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<div class="label"><font size="-2"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.humanrightsvoices.org/site/developments/?d=20263">http://www.humanrightsvoices.org/site/developments/?d=20263</a></font><br>
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<div class="text"> November 28, 2018 </div>
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<div class="text"> <span class="title"> Statement by Marc Lamont
Hill, "Invited Representative of Civil Society," Special
Meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People on the "U.N. International
Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People"</span>, <em>UN
Web TV<br>
<br>
(Starts at 1:36:08)<br>
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<div class="label">Original Source</div>
<div class="text"> <a
href="http://webtv.un.org/watch/special-meeting-of-the-committee-on-the-exercise-of-the-inalienable-rights-of-the-palestinian-people-in-observance-of-the-international-day-of-solidarity-with-the-palestinian-people/5972788893001/"
target="_BLANK">http://webtv.un.org/watch/special-meeting-of-the-committee-on-the-exercise-of-the-inalienable-rights-of-the-palestinian-people-in-observance-of-the-international-day-of-solidarity-with-the-palestinian-people/5972788893001/</a>
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_______________________________________________________<br>
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<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Unofficial Transcript by
Human Rights Voices<br>
<br>
November 28, 2018 Statement by Marc Lamont Hill, “Invited
Representative of Civil Society”<br>
Special Meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the
Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in observance of the
“U.N. International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People”<br>
U.N. Headquarters<br>
<br>
New York, New York<br>
<font size="+1"><b><br>
</b><b>“Free Palestine from the river to the sea”</b></font><br>
<br>
MARC LAMONT HILL: Mr. Secretary-General, Chairman, Ambassadors,
and Your Excellencies, good afternoon.<br>
<br>
It is with great honor and humility that I accept the opportunity
to speak before you. As a scholar, as an activist, and as a
citizen, I am profoundly interested in the plight of the
Palestinian people as well as the broader ethical, moral, and
political implications of their struggle for freedom and justice
as well as equality. As such, this annual convening represents a
critical intervention. It also represents a site of possibility.
On the other hand, it shows considerable irony.<br>
<br>
As you well know, this year marks the 70th anniversary of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration is
produced out of the rubble and contradictions of World War II. And
it was intended to offer a clear ethical and moral outline of the
basic rights and freedoms to which all human beings, irrespective
of race, religion, class, gender or geography are entitled. This
declaration, of course, has been far from perfect, both in design
and in execution. Too often we have framed human rights through
the lens of the West. We viewed it through the gaze of
colonialism, and we have assessed them through the limited prism
of our experiences. Simply put, the powerful have too often
attempted to universalize their own particular and local values.<br>
<br>
Still the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has offered us a
flawed but functional starting point from which to articulate
basic moral and ethical ambitions as global citizens. These
ambitions have been particularly helpful when attempting to keep
track of the vulnerable against the backdrop of imperialism,
exploitative economic arrangements, white supremacy, patriarchy,
and all the other entanglements of the modern nation state.<br>
<br>
For this reason it is indeed ironic and sad that this year also
makes the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, the great catastrophe in
May 1948 that resulted in the expulsion, murder, and to date,
permanent dislocation of more than a million Palestinians. For
every minute that the global has articulated a clear and lucid
framework for human rights, the Palestinian people have been
deprived of the most fundamental of them.<br>
<br>
While the Universal Declaration for Human Rights says that all
people are “born free and equal in dignity and rights,” the
Israeli nation state continues to restrict freedom and undermine
equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel as well as those in
the West Bank and Gaza. At the current moment, there are more than
60 Israeli laws that deny Palestinians access to full citizenship
rights, simply because they’re not Jewish. From housing to
education to family reunification, it is clear that any freedoms
naturally endowed to all human beings are actively being stripped
away from Palestinians through Israeli state craft.<br>
<br>
While human rights promises the right to life, liberty, and
security of person, Palestinians continue to live under the threat
