Saoussen Ben Cheikh: Middle East Governments are using Covid-19 as a Pretext to Crush Human Rights // Palestinians to be “subjects,” not Citizens in Israeli Annexation
Globalvoices.org: In response to COVID-19, governments around the world have declared states of
emergency, allowing them to take exceptional measures to contain the pandemic.
Liberal democracies from the United States, Canada to European countries, Malaysia
and South Africa imposed emergency measures that restricted mobility under lockdowns. Likewise, in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), authorities declared states of emergency and imposed exceptional measures such as curfews and home confinement.
Palestinians to be “subjects,” not Citizens in Israeli Annexation
Liberal democracies from the United States, Canada to European countries, Malaysia
and South Africa imposed emergency measures that restricted mobility under lockdowns. Likewise, in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), authorities declared states of emergency and imposed exceptional measures such as curfews and home confinement.
In a region plagued by
decades of instability and conflict, authorities have long used exceptional and
temporary emergency orders to justify repression and curb human rights. Based
on this precedent, a number of governments are now using the coronavirus crisis
to further crackdown on human rights - particularly freedom of expression.
What is a state of
emergency? When faced with an
imminent threat such as disease or natural disaster, states can legally declare
a state of emergency that allows authorities to temporarily exercise
exceptional powers. This may include the suspension of basic human rights and
freedoms such as restriction of movement or banning public gatherings.
However, “governments
must inform the population of its exact substantive, territorial and temporal
scope and the related measures,” when activating these measures, according to
the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR)...
https://www.juancole.com/2020/05/middle-governments-pretext.htmlPalestinians to be “subjects,” not Citizens in Israeli Annexation
In an interview with
corrupt casino mogul Sheldon Adelson’s free newspaper, Israel ha-Yom, Israeli
prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the quiet parts out loud. Although he did not
use the word, he described an Apartheid regime in the Israeli-controlled
Palestinian West Bank. He openly referred to
the stateless Palestinians as “subjects.”
Netanyahu will annex
the Jordan Valley formally to Israel, where 60,000 Palestinians live and which
is one of the areas Israel had pledged to relinquish to the Palestine Authority
in the 1993 Oslo Accords. He will also annex the land on which Israeli
squatters established settlements in Palestinian territory. Israel ha-Yom asked,
“Q: Nevertheless, several thousand Palestinians live in the Jordan Valley. Does
that mean they will receive Israeli citizenship?”
Netanyahu replied: “No. They will remain
a Palestinian enclave. You’re not annexing Jericho. There’s a cluster or two.
You don’t need to apply sovereignty over them, they will remain Palestinian
subjects if you will. But security control also applies to these places.” How about if we won’t? I have long argued
that the crux of the Israeli conflict with the Palestinians is the denial to
Palestinians of citizenship
in a state. In calling the Palestinians “subjects,” Netanyahu is
acknowledging that they are not citizens. In Hannah Arendt’s phrase,
citizenship is the right to have rights. Palestinians have no citizenship in a
state. They do not have a right to have rights....
see also
Juan Cole
- Are Israelis and Zionists really talking about a Final Solution