnesty International has documented Israel’s use of military orders to prohibit peaceful protest and criminalize freedom of expression in the West Bank. Israeli forces have used tear gas, rubber bullets and occasionally live rounds to suppress peaceful protests.

Violations of the rights to equality and non-discrimination: Systematic discrimination against Palestinians is inherent in virtually all aspects of Israel’s administration of the OPT. Palestinians are also specifically targeted for a range of actions that constitute human rights violations. The Israeli government allows settlers to exploit land and natural resources that belong to Palestinians. Israel provides preferential treatment to Israeli businesses operating in the OPT while putting up barriers to, or simply blocking, Palestinian ones. Israeli citizens receive entitlements and Palestinians face restrictions on the grounds of nationality, ethnicity and religion, in contravention of international standards.

The Israeli authorities have created a discriminatory urban planning and zoning system. Within Area C, where most settlement construction is based, Israel has allocated 70% of the land to settlements and only 1% to Palestinians. In East Jerusalem, Israel has expropriated 35% of the city for the construction of settlements, while restricting Palestinians to construct on only 13% of the land. These figures clearly illustrate Israel’s use of regulatory measures to discriminate against Palestinian residents in Area C.

The UN has also pointed to discrimination against Palestinians in the way in which the criminal law is enforced. While prosecution rates for settler attacks against Palestinians are low, suggesting a lack of enforcement, most cases of violence against Israeli settlers are investigated and proceed to court.

Violations of the right to adequate housing: Since 1967, Israel has constructed tens of thousands of homes on Palestinian land to accommodate settlers while, at the same time, demolishing an estimated 50,000 Palestinian homes and other structures, such as farm buildings and water tanks. Israel also carries out demolitions as a form of collective punishment against the families of individuals accused of attacks on Israelis. In East Jerusalem, about 800 houses have been demolished since 2004 for lack of permits. Israel also confiscates houses inhabited by Palestinians in the city to allocate them to settlers. By forcibly evicting and/or demolishing their homes without providing adequate alternative accommodation, Israel has failed in its duty to respect the right to adequate housing of thousands of Palestinians.

Violations of the right to freedom of movement: Many restrictions on freedom of movement for Palestinian residents are directly linked to the settlements, including restrictions aimed at protecting the settlements and maintaining “buffer zones”. Restrictions include checkpoints, settler-only roads and physical impediments created by walls and gates. 

Violations of the rights of the child: Every year, 500-700 Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank are prosecuted in Israeli juvenile military courts under Israeli military orders. They are often arrested in night raids and systematically ill-treated. Some of these children serve their sentences within Israel, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The UN has also documented that many children have been killed or injured in settler attacks.

Violations of the right to enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health: Restrictions on movement limit Palestinians’ access to health care. Specialists working with Palestinian populations have also documented a range of serious mental health conditions that stem from exposure to violence and abuse in the OPT.

Violations of the right to water: Most Palestinian communities in Area C are not connected to the water network and are prevented from repairing or constructing wells or water cisterns that hold rainwater. Water consumption in some Area C communities is reported by the UN to be 20% of the minimum recommended standard. Israel’s failure to ensure Palestinian residents have a sufficient supply of clean, safe water for drinking and other domestic uses constitutes a violation of its obligations to respect and fulfil the right to water. 

Violations of the right to education: Palestinian students face numerous obstacles in accessing education, including forced displacement, demolitions, restrictions on movement and a shortage of school places. An independent fact-finding mission in 2012 noted an “upward trend” of cases of settler attacks on Palestinian schools and harassment of Palestinian children on their way to and from school. Such problems can result in children not attending school and in a deterioration in the quality of learning. 

Violations of the right to earn a decent living through work: The expansion of settlements has reduced the amount of land available to Palestinians for herding and agriculture, increasing the dependency of rural communities on humanitarian assistance. Settler violence and the destruction of Palestinian-owned crops and olive trees have damaged the livelihoods of farmers. The UN has reported that in Hebron city centre, the Israeli military has forced 512 Palestinian businesses to close, while more than 1,000 others have shut down due to restricted access for customers and suppliers.

SUSTAINED INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION

Most states and international bodies have long recognized that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The European Union (EU) has clearly stated that: “settlement building anywhere in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, is illegal under international law, constitutes an obstacle to peace and threatens to make a two-state solution impossible.”

The settlements have been condemned as illegal in many UN Security Council and other UN resolutions. As early as 1980, UN Security Council Resolution 465 called on Israel “to dismantle the existing settlements and, in particular, to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.” The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention have reaffirmed that settlements violate international humanitarian law. The illegality of the settlements was recently reaffirmed by UN Security Council Resolution 2334, passed inDecember 2016, which reiterates the Security Council’s call on Israel to cease all settlement activities in the OPT. The serious human rights violations that stem from Israeli settlements have also been repeatedly raised and condemned by international bodies and experts.

ZIE OOK

LEIDSCH DAGBLAD

ISRAEL VERSNELT UITBREIDING DORPEN

WESTELIJKE JORDAANOEVER

18 JUNI 2023

De Israëlische regering van premier Benjamin Netanyahu heeft maatregelen goedgekeurd om de uitbreiding van nederzettingen op de bezette Westelijke Jordaanoever te vergemakkelijken. Ook is besloten dat minister van Financiën Bezalel Smotrich, een voorstander van Joodse kolonisatie van het gebied, voortaan de leiding heeft over het toestaan van nederzettingen, meldt de lokale radiozender Galei Tzahal. Voorheen lag die verantwoordelijkheid bij het ministerie van Defensie.

Om de bouw van nederzettingen op de Westelijke Jordaanoever te versnellen, wordt het aantal stappen dat nodig is voor goedkeuring aanzienlijk verminderd. “Met Gods hulp zullen we het nederzettingenproject verder ontwikkelen en de Israëlische controle over het grondgebied versterken,” schreef Smotrich op Twitter. Het Palestijnse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken veroordeelde de beslissing als “gevaarlijk” en riep de internationale gemeenschap op druk uit te oefenen op Israël om de beslissing terug te draaien.

Het Israëlische beleid om nederzettingen te bouwen in bezet gebied wordt al lange tijd internationaal bekritiseerd en heeft eerder geleid tot conflicten met gewapende Palestijnse groepen. Eind mei lieten de Verenigde Staten nog weten “diep verontrust” te zijn over een decreet van de Israëlische regering dat Joodse kolonisten toestaat zich permanent te vestigen in de nederzetting Homesh.

Unilaterale maatregelen

Tijdens een bijeenkomst in Egypte in maart kwamen Israëliërs en Palestijnen overeen om “unilaterale maatregelen” voor drie tot zes maanden op te schorten. Volgens het Egyptische ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken beloofde Israël destijds zes maanden lang geen nieuwe projecten goed te keuren.

Israël veroverde de Westelijke Jordaanoever en Oost-Jeruzalem, naast andere gebieden, tijdens de Zesdaagse Oorlog van 1967. Tegenwoordig wonen er bijna 600.000 Israëliërs in meer dan 200 nederzettingen. In 2016 noemde de VN-Veiligheidsraad de nederzettingen een schending van het internationaal recht. De Palestijnen willen een eigen staat op de Westelijke Jordaanoever, in de Gazastrook en in Oost-Jeruzalem.

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[4]

RESOLUTION 242 (1967]

OF 22 NOVEMBER 1967

	Security Council
		S/RES/242 (1967) 22 November 1967

Resolution 242 (1967)
of 22 November 1967

”The Security Council,
Expressing its continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East,

Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security,

Emphasizing further that all Member States in their acceptance of the Charter of the United Nations have undertaken a commitment to act in accordance with Article 2 of the Charter,

1. Affirms that the fulfilment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:

(i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;

(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force;

2. Affirms further the necessity

(a) For guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area;

(b) For achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem;

(c) For guaranteeing the territorial inviolability and political independence of every State in the area, through measures including the establishment of demilitarized zones;

3. Requests the Secretary-General to designate a Special Representative to proceed to the Middle East to establish and maintain contacts with the States concerned in order to promote agreement and assist efforts to achieve a peaceful and accepted settlement in accordance with the provisions and principles in this resolution;

4. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Security Council on the progress of the efforts of the Special Representative as soon as possible.”

[3]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

ISRAEL’S APARTHEID AGAINST PALESTINIANS: A CRUEL 

SYSTEM OF DOMINATION AND A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Israeli authorities must be held accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians, Amnesty International said today in a damning new report. The investigation details how Israel enforces a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people wherever it has control over their rights. This includes Palestinians living in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as displaced refugees in other countries.

The comprehensive report, Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity, sets out how massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law. This system is maintained by violations which Amnesty International found to constitute apartheid as a crime against humanity, as defined in the Rome Statute and Apartheid Convention.

Amnesty International is calling on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to consider the crime of apartheid in its current investigation in the OPT and calls on all states to exercise universal jurisdiction to bring perpetrators of apartheid crimes to justice.

Our report reveals the true extent of Israel’s apartheid regime. Whether they live in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights. We found that Israel’s cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid. The international community has an obligation to actAgnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

“There is no possible justification for a system built around the institutionalized and prolonged racist oppression of millions of people. Apartheid has no place in our world, and states which choose to make allowances for Israel will find themselves on the wrong side of history. Governments who continue to supply Israel with arms and shield it from accountability at the UN are supporting a system of apartheid, undermining the international legal order, and exacerbating the suffering of the Palestinian people. The international community must face up to the reality of Israel’s apartheid, and pursue the many avenues to justice which remain shamefully unexplored.”

Amnesty International’s findings build on a growing body of work by Palestinian, Israeli and international NGOs, who have increasingly applied the apartheid framework to the situation in Israel and/or the OPT.

Identifying apartheid

A system of apartheid is an institutionalized regime of oppression and domination by one racial group over another. It is a serious human rights violation which is prohibited in public international law. Amnesty International’s extensive research and legal analysis, carried out in consultation with external experts, demonstrates that Israel enforces such a system against Palestinians through laws, policies and practices which ensure their prolonged and cruel discriminatory treatment.

In international criminal law, specific unlawful acts which are committed within a system of oppression and domination, with the intention of maintaining it, constitute the crime against humanity of apartheid. These acts are set out in the Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute, and include unlawful killing, torture, forcible transfer, and the denial of basic rights and freedoms.

Amnesty International documented acts proscribed in the Apartheid Convention and Rome Statute in all the areas Israel controls, although they occur more frequently and violently in the OPT than in Israel. Israeli authorities enact multiple measures to deliberately deny Palestinians their basic rights and freedoms, including draconian movement restrictions in the OPT, chronic discriminatory underinvestment in Palestinian communities in Israel, and the denial of refugees’ right to return. The report also documents forcible transfer, administrative detention, torture, and unlawful killings, in both Israel and the OPT.

Amnesty International found that these acts form part of a systematic and widespread attack directed against the Palestinian population, and are committed with the intent to maintain the system of oppression and domination. They therefore constitute the crime against humanity of apartheid.

The unlawful killing of Palestinian protesters is perhaps the clearest illustration of how Israeli authorities use proscribed acts to maintain the status quo. In 2018, Palestinians in Gaza began to hold weekly protests along the border with Israel, calling for the right of return for refugees and an end to the blockade. Before protests even began, senior Israeli officials warned that Palestinians approaching the wall would be shot. By the end of 2019, Israeli forces had killed 214 civilians, including 46 children.

In light of the systematic unlawful killings of Palestinians documented in its report, Amnesty International is also calling for the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel. This should cover all weapons and munitions as well as law enforcement equipment, given the thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been unlawfully killed by Israeli forces. The Security Council should also impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most implicated in the crime of apartheid.

