Ramallah: Human Rights and Democracy Media Center- SHAMS, reported that the process of sweeping land and destroying the buildings and the agricultural land on the border area inside the Gaza Strip, to establish the so-called buffer zone, is a profound violation of international law. In particular, the Israeli practices violate the Geneva Fourth Convention (dated 12/8/1948). Article 49 of the Convention stipulates: “Deportations, transfers, evacuations Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive”. Additionally, the Israeli occupation is violating Article 8 of the Rome Statute- 1998, which serves as the base for establishing the international criminal court. The given Article states: “The transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory”, are acts of war crimes.
The Center denounces the destruction of the houses and buildings by the Israeli occupation for the sake of establishing the mentioned buffer zone. In this regard, there are approximately 2500 houses in the area where 1300 were already destroyed and the Israeli army is proceeding in the process of demolishing the rest to clean the area. Such a practice legalizes the forcible displacing of Palestinians while the world is watching these crimes without raising a finger. Not only that but also some countries are supporting the occupation state with weapons and ammunition and providing political coverage for the occupation state in the United Nations Security Council.
SHAMS Center added that the annexation policy is a major pillar within the Zionism Colonialism Project, which is based on uprooting Palestinians, forcible displacing, and annexation of their land while the work is watching all these crimes speechless. The Occupation State is violating international law and the international human rights law without fearing accountability. Such a policy has been applied by the various Israeli governments since the establishment of the Occupation State in the year 1948. In the years that followed, the Israeli occupation state declared annexation of East Jerusalem and Golan Heights. Thousands of Hectares of land in the West Bank (in the areas classified as C) were confiscated for purposes like natural reserves and military training fields. Currently, the Israeli Occupation is proceeding with the policy of annexation by declaring and establishing a buffer zone in the Gaza Strip to legalize confiscating Palestinians’ Land. The Israeli government is making use of the fact that the world is busy following up on the developments of the aggression on the Gaza Strip, to proceed in its tendency of confiscating the land.
The Center warned against the fact that establishing a buffer zone, is an old Israeli plan that the various Israeli governments could not implement in the past. The Israeli plan is based on the so-called “security determinant” where the buffer zone, according to Israeli ideology, is considered “strategic depth”. The purpose of this strategy is to maintain the national security of the occupation state and defend against any external risks. The Israeli government failed to apply such a strategy in the year 2014 and the same theory (strategic depth) failed in the past in South Lebanon. The Center affirmed that the rejection of the Israeli willingness to establish the buffer zone should be shifted from media rejection to taking political measures to press on the Israeli government to cancel its plan.
SHAMS Center added that establishing the buffer zone is a new tool of the military and economic siege imposed on Palestinians and it crowns the policy of wielding starvation and collective punishment, imposed by the occupation against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The aim behind these policies is to displace Palestinians by shrinking the area of the Gaza Strip. Additionally, the area targeted to establish the mentioned buffer zone is considered the food basket of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as it produces the needed vegetables and fruits including strawberries. Additionally, most of the olive trees in the Gaza Strip grow in this area. Demolishing the mentioned area and establishing the buffer zone will lead to confiscating 60 kilometres length of the border area (20% of the Strip area). Palestinians will be denied access to urban expansion in the future to cope up with the rapid increase in the population.
SHAMS Center concluded its statement by demanding friend and brother countries, the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League, and the international non-governmental organizations and governmental entities, to exert pressure on the occupation state to stop implementing the plan of establishing the buffer zone. The Center affirmed that the intended buffer zone represents a new chapter of evacuating Palestinians and the ongoing Nakba. Likewise, it represents another form of siege, destruction, and collective punishment imposed on Palestinians as well as wielding starvation against the entire population of the Gaza Strip.