OECD and Israel’s “tourist” colonization of Syria’s Golan
Charlotte Silver, The Electronic Intifada, 25 October 2010

Israeli tourists visit an abandoned army post from the 1967 war in the occupied Golan Heights. (Moti Milrod/MaanImages)

On 20 and 21 October, the 86th session of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) tourism committee was held in Jerusalem. Leading up to the conference, there was conjecture on how the member countries in attendance would handle Israel’s tourism policies regarding the occupied territories: the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights.

The Palestine Liberation Organization called on countries to boycott the meeting, saying that it served to condone Israel’s illegal annexation of Jerusalem. The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee also called on the OECD to relocate the conference.

After failing to be accepted into the OECD in 1994 and 2000, Israel became a member of the international organization in May 2010. Membership to the OECD is considered a mark of prestige, as it is restricted only to developed democracies, making it known as an “exclusive club.”

Israel’s ascension into the OECD has stirred debate over whether or not Israel’s policies regarding the territories it occupies prevent it from meeting the OECD’s allegedly high standards for membership. However, the OECD asserts it can see beyond Israel’s occupation policies and simply focus on the country’s economy.

In the Alternative Information Center’s publication “Israel and the OECD,” economist Shir Hever points out that this distinction is dubious because while internationally-accepted borders date to before the June 1967 War, Israel actually controls much more land. “Israeli statistics render it impossible to get an accurate view of the Israeli economy excluding the occupied territories, as the illegal settlements are included in every piece of data,” Hever writes.

While Israel collects data on Israeli citizens living in settlements built on occupied land, it ignores Palestinians living in those same territories. Hever writes that “By excluding almost four million Palestinian subjects of Israeli occupation from the statistics, Israel creates a distorted and unrealistic image of its economy. It masks the stark inequality in income and in standards of living; it masks the deep poverty of large segments of the population.”

Thus, the OECD has accepted an economic profile of Israel that is deceptive as it portrays the country as possessing a standard of economic welfare and equality that does not exist. “[Joining the OECD] was part of a strategy adopted by Israel in 1990 to use the Oslo process as leverage to become more integrated and positively viewed in the international community,” writes Hever.

Tourism

Earlier this month, Israel’s minister of tourism, Stas Misezhnikov, claimed that the OECD had recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by agreeing to hold the tourism conference there. Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the OECD, publicly corrected this assertion, and reproached Misezhnikov for making it, stating that the claims were “factually incorrect and quite unacceptable.”

Gurria’s comment revealed the crucial contradiction in the OECD’s association with Israel. It may have slapped Israel on the wrist for Misezhnikov’s bold claim, but meanwhile it is entering into a collaborative and supportive relationship that will no doubt serve to expand Israel’s tourism activities in occupied areas.

While the OECD may have been able to convince itself that it is possible to separate Israel’s tourism industry and economy from its occupation policies, Israel knows how crucial it is to do quite the opposite. Misezhnikov’s claim reflects that Israel sees tourism as playing a pivotal role in suppressing the country’s controversial and highly politicized character.

The website of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism spotlights the many natural as well as historic and religious sites that are unique to Israel. Moreover, it unapologetically promotes regions and attractions that are laden with political controversy.

For example, the site touts the Bedouin community as a tourist attraction, boasting their great hospitality and authentic lifestyle in the face of the sixth demolition of al-Arakib, the Bedouin village in the Negev.

In similar fashion, the tourism website features the occupied Golan Heights as a “geographic region” of Israel, and describes its stunning scenery, archaeological sites and many environmental tourism features.

Golan Heights

The Golan Heights was captured and occupied by Israel during the June 1967 War. It was annexed in 1981, in violation of international law, UN Security Council resolutions and Israel’s treaty arrangements with Syria as well as the 1978 Camp David Accords. There are currently 21,000 Syrian nationals and 19,083 Jewish settlers living in the Golan Heights, according to the Golan for Development group and Foundation for Middle East Peace, respectively.

