Actualité - U.S. Tries to Criminalize Palestinian People and Government

Franc-Parler publie un article sur le rôle du gouvernement américain dans la tentative de génocide contre le peuple palestinien. Le gouvernement canadien joue un rôle tout aussi criminel et honteux dans sa tentative de créer la zizanie et de déstabiliser le gouvernement palestinien. Malgré tout, le peuple palestinien continue sa résistance héroïque devant le chantage et les menaces.

The House of Representatives passed Resolution 4681 (HR4681) on May 23, 2006 by a majority vote. The bill serves to criminalize the Palestinian people and organizations that assist and support them, especially those providing humanitarian aid. HR4681 is an effort to not only starve and punish the Palestinians, especially women and children, for exercising their right to vote. It is also an effort to criminalize the many humanitarian and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that support the Palestinians. The NGOs commonly fund orphanages, schools, hospitals, medicine, assistance for refugees, educational exchanges, and so forth.

The bill will essentially brand anyone supporting the Palestinians as supporters of terrorism and subject to having their resources frozen and leadership jailed. The justification being given by the government is that as a result of the Palestinian elections in January, where Hamas won a majority, the Palestine Authority, and all its ministries, is a terrorist organization and the occupied territories represent a “terrorist sanctuary.” As punishment for this election, the U.S. is striving to literally starve the Palestinians into submission.

HR4681 also attacks the voice and identity of Palestinians internationally by closing the Palestinian Authority diplomatic missions in the United States and refusing visas for Palestinian Authority officials. It does not permit the use of federal funds (including those of organizations that receive federal funds, such as many of the NGOs to establish any contacts with Hamas. It also withholds U.S. funds for the United Nations — already agreed to — on the basis that the UN has various bodies that give expression to the demands and needs of the Palestinian people. In this manner the U.S. is attempting to criminalize not only the Palestinian people and government, but NGOs and international bodies like the United Nations.

Attacks on the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and Gaza

On the basis of an arbitrary definition of terrorism, the bill states under Section 2 that it shall be the government’s policy “to oppose those organizations, individuals, and countries that support terrorism and violence” and goes on to “urge members of the international community to avoid contact with and refrain from financially supporting the terrorist organization Hamas or a Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority.” The U.S. has already taken action to stop assistance by banks worldwide, by using the blackmail that their U.S. assets will be frozen if they provide funds of any kind to Palestine.

Section 620K, under the same heading, “Limitation on Assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA),” establishes numerous guidelines pertaining to how and when “assistance” may be provided to the PA. It states in part, “assistance may be provided under this Act to the Palestinian Authority only during a period for which a certification described in subsection (b) is in effect.”

A certification is essentially an -authorization or determination made by the president. For example, “assistance” cannot be provided unless the president determines that, “no ministry, agency, or instrumentality of the Palestinian Authority is controlled by a foreign terrorist organization and no member of a foreign terrorist organization serves in a senior policy making position in a ministry, agency, or instrumentality of the -Palestinian -Authority.”

Certifications are made solely by the president although they will be “reviewed periodically” by various Congressional committees, including the Committee on International Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives; the Committee on Foreign Relations and Committee on -Appropriations of the Senate.

The same section stipulates that audits of “United States assistance to the Palestinian Authority under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961” will be undertaken by “the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development, and all other relevant departments and agencies of the Government of the United States.”

Section 620L, “Limitation on Assistance for the West Bank and Gaza,” stipulates that “assistance may be provided under this Act to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) for the West Bank and Gaza only during a period for which a certification” is in effect. This means that only the president can authorize such assistance and that the NGOs cannot provide it absent such authorization. Several other rules and guidelines establish circumstances under which “other types of assistance” may be provided, for example, for purposes of “national security” as determined by the president in consultation with the appropriate committees.

