EU must pay heed to Russel Tribunal

THE West has a habit of pointing fingers generally at the East and the South over alleged human rights violations especially among many former communist as well as Third World nations. In the case of the US, there is a section within the State Department that comes out with an annual report card evaluating the human rights records of countries presumably from a high moral ground. Perhaps it should examine with an electron microscope what is happening in its own backyard.

The United States has long lost whatever moral standing it had, perhaps over half a century ago. Since then its numerous covert actions in destabilising left-leaning governments mainly in Latin America, including those democratically elected such as that of Salvador Allende of Chile and the subsequent blood-letting under General Pinochet, has tarnished its reputation. Even today destabilising regimes seems to be a key element of US foreign policy. The illegal war to remove Iraq's Saddam Hussein under the guise of removing the threat of weapons of mass destruction was also ultimately for the purpose of regime change.

The European Union which has somehow managed to maintain a more humane appearance in this respect has been found guilty of complicity in Israel's breaking of international law in the Palestinian occupied territories by the Russel Tribunal on Palestine (RTP) at the end of its court-like proceedings in Barcelona, Spain, from March 1-3. The Russel Tribunal was set up by the late British philosopher, mathematician and social critic Bertrand Russel to judge the Vietnam War from the perspective of international law (1966-67). There was also a Russel Tribunal II on Latin America (1974-76). The RTP is an international citizen-based court of conscience whose members include people who have held high political office including a former UN secretary-general and undersecretary-general, writers, journalists, scientists, lawyers and judges.

The RTP focused its attention on the European Union's complicity in Israel's breaking of international law in the Palestinian occupied territories ever since the July 1967 six-day war which began with Israel's pre-emptive strike on the Egypt that crippled its air force. There is no mention of the collusion of the United States in this violent persecution of a captive population perhaps because the US has been openly providing a protective umbrella for Israel with its veto power in the United Nations Supreme Council despite the numerous resolutions passed by the UN General Assembly condemning Israeli violations in the Palestinian occupied territories.

Unlike the US and EU, the RTP has a high moral ground and its proceedings are open and transparent and its findings based on credible testimony appear solid and irrefutable. There is no angle and the pursuit of truth is their objective.

The EU has been found guilty of complicity in Israel's domination and subjugation of the Palestinian people under apartheid-like conditions that prevent them from freely determining their political status and their right to self-determination. This is further exarcebated by the construction of the wall in the West Bank, also known as the Apartheid Wall, that separates occupied Palestinians from their orchards and farmland.

The EU has also been found guilty of keeping a blind eye to Israel's targeted killing of Palestinians they say are terrorists without first trying to arrest them. EU discrimination according to the RTP includes its de facto suspension of relations after Hamas was elected while it maintained them with a state that violates international law on a much greater scale. This is further aggravated by the EU's passive and active forms of support for Israel's breaking of international law especially the failure of the EU to complain during Israel's massive blood-letting in Gaza under Operation Cast Lead beginning December 2008. The EU must show remorse and correct its course of action if it wants to regain that elusive high moral ground.