Palestinians treated as a demographic threat

Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued a policy of establishing and then maintaining a Jewish demographic majority, and maximizing control over land and resources to benefit Jewish Israelis. In 1967, Israel extended this policy to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Today, all territories controlled by Israel continue to be administered with the purpose of benefiting Jewish Israelis to the detriment of Palestinians, while Palestinian refugees continue to be excluded.

Amnesty International recognizes that Jews, like Palestinians, claim a right to self-determination, and does not challenge Israel’s desire to be a home for Jews. Similarly, it does not consider that Israel labelling itself a “Jewish state” in itself indicates an intention to oppress and dominate.

However, Amnesty International’s report shows that successive Israeli governments have considered Palestinians a demographic threat, and imposed measures to control and decrease their presence and access to land in Israel and the OPT. These demographic aims are well illustrated by official plans to “Judaize” areas of Israel and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which continue to put thousands of Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer.

Oppression without borders

The 1947-49 and 1967 wars, Israel’s ongoing military rule of the OPT, and the creation of separate legal and administrative regimes within the territory, have separated Palestinian communities and segregated them from Jewish Israelis. Palestinians have been fragmented geographically and politically, and experience different levels of discrimination depending on their status and where they live.

Palestinian citizens in Israel currently enjoy greater rights and freedoms than their counterparts in the OPT, while the experience of Palestinians in Gaza is very different to that of those living in the West Bank. Nonetheless, Amnesty International’s research shows that all Palestinians are subject to the same overarching system. Israel’s treatment of Palestinians across all areas is pursuant to the same objective: to privilege Jewish Israelis in distribution of land and resources, and to minimize the Palestinian presence and access to land.

Amnesty International demonstrates that Israeli authorities treat Palestinians as an inferior racial group who are defined by their non-Jewish, Arab status. This racial discrimination is cemented in laws which affect Palestinians across Israel and the OPT.

For example, Palestinian citizens of Israel are denied a nationality, establishing a legal differentiation from Jewish Israelis. In the West Bank and Gaza, where Israel has controlled the population registry since 1967, Palestinians have no citizenship and most are considered stateless, requiring ID cards from the Israeli military to live and work in the territories.

Palestinian refugees and their descendants, who were displaced in the 1947-49 and 1967 conflicts, continue to be denied the right to return to their former places of residence. Israel’s exclusion of refugees is a flagrant violation of international law which has left millions in a perpetual limbo of forced displacement.

Palestinians in annexed East Jerusalem are granted permanent residence instead of citizenship – though this status is permanent in name only. Since 1967, more than 14,000 Palestinians have had their residency revoked at the discretion of the Ministry of the Interior, resulting in their forcible transfer outside the city.

Lesser citizens

Palestinian citizens of Israel, who comprise about 19% of the population, face many forms of institutionalized discrimination. In 2018, discrimination against Palestinians was crystallized in a constitutional law which, for the first time, enshrined Israel exclusively as the “nation state of the Jewish people”. The law also promotes the building of Jewish settlements and downgrades Arabic’s status as an official language.

The report documents how Palestinians are effectively blocked from leasing on 80% of Israel’s state land, as a result of racist land seizures and a web of discriminatory laws on land allocation, planning and zoning.

The situation in the Negev/Naqab region of southern Israel is a prime example of how Israel’s planning and building policies intentionally exclude Palestinians.  Since 1948 Israeli authorities have adopted various policies to “Judaize” the Negev/Naqab, including designating large areas as nature reserves or military firing zones, and setting targets for increasing the Jewish population. This has had devastating consequences for the tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins who live in the region.

Thirty-five Bedouin villages, home to about 68,000 people, are currently “unrecognized” by Israel, which means they are cut off from the national electricity and water supply and targeted for repeated demolitions. As the villages have no official status, their residents also face restrictions on political participation and are excluded from the healthcare and education systems. These conditions have coerced many into leaving their homes and villages, in what amounts to forcible transfer.

Decades of deliberately unequal treatment of Palestinian citizens of Israel have left them consistently economically disadvantaged in comparison to Jewish Israelis. This is exacerbated by blatantly discriminatory allocation of state resources: a recent example is the government’s Covid-19 recovery package, of which just 1.7% was given to Palestinian local authorities.

Dispossession

The dispossession and displacement of Palestinians from their homes is a crucial pillar of Israel’s apartheid system. Since its establishment the Israeli state has enforced massive and cruel land seizures against Palestinians, and continues to implement myriad laws and policies to force Palestinians into small enclaves. Since 1948, Israel has demolished hundreds of thousands of Palestinian homes and other properties across all areas under its jurisdiction and effective control.

As in the Negev/Naqab, Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Area C of the OPT live under full Israeli control. The authorities deny building permits to Palestinians in these areas, forcing them to build illegal structures which are demolished again and again.

In the OPT, the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements exacerbates the situation. The construction of these settlements in the OPT has been a government policy since 1967. Settlements today cover 10% of the land in the West Bank, and some 38% of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem was expropriated between 1967 and 2017.

Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem are frequently targeted by settler organizations which, with the full backing of the Israeli government, work to displace Palestinian families and hand their homes to settlers. One such neighbourhood, Sheikh Jarrah, has been the site of frequent protests since May 2021 as families battle to keep their homes under the threat of a settler lawsuit.

Draconian movement restrictions

Since the mid-1990s Israeli authorities have imposed increasingly stringent movement restrictions on Palestinians in the OPT. A web of military checkpoints, roadblocks, fences and other structures controls the movement of Palestinians within the OPT, and restricts their travel into Israel or abroad.

A 700km fence, which Israel is still extending, has isolated Palestinian communities inside “military zones”, and they must obtain multiple special permits any time they enter or leave their homes. In Gaza, more than 2 million Palestinians live under an Israeli blockade which has created a humanitarian crisis. It is near-impossible for Gazans to travel abroad or into the rest of the OPT, and they are effectively segregated from the rest of the world.

For Palestinians, the difficulty of travelling within and in and out of the OPT is a constant reminder of their powerlessness. Their every move is subject to the Israeli military’s approval, and the simplest daily task means navigating a web of violent controlAgnès Callamard

“The permit system in the OPT is emblematic of Israel’s brazen discrimination against Palestinians. While Palestinians are locked in a blockade, stuck for hours at checkpoints, or waiting for yet another permit to come through, Israeli citizens and settlers can move around as they please.”

