Rabin, the Last Day Page #5

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to the bloody confrontation

we're in the midst of.

There are right-wing religious

political circles

that perceived Israel's victory in 1967

in theological terms

and saw it as the beginning

of the Redemption

and an opportunity to realize

the dream of the Greater Israel.

From these circles came

the Gush Emunim movement in 1974

led by Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook

whose primary goal was

to force the Labour administration

to build as many settlements

as possible all over Greater Israel

and I quote:

After the Likud came to power

in 1977,

Matitiyahu Drobles,

head of the Settlement Division

of the Zionist Federation,

prepared a comprehensive plan

on behalf of the government

to build settlements

throughout the West Bank,

mainly in eastern Samaria

next to Palestinian-populated areas.

Ariel Sharon,

then agriculture minister

and supervisor

of the Israel Land Administration,

contributed significantly

to the settlement effort.

Through Sharon's plan

dozens of settlements were built

in areas of high-density

Palestinian population

including the Hebron region

and the western strip of hills

adjacent to the Green Line.

To sum up,

in 1977 there were 31 settlements

with a population of 4,400 settlers.

In 1992 there are 120 settlements

with 100,500 settlers.

Interesting study.

And now to the point.

The establishment of settlements

in the West Bank

constitutes a violation

of two important international law treaties

which prohibit the establishment

of settlements.

This violation is the cause

of a long list of violations

of the Palestinians' human rights.

I'm referring to the Hague Convention

concerning the laws and customs

of ground war

and its bylaws from 1907

and the Fourth Geneva Convention

concerning civilian rights

in wartime from 1949.

Israel promised to uphold them.

In 1971

I served as attorney general,

and my position was then

and still is

that since Egypt

and Jordan's sovereignty

was never recognized

internationally,

these territories are not considered

occupied territories.

It's true

that Israel promised to uphold

the humanitarian directives

of the Fourth Geneva Convention,

but it never defined which directives

it intended to uphold.

But Article 49

of the Geneva Convention states

that the occupying power

will not expel,

nor transfer its civilian population

to the occupied territory.

The settlements also constitute

a violation of the Hague Convention

since they weren't built for the benefit

of the local Palestinian population

but for the benefit

of the Israeli population.

The government initiated, built

and funded most of the settlements

while creating a very generous system

of benefits and incentives

to encourage people to move to them.

Article 49 doesn't prohibit

the building of settlements.

The directives of the Geneva Convention

regarding the transference of populations

to occupied territory are not prohibitions.

The settlements weren't built

in order to expel the Arab populace.

Israel runs a complex bureaucratic

and legal system in the West Bank

whose purpose is to take over

hundreds of thousands of acres

of Palestinian land,

some of which is privately owned,

in order to build new settlements

or to expand the existing settlements.

Israel's main methods

are the seizure of land

for military purposes,

declaration or registration of land

as government property

and expropriation of land

for public use.

Between 1979 and 1992

over 228,000 acres

of West Bank land

were declared government property.

Remember, in 1992

the Rabin administration decided

to freeze construction

in the settlements.

As I mentioned,

Israel used these three means

to take over about half the area

of the West Bank.

At the same time, independently,

settlers are taking over

privately-owned Palestinian land,

destroying olive trees

and damaging Palestinian property,

houses and vehicles,

while the authorities almost always

avoid enforcing the law

and returning the land

to its rightful owners.

According to Chief Justice Aharon Barak,

the Hague Convention revolves

around two main axes.

One, ensuring the legitimate rights

to security

of the side which takes over land

through combat...

and two, securing the interests

of the civilian population

in the given territory.

The military commander

may not place the national,

military, economic or social interests

of his own country

before the interests

of the local populace,

and this is how the army

conducts itself.

Gentlemen,

let's get back to our subject

which is the assassination

of Prime Minister Rabin.

I don't understand the connection

between your questions

regarding the Geneva Convention

and government policy in the territories

and the Rabin assassination.

That's exactly my point.

That's our investigative committee's

lacuna.

It doesn't address

the religious school of thought

that legitimized

the violation of human rights

and theft of Palestinian land

which led directly to hooliganism.

In the final analysis, Yigal Amir's gun

was only the murder weapon.

Behind it is a series of laws,

the humiliation and trampling

of the Palestinian populace

and moonstruck rabbis

with weird religious edicts

who no one

in this grand legal system

saw fit to bring to trial.

Your arguments

are interesting intellectually

but it is not within this commission's

authority to address them.

Our job is to examine the operative acts

of negligence in the Rabin case,

not their political background.

Not of the rabbis,

not of the circle of settlers you describe

and not of the parliamentary right wing.

Thank you, gentlemen.

We'll meet again

tomorrow morning at 9:00.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

City dwellers and country dwellers,

supporters of Likud and Tsomet

and the NRP and Moledet...

but also supporters

of the Labour Party

and those who voted

for Yitzhak Rabin,

we are here to say on behalf

of an even bigger public

which is watching us now,

we're here to say three things -

Death to Rabin! Death to Rabin!

We are here to protect Jerusalem,

to protect the Galilee,

to protect the Negev.

The people of Israel,

this ancient, strong nation,

is awakening from the illusions

it was sold,

shaking off the great swindle

it was led into.

Even now

the vast majority supports us.

With an additional effort

by all of us,

in the next elections we will,

God willing,

see an incontestable victory

by the National Bloc

because what we are fighting for

is true peace,

not a false peace.

We are fighting

for the expansion of Jewish settlement,

not reduction.

We are fighting

for Jewish immigration,

not the Palestinian right of return.

But this administration isn't only trying

to lead the public astray.

It's leading itself astray too.

We'll get rid of Rabin

with blood and fire!

We'll get rid of Rabin

with blood and fire!

Rabin traitor! Rabin traitor!

Our alternative has a name.

It's called Zionism.

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