As a tourist in the Golan Heights, I was shown the various layers of historical rule of the land — from the Greek to the Roman, Mamluk and Ottoman Empires. Ancient ruins scattered throughout the Golan Heights are neatly connected by roads, signs and directions provided by the Israel Nature and Parks Authorities. However, on my way from one ancient ruin to the next, I also saw the remains of other buildings — “ruins” that appeared to be of more recent creation.

These are the remnants of some of the 134 Arab villages that were destroyed by Israel during and after the 1967 war, and are left with no commentary and no explanation. By expunging the recent traces of Syrian identity to the land, Israel entrenches its control over the Golan Heights.

According to Dr. Taiseer Maray, the General Director of Golan for Development, a nonprofit organization located in the Syrian village of Majdal Shams, Israel has employed various tactics in an effort to erase the Syrian historical and national identity in the Golan Heights.

There are five surviving Syrian villages that comprise five percent of the Golan Heights, the area that was not confiscated by Israel in 1967. These Syrian villages remain steadfast in their resistance to Israeli domination.

Israel adopted the Golan Heights Law in 1981, extending Israeli civil administration to the territory. This replaced the harsh military rule that had governed the region since it was occupied in 1967. Maray says that “Military government was very strict and tried to break us from the beginning but the outcome was the opposite. People united with each other and started resisting.”

According to Maray, in the 1980s there were many clashes between Syrian nationals and the Israeli army, reaching a peak in 1982 when villagers held a six-month strike after Israel demanded Syrians become Israeli citizens.

In the last five years, Israel has adopted a new strategy to break Syrian will for independence: allowing more Syrian businesses to develop for tourism. In this way, Israel hopes to make Syrians less interested in resisting the occupation, and more interested in making a profit.

For example, five years ago it was nearly impossible for any Syrian national living in the Golan Heights to obtain a permit to rent rooms to tourists. Now, Israel has permitted enough business development so that there is a hotel in Majdal Shams, and there is currently a master plan for tourism being developed.

“It’s one of the ways to make us assimilate in Israeli society; by making life easier, they hope to make us busy with business and not think about resisting Israel,” Maray said. “In this way they hope we will forget our historical and national identity.”

Founded in 1991, Golan for Development aims to counter this push for assimilation through dispersing information and through alternative tourism and educational forums.

“Israel tries to present the Golan Heights as part of Israel and we try to present the reality of the occupation,” Maray said.

Meanwhile, Israel’s attempts to normalize the occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem through the conference were frustrated. Norway, Spain, Britain and Turkey all refused to participate in the Jerusalem meeting. This sanction signals that the reasoning behind boycotting Israeli institutions — whether they are overtly political or not — has begun to supplant the tired rhetoric that tries to sell engagement as a means to peace.

Charlotte Silver is a litigation assistant at the American Civil Liberties Union, Immigrant Rights Project and was active in the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement at Stanford. She lives in San Francisco and can be reached at charlottesilver A T gmail D O T com.

Your Excellency Angel Gurría

Secretary General of OECD

Cc: OECD Member States

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), a broad coalition of the largest civil society political parties, mass organizations, networks, and trade unions, strongly condemns the decision by OECD to hold its annual Tourism Committee Conference in October in Jerusalem. The conference comes at a time when Israel is gradually ethnically cleansing the Naqab (Negev) desert, the Jordan Valley, and occupied East Jerusalem, as in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, and continuing its construction of its illegal colonial settlements and wall on occupied Palestinian land. Holding the conference in Jerusalem, in spite of this reality of Israel’s grave violation of international law, will be regarded by an overwhelming majority of Palestinians, and people of conscience around the world as a decisive and far-reaching act of complicity in rewarding and perpetuating Israel’s occupation, colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people. It will further entrench the culture of impunity that has enabled Israel to escalate its commission of war crimes and what is described by some leading international law experts as a prelude to genocide against Palestinians in the illegally besieged and occupied Gaza Strip. The BNC, therefore, calls upon the OECD Tourism Committee to respect international law and relocate the conference out of Israel.

Condemned as a state that is practicing occupation, colonization and apartheid by a recent authoritative legal study in South Africa supervised by international law expert and former UN human rights rapporteur, Prof. John Dugard, Israel is not in compliance with international law and OECD standards and benchmarks. Israel has yet to comply with the recommendations of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict and investigate and prosecute where needed those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity that resulted in the death of more than 1,400 Palestinians, most of them civilians, in the winter of 2008/9. Israel has yet to lift its illegal blockade of the occupied Gaza Strip which has brought to the brink of starvation almost 1.5 million Palestinians, most of whom are refugees Israel had displaced and dispossessed during the 1948 Nakba. It has yet to dismantle its illegal Wall in the occupied Palestinian West Bank in accordance with the 2004 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion. Israel has yet to end its 43-year-old occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, reverse its colonial enterprise and release Palestinians detained and imprisoned. It has yet to transform its political and legal system in order to provide reparation for millions of Palestinian victims, including return for the refugees, and allow full and equal rights for its Palestinian citizens. Only then can Israel be treated as a pluralist democracy, like other OECD states.

Israel’s ongoing blockade of essential food, health, educational and construction supplies is not only immoral; it is a severe form of collective punishment, a war crime that is strictly prohibited under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. It is inducing mass poverty, water contamination, environmental collapse, chronic diseases, economic de-development and hundreds of deaths.

This three-year old illegal siege against 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza has been squarely condemned by leading legal experts, including UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the oPt, Prof. Richard Falk, who described it as constituting “slow genocide.”

Israel is blatantly working to “Judaize”[1] Jerusalem through policies of ethnic cleaning, including home demolitions, residency permit revocation, settler takeovers of Palestinian housing, restrictions on freedom of movement and forced fragmentation through the Apartheid Wall, permit systems, illegal settlement construction and land confiscation. Rather than condemning such illegal practices under international law, the OECD conference will cement Israel’s hold on occupied Jerusalem, and will be perceived as a stamp of approval of Israel’s violations of international law in Jerusalem and elsewhere.

Internationally, tourism is overtly deployed by Israel to ‘rebrand’ the state as an attractive holiday destination, and to cover up its occupation, colonization and apartheid policies. Last June, Israeli authorities handed demolition orders to 22 residences in the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem as part of a wider scheme to demolish houses and turn the area into an “archeological park” and “tourism center”[2]. Extremist settler organization ElAd, supported by Israeli Antiquities Authorities, has exploited — unscientific — archeology to lay claim to the area and now promotes tourism for religious Jewish settler fanatics at the expense of the local Palestinian population who live in fear of constant violent harassment[3]. UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk said of the plan that “international law does not allow Israel to bulldoze Palestinian homes to make space for the mayor’s project to build a garden, or anything else,” adding that the plan “should be seen within the context of Israel’s persistent, systematic approach to driving Palestinians out of East Jerusalem”. Not only so, but in February, Israel defied world opinion and international law, declaring two Palestinian sites in the West Bank as “national heritage” as part of its unilateral strategy to annex them to Israel[4].  These Israeli cultural crimes must be understood in the context of decades of Israeli crimes including the erasure of over 500 Palestinian villages in 1948, the destruction of the Moroccan Quarter in the old city of Jerusalem in 1967, and the more recent desecration of the historic cemetery of Ma’man Allah (“Mamilla”) in West Jerusalem for the purposes of building a so-called “Museum of Tolerance”.

Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said “Israel’s joining the OECD is of great importance in terms of building a positive image for the country, the positive image gained will have an effect on the tourist’s choice to visit Israel, and it will attract foreign investors to the country, including, among others, investors in tourism.[5]“ The OECD showed that it is willing to turn a blind eye to Israeli war crimes, bend its own rules and ignore international law when it accepted Israel as a member last May[6]. Organizing this tourism conference in Israel sends once again a strong signal that OECD members are perfectly willing to be complicit with Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and actively support Israel’s PR efforts to whitewash its colonial and apartheid policies.

The OECD ought to respect its own obligations under international law and relocate this ill-conceived conference out of Israel. Failing to do so will further undermine the organization’s already dismal respect for human rights and the international rule of law.

