On the first two articles of this series,
http://windowintopalestine.blogspot.com/2009/07/is-israel-sovereign.html
http://windowintopalestine.blogspot.com/2009/07/is-israel-sovereign-part-2.html
I analyzed Israel's sovereignty mainly from the angles of internal and external sovereignty recognition. However, there are more angles to the issue.
On Israel's Borders
One of the characteristics of sovereignty is territory, though it is not an essential one as shown in the first article of this series. However, the vast majority of what we call "sovereign entities" (again see the first article for a clarification of that) do have a territory, even if a small one as the Holy See and the Order of Malta do. If we are talking of territory, then implicitly we are doing so also of borders. What is the situation of Israel's borders?
These were basically established by the British Mandate of 1922 and were based on the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916; which divided the Ottoman Empire territories in the Middle East between the UK and France. However, things did change since then. The borders with Egypt and Jordan have been formalized in the peace agreements with these countries in 1979 and 1994 respectively. They gave up the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, creating so an undefined border between Israel and Palestine (the last being represented by the Palestinian Authority).
The border with Lebanon was based on the 1949 Armistice Agreement, though Israel had several times ignited tensions along an area known as Shabaa Farms on the former border between Lebanon and Syria. In year 2000, the UN defined what is known the Blue Line as the IDF retreat border – this is different from the Green Line, the 1949 Armistice Agreement line. In this respect, there is some ambiguity also along this border.
The borders with Syria are not settled, Israel still occupies the Golan Heights. It even annexed them unilaterally in 1981.
No Israeli decision defines its own borders. Israel has no Constitution, so the borders cannot be defined there. There is no other formal government or general referendum decision concerning the country's borders. That is exceptional and must have some repercusions on other areas of life.
Unluckily, it didn't demand an Herculean effort from my side to find the result of that.
On First and Second Class Citizens
In the second article of theis series, I commented about "Who is a Jew?," an important issue in a country giving automatic and immediate citizenship to any Jew arriving at it. However, what does the last argument mean? How can you arrive at an entity with no recognized or defined borders?
"Who is a Jew?" is a key issue in modern Israel. However, no less important is asking: "Who is a citizen?" I was tempted here to elaborate on the topics presented on the first articles of the series, but going into legalistic terms would make the point less clear than giving a few examples of the sins committed on a daily base by the State of Israel toward many people, some of them recognized by the state as citizens and some not.
"Who is a citizen?" has no clear answer in Israel.
Only citizens within the State of Israel are allowed to vote for the parliament. But the state has no defined borders, so what is a legal vote? Woops, let's not talk about that openly on the Israeli media.
A settler living in the West Bank is even by the State of Israel definition outside the state borders. Yet, he is allowed to vote and gets social benefits; at the same time, another Israeli citizen living in Egypt or Greece or the US does not have these benefits. A mystery.
A Palestinian Arab with Israeli citizenship living in Jaffa cannot marry a Palestinian Arab from Jenin in the West Bank. Marriage is a very basic human right, though not in the eyes of the Israeli Supreme Court. A geographical mystery.
A Jew that converted to Christianity and marries a Christian woman in a church wouldn't get his marriage recognize. His bastard sons would not enjoy the social benefits normal children in the country enjoy. Unless he marries outside Israel and returns with the happy bride. Another mystery, though I admit the judges are smarter than lesser humans. No normal human can even follow the logic of such a decision.
The truth is that I have no wish to solve these mysteries. Israel must adopt international standards of law and a constitution as it promised the UN in exchange for the recognition of its sovereignty. Otherwise, having broken the UN resolution and having failed to sign a social contract with its citizens, IT HAS NO RIGHT TO EXIST AS A SOVEREIGN COUNTRY.
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment