<nettime> Why are we appealing to the Supreme Court

[Sergio Yahni <sergio@alt-info.org> (by way of Eric Kluitenberg)]

Why are we appealing to the Supreme Court
A statement by the Alternative Information Center


Ethnic cleansing is a reality on the eve of the second millennium. The
tragic events currently taking place in Kosovo are testament to this
unacceptable fact which has been practiced in various forms throughout
history by way of massacre (such as in Turkish Armenia, Deir Yassin and
Kosovo), and by administrative means, as in Jerusalem. Every expulsion of
a Palestinian from Jerusalem has been based on the law and due procedures
of the Israeli Judicial system. Accordingly it has been ratified time
after time by the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice. This is nothing less
than a policy of ethnic cleansing, and as such, is blatantly illegal and
must be considered a crime against humanity. 

Next week, the Supreme Court of Justice will have to decide the future of
several Palestinian families threatened to be definitively expelled from
their home city of Jerusalem. At this hearing, together with other Human
Rights Organizations, the Alternative Information Center is challenging
the massive policy of expulsion of Palestinians residents of Jerusalem. 

Our objective is not to ask the Supreme Court whether this policy is legal
or not, but to obtain the recognition of the unconditional right of the
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem to live in their own city. 

Any other decision must be considered a crime against humanity that the
judicial system is complicitous with. Neither the Knesset, nor the Supreme
Court has the power to legalize a crime against humanity. The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights is our law, and our conscience is our justice,
and both define the administrative ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem a crime.
Despite all the bad precedents, it is our sincere hope that the Supreme
Court of Justice will be guided by the same principles of law and justice. 

13/4/99


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