In deep concern,

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC)

[2] Why 88 Arab homes received eviction notices http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2009/0226/p04s01-wome.html

[3] The dig dividing Jerusalem http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/26/jerusalem-city-of-david-palestinians-archaeology

[4] West Bank sites spark heritage row http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/02/20102211933459711.html

[5] OECD selects Jerusalem to host its tourism conference http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/news/2676-oecd-selects-jerusalem-to-host-its-tourism-conference

[6] http://holdisraelaccountable.net/2010/05/10/palestinian-civil-society-condemns-oecd/

BRUSSELS, Jun 18, 2010 (IPS) – A leading Israeli supplier of warplanes used to kill and maim civilians in Gaza is in the running for two new scientific research grants from the European Union.

Israel’s attacks on Gaza in late 2008 and 2009 provided its air force with an opportunity to experiment with state-of-the-art pilotless drones such as the Heron. Although human rights groups have calculated that the Heron and other drones killed at least 87 civilians during that three-week war, EU officials have tentatively approved the release of fresh finance to the Heron’s manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

Two projects involving IAI have recently passed the evaluation stages of a call for proposals under the EU’s multi-annual programme for research, which has been allocated 53 billion euros (65.4 billion dollars) for the 2007-13 period.

The Union’s executive arm, the European Commission, has confirmed that IAI is one of 34 Israeli “partners” involved in 26 EU-funded projects for information technology which are under preparation.

Among the other Israeli firms being considered for such funding are Afcon, a supplier of metal detectors to military checkpoints in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the Erez crossing between southern Israel and Gaza. Afcon was also awarded a contract in 2008 for installing a security system in a light rail project designed to connect illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem with the city centre.

Mark English, a Commission spokesman, said that the procedures relating to the projects have not yet been completed. But the Israeli business publication Globes reported last month that Israeli firms stand to gain 17 million euros from the latest batch of EU grants for information technology. According to Globes, this will bring the amount that Israel has drawn from the EU’s research programme since 2007 to 290 million euros.

Israel is the main foreign participant in the EU’s science programme. Officials in Tel Aviv say they expect Israeli firms and research institutes will have received around 500 million euros from the programme by the time of its conclusion.

Chris Davies, a British Liberal Democrat member of the European Parliament (MEP), expressed anger at how the Commission’s research department appears willing to rubber-stamp new grants for Israeli companies. Such a “business-as-usual” approach is at odds with tacit assurances from officials handling the EU’s more general relations with Israel, he said.

In late 2008, the EU’s 27 governments agreed to an Israeli request that the relationship should be “upgraded” so that Israel could have a deeper involvement in a wide range of the Union’s activities. But work on giving formal effect to that agreement has stalled because of the subsequent invasion of Gaza.

Approving EU finance for Israel Aerospace Industries “should be regarded as utterly unacceptable, incoherent and outrageously naive,” Davies told IPS. He argued that there appears to be “no communication” between different sets of EU representatives on how Israel should be handled. “Where’s the joined-up thinking?” he asked.

While the European Commission claims that all of its scientific research cooperation with Israel is civilian in nature, the Israeli government has been eager to publicise the almost umbilical links between the country’s thriving technology sector and its military. A brochure titled ‘Communications in Israel’ published by its industry ministry earlier this year refers to a “symbiosis” between the security and technology sectors in Israel. Several technology breakthroughs – such as the invention of voice recognition devices for computers by the Israeli army in the 1980s – have resulted from this “convergence”, the brochure claims.

Other likely Israeli beneficiaries of the new round of EU funding do not conceal how they have benefited from this convergence either. The Israeli subsidiary of SAP, the software manufacturer, has issued publications about how it has provided specialist equipment for the Israeli army. And both Emza and LiveU, two “start-up” companies, are examples of the numerous makers of surveillance equipment in Israel that have seen their order books fill up since the country tried to position itself as an indispensable part of the “war on terror” declared by former U.S. president George W. Bush.

Marcel Shaton, head of the Israel-Europe Research and Development Directorate (ISERD) in Tel Aviv, said that EU citizens should not have any qualms about financing Israeli arms companies. “All research supports the arms industry,” he said. “Non-military technology is used for military purposes all over the world.”

But Yasmin Khan, a specialist on the arms trade with the anti-poverty group War on Want, said that the EU has been complicit in the occupation of Palestine through its support for Israel’s military industry.

