It was Clinton's Banana Republic at one time .
The University of Illinois should take a good look at some
of the professors that are hired there.I take that back it
is not unlike most Universities today that have become
schools of lower learning.
Radio Islam's interview with Dr. Francis Boyle
Francis Boyle is a Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois at Urbanna/Champagne, and a former legal advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations.
Sr. Itrath Syed of RadioIslam.com recently interviewed him about the legal perspective on the situation in Jerusalem which was triggered by an affront to Al-Aqsa mosque by Israeli war criminal Ariel Sharon. This is the transcription of the interview below. You can also hear this interview in audio format.
IS: Thank you very much Prof. Boyle for being here with us today on RadioIslam.
FB:Ê I am very happy to be here at this terrible time for the Muslim people all over the world.
Q:Ê Our first question is obviously the violence on the ground that is increasing - what do you think needs to happen immediately for the violence to stop?
FB:Ê It really requires the US government to tell the Israelis to stop the violence, bloodshed, provocation, killing and destruction.
Unfortunately, it looks like President Clinton is not going to do this.
IS: The Israeli government and the American government continue to call upon Yasser Arafat to end the uprising. Do you think that if he should decide to do this, it will be successful?
FB: Well, the Security Council Resolution adopted last Saturday by a vote of 14 to zero with one abstaining - that being the US government - in paragraph number one:Ê It clearly put the area of responsibility for the latest outbreak of violence on Ariel Sharon's visit to Haram Al-Sharif on September 28.
As you recall, Sharon was accompanied by almost 1,000 troops. So, it's very clear that the violence was provoked by Sharon and undoubtedly with the assent of Prime Minister Barak.
There is no way Sharon could have done this and been accompanied by close to 1,000 troops. He went in there deliberately to provoke the situation, to defile the Muslim holy sites, and he got exactly what he expected.
So, I think one has to start from the beginning, and the beginning here transpired with what Sharon did WITH the apparent approval of Prime Minister Barak.
At this point, whether President Arafat could do very much without Israel taking the first steps to de-escalate the situation, I doubt it very seriously. Remember it was Israel that started this and, therefore, they must be the first to de-escalate before President Arafat would have the capability to do the same.
Q:Ê The UN Security Council Resolution that you refer to also has been criticized for being anonymous, as it does not bring Israeli forces forward for the atrocities that have taken place.
FB: Obviously, it could have been stronger, and should have been stronger. The problem, as I understand it, and was confronted by Ambassador Nasser Al-Kamel from Palestine was that it was the strongest resolution that he could have gotten without a US veto.
Apparently in his assessment of the situation, it was better to achieve some resolution than no resolution.Ê Indeed, Ambassador. Al-Kamel has just called for another emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, and Richard Holbrooke, the US Ambassador, said that there will be none. They are not going to permit it. So in my opinion, Ambassador Al-Kamel got the strongest resolution that he could under the circumstances and his judgment was correct in my own assumption. It was better for him to attain this resolution than a veto. At least we have a legal framework from which we can deal with.
It is very important that paragraph number one in the UN Resolution deplore what Ariel Sharon did at Haram Al-Sharif, making it very clear that the violence started there with Sharon.
IS: In terms of the use of force that Israel is continuing to say is "restrained", and in particular with respect to the events surrounding military attacks on Ramallah yesterday, do you feel that the International War Crimes Tribunal can be invoked?
FB:Ê Well, the problem is that the World Court War Crimes Tribunal has not yet come into effect. It probably will not for awhile, and even when it does, it does not have a retroactive effect.
For this reason, I have recommended an international campaign to have the UN General Assembly set up an Ad Hoc Criminal Tribunal for Palestine that would be able to deal with the current war crimes being inflicted by Israel on the Palestinian people.
I would say that this is far more serious than war crimes, as you have crimes against humanity and genocide that have been inflicted historically on the Palestinian people.
So, I believe that there should be a tribunal, but that tribunal will have to be organized by the General Assembly, but I encourage all Muslim states to get together with a nonaligned movement, the Islamic Conference organization, and put in for a resolution for the UN General Assembly to establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Palestine - organized along the lines of the current International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
IS: My next question is in regards to UN Human Rights Commission. We hear that a special session is to be convened in the next week or so. Do you think that UN Commission will be effective?
