Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi:

The first question was about settlements and what settlers do. Israel uses a combination of laws to impose its regime on the ground. The committee might be surprised to know that Israel still uses the Ottoman Turkish law, the British mandatory law, British emergency law, Israeli law, Jordanian law and no less than 2,400 military orders to impose its facts on the ground in Palestine. The Ottoman Turkish empire, the British Mandate and the British emergency law ended a long time ago, but these laws are still used in Israel. If that is not enough, it can initiate a new military order any time it wants or a new law in the Knesset, which is racist by nature.

The settlers come in and can claim that the land they are taking is estate land, in which case it does not belong to Israel because these are occupied territories, or they confiscate private land. As soon as a settler is in one spot, the whole surrounding area is forbidden to Palestinians, for security reasons they claim. The spot expands and a very wide area around that is also considered a security area forbidden to us, and that expands. Then they build a wall to prevent us entering that area. After building the wall they can expand the settlements further.

Two clear examples are Salfit in the north of the West Bank where Israel built many settlements up to 30 km inside the West Bank to take over control of major aquifers. Then all the Palestine villages and communities were fragmented. A trip from one village to another, to go to a hospital, a health centre or university which used to take five minutes has become 2.5 hours because people have to go around the settlements and the roads that they are not allowed to use. Hebron is a much worse example. Israel put 450 settlers there. For their sake, Israel has imposed an apartheid system where 25,000 Palestinians are under Israeli military control and have become separated from the city of Hebron. No fewer than 1,000 shops closed completely more than 15 years ago. All major roads inside the city are closed and only Israeli settlers and the Israeli army can use them. We the Palestinians cannot move on these roads inside Hebron city.

In 1994, one year after the Oslo agreement was signed, an Israeli medical doctor by the name of Baruch Goldstein entered the Ibrahimi Mosque while Palestinians were praying and started shooting them. He killed 29 Palestinians while they were praying and injured many others.

This resulted in the closure of many streets in Hebron, the division of the Ibrahimi mosque and Palestinians being forbidden to use large parts of the mosque. We were punished for that terrorist act that was committed by an Israeli settler. The situation in Hebron is very dramatic. The people who are living in Hebron cannot have a normal life because they are attacked frequently by settlers. Students cannot go to schools because the army would harass them. Settlers continually attack the Palestinian community in Hebron and Palestinians cannot respond because if they try to do so, the Israeli Army will arrest them, oppress them or shoot them, which happens frequently. It is a very dark situation of severe discrimination, which on a human rights basis cannot be defended.

On the question of the peace process and what might be an alternative, the only alternative is an international conference with the participation of impartial parties and not one party that is biased to the Israeli side. To be frank, we cannot achieve any result without changing the balance of power and the asymmetry between us and the Israelis. We cannot remove the asymmetry between us and Israel because it has nuclear power. We cannot have nuclear power. Israel has the most powerful army not only in the Middle East but in the world. We cannot balance that. The only way to change the situation, in my opinion, is to adopt an alternative strategy with popular, non-violent, resistance, as was done very successfully in many actions, most recently in Jerusalem in July, by way of a strong boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign worldwide, similar to that used in South Africa against the system of apartheid. One cannot balance the international support that Israel gets from the United States and many other countries without strong international support and power from another side. We believe that boycott, divestment and sanctions, BDS, is the most powerful way to do this because it is peaceful and non-violent and it can create a material economic affect and, importantly, it can create an important model affect.

Many Jewish people realise that the apartheid system is very bad not only for Palestinians but for Jewish and Israeli people as well. As I told soldiers many times when they arrested me, we are struggling not only for the freedom of Palestinians but also their freedom. Israelis will never be free unless we are free. This is why many young Jewish people are now joining the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign in the United States and participating in organisations in Jewish Voice for Peace, B'Tselem, Yesh Gvul, Gush Shalom and Women in Black. Unfortunately, these groups represent a minority in Israel. Inside Israel, the mainstream political parties, including the Likud Party and the Labour Party, are all adopting the policy of occupation. The most recently elected leader of the Labour Party, Mr. Avi Gabbay, recently declared that he will not allow the removal of any settlement. He also declared that the Israeli Army must remain active inside the occupied Palestinian territories even after the establishment of a Palestinian state. When we have these positions, it becomes clear that the only way to change the political internal dynamic in Israel is to make occupation unprofitable. As long as occupation is profitable and as long as Israel is allowed to be impunitive to international law, this bad situation will continue. This is why we have to combine our work and struggle on the ground with international strong solidarity activities, as happened in the case of South Africa.

As we heard, Mr. Netanyahu is to speak in the European Parliament to foreign ministers, but to allow him to do so and not allow Palestinians do the same would be unequal, biased and unacceptable. I hope that if he is allowed to speak, the foreign ministers of Europe will put specific questions to him, including why Israel does not identify its borders, why it continues its occupation, why it is creating a system of apartheid and why it continues to obstruct any effort to have a productive peace process. A member asked if the United States has a representative in Ramallah. We know that it does not have a representative to the Palestinian Authority but it does have an American consul general in Jerusalem. Some countries that have consulates in east Jerusalem or Jerusalem in particular continue to represent their countries through the Palestinian side, including the United States, Sweden, Britain, France, Belgium and some other countries. The consul general in Jerusalem is the United States representative to the Palestinian side. Following on from that, I would like to inform the committee of a most unfortunate American act to close the PLO office in Washington. That act, by itself, reflected how much influence the Israeli and Zionist lobby in the United States has in the American Administration. That act also reflects how biased this American Administration is to the Israeli side.

On Palestinian resilience, we are very resilient and we are proud of that. We have built institutions without permits from the Israeli side. Along with some colleagues, I founded a fantastic health and medical organisation that helps poor people. It serves 1.5 million every year. We could not get a permit for it from Israel for 20 years and so we acted without permit and applied for and got a licence from the Palestinian Authority. Seventeen universities were created. This building of Palestinian institutions and educational structures and health care facilities is in itself in our philosophy an act of resistance. In Palestine today, living there is an act of resistance. Praying is an act of resistance. Studying is an act of resistance. Treating a patient is an act of resistance. This is probably one of the most noble aspects of the Palestinian struggle.

Of course we would co-operate with Israeli civil society organisations but with one condition, namely, that they oppose occupation and the system of apartheid and support the right of the Palestinian people to be free. On the apartheid report, I met Mr. Guterres during his last visit to Ramallah and I asked him why the report was removed from the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, ESCWA, site and his response was that while they do not disagree with the content of the report, it is a procedural matter. I told him that I hoped he would not accept any pressure that would prevent the publication by the United Nations Human Rights Council of this very important report between December and February, which declares the names of 130 companies that are working illegally in illegal Israeli settlements.

That report, once published, should be the basis for an immediate big campaign to divest and boycott these companies that are participating in the violation of international law. I do not know whether there is any Irish company there but we will see.