She noted that drones made by IAI and other Israeli companies have been bought by several European countries taking part in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. “The military industry is a central point of the Israeli economy,” she said. “The equipment it makes is sold as ‘battle-tested’, which is a dark way of describing its use in the occupied (Palestinian) territories.” (END)

Source: http://ipsnews.net/newsTVE.asp?idnews=51871

“Israel’s joining the OECD is of great importance in terms of building a positive image for the country,” said Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov. “The positive image gained will have an effect on the tourist’s choice to visit Israel, and it will attract foreign investors to the country, including, among others, investors in tourism.”

Israel should not have been accepted into the OECD, as outlined in a series of analytical pieces published by the AIC and others. Article 1 of the organizations’ convention states that the aims of the OECD shall be to “contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis in accordance with international obligations”. Article 2 states that in the pursuit of these aims, the Members agree that they will “pursue their efforts to reduce or abolish obstacles to the exchange of goods and services.”

This is obviously not the case regarding Israel, with the country’s ongoing three year siege and blockade of the Gaza Strip, and the obstacles it places upon the West Bank that restrict the free movement of goods, services, and Palestinian people.

A group of Israeli citizens sent a letter to the OECD in May, voicing concerns over the country’s potential acceptance. “As Israeli citizens, we are concerned by the policies of the Israeli governments, policies which violate international law, violate the basic human rights of Palestinians under occupation and serve to instigate instability, violence and suffering in the Middle East,” they wrote. “We are also concerned by the double standards applied by some countries in the international community, especially the developed countries, towards Israel’s violations.”

While the Tourism Committee Conference will certainly provide an immediate boost to the Israeli tourism industry, Israel’s OECD membership will have lasting effects, strengthening not only the country’s economy, but its global image as well.

Minister Misezhnikov called the committee’s decision to gather in Israel “an important vote of confidence,” saying it “carries both prestige and special importance, given the decision by OECD leaders to deviate from tradition and hold the meeting not in Paris, but in Jerusalem.”

“The choice of Israel, and in particular Jerusalem, is a vote of confidence in the Israeli tourism industry and its economy,” said the Israeli Ministry of Tourism.

Fifty tourism ministers and representatives from member states and other countries will participate in the three-day conference. This 86th meeting of the OECD Tourism Committee Conference will focus on developing “green tourism,” the ecological effects on tourism, and identifying green business opportunities. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer, President Shimon Peres will also be attending.

In light of Israel’s gross violation of international law, it is surprising that the country was given a seat in the OECD, and moreover, that occupied Jerusalem, Israel’s self-declared, contested and ethnically divided capital will be receiving the tourism spotlight.

Source: AIC

“Suspend the EU-Israel Trade Association Agreement!”

“Call off Israel’s accession to OECD!”

Occupied Palestine, 5 June 2010 – The European Union is set to renew this month the EU-Israel Action Plan as Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip enters its 43^rd year. The Plan was first adopted in 2005 to “fulfill the provisions of the [EU-Israel] Association Agreement, build ties in new areas and encourage and support Israel’s objectives for further integration into European economic and social structures.” The EU-Israel Association Agreement forms the legal basis for this relationship. Article 2 of the Agreement states that internal and external policies must be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles. The EU is in violation of its own rules by adopting a business as usual approach with Israel.

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) is appalled by the EU’s blatant refusal to hold Israel to account for its persistent violations of human rights and international law. The murder of human rights activists on board of the Free Gaza flotilla is only the latest in an ever-growing list of Israel’s abuses. Enough!

In May, EU countries voted to accept Israel as a member of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an exclusive club of rich nations. By voting to accept Israel, it having submitted economic data that include the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank while arbitrarily excluding Palestinians under its control, EU countries are in violation of their obligations as High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention.  Israel’s parliament has yet to ratify Israel’s accession. It takes one country to call for an emergency OECD council meeting and freeze the accession process. EU countries should not ignore the masses in the streets calling for an end to Israeli impunity.