FB:Ê Well, this is a fraud. That Commission should have convened last week and condemned what the Israelis are doing!
It is clear to me that they succumbed to pressure from the US government to postpone doing anything about it, and if you note they are not going to meet until sometime next week and then if they do, it will be for only three days. This is all a dodge in the step.
Likewise, (Egyptian) president. (Hosni) Mubarak's call for an emergency Arab League meeting on Oct. 21-22, this is a dodge in the step too
That Arab League meeting should have been held last week. It seems very clear to me that Mubarak once again succumbed to American pressure.
How many Palestinians are going to be murdered between now and the meeting of the Arab League?
Those statistics are going to be on Mubarak's head and on the other heads of Arab governments for refusing to meet immediately.
Likewise, how many Palestinians will be murdered between now and next week when the UN Human Rights Commission plans to meet?
One has to understand that the reason why these deadlines for these meetings being postponed is due to massive American pressure being applied behind the scenes to postpone any type of accountability by the Israeli government.
IS:Ê My next question is about the legal status of Jerusalem?
FB: Jerusalem is legally occupied territory.
This is precisely why the Embassy of United States and most governments that have diplomatic relations with Israel are located in Tel Aviv and not in Jerusalem. Just a few "banana republics" that have been bought and paid for by Israel have moved their embassies to Jerusalem.
Technically, no one has sovereignty over Jerusalem, it is occupied territory and subject to international laws of belligerence occupation.
In the last round of peace negotiations, the Palestinian delegation offered legitimate shared sovereignty over Jerusalem as the capital of both states - Israel and Palestine.Ê I believe that that was a visionary proposal by the Palestinian leadership.Ê It was rejected by Prime Minister Barak.
He returned with an offer that said Israel would "retain sovereignty" (he does not have any sovereignty to begin with which is the point) and in return Palestine would be given some type of quasi-automony, which is ridiculous.
The Palestinian delegation rejected that and said: "Fine, then we'll go back to Resolution #242 which requires you (Israel) to leave Eastern Jerusalem (Old City where Ariel Sharon has just defiled with his Haram Al-Sharif incident) and we will take East Jerusalem as our sovereign state capital and you (Israel) can have West Jerusalem as the sovereign capital of your state."
Of course, that was also rejected by Prime Minster Barak. It seems to me that if you look at the timeliness of events, that after Camp David broke up - as you know Barak was subject to severe criticism in Israel, even for making these limited compromises.Ê Therefore, he could not get Shimon Peres voted as president out of the KnessetÊ They were even going to have a vote of no confidence against him on Oct. 25.
It looked very likely that he was going to fall from power on Oct. 25.Ê It looks to me that he certainly worked out this provocation with Sharon figuring that it would promote violence and bloodshed, and thus enable the two of them to establish a national coalition government, which they are now negotiating as of this time. That would enable Barak to stay in power and avoid the no-confidence motion after Oct. 25.
Barak also understood full well that because of the American presidential elections, there is no way that Clinton would put any pressure on Israel whatsoever prior to the election in the first week of November, esp. with Mrs. Clinton running in New York - where she is heavily dependent on obtaining Jewish votes.
So Barak understood that he had a window of time to do something to keep himself in power, and that accounts for the fact that Sharon went to Haram Al-Sharif surrounded by 1,000 troops.
How could he have gotten the troops unless Barak had authorized it?Ê So we have to take into account the Israeli domestic/ political situation, as well as the American domestic/political situation.
IS: So what is next? What should Muslims and the Palestinian/Arab peoples here in American be advocating for?
FB:Ê Well, I think the allies of the Palestinian and Arab peoples, as well as Muslims, need to go out into the streets right and engage in protests and demonstrations, demanding that the United States government terminate the wholesale gratuitous killing of Muslims, Palestinians in their own homeland.
If you have large numbers of Muslims, Palestinians, and their supporters going out and protesting/ demonstrating everyday, Clinton might react. But in my opinion, that is the only effective remedy the Arab/Muslim and Palestinian people as well as their supporters have right now. I am very happy to be on your program today, and I am very sorry that the circumstances are so tragic. What more can I say?
soundvision.com |