Under a subsection of 620L titled “Oversight and Related Requirements,” it states that prior to providing any “assistance” to nongovernmental organizations for the West Bank or Gaza, the secretary of state shall “ensure that such assistance is not provided to or through any individual or entity that the Secretary knows, or has reason to believe, advocates, plans, sponsors, engages in, or has engaged in, terrorist activity. The Secretary shall, as appropriate, establish procedures specifying the steps to be taken in carrying out this paragraph and shall terminate assistance to any individual or entity that the Secretary has determined advocates, plans, sponsors, or engages in terrorist activity.” Further, no “assistance” may be provided “for the purpose of recognizing or otherwise honoring individuals or the families of individuals who commit, or have committed, acts of terrorism.” This is directly aimed at the families engaged in resistance to the U.S.-backed Israeli occupation.

Under the subsection called “Audits,” the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is given responsibility for ensuring that “independent audits of all contractors and grantees, and significant subcontractors and subgrantees, that receive amounts for assistance to nongovernmental organizations for the West Bank or Gaza under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 are conducted to ensure, among other things, compliance with this subsection.”

Section 5 of the bill stipulates that during non-certified periods, which at present is all the time, “the territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority should be deemed to be in use as a sanctuary for terrorists or terrorist organizations.” This means that those organizations, like NGOs and religious groups, who attempt to provide aid apart from the Palestine Authority can be criminalized for providing material support to terrorists.

Given that the U.S. has branded Hamas, which now heads the Palestinian government as a “terrorist” organization, any aid that is associated with the Palestinian government will be considered “sponsoring terrorist activity.” It is also well known that Hamas has long been a main provider of local social services, such as healthcare, and that these too will be impacted.

In addition, trade will also be impacted as businesses will need special export licenses for most goods destined for the Occupied Palestinian Territories and more generally for conducting business there.

The overall impact of these requirements is that the NGOs, those who receive federal funds of any kind as well as those who do not, must submit to these demands or face being branded terrorists or supporters of terrorists and criminalized in this manner. The government is organizing to arbitrarily brand various NGOs as supporters of terrorism and seize their assets and/or shut them down, just as they did earlier with the various Muslim charities. The bill serves to directly harm the Palestinians as a people, imposing collective punishment, while also robbing the international movements in support of Palestine of funds and organized assistance.

Attack on Palestinian Organizations Within the United Nations

HR4681 also empowers the president to arbitrarily “withhold funding” from entities within the United Nations that defend the claims and demands of the Palestinian people. These include: The United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights; The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority; The NGO Network on the Question of Palestine; and the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories. All are being targeted, with the U.S. planning to withhold funds to the United Nations, something it is obligated to do and has already agreed to do. Instead of meeting its responsibility, the bill provides justification for using its financial resources to blackmail not only these organizations but also the UN itself and all the countries that participate in it.

Sections 6 and 7 severely restrict the movement of Palestinian officials to the United States and within the country. Section 8 prohibits Palestine Authority representation in the United States, meaning they will be blocked from participation at the UN, in international conferences organized in the U.S., as well as travel through the U.S. to other locations.

Blackmail of Banks Worldwide

Section 9 directs U.S. representatives at “international financial institutions” to “use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States to prohibit assistance to the Palestinian Authority unless a certification described in subsection (b) is in effect with respect to the Palestinian Authority.” Already tens of millions of dollars destined for the Palestinians have been prevented from reaching them, greatly exacerbating the extreme hardships faced by women, children and all Palestinians.

This section of the bill is an effort to make the U.S. blackmail “legal” and also require the implementation of the threats.

HR4681 is itself criminal and sanctioning crimes against humanity. It must be vigorously opposed. At this point, the Senate is considering its own bill on the matter. If the Senate passes a bill the two must then be reconciled through a Joint Committee and then passed by both Houses in a Joint Resolution. It would then go to the president. At present, it is unlikely that any bill will be acted on until after the summer recess, begriming May 27, 2006, is over.

(Voice of Revolution)