Amnesty International examined each of the security justifications which Israel cites as the basis for its treatment of Palestinians. The report shows that, while some of Israel’s policies may have been designed to fulfil legitimate security objectives, they have been implemented in a grossly disproportionate and discriminatory way which fails to comply with international law. Other policies have absolutely no reasonable basis in security, and are clearly shaped by the intent to oppress and dominate.

The way forward

Amnesty International provides numerous specific recommendations for how the Israeli authorities can dismantle the apartheid system and the discrimination, segregation and oppression which sustain it.

The organization is calling for an end to the brutal practice of home demolitions and forced evictions as a first step. Israel must grant equal rights to all Palestinians in Israel and the OPT, in line with principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. It must recognize the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes where they or their families once lived, and provide victims of human rights violations and crimes against humanity with full reparations.

The scale and seriousness of the violations documented in Amnesty International’s report call for a drastic change in the international community’s approach to the human rights crisis in Israel and the OPT.  

All states may exercise universal jurisdiction over persons reasonably suspected of committing the crime of apartheid under international law, and states that are party to the Apartheid Convention have an obligation to do so. 

The international response to apartheid must no longer be limited to bland condemnations and equivocating. Unless we tackle the root causes, Palestinians and Israelis will remain locked in the cycle of violence which has destroyed so many livesAgnès Callamard

“Israel must dismantle the apartheid system and start treating Palestinians as human beings with equal rights and dignity. Until it does, peace and security will remain a distant prospect for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

Please see the full report for detailed definition of apartheid in international law.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

TIME TO RECOGNIZE REALITY OF ISRAELI

APARTHEID & PERSECUTION

For years, discussions on Israel and Palestine in international fora like this have been rooted in the assumption that Israel’s 54-year occupation is temporary and that a 30-year peace process will soon bring an end to Israeli rights abuses. These assumptions have obscured the reality of Israel’s discriminatory rule over Palestinians.

In April, Human Rights Watch released a 213-page report, “A Threshold Crossed,” finding that Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution. We reached this determination based on our documentation of an overarching government policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians across Israel and the OPT, coupled with systematic oppression and grave abuses committed against Palestinians living in the OPT, including East Jerusalem.

In the months since, a growing chorus of voices, from former Israeli ambassadors to South Africa and current Knesset members to the ex-UN Secretary General and authorities from South Africa, Namibia, the OIC, France and Luxembourg, among others, have referenced apartheid in relation to Israel’s discriminatory treatment of Palestinians.

Maintaining the status quo is the policy of the Israeli government formed in June. As an official close to Prime Minister Bennett said, “there is no diplomatic process with the Palestinians and neither will there be one.”

It is time for the international community to publicly recognize that apartheid, and parallel persecution, is the reality for millions of Palestinians. Correctly diagnosing a problem is the first step to solving it.

The United Nations played a central role in undoing South Africa’s system of apartheid. It can do so again. As a first step, this Council rightly put in place a Commission of Inquiry to investigate “root causes of recurrent conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.” We urge all states to engage constructively with the COI in fulfilment of its important mandate.

UN member states should also appoint a UN global envoy for the crimes of persecution and apartheid with a mandate to mobilize international action to end persecution and apartheid worldwide.

Crimes against humanity are crimes against all of us. We all need to do our part to end them.

EINDE

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

ISRAELI APARTHEID: ”A TRESHOLD CROSSED”

19 JULY 2021

In April, Human Rights Watch released a 213-page report, “A Threshold Crossed,” finding that Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution. We reached this determination based on our documentation of an overarching government policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians coupled with grave abuses committed against Palestinians living in the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem

In the months since, a growing chorus of voices, from former Israeli ambassadors to South Africa and current Knesset members to the ex-UN Secretary General and the French foreign minister, have referenced apartheid in relation to Israel’s discriminatory treatment of Palestinians, in particular in the occupied territory. Yet many in Germany, including those critical of Israeli human rights abuses, remain hesitant to apply the label to Israeli conduct.

Given history, one can certainly understand Germany’s concern for the welfare of the Jewish people, but that should not carry over to an endorsement of abusive and discriminatory Israeli government conduct, especially in the occupied territory. As recognition grows that these crimes are being committed, the failure to recognize that reality requires burying your head deeper and deeper into the sand.

The problem begins with the Israeli government having exercised primary control for more than a half-century over the land between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, encompassing Israel and the occupied territory, where two main groups of people of roughly equal size live. Throughout this area, Israeli authorities methodologically privilege one of the groups, Jewish Israelis, who are governed under the same body of laws with the same rights and privileges wherever they live. At the same time, authorities allocate different baskets of inferior rights to the other, Palestinians, systematically discriminating against them wherever they live and most severely in the occupied territory.

Our sense that our research was not capturing this underlying reality led us to write this report. Reporting on “separate, not equal” schools for Palestinians inside Israel, Palestinians being forced out of their homes in occupied East Jerusalem, the serious rights abuses stemming from the Israeli settlement enterprise in the West Bank, and the crushing closure of the Gaza Strip, we felt that our work captured important dynamics, including entrenched discrimination, in particular areas, but did not capture the full scope of Israel’s discriminatory rule over Palestinians.

We set out in the report to evaluate Israel’s treatment of Palestinians across Israel and the occupied territory. As we do in the nearly 100 countries across the world we work in, we began by documenting the facts—drawing on years of our own research, case studies that compared Palestinian areas with predominantly or exclusively Jewish ones, and a review of government planning documents, statements by officials, and a range of other materials.

