50^th Israeli’s Military Occupation in Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem
Between the Stagnancy of Settlements and International Responsibility to Protect

In the Commemoration of the 50^th years of occupation of the Israeli Military within Palestine, the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS) would like to express solidarity to Palestine towards the situation of the Occupied Palestine and Indonesia foreign policy regarding its movement towards the self-determination of Palestinian. It is a very unfortunate situation after a 50 years of war and attempts for the settlement has never been had a positive results.

The occupation of Israel Military in Palestine still on going and stagnant. It is already overlapping the definition of the occupation itself. Israel Military not only occupying the Palestinian territory, but also killing civilians, separating the families and destructing civilians facilities. Gaza strip still under siege by the Israel Military, however there is the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949 that already regulated the humanitarian policy in the conflict area, Israel still conducting its military powers towards the civilians with an excuse of security. On December 23, 2016 in United Nations resolution 2334 (2016), the Security Council reaffirmed that the establishment of settlement in the West Bank was flagrant violations under the international law. Nonetheless, aftermath the resolution the Government of Israel announced plans for approximately 6,000 new settlement units in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

According with the report of United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestine territories occupied since 1967, along with the announcement of new settlement construction have come reports of increasing incidents of demolitions of Palestinian home in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The demolitions towards the livelihoods in 2016 itself totaled 1,093 is the highest number recorded since 2009. The attacks not only occurred towards the civilians as a whole, Palestinian human rights organizations report that they have endured a repressive working environment in recent years.

As we could see from the facts above, the situation of human rights in Palestine is not getting any better. The United Nations bodies already establish several recommendations and also settlement attempts to end the war and occupation of the Palestine territory. Despite of repeated calls to end the blockade by international community, the situation still going worse. Moreover, the stagnant movement and situation are not only occurred from within the Israel Military but also from the international community movement towards this situation.

From the national context of Indonesia’s foreign policy on Palestine, nowadays Indonesia seems to have a stagnant commitment to support Palestine in the international forum, with lack of innovation and the reality of increasing conflict that made the humanitarian situation getting worse in the conflict area. The civil society organizations in Indonesia should make a solidarity movement to recommends policy making of the Israeli occupation in Palestine. These days, Indonesia’s foreign policy on Palestine still being pragmatic while the economic cooperation still become the priority, therefore to mainstreaming human rights within the country and abroad not moving significantly.

We also should emphasize that the on going conflict in Palestine territories is not about a religion conflict between Jews and Islam. This situation is a humanitarian/human rights tragedy that being neglected implicitly by the international community while the situation not getting better alongside the settlement attempts decreasing as well. The occupation by the Israel Military already fulfill the elements of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in the Rome Statute but never been followed up by the international community to encourage the process of the court. Indonesia as the pioneer of the self-determination of Occupied Palestine territories (OPT) should recommends Israel to ratify the Rome Statute, but since Indonesia also still not become of the state-party to ratify the Rome Statute, then the movement by Indonesia become stagnant.

A government that honors human rights and democratic values, and takes seriously its obligations towards human rights movement should encourage the Government of Israel to oblige underneath the international community recommendations and international human rights law. The international community is already under a legal obligation to end Israel’s occupation and hold Israelis who allegedly committed serious international crimes accountable. This is the time for the international community, including Indonesia as one of the leaders of the support for Palestine to take a new innovation in the international forum to end the serious crimes and violations in Occupied Palestine territories.

Jakarta, June 6th 2017

Sincerely,

Puri Kencana Putri, MA

Deputy of Strategy and Mobilization

Photo Courtesy: Al-Jazeera