Ensuring respect

In New York and Geneva, Arab diplomats are pushing for the UN and the international community to engage more actively in the deteriorating Middle East peace process. Dina Ezzat examines the diplomatic offensive
Ensuring respect
After two years of lobbying, Arab efforts to convene a conference of all states party to the fourth Geneva Convention -- related to the protection of civilians under occupation -- have finally succeeded. The meeting will be held in Geneva on 5 December. The move has come in spite of US and Israeli opposition to the conference. The two countries, along with Australia, are planning to boycott the gathering. Canada is also considering boycotting, but has not made a final decision.
The objective of the meeting is for the international community to "legally" reaffirm that Palestinian territories including East Jerusalem, which were seized by Israel in 1967, are occupied land. The convention obliges Israel -- which is party to it-- to "respect and ensure the respect" of the rules of the convention relating to the treatment of civilians under occupation. The 5 December meeting will also enshrine the Palestinian right to self-determination under international law, allowing them to legally reject any Israeli attempt to limit the establishment of a contiguous state in Gaza and the West Bank. Moreover, Palestinians are entitled to ask for the presence of third parties to ensure that Israel respects the terms of this convention which, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, it has been violating.
Arab diplomats in Geneva say the fact that the conference is going ahead is, in itself, a measure of success even if the declaration to be issued is mild and void of reprimand for Israel's violation of international law.
It will not be a grand affair. The meeting will "last half an hour, when a declaration will be read," said Ambassador Saad El-Farargi, head of the Arab League Mission in Geneva. According to El-Farargi, the meeting offers a forum for concerned delegates from the Arab world and the European Union to consult on the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
The declaration has already been drafted and agreed upon by participating states, in line with a request by the Swiss government, which is the depository state of the Fourth Convention. "We did not want this meeting to become a political confrontation over the situation in the Middle East," one Swiss diplomat told Al-Ahram Weekly. He added that the Swiss government and members of the EU did not think it would be in the interests of peace in the Middle East if the conference of the fourth Geneva Convention plunges into controversy. He would not comment on Israel's decision to boycott the meeting, however.
The draft declaration is not as strongly worded as the Arab countries had hoped. There is only one direct reference to Israel as an occupying power. According to the declaration "the participating High Contracting Parties call upon the Occupying Power to immediately refrain from committing grave breaches involving any of the acts mentioned in article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, such as willful killing, torture and unlawful deportation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly."
The declaration also places further demands on this "Occupying Power" to refrain from "reprisals against protected persons and their property, collective penalties and unjustified restrictions of free movement." Israel must "treat protected persons humanly, without any adverse discrimination founded on race, colour, religion, faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria."
For the Palestinians, the declaration also opens another door: it legitimises their long-standing request for the presence of independent international observers. Although the nature of their presence is not specifically defined, the parties to the declaration "encourage any arrangements and agreements supported by the parties to the conflict on the deployment of independent and impartial observers to monitor, inter alia, breaches of the Fourth Convention, as a protection and as a confidence building measure," according to the draft.
The last time states party to the fourth Geneva Convention met was in July 1999. That meeting lasted for 15 minutes, which was just enough time to read a statement in which the participants reaffirmed "the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem."
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