Across Israel and the occupied territory, Human Rights Watch found that Israeli authorities have pursued an intent to privilege Jewish Israelis at the expense of Palestinians. They have done so by undertaking policies aimed at mitigating what they openly describe as the “demographic threat” Palestinians pose and maximizing the land available for Jewish communities, while concentrating most Palestinian in dense enclaves. The policy takes different forms and is pursued in a particularly severe form in the occupied territory. It includes efforts to, as leading Israelis officials have put it, “Judaize” the Negev and Galilee regions of Israel and to maintain “a solid Jewish majority,” as described in government planning documents, in the Jerusalem municipality, which includes the eastern part of Jerusalem, which Israel unilaterally annexed and occupies. It also encompasses efforts to “settle [Jews in] the land between the [Palestinian] minority population centers and their surroundings” in the West Bank, as set out in plans that have guided the government’s settlement, and to pursue “separation” between the West Bank and Gaza. The policy across the board serves the same fundamental goal: maximum land, minimum Palestinians. 

Furthermore, we found that Israeli authorities have carried out the grave abuses needed for the crimes of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians living in the occupied territory. It has done so through, among other policies, sweeping restrictions on movement in the form of the 14-year generalized closure of Gaza and the discriminatory permit system in the West Bank; the confiscation of more than a third of the land in the West Bank; and denial of residency rights to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and their relatives. Israel has imposed draconian military rule over millions of Palestinians, suspending their basic civil rights, while Jewish Israelis living in the same territory are governed under the permissive Israeli civil law; and imposed harsh conditions in parts of the West Bank that led to forcing thousands of Palestinians out of their homes.

We then evaluated these facts against the relevant areas of international law—in this case, the established law on discrimination—which includes a universal prohibition against apartheid. While the term was coined in relation to specific practices in South Africa, international treaties define apartheid as a universal legal term referring to a particularly severe form of discriminatory oppression.

International criminal law, including the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid and the 1998 Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court, define apartheid as a crime against humanity consisting of three primary elements: (1) an intent by one racial group to dominate another; (2) systematic oppression by the dominant group over the marginalized group; and (3) particularly grave abuses known as inhumane acts.

Racial group is understood today also to encompass treatment on the basis of descent and national or ethnic origin. International criminal law also identifies a related crime against humanity of persecution. Under the Rome Statute and customary international law, persecution consists of severe deprivation of fundamental rights of a racial, ethnic, or other group with discriminatory intent.

The ratification by the State of Palestine of these two treaties in recent years has strengthened the legal application of these two crimes in its territory. A ruling by a chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) earlier this year confirmed that it has jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity – including apartheid and persecution – committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 2014.

Applying the facts to the laws, Human Rights Watch concluded that Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution. We found that the elements of the crimes come together in the occupied territory as part of a single Israeli government policy. That policy is to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians across Israel and the occupied territory. It is coupled in the occupied territory with systematic oppression and inhumane acts against Palestinians living there.

Sometimes the most important thing someone who cares deeply about you can do is to share hard truths and push you to confront them. The late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and leaders of Israel’s closest ally, the US, including former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State John Kerry, warned of the prospect of apartheid if things did not change.

Today, apartheid is not a hypothetical or future scenario. A 54-year-occupation is not temporary. The threshold has been crossed. Apartheid, and parallel persecution, is the reality for millions of Palestinians. Recognizing and correctly diagnosing a problem is the first step to solving it and ending apartheid is vital to the future of both Palestinians and Israelis and the cause of peace. It is by extension Germany’s special relationship with Israel and history that should prompt them to recognize the reality of apartheid and persecution and bring to bear the sorts of tools needed to end these crimes against humanity.

EINDE 

[1]

PARLEMENT.COM

KABINET RUTTE IV VALT OVER MAATREGELEN TEGEN ASIELSTROOM

7 JULI 2023

DEN HAAG (PDC ⁱ) – Het kabinet-Rutte IV is gevallen. De vier coalitiepartijen (VVD, D66, CDA en ChristenUnie) zijn het niet eens geworden over een pakket maatregelen om de asielinstroom te beperken. Vanavond nog zal Mark Rutte ⁱ schriftelijk het ontslag aanbieden van het gehele kabinet aan de koning.

Het kabinet heeft lang onderhandeld over de asielmaatregelen. De laatste dagen voerde de VVD de druk op. Rutte legde volgens verschillende bronnen een nieuwe eis op tafel, waarbij gezinshereniging voor oorlogsvluchtelingen beperkt zou worden. Dit was voor D66 en de ChristenUnie een onaanvaardbare eis.

In een persconferentie lichtte premier Rutte de kabinetsval toe: “Er is niet één partij die de stekker uit het kabinet heeft getrokken. Het was een beslissing van alle vier de partijen samen.(…) Een kabinetsval is nooit goed, maar het is ook atijd moeilijk in een coalitieland als Nederland.”

Het kabinet zal in zijn huidige vorm in demissionaire status blijven zitten. Naar verwachting zullen er in november Tweede Kamerverkiezingen plaatsvinden. Het kabinet-Rutte IV kwam tot stand na de langste kabinetsformatie uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis en trad op 10 januari 2022 aan.

• Brief regering; Afschrift van de brief aan Z.M. de Koning inzake het ontslag van de minister-president en alle ministers en staatssecretarissen 

[2]

WIKIPEDIA

TWEEDE KAMERVERKIEZINGEN 2023

[1]

CAROLINE VAN DER PLAS EN DE VLUCHTELINGEN/HET

BBB STANDPUNT/ASTRID ESSED ATTACK!

4 SEPTEMBER 2023

[2]

”””Voor wie bijvoorbeeld twijfelt aan de fascistische inslag van Caroline van der Plas en haar BBB, even dit citaat van haar: ‘Het gaat dus inderdaad niet om de natuur. Het gaat om goedkoop landbouwgrond opkopen voor huizen voor die miljoenen mensen die nog in NL gepropt moeten worden”

TEGEN AGO-KNOKPLOEGEN, TEGEN POLITIE

REPRESSIE-ZELF DE LAMLEGGERS, LAM LEGGEN

PETER STORM

20 JUNI 2022

”Hoewel de opkomst van de BBB voor een deel ten koste gaat van andere en radicalere extreemrechtse partijen, groeit het extreemrechtse kamp als geheel gewoon door. Als we de SGP meetellen – dat zich de afgelopen jaren duidelijk in het extreemrechtse kamp heeft gepositioneerd – wisten de extreemrechtse partijen gezamenlijk maar liefst 28 senaatszetels te halen – meer dan een derde van de zetels. In 2019 waren dat er nog 17 (of 19 met de SGP erbij).”