of random violence by Israeli military and police,
disproportionate violence within the West Bank and Gaza,
unprompted violence in the face of peaceful protest, and
misdirected violence by an Israeli state that systematically fails
to distinguish between civilians and combatants.<br>
<br>
While the Universal Declaration for Human Rights protects us again
torture and cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment, Palestinians continue to be physically and
psychologically tortured by the Israeli criminal justice system, a
term I can only use with irony.<br>
As human rights groups around the world have noted, the use of
solitary confinement constitutes a clear and indisputable form of
torture. Yet in the West Bank Palestinians are routinely subjected
to solitary confinement and indefinite detention, often without
any formal charges being file. Last year, the Israeli Supreme
Court ruled that physical torture in “exceptional cases,”
including ticking time-bomb situations, constitute acceptable
means by which to engage in torture. Although these exceptions are
themselves a violation of the absolute human right not to be
tortured, Israeli security operates in practice in such a way that
nearing all Palestinian cases are viewed as exceptional. Nearly
every Palestinian is understood to be a potential terrorist,
thereby making them susceptible to “ticking time-bomb”
investigation tactics at all times. As such, Israel’s practices
are routinely in clear violation of the UN’s Convention on
Torture, which was signed by Israel in 1986 and ratified in 1991.<br>
<br>
While the Universal Declaration for Human Rights insists that no
one be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile,
Palestinians are routinely denied due process of law. West Bank
Palestinians are regularly placed under administration detention,
a framework that allows them to be incarcerated for up to six
months, and can be extended after a judicial review, without being
charged with a crime. The only thing needed for such outcomes is
the ambiguous claim of a security threat, a claim used by the
Israeli state at all times, at all costs, and for all reasons.
Through this vagueness, Palestinians are routinely punished for
their political views rather than any actual threat of violence.<br>
<br>
The Universal Declaration for Human Rights insists that all humans
are entitled to a “fair and public hearing by an impartial
tribunal.” Israeli military courts, the exclusive adjudicator
largely for West Bank residents, and in some cases Palestinian
citizens of Israel, they have a conviction rate of more than 99
percent. That suggests that Palestinians are either more guilty
than any other group in human history or that the Israeli
government is unwilling or incapable of offering fair and
impartial trials for Palestinians.<br>
<br>
The Universal Declaration for Human Rights promises the right to
freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state
as well as the right to leave any country, including his “own” and
to return to said country. It is impossible to travel throughout
historic Palestine and not see the blatant restriction of movement
between cities in the occupied Palestinian territories as well as
inside the State of Israel. Standing checkpoints, temporary or
flying checkpoints, annexation walls, and other security barriers
prevent Palestinians from moving freely, both within areas legally
designated by the Israeli government and cosigned by the
Palestinian Authority under the terms of Oslo, but also we see in
Gaza the restriction of movement that is so severe that it
literally defines life in the area.<br>
<br>
I promise you that I will not exhaust all of my time by
enumerating every human rights violation perpetrated by the
Israeli government. These are well known and have been well
documented by every credible human rights organization in the
world.<br>
<br>
Rather, I would like to speak to you about the urgency of the
current moment.<br>
Forgive my thirst. I literally just off of a flight from Palestine
to come to address you this morning and I was boycotting the
Israeli water so I was unable to quench my thirst, but thank you
for your indulgence. Or for indulging me rather.<br>
<br>
As we speak, the conditions on the ground for Palestinian people
are worsening. In recent decades, the Israeli government has moved
further and further to the right, normalizing settler colonialism
and its accompanying logics of denial, destruction, displacement,
and death.<br>
Despite international condemnation, settlement expansion has
continued. At the same time, home demolitions and state-enforced
displacement continues to uproot Palestinian communities. For
Gazans, the 11-year Israeli and Egyptian blockade by land, air,
and sea has created the largest open-air prison in the world. With
only four percent potable water, electricity access that is
limited to four hours per day, 50 percent unemployment, and the
looming threat of Israeli bombs, Gaza continues to constitute one
of the most pressing humanitarians crises of the current moment.<br>
<br>
