HOW THE HUMAN RIGHTS INDUSTRY UNDERMINES PALESTINIAN LIBERATION [Excerpts] by Budour Hassan

The establishment of the Palestinian Authority following the signing of the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the PLO ushered structural transformations in Palestinian politics, society, and struggle...

It is in this context where the human right industry and the institutionalization of rights were born...

Another consequence of the imposition of this human rights discourse was the de-politicization of the Palestinian struggle and reframing it in the supposedly neutral language of rights.

In a discussion with the director of one of the many Palestinian human rights NGOs, he told me: “Our work is not concerned with politics; we only expose Israel’s crimes and human rights violations.”

Such a declaration will not only please the donors and mean that the foreign investment in the apolitical Palestinian human rights market will remain flowing; it reflects a genuine belief among most human rights organizations in Palestine that the conflict with Israel is not about politics but rather about rights. It is as if Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights is a humanitarian rather than political issue.

...This elitist approach is both patronizing and exclusionary and has, over the last 20 years, created a privileged minority of Palestinian advocates, elite activists and spokespersons of the cause who simply cannot look beyond international law and human rights. De-politicization is intrinsic to the liberal human rights discourse where the battles are fought on a legal turf and where the oppressor sets the rules... 

But what this insistence on such a liberal discourse achieved was the exclusion of disfranchised people from politics, the de-legitimization of armed forms of resistance, and prioritizing a legal agenda that promotes human rights as an industry but not in terms of content and genuine, lasting change...

With the very limited arsenal at their disposal including kitchen knives, rocks, and Molotov cocktails, Palestinian youth are trying to reclaim the agency that has been taken away from them partly by the Palestinian political and human rights elite.

The rebellious youth are calling for radical transformations; it is up to the human rights community in Palestine to decide whether they will listen and join or whether they will remain confined to their comfortable offices and liberal discourse.

FROM:

How the Human Rights Industry Undermines Palestinian Liberation

http://www.telesurtv.net/…/How-the-Human-Rights-Industry-Un