….

….

”Maar het is veel te eenzijdig om de media alleen de schuld te geven van de opkomst van BBB. VVD en CDA hebben de basis gelegd voor de huidige stikstofcrisis door te proberen de milieurichtlijnen te omzeilen en sindsdien oppositie te voeren tegen de stikstofplannen van de regering toen er toch iets moest worden gedaan. Dat gaf voeding aan de boerenprotesten die een steeds duidelijker extreemrechts karakter kregen en waar BBB de belangrijkste politieke vertegenwoordiger werd. BBB had daarom een maatschappelijke beweging achter zich, die gesteund wordt door het agriculturele grootkapitaal en groepen als Agrifacts, die zijn opgezet om de belangen van die bedrijven te behartigen.”

SOCIALISME.NU

OPNIEUW PROFITEERT VOORAL EXTREEM-RECHTS VAN

DE ONVREDE OVER HET REGERINGSBELEID

20 MAART 2023

”De Provinciale Statenverkiezingen zijn zoals verwacht uitgelopen op een afstraffing van de regeringspartijen en op een grote overwinning van de BBB. De spreekbuis van het agriculturele grootkapitaal werd in alle provincies de grootste. De winst van de BBB gaat vooral ten koste van andere extreemrechtse partijen als PVV en FvD en van de regeringspartijen.”

SOCIALISME.NU

OPNIEUW PROFITEERT VOORAL EXTREEM-RECHTS VAN

DE ONVREDE OVER HET REGERINGSBELEID

20 MAART 2023

FRONTAAL NAAKT OVER CAROLINE VAN DER PLAS

CAROLINE VAN DER PLAS, DWANGMATIGE LEUGENMACHINE

FRONTAAL NAAKT [PETER BREEDVELD]

2 MAART 2023

[3]

”EPILOOG

Dit is een heel lang Verhaal geworden, omdat ik heb ontdekt,

dat BBB [althans door mij] niet simpelweg kan worden neergezet 

in de hoek van extreem-rechts.

Dat heb ik proberen aan te tonen aan het Migratiestandpunt

van BBB.

Daarin zijn een groot aantal zaken, die ik verwerp, zoals

het neerzetten van vluchtelingen als ”gasten” in plaats van

als volwaardige burgers, die een permanente plaats verdienen

in de samenleving.

Het bepleiten van grenshekken om vluchtelingen tegen te houden.

Het willen ”reduceren” van asielmigratie

Het opzeggen van het nu al vaak niet nageleefde Vluchtelingenverdrag,

wat nog enige garantie aan vluchtelingen geeft.

Lees de rest zelf maar [95]

MAAR IK LEES OOK

Een succesvol aangenomen motie tegen de misdadige pushbacks

Een pleidooi voor een humane opvang van vluchtelingen [96]

[wat dan weer in strijd is met die hekken….]

Stageplekken voor ongedocumenteerde jongeren

En een stevige kritiek op demonisering en bangmakerij door

wat ik noem, het Extreem-rechtse Blok [PVV,Forum voor Democratie,JA21 en Groep van Haga] [97]

KORTOM:

Een aantal tegenstrijdigheden in de BBB opstelling over Migratie, maar

daarin ook enkele Lichtpuntjes

Hoe dit allemaal gaat uitpakken tijdens en na de verkiezingen van 22 november 2023, weet

ik natuurlijk niet.

Maar op dit Moment is BBB voor mij, op grond van mijn analyse

niet extreem-rechts, hoewel de Zetelvergroting van BBB en vooral wie

erbij gekomen is, mij zeker niet is ontgaan. [98]

Hoe dan ook:

Ik hoop niet, dat ik ooit zal zeggen:

”Toen nog niet”

Maar dan komt er van mij een ander Verhaal”

CAROLINE VAN DER PLAS EN DE VLUCHTELINGEN/HET

BBB STANDPUNT/ASTRID ESSED ATTACK!

4 SEPTEMBER 2023

[4]

CAROLINE VAN DER PLAS EN DE VLUCHTELINGEN/HET

BBB STANDPUNT/ASTRID ESSED ATTACK!

4 SEPTEMBER 2023

[5]

BBB

STRENG MET MENSELIJKE MAAT:

BBB OVER MIGRATIE

13 FEBRUARI 2023

Nederland is een huis, waarin Nederlanders een familie vormen. Zoals in veel huizen ontvangen wij gasten die weer vertrekken en is er een logeerkamer met een warm bed voor familie of bekenden, die het zwaar hebben en wat langer moeten blijven. Maar in de laatste decennia belden er zo veel hulpbehoevenden aan voor een plekje, dat de grond van de logeerkamer bezaaid ligt met matjes. En ons éigen familieleven wordt aangetast door onze gastvrijheid. Juist om dat originele warme bed te blijven bieden, moeten we voorlopig “nee” verkopen aan veel hulpbehoevende kennissen. 