In the West Bank, conditions are not much better. Unemployment is
generally around 18 percent with frequent loss of income due to
Israeli military closures making it impossible for Palestinian
workers to get access to jobs. Settlements and the extra land
allocated for them, as well as closed military zones and other
restrictions make it impossible for Palestinian towns to grow. And
in the midst of it all, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s administration
has become increasingly indifferent to critique, censure, or even
scorn from the international national community for its practices.<br>
<br>
Perhaps the most glaring example of this indifference, as well as
the urgency of the current moment, is the recently passed
nation-state law. Through this basic law, the Israeli state has
officially rejected Arabic as an official state language. It has
described settlement expansion, both inside and outside of the
Green Line, as a national value, and it has reinforced the fact
that Israeli is not a state of all of its citizens.<br>
<br>
As an American, I am embarrassed that my tax dollars contribute to
this reality. I am frustrated that no American president since the
start of the occupation has taken a principled and actionable
position in defense of Palestinian rights. And I am saddened,
through not surprised, that President Trump’s administration has
further emboldened Israeli’s behavior through its recent actions.<br>
<br>
In May of this year, President Trump officially moved the US
Embassy to Jerusalem, which he recognized as the undivided capital
of Israel. This choice not only flew in the face of international
law and precedent, but also constituted a powerful provocation and
a diplomatic death blow. In late August, President Trump then
permanently reneged on America’s commitment to funding UNRWA, a
move that now leaves millions of Palestinian refugees in medical,
economic, and educational peril. Moreover, the move serves as a
political strong-arm tactic whereby the United States is
unilaterally attempting to resolve, through the Trump
administration, the final status of Palestinian refugees.<br>
<br>
While President Trump’s policies have been the most dramatic, it
is important that I stress to you, to reiterate to you that they
are wildly out of step with American policy. Cuts to UNRWA is an
idea that has been raised in Washington for years, dating back at
least to the George W. Bush administration.<br>
<br>
President Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy in Israel from
Tel Aviv to Jerusalem caused enormous controversy, but he was
merely implementing a bipartisan law Congress passed in 1995. And
in so doing he executed what has already been official United<br>
States policy and the fulfillment of a promise made by every
United States president and presidential candidate, Democrat and
Republican, for a very long time.<br>
<br>
With regard to the question of Palestine, Donald Trump is not an
exception to American policy. Rather, Donald Trump is a more
transparent and aggressive iteration of it.<br>
As I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks, the words offered
today by everyone in this room are a necessary component of our
resistance efforts. We need powerful, counterintuitive, dangerous,
and courageous words. But we must also offer more than just words.
Words will not stop the village of Khan al-Ahmar with its
makeshift schools created by local Bedouin villages. Words will
not stop them from being demolished in violation of the Fourth
Geneva Conventions. Words will not stop poets like Dareen Tatour
from being caged in Israeli jails for having the audacity to speak
the truth about the conditions of struggle on her own personal
Facebook page. Words will not stop peaceful protesters in Gaza
from being killed as they fight for freedom against Israel’s still
undeclared borders.<br>
<br>
Regarding the question of Palestine, beyond words we must ask the
question, what does justice require? To truly engage in acts of
solidarity, we must make our words flesh. Our solidarity must be
more than a noun. Our solidarity must become a verb.<br>
<br>
As a Black American, my understanding of action and solidarity
action is rooted in our own tradition of struggle. As Black
Americans resisted slavery, as well as Jim Crow laws that
transformed us from a slave state to an apartheid state, we did so
through multiple tactics and strategies. It is this array of
tactics that I appeal to as I advocate for concrete action from
all of us in this room.<br>
<br>
Solidarity from the international community demands that we
embrace boycotts, divestment, and sanctions as a critical means by
which to hold Israel accountable for its treatment of Palestinian
people. This movement, which emerges out of the overwhelming
majority of Palestinian civil society offers a nonviolent means by
which to demand a return to the pre ’67 borders, full rights for
Palestinian citizens, and the right of return as dictated by
international law.<br>
<br>
Solidarity demands that we no longer allow politicians or
political parties to remain silent on the question of Palestine.
