Alas! The Self-Defeating Generation of Israel

Alas! The Self-Defeating Generation of Israel

K. M. M. Negassi

I had some points jotted after reading the article entitled “Are Eritrean refuges legit?”. I have no idea who wrote it. I just stayed to see the reaction of visitors. Then yesterday I received a report of the demonstration held by mothers and sisters in Tel Aviv. Not only this, today I came across the info that tells about the meeting held between the Knesset and representatives of the victimsed victims. And in the article I read this, ““It’s interesting that just a week ago Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein considered these asylum-seekers a threat to public order and violent,” committee chairwoman Michal Rozin (Meretz) said.
“Today, they sat like anyone else in this committee. This farce shows that the Knesset speaker’s decision last week, at the instruction of an MK from his party [the Likud], was racist. That, and not [migrants] who want to speak to us, is the real danger to democracy.” [ reported by LAHAV HARKOV , 01/15/2014 16:26, http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Migrants-testify-in-Knesset-after-being-denied-entry-338274.] I appreciate this correct remark.

Of all the vital questions that the authorities of the host state must test and verify, by hook or crook, before exhausting their invalid hot air, include:

1. What is the record of the State of origin on ensuring the fundamental human rights of its citizens?
2. What is the gravity of the persecution and fear of persecution?
3. What are the experiences of similar situated individuals?

The MPs of Israel were expected to go over these key issues before they pass any resolution and/or label against asylum seekers and refugees from Africa using racist and discriminatory terms. To say, “WE WILL SEND ALL AFRICAN MIGRANTS OUT” by its very message and tone is “discriminatory, racist and xenophobic “especially in reference to Black Africans.

All Israeli authorities, especially the MPs, Cabinet of Ministers and officials of immigration are expected to be aware of why an ASYLUM LAW was devised and why they became party of the Covenant and its Protocol.

Asylum Law is designed to protect those victims who are unable to protect themselves in their native land or are denied protection by the state; by state organized groups; or self-organized bodies. The meaning of to be persecuted is not an alien experience in the history of Israel or in its dictionaries.

The term PERSECUTION is expounded by the UNHCR in its “JANDBOOK OF PROCEDURES AND CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING REFUGEE STATUS”, 1979, Geneva at 17. Israeli authorities are not expected to be unaware of this and other such as that of 1992 and the contents and meanings of the articles in the Covenant and its Protocol.

How do they interpret treaties? It is no secret that “The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties” was reached into agreement to avoid inconsistencies and other negative manifestations. In “SECTION 3. INTERPRETATION OF TREATIES, Article 31, General rule of interpretation: A treaty shall be interpreted in good faith in accordance with the ordinary meaning to be given to the terms of the treaty in their context and in the light of its object and purpose.”

Subsequently, from the perspective of International Law, any given treaty member “ “may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty.” [See Article 27, Internal law and observance of treaties].

According to this provision the Knesset of Israel’s resolution reflects failures of the state to furnish adequate means of enforcement. This is none, but AFLAGRANT VIOLATION OF THE TREATY  and betrayal of the electorate in Israel and the International Community.

The UN HRC referring to Article 12, Para. 1 stated that, “an alien who entered the state illegally, but whose status has been regularized, must be lawfully within the state territory” [See HRC General Comment No. 27 (Article 12: Freedom of Movement), 66th Session, 1999); HRI/GEN/1/Rev. 4 at 131].

Three issues starkly come out of these:

1. The State of Israel, with intent failed to fulfill the necessary procedure of regularizing asylum seekers;
2. The State of Israel passed an internal resolution through its Kneset to invkoe “its internal law” over the said victims, because of its failure to fulfill its obligation based on the Convention and its Protocol. The Knesset further victimized the victims and want to send them to detention camps using force.
3. The State of Israel demonstrated lack of due diligence to protect asylum seekers and refugees when private individuals or agencies or groups acted against the life of the said victims. One could safely argue that since some Knesset members and the PM stated unhealthy, repugnant, and racist statements repeatedly, the state of Israel through its authorities is facilitating international wrongs.

With wrongs done at different times in the same or different sites and victims, the State remained complicit. Hence, the State not by omission, but by commission perpetrates international wrongs against its officially declared commitment to respect the Convention and its Protocol. In short, it is found to be happy to “DEHUMANIZE” these victims of a totalitarian state by taking lessons from Adolf Hitler and Hajji Amin el-Husseini and their recruits who are still present.