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Badil Statement on the Occasion of the Fifth Anniversary of the ICJ<br>
Ruling on Israel's Wall<br><br>
On the Occasion of the Fifth Anniversary of the ICJ Ruling on Israel's
Wall<br>
Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions Must Continue Until the Wall is<br>
Dismantled and Reparations Provided to its Victims<br><br>
9 July 2009, Badil Resource Center, Occupied Bethlehem - Today marks
the<br>
fifth anniversary of the International Court of Justice's (ICJ)
advisory<br>
opinion on the legality of the 724 km wall that Israel continues to<br>
construct across the West Bank. The ICJ's ruling was clear and<br>
unambiguous: the wall's construction is illegal; Israel must
terminate<br>
construction immediately, dismantle the sections already built and<br>
return confiscated properties; and Palestinians affected by the<br>
construction must be compensated. The court further stated that all<br>
states are under an obligation not to recognise the illegal
situation<br>
resulting from its construction or to render aid or assistance<br>
maintaining the situation created by such construction.<br><br>
The ICJ ruling should have been a victory for the forces demanding<br>
respect for and implementation of international law. Instead it has<br>
become a symbol of Israel's disrespect for international law and of
the<br>
international community's failure to hold Israel accountable to its<br>
crimes; despite the devastating consequences such impunity has upon
the<br>
lives of Palestinians who continue to be displaced from their
homeland.<br><br>
The wall has definitively created six ghettos throughout the
Occupied<br>
Palestinian Territories containing 98 enclaves with 312,810
Palestinians<br>
surrounded by barbed wire, walls and control towers. At least 14,364<br>
persons have been displaced in the 145 localities through which the
wall<br>
passes with some 90,000 Palestinians directly threatened by
displacement<br>
as the Wall's construction is completed.<br><br>
Without recourse to an adequate non-partisan mechanism to implement
the<br>
ICJ ruling, Palestinians are left with few options to defend their<br>
rights and to resist displacement. While weekly grassroots protests<br>
continue in villages like Bil'in, Ni'lin, and Ma'sara whose lands<br>
continue to be robbed, they have so far lacked the sufficient
leverage<br>
to resist Israel's sheer military might and the accompanying
impunity<br>
provided Israel by the international community.<br><br>
In this context, there is no substitute to advancing the broad,<br>
international civil society struggle to boycott, divest and sanction<br>
Israel as called for by Palestinian civil society since 2005. Such a<br>
campaign has the moral authority and power to counter balance the
forces<br>
supporting Israeli apartheid. Those who pay taxes to governments
that<br>
support Israel; those who handle Israeli products whether as vendors
or<br>
consumers; and those who engage in international academic, cultural
and<br>
sports fora that normalize Israel's regime of occupation,
colonialism<br>
and apartheid - all have within their hands the power to stop the<br>
machine that makes Israeli apartheid politically viable and
materially<br>
profitable.<br><br>
For more information visit:
<a href="http://www.badil.o/" eudora="autourl">http://www.badil.o<br><br>
<br>
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