We can no longer in particular allow the political left to remain
radical or even progressive on every issue from the environment to
war to the economy. To remain progressive on every issue except
for Palestine. Contrary to Western mythology, Black resistance to
American apartheid did not come purely through Gandhi and
nonviolence.<br>
<br>
Rather, slave revolts and self-defense and tactics otherwise
divergent from Dr. King or Mahatma Gandhi were equally important
to preserving safety and attaining freedom. We must allow—if we
are to operate in true solidarity with Palestinian people, we must
allow the Palestinian people the same range of opportunity and
political possibility. If we are standing in solidarity with the
Palestinian people, we must recognize the right of an occupied
people to defend itself. We must prioritize peace. But we must not
romanticize or fetishize it. We must advocate and promote
nonviolence at every opportunity, but we cannot endorse a narrow
politics of respectability that shames Palestinians for resisting,
for refusing to do nothing in the fact of state violence and
ethnic cleansing.<br>
<br>
At the current moment, there is little reason for optimism.
Optimism, of course, is the belief that good will inevitably
prevail over evil, that justice will inevitably win out. In the
course of human history, and certainly even in the course of the
United Nations, there is no evidence of such a proposition.
Optimism is unsophisticated. Optimism is immature. Optimism is
what my<br>
students have when they take examinations that they did not study
for. Some become quite religious at that time.<br>
<br>
But regardless of their strategies of optimism, the outcome is far
from guaranteed or even likely. What I’m challenging us to do in
the spirit of solidarity is not to embrace optimism but to embrace
radical hope. Radical hope is a belief that despite the odds,
despite the considerable measures against justice and peace,
despite the legacy of hatred and imperialism and white supremacy
and patriarchy and homophobia, despite these systems of power that
have normalized settler colonialism, despite these structures, we
can still win. We can still prevail.<br>
<br>
One motivation for my hope in the liberation and ultimate
self-determination of the Palestinian people comes in August of
2014. Black Americans were in Ferguson, Missouri in the Midwest of
the United States protesting the death of a young man named
Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American male who had been
killed by a law enforcement agent. And as we protested, I saw two
things that provided hope for the Palestinian struggle. One was
that for the first time in my entire life of activism I saw a sea
of Palestinian people. I saw a sea or Palestinian flags in the
crowd saying that we must form a solidarity project. We must
struggle together in order to resist because state violence in the
United States and state violence in Brazil and state violence is
Syria and state violence in Egypt and state violence in South
Africa, and state violence in Palestine are all of the same sort.
And we finally understood that we must work together and not turn
on each other, but instead turn to each other.<br>
<br>
And later that night when the police began to tear gas us, Mariam
Barghouti tweeted us from Ramallah. She, along with other
Palestinian youth activists, told us that they tear gas that we
were experiencing was only temporary. They gave us tips for how to
wash our eyes out. They told us how to make gas masks out of
t-shirts. They gave us permission to think and dream beyond our
local conditions by giving us a transnational or a global
solidarity project.<br>
<br>
And from those tweets and social media messages, we began then to
organize together. We brought a delegation of black activists to
Palestine, and we saw the connections between the police in New
York City, who are being trained by Israeli soldiers, and the type
of policing we were experiencing in New York City. We began to see
relationships of resistance, and we began to build and struggle
and organize together. That spirit of solidarity, a solidarity
that is bound up not just in ideology but in action, is the way
out.<br>
<br>
So as we stand here on the 70th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the tragic commemoration of the
Nakba, we have an opportunity to not just offer solidarity in
words but to commit to political action, grassroots action, local
action, and international action that will give us what justice
requires. And that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea.<br>
<br>
Thank you for your time.<br>
(Applause)</font><br>
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