PLO Advisor Speaks About Law and Power
Interview with Diana Buttu
by Seth Sandronsky
Dissident Voice
December 16,
2002
Diana Buttu has
been a legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization for two years.
A Palestinian born and reared in Canada, she has a law degree from the
University of Toronto and is finishing her Ph.D. at Stanford University.
SS: What do you do as a legal advisor to the
PLO?
DB: In peace negotiations with Israel, I have been
working on the issue of Palestinian refugees and refugee compensation. Between 1948-1949, 74 percent of the
Palestinian population was forced from their homes. They haven’t been allowed to return because they aren’t
Jewish. These refugees left behind $20
billion in property (land, houses, bank accounts and businesses) in today’s
prices.
I work on the
Israeli government’s compensation of these Palestinians under international
law. But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon unilaterally ended the peace negotiations. They won’t begin until Palestinian terrorism and violence end, he
said.
SS: What is your impression of the PLO-Israel
negotiations?
DB: That of a child rape victim negotiating with
the rapist. In terms of the occupied
Palestinian lands, the Israeli negotiators say, “Well, we have to accommodate
the Israeli settlers and can’t forcibly remove them.” We respond that the Israeli government gave the Jewish settlers
incentives to move into these occupied territories. Now give them incentives to move out. Why do the Palestinians have to accommodate this illegal
occupation?
Israeli
negotiators add, “Sure, we’re illegally occupying Palestinians’ land. Try to move us out.” The U.S. government policy is to do nothing
to make the Jewish settlers leave. The U.S. government wants the Palestinians
to accept Israel being above international law, and the Palestinians being
beneath it.
International
law is being ignored. There is a power
imbalance between the Palestinians and Israel.
Nobody is there to balance this imbalance.
SS: Israel is violating which specific
international laws in its treatment of Palestinian refugees?
DB: The Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian
land since 1967 violate the Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute for the International
Criminal Court. And UN Security Council
Resolution 452 calls on Israel to cease building settlements on occupied
Palestinian land.
Approximately
400,000 Jewish settlers have moved into occupied Palestinian land since
1967. Between 1993 and 2000, half of
these Jewish settlers arrived.
SS: What’s the future hold for the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict?
DB: Israel has
been doing what it wants to do and will continue to do so. If the international community doesn’t stop Israel
from continuing to violate international law, it will slaughter the
Palestinians or place them in long-term prisons.
The
International Solidarity Movement of foreign nationals has been involved
protecting Palestinians. I also work
with the ISM.
Without an
enforcement mechanism, there will be no positive results for the Palestinians
even if international law is with us.
So I am also working to improve the public image of Palestinians. This
can help alter the balance of power by getting more people, not just the law,
on our side.
Seth Sandronsky is an editor with Because People Matter,
Sacramento's progressive newspaper. Email: ssandron@hotmail.com