Asielmigratie-reductie korte termijn

Op de korte termijn moeten Nederland en de EU stevige maatregelen nemen, die binnen de verdragen passen, om een nieuwe inhumane asielcrisis in de zomer te voorkomen. De inzet van de BBB op dit vlak focust op drie punten:

• Ontwikkelingslanden, die weigeren uitgeprocedeerde asielzoekers terug te nemen, moeten gekort worden op de financiële steun die Nederland en de EU bieden. En bij aanhoudend weigeren, moet de subsidiekraan dicht en de uitkeringenstroom gestopt worden richting die landen. Als landen weigeren ons te steunen in een crisis en hun eigen staatsburgers niet terug willen nemen, zijn ze geen goede buren en verdienen ze ook niet onze steun. 
• De buitengrenzen van de EU moeten versterkt worden. Dit kan onder meer door de bouw van grenshekken op kwetsbare locaties voor migrantenstromen. Maar ook is het nodig dat Frontex (het Europees agentschap dat de buitengrenzen bewaakt) stevig versterkt wordt in bevoegdheden, middelen en manschappen.
• Europese migratieafspraken moeten actief worden nageleefd. In de Dublin-verordening staat dat een asielzoeker asiel moet aanvragen in het eerste veilige Europese land waar hij aankomt. Nu gebeurt dit vaak niet en reizen asielzoekers via andere Europese landen naar Nederland om een asielaanvraag te doen. Landen aan onze buitengrenzen (zoals Italië en Bulgarije) laten dit toe of faciliteren dit zelfs, om zelf maar van het probleem af te zijn. Als de Dublin-afspraken zouden worden nageleefd, zou de asielinstroom in Nederland al gauw behapbaar worden. Europees Naoberschap houdt ook in dat we goede buren voor elkaar zijn. Afspraken die gemaakt zijn, of gemaakt worden, moeten worden nageleefd. Het is simpel voor BBB: of de Dublin-verordening wordt strikt nageleefd, of Nederland stelt Brussel op de hoogte dat het zich niet meer gebonden voelt door de afspraken. 

Asielmigratie-reductie lange termijn

Nederland heeft zich in het verleden gebonden aan allerlei verdragen, die op dat moment een nuttig doel dienden. Het Vluchtelingenverdrag van 1951, voortvloeiend uit de verschrikkingen van de Tweede Wereldoorlog en de Holocaust, is daar één van. Echter het doel van het verdrag in 1951 was nooit dat het de hedendaagse asielchaos tot gevolg zou hebben. Migratie is sindsdien enorm veranderd, in omvang en vorm. En als de uitkomst van een verdrag anders uitvalt dan de bedoeling was bij het tekenen, moet Nederland ook bereid zijn om te sleutelen aan de inhoud van een verdrag. Als de uitkomst anders is dan het doel, dan moeten er dus nieuwe afspraken komen die er wél voor zorgen dat het verdragsdoel wordt bereikt. 

Nederland moet inzetten op een update van het Vluchtelingenverdrag van 1951 en toewerken naar een Vluchtelingenverdrag van 2023. Wat BBB betreft moet zo’n verdrag de deelnemende landen de handvaten geven om grote asieltoestromen te dempen. Dit bijvoorbeeld door asielprocedures buiten de eigen grens te kunnen behandelen, een terugnameverplichting in te stellen voor landen wier onderdanen elders zijn uitgeprocedeerd en door het terugsturen of terugbrengen van uitgeprocedeerde asielzoekers te vereenvoudigen. Uiteraard zijn er talloze andere voorstellen die ook gewogen moeten worden in een nieuw verdrag. 

Acute asielstop

Niet elk land staat te juichen bij heronderhandeling van het Vluchtelingenverdrag van 1951. Sommige landen hebben economisch, sociaal of zelfs politiek profijt bij de oude afspraken en de chaos die ze ermee in andere landen kunnen veroorzaken. Daarom ziet BBB een acute asielstop tijdens het ontstaan van een asielcrisis als een effectief middel om: 

1. de asielinstroom te dempen;
2. aan te tonen dat het verdrag van 1951 onwerkbaar is;
3. een drukmiddel richting andere landen om de verdragen te heronderhandelen

Mocht niks werken dan kan Nederland niet uitsluiten dat het als laatste redmiddel, samen met gelijkgezinde landen uit het verdrag stapt (zoals we recent uit het Energy Charter Treaty zijn gestapt) en met hun nieuwe afspraken maakt.

Pushbacks

Het is een natuurlijke reactie om een mens in nood te helpen. Niemand kijkt met de handen in de zakken toe hoe een ander verdrinkt, laat staan dat ze hem een trap na geven. Daarom wil BBB dit ook niet opleggen aan onze agenten aan de buitengrenzen van Europa. Het terugduwen van lekke bootjes, of mensen buiten de deur te houden zonder enige zorg en daarmee mensen veroordelen tot verdrinking of uitdroging, ziet BBB niet als menswaardig, zowel voor de pusher als de gepushte. Daarom zal BBB zich uitspreken tegen de pushbacks op zee waarvan aangenomen kan worden dat dit tot de dood leidt. Zoals hierboven aangetoond kunnen Nederland en de EU heel veel doen om migratie te beperken, voordat we ons zo diep verlagen. BBB is natuurlijk niet voor het toestromen van illegalen in de EU. BBB is wel voor het op een humane manier terugsturen van deze mensen naar het land van herkomst. 

Uiteindelijk wil BBB toe naar een migratiesysteem waarin mensen die écht op de vlucht zijn voor oorlog of onderdrukking, in Nederland veiligheid kunnen vinden. Waar we deze mensen een warm bed kunnen bieden in ons huis, zonder dat het huis daardoor ontwricht raakt. En voor de tijd die ervoor nodig is. Terugkeer naar land van herkomst, wanneer dat veilig is, verdient de voorkeur. 

Voordat we daar zijn, hebben we nog een lange weg te gaan, maar we hoeven geen dingen te doen die we onze kinderen en kleinkinderen niet zouden kunnen uitleggen. 

Arbeids- en studiemigratie

Om in de brede zin aan migratiereductie te werken moeten we niet alleen naar asielmigratie kijken maar ook naar migratie die voorkomt uit arbeid en studie. Ook deze stromen zijn groot en leggen veel beslag op voorzieningen, al leveren ze vaak ook welvaart op.

Op het gebied van arbeidsmigratie wil BBB kijken welke mensen Nederland nodig heeft en welke arbeidsmigranten meerwaarde creëren voor de Nederlandse economie. Onze stip op de horizon is hier een systeem van Orange Cards; waar na een jaarlijkse inventarisatie van behoeften en tekorten in de arbeidsmarkt er buitenlandse werknemers worden uitgenodigd om naar Nederland te komen om hier te werken. De kaart geeft hen dan een verblijfsstatus voor een bepaalde tijd, waarna de kaarthouder weer terug moet keren naar het land van herkomst óf onder specifieke voorwaarde het Nederlands staatsburgerschap kan aanvragen. In de huidige praktijk betekent dit dat Nederland deze Orange Cards vooral uitgeeft aan bijvoorbeeld technisch of medisch geschoold personeel en arbeiders die nodig zijn voor onze voedselzekerheid. 

Studentenmigratie

Bij studiemigratie wil BBB ook kijken naar de behoefte in Nederland. Voor veel universiteiten in de regio zijn internationale studenten een basisvoorwaarde om onderwijs aan te kunnen bieden aan Nederlandse studenten. Bij technische studies leveren internationale studenten een grote bijdrage aan innovatie en ontwikkeling van de Nederlandse techniek. Ook kan een klein aandeel internationale studenten op een studie goed zijn om kennis te maken met nieuwe ideeën en perspectieven. Helaas zijn voor een aantal grote universiteiten in de Randstad internationale studenten een winstmodel van uitbuiting geworden, wat bijvoorbeeld de lokale huizenmarkt ontwricht en studies ‘verengelst’. Net als bij arbeidsmigratie wil BBB hier dus kijken naar welke studenten een meerwaarde vormen voor regionale ontwikkeling, innovatie of ons academisch klimaat. Terwijl we intussen de gezonde balans voor de huizenmarkt en de rol van universiteiten als koploper in een onderscheidende Nederlandse academische cultuur, bewaken. 

6]

BBB VERKIEZINGSPROGRAMMA 

”IEDERE DAG BBBETER, VAN VERTROUWENSCRISIS TOT

NOABERSTAAT”

VISIE EN VERKIEZINGSPROGRAMMA 2023-2027

[7]

POPCORN EN VERKIEZINGEN: EEN DRIELUIK. INLEIDING

EN DEEL 1

PETER STORM

2 SEPTEMBER 2023

POPCORN EN VERKIEZINGEN; EEN DRIELUIK. DEEL 2

PETER STORM

3 SEPTEMBER 2023

POPCORN EN VERKIEZINGEN, EEN DRIELUIK. DEEL 3

PETER STORM

4 SEPTEMBER 2023

[8]

CAROLINE VAN DER PLAS EN DE VLUCHTELINGEN/HET

BBB STANDPUNT/ASTRID ESSED ATTACK!

4 SEPTEMBER 2023

[9]

BBB

ASIEL EN MIGRATIE

EERLIJK EN DRAAGBAAR

BLADZIJDE 92 T/M 95

BBB VERKIEZINGSPROGRAMMA 

VISIE EN VERKIEZINGSPROGRAMMA 2023-2027

[10]

BBB

STRENG MET MENSELIJKE MAAT:

BBB OVER MIGRATIE

13 FEBRUARI 2023

ZIE VOOR GEHELE TEKST, NOOT 5

[11]

ZIE NOOT 10

[12]

ZIE NOOT 10

[13]

”BBB

”

Nederland is een huis, waarin Nederlanders een familie vormen. Zoals in veel huizen ontvangen wij gasten die weer vertrekken en is er een logeerkamer met een warm bed voor familie of bekenden, die het zwaar hebben en wat langer moeten blijven. Maar in de laatste decennia belden er zo veel hulpbehoevenden aan voor een plekje, dat de grond van de logeerkamer bezaaid ligt met matjes. En ons éigen familieleven wordt aangetast door onze gastvrijheid. Juist om dat originele warme bed te blijven bieden, moeten we voorlopig “nee” verkopen aan veel hulpbehoevende kennissen. ” [21]

ASTRID ESSED ATTACK

NEDERLAND ALS HUIS EN VLUCHTELINGEN ALS

”GASTEN”

Hoewel ik de vergelijking van Nederland als een Huis

wel leuk vind, maak ik bezwaar tegen de hieruit voortvloeiende consequenties.

Want in feite gaat deze redenatie ervan uit, dat vluchtelingen

gasten zijn, die mogen rekenen op gastvrijheid.

En hoewel waarschijnlijk [vanuit van der Plas’ standpunt]

niet kwaadaardig bedoeld, betekent het in  feite:

Dankbaarheid en het daaruit voortvloeiende niet volwaardige burgerschap in de samenleving.

Nu zal voor bepaalde vluchtelingen gelden, dat ze inderdaad

maar tijdelijk willen blijven en ook daadwerkelijk weer

teruggaan naar het land van herkomst [22], maar daar gaat

het niet om.

Naar mijn oordeel zijn vluchtelingen geen ”gasten”, die

dankbaar moeten zijn [ook al ben je blij als je aan

oorlog en vervolging bent ontsnapt en relatief veilig bent],

maar mensen, die het recht hebben, in Nederland een

volwaardig leven op te bouwen, met dezelfde rechten en

plichten van de reeds aanwezige Nederlanders.

Zie onder noot 24 een aardig stukje over de manier

waarop tegen vluchtelingen kan worden aangekeken:

Als ”gasten” zoals BBB in feite zegt [23].

OF als volwaardige burgers, zoals Astrid Essed en

de schrijver van het stukje, Matthijs van de Sande, voorstaan. [24]”

CAROLINE VAN DER PLAS EN DE VLUCHTELINGEN/HET

BBB STANDPUNT/ASTRID ESSED ATTACK!

4 SEPTEMBER 2023

[14]

BBB

STRENG MET MENSELIJKE MAAT:

BBB OVER MIGRATIE

13 FEBRUARI 2023

ZIE VOOR GEHELE TEKST, NOOT 5

CAROLINE VAN DER PLAS EN DE VLUCHTELINGEN/HET

BBB STANDPUNT/ASTRID ESSED ATTACK!

4 SEPTEMBER 2023

[15]

BBB

ASIEL EN MIGRATIE

EERLIJK EN DRAAGBAAR

BLADZIJDE 92 T/M 95

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