Mitchell Plitnick on Human Rights and Mideast Progress

As your new administration steps into Washington, riding the wave of America’s desire for change, we've heard much speculation about how you will deal with Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians.

There are many options on the table. But whichever of them you choose, there is one essential component to any hope for progress, one that has too often been ignored in the quest for peace: an immediate and sustained improvement in the human rights situation on the ground.

Ensuring the protection of human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians will not solve the political problems, but it is the only way to make a political solution viable. We have seen in the past that a diplomatic process that ignores human rights violations on the ground is doomed to failure.

Thus America must prioritize easing the suffering of civilians in Gaza, lifting the restrictions in Hebron, and bringing some relief to civilians in Sderot.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza struggle under various Israeli policies that destroy their homes; expose them to daily harassment, humiliation, and violence; strangle their economy by severely curtailing their freedom of movement; hamper their access to farmland, family, water, and medical care; and maintain a separate system of law for them than for Israeli settlers. They are also victims of Palestinian forces that employ arbitrary detentions and torture in the factional fighting between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Meanwhile, residents of southern Israel have lived for years with one eye on the nearest bomb shelter, and all too often inside it, while residents of other areas live in fear of the next round of attacks. All of this suffering can be addressed and, at the outset, at least eased a bit by a real focus on human rights.

It is time for the United States to stop talking about being Israel’s good friend and start acting like it. That means not only supporting Israeli security, it means helping Israel comply with its commitments and its obligations to international law and to upholding human rights standards. It’s time for a new and more sincere kind of “pro-Israel” president, one who will not allow his friends to follow a path to moral self-destruction any more than he will allow them to face danger without his strong support. And one who recognizes that human rights are universal and equal.

But before the United States can wield that influence with regard to other peoples, it must restore its own standing with regard to human rights practices, a standing that has been dreadfully undermined in recent years.

Your promise that the United States will unequivocally refuse to employ torture will help. You can make this declaration really count by signing an executive order banning all torture by any U.S. government agency.

If the United States is to demand that Israeli and Palestinian authorities respect human rights and international law, it must lead by example. This means halting illegal detentions in Iraq and Afghanistan and closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

It is change that you promised, and placing respect for human rights standards at the forefront of American policy in the Middle East is a change that is long overdue. If there is to be hope in this troubled region, it starts with human rights, and that must include systems of law and accountability that guard those rights. If there is to be hope, this is precisely the sort of change you must bring.

Mitchell Plitnick is Director of United States Outreach for B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. He is based in Washington, DC, and can be reached at Mitchell@btselem.org.