PALESTINIAN MANIPULATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY Ambassador Alan Baker (ed.) Palestinian Manipulation of the International Community Edited by Amb. Alan Baker ISBN: 978-965-218-117-6 © 2014 Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs 13 Tel Hai Street, Jerusalem, Israel Tel. 972-2-561-9281 Fax. 972-2-561-9112 Contents Overview: Palestinian Manipulation of the International Community Amb. Alan Baker................................................................................................. 5 Manipulating International Law as Part of Anti-Israel “Lawfare” Prof. Robbie Sabel...............................................................................................13 Universal Jurisdiction: Learning the Costs of Political Manipulation the Hard Way Dr. Rephael Ben-Ari...........................................................................................23 The Demonization of Israel at the United Nations in Europe Mr. Hillel Neuer.................................................................................................47 The Role of NGOs in the Palestinian Political War Against Israel Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg...................................................................................65 Politicizing the International Criminal Court Prof. Eugene Kontorovich....................................................................................79 Degrading International Institutions: The United Nations Goldstone Report Amb. Dore Gold .................................................................................................91 The Abuse of Islam as Part of the Demonization of Israel Ms. Sinem Tezyapar............................................................................................99 Palestinian Christian Abuse of Christian Organizations in the West Dr. Dexter Van Zile...........................................................................................127 UNRWA: Blurring the Lines between Humanitarianism and Politics Dr. Rephael Ben-Ari..........................................................................................137 Manufacturing and Exploiting Compassion: Abuse of the Media by Palestinian Propaganda Mr. Philippe Assoulin, Esq..................................................................................157 Overview: Palestinian Manipulation of the International Community Amb. Alan Baker Background of the Israeli-Palestinian Dispute The lengthy and continuing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has evolved, over the years, through various phases or cycles of terror on the one hand, and attempts at peace-making on the other. These cycles have ranged from sporadic, individual, and organized acts of violence, terror, and armed conflict by the various Palestinian terror organizations, individually or collectively. They have included organized, centrally orchestrated, and systematic military action by shelling of Israeli towns and villages by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist organizations based in, and emanating from, the Gaza Strip. Similarly, these cycles have often evolved into periods of outright low and medium-intensity armed conflict, with reaction by Israel to the Palestinian terror attacks, in defense of its towns, villages, and civilian population. On the other hand, there have also been phases and cycles that have included periodic attempts, at the behest of, and with the active involvement of, the international community, to seek a solution to the conflict through negotiations and attempts at reconciliation and bon-voisinage between the two sides and the two peoples. The backdrop to all these cycles includes a panoply of issues ranging from conflicting historic and legal claims to the territory, uncompromising religious fanaticism to the exclusion of any possibility of reconciliation and coexistence, mutual and conflicting claims to self-determination and sovereign rights, issues of physical control and authority, and external influence and pressures from regional and international players generated by partisan political and economic interests. 5 The International Community To this backdrop there must be added another major and increasingly influential factor in the complex equation: the international community, its institutions, and its basic perceptions. Clearly, all the abovementioned issues relate to an area that has, since time immemorial, captured the imagination, the emotions, and the interests of almost the entire world, with the home of the three monotheistic religions. As such, this area is considered to be an arena in which citizens of the world, and virtually all members of the international community, consider that they have an intimate interest and concern. This deep and complex involvement by the international community and its penchant for active intervention and for advancing its own political and economic interests, serves to render it wide open to manipulation, with the aim of utilizing its power, influence, the weight of its public opinion, its economic clout, and its strategic interests, in order to tip the negotiating scales and thereby influence the outcome of the issues in dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. As such, the various bodies and organizations within the international community find themselves ripe for manipulation by the Palestinian propaganda machinery. International organizations, whether inter-governmental, non-governmental or social-society bodies, are theoretically and logically expected to function according to, and within the framework of, their professional mandates or constitutional instruments. The term “specialized agencies” is indicative of the fact that each such “specialized agency” within the UN system has its specific field of expertise.1 However, as is evident from many of the politically generated resolutions adopted by such organizations within and outside the UN system (such as UNESCO, World Heritage Organization, ILO, ICAO, and for many years, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement), these organizations are being abused and manipulated into adopting political resolutions that bear little or no relevance to their specialized professional fields of concern. This is the result of the weight of political pressures applied by their constituent-state members and observers, political NGOs, and through the UN voting system of block, regional voting. Such activity is rarely out of genuine concern or regard for the substantive legal rights at issue, or as part of the professional purpose or mandate upon which the organizations exist and function, nor are they out of a regard for genuine norms of justice. In so permitting themselves to be politically manipulated and abused, such international organizations in fact lose the professional credibility, relevance, and the very purpose for which they were established. The Peace Negotiating Process In any genuine and sincere peace negotiation process, the basic assumption would be that both negotiasting parties entertain an earnest, serious, and bona fide intention and desire to reach agreement and to establish a solid, sustainable, 6 and peaceful relationship between them on all levels, including governmental, economic, social, and people-to-people, with a view to achieving normal, peaceful relations and viable bon-voisinage. However, the ongoing, intense, and concerted actions by the Palestinian leadership, media, clergy, academia, and others to manipulate virtually every international institution and organization in order to delegitimize Israel, to enhance commercial and cultural boycotts and sanctions, and to incite the public and younger generations to hate Israel and Jews, cannot, in any circumstances be deemed compatible with peace negotiations. Those who seek to sow hatred of Israel and Jews through distortion of the precepts of Islam, through incitement of Christian communities in the West to deny the very historic foundations of Judaism, to take hostage the UN, international courts, and other international organs, in order to vilify Israel, to abuse foreign states’ criminal justice systems in order to target Israeli leaders, to cynically use children and forms of trickery in order to manipulate media sympathy, to distort norms and terms of international law in order to single out Israel – those who engage in such activities are not genuinely intent on seeking peaceful relations. They come with unclean hands. The international community in general, and especially those leaders who are so actively involved in pressing for a solution to the Israel-Palestinian dispute and actively participating in the peace process, must take note of this situation, rather than delude themselves into thinking that there exists a genuine will among the Palestinians to make peace with Israel. The Chapters of This Book The aim of this book is to expose the extent and the lengths to which the Palestinian leadership and institutions have manipulated, and continue to actively manipulate, the institutions and the very perceptions of the international community with the aim of influencing them and their actions by forcing a very selective, partisan, misleading, and patently false narrative. In presenting such an extensive picture of Palestinian manipulation in all spheres of international community life – political, economic, social, legal, and religious – this book is intended to serve as a vital tool for all those involved in attempting to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, in the hope that they will face such manipulation head-on, in