The EU is the main provider of humanitarian and development aid to Palestinians under Israel’s occupation, while at the same time contributing to the maintenance of Israel’s regime of occupation, colonization and apartheid, which oppresses the Palestinian people.  One example of this double standard is the provision of millions of Euros of research grants to the Israeli military company Elbit Systems. Elbit is actively involved in the construction of Israel’s illegal Wall in the occupied West Bank. The International Court of Justice advisory opinion of 9 July 2004 confirmed  the illegality of this Wall  and its associated regime and recommended that  all states do not  render aid or assistance in maintaining the illegal situation created by the Wall and ensure compliance by Israel with international law.

The EU-Israel Action Plan makes reference to a “special status” Israel enjoys in its relationship with Europe on the basis of so-called “common values”. The Goldstone Report provides ample evidence that Israel committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is yet to abide by hundreds of UN resolutions, which it has persistently ignored for 62 years, including the recommendations of the Goldstone Report, which were recently endorsed by the European Parliament.  While Israel enjoys preferential access to European markets, research funding and a whole range of political and financial support, fundamental human rights are denied to the entire Palestinian people, including 1.5 million Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip who are submitted to collective punishment by Israel’s illegal blockade.  Most recently, Israel attacked human rights activists from some 40 countries in international waters on board of the Free Gaza flotilla. Ample evidence exists of the fact that Israel’s regime is “the regime of a colonizing power under the guise of occupation which includes many of the worst features of apartheid”[1], such as the fragmentation of territory, policies of mass detention, ethnic cleansing and denial of fundamental human rights and freedoms on grounds of nationality, religion and ethnicity. These policies are a threat to global peace, security and humanity, and human lives, rights and aspirations are being shattered on the back of this so-called “special relationship” between Israel and the EU.

We question the “common values” the EU is promoting in the region.

Act now! Urge the EU to stop the Action Plan renewal process, suspend the EU-Israel Trade Association Agreement and freeze Israel’s accession to OECD

1. WRITE TO MEPs  (find your MEPs at http://bit.ly/aQs17o)
2. WRITE TO the High Representative for Foreign Affairs Baroness Catherine Ashton catherine.ashton@ec.europa.eu and EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stephan Fule (Stefan.FULE@ec.europa.eu)
3. Copy your letter to your MP and your Foreign Ministry

[1]            UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the OPT, Prof. John Dugard: A/HRC/4/17 of 29 June 2007 and A/HRC/7/17 of 29 January 2008.

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0527/Political-coup-Israel-welcomed-into-OECD-despite-criticism-over-Gaza-settlements

By Erin Cunningham, Correspondent 
posted May 27, 2010 at 3:06 pm EDT

Jerusalem —

Israel won an important symbolic victory against its international critics today, as it officially joined the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Membership in the elite, staunchly capitalist 31-member club has long been sought by Israel as a stamp of approval on its efforts to transform itself from a nation of socialist farmers to a high-tech powerhouse that dramatically outperforms its Middle Eastern neighbors.

“The membership opens up to us access to sources of investment available only to developed economies,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Paris today, where the OECD welcomed Israel, Estonia, and Slovenia to its ranks. “There are global funds with enormous amounts of money that have specific amounts of money they must invest in developed economies, a category we are now included in.”

IN PICTURES: Israeli settlements

But while Mr. Netanyahu has focused on economic benefits, others have touted Israel’s accession to the OECD as a political coup after being buffeted by calls for sanctions and economic boycotts against Israel, particularly since its three-week offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip last year.

“This is definitely being portrayed in Israel as a victory of legitimacy [and] acceptance in the international community,” says Shir Hever, an Israeli economist and head of the left-leaning Alternative Information Center. “Israel wants to – and will – be called a developed democracy.”

Israel: No. 1 in investing GDP into R&D

The gross domestic product (GDP) of this Mediterranean country of 7 million is more than $200 billion, just behind Hong Kong – which has a similar population. Its annual per capita income is nearly $30,000, nearly six times that of neighboring Egypt and on par with the US state of Idaho and .

Israel also invests more of its GDP into scientific research and development than any other country in the world, according to the World Bank.

“Israel, with a population of greater Philadelphia, has about as many start-ups as the United States,” says Daniel Doron, director of the Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress in Jerusalem. ” We are a great asset to the OECD, we belong there.”

Palestinians: OECD has legitimized the occupation

But Palestinian leaders and civil society actors are slamming the decision, saying that the OECD has effectively legitimized Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. They also say the OECD’s credibility has been hurt, since it fudged membership criteria and accepted a state that practices what some see as economic apartheid.

A memo written by the OECD’s statistics committee in February and obtained by Jonathan Cook at CounterPunch Magazine pointed out that Israel was reporting economic output for the West Bank on the basis of nationality, rather than location, which is at odds with OECD standards.

In practice, Mr. Hever says, the government cherry picks the well-to-do Israelis on the West Bank for national economic statistics, but ignores the economic conditions of the poorer Palestinians in the same areas, effectively boosting Israel’s economic numbers.

“If you include … the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, or those working in the settlements, Israel would be one of the most unequal countries in the world, and therefore ineligible under OECD criteria,” says Hever.

Many Israelis don’t see what the fuss is about when it comes to the country’s economic reporting. In their view, Israelis’ economic achievements should not be overshadowed by the now 43-year-old occupation, and welcomed the OECD approval as a salve for the damage done to Israel’s reputation by its military campaign in Gaza 16 months ago.

“The [West Bank] settlements in this case are an issue that doesn’t deserve the attention it gets. It distracts people from other, more major, problems,” says Mr. Doron.

Settlers more wealthy than the average Israeli

The 500,000 Israelis living in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem enjoy an average annual income almost 10 percent higher than the Israeli norm, according to a study carried out by the Ariel University Center of Samaria in the West Bank. Unemployment rates for Jews in the occupied territories are also lower, and the settlements are partially subsidized by the government.

Restrictions on the free movement of Palestinian goods and people, say critics, is also at odds with OECD principles, which call for open and transparent borders. There are approximately 70 permanent Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank, where civilians, businessmen and their goods are often held up for hours while vehicles are searched.

Israel says the network of checkpoints is needed for security, after a series of suicide bombings carried out by Palestinian militants during the second intifada early last decade. On Sunday, however, the Israeli army announced plans to lift 60 roadblocks.

“Israel continues to violate the OECD’s fundamental values and should not be rewarded with increased trade — which would access to more military contracts,” said Michael Canney, Florida Green and member of the Green Party’s International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl).  ”Israel’s intractable, brutal, and humiliating treatment of Palestinians within its own borders and in the Occupied Territories, including the recent invasion and mass killings of civilians in Gaza, deserves international condemnation.  Greens have called for economic boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel until it reverses its current policies.  The OECD should deny Israel membership until the Israeli government lifts the strangling economic restrictions it has placed on the Palestinian people, cancels the construction of settlements and displacement of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and abides by international law and the OECD’s own principles.”

The OECD’s convention, under “Fundamental Values and Likemindedness,” states, “These fundamental values include a commitment to pluralist democracy based on the rule of law and respect for human rights, adherence to open and transparent market economy principles and a shared goal of sustainable development.”

Formal acceptance of Israel’s application for OECD membership will not take place until the latter’s ministerial meeting to take place on May 27-28, despite the unanimous vote of the OECD’s 31 member countries to admit Israel.

The Green Party of the United States, along with Green Parties throughout the world, have called on national leaders to place strong pressure on Israel to end the occupation, respect Palestinian human rights and equality, and eliminate its nuclear arsenal.  US Greens have supported an economic boycott and cutoff of military aid, since the US contributes billions in aid to Israel (with a $30 billion military aid package pledged to Israel for 2009-2018) that includes weapons used against Palestinians.  Greens everywhere have encouraged negotiation for a peaceful resolution to the Middle East conflict, praised nonviolent Palestinian and Israeli groups working for peace and human rights, and condemned all violence targeted at unarmed civilians.

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org 202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml • Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml • Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers • Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections • Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

“Greens: President Obama must press Israel to end East Jerusalem settlements”
Press release: Green Party of the United States, April 8, 2010
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=307

“Public Figures Appeal for Delay to Israel’s Membership of OECD”
Hold Israel Accountable, May 9, 2010
http://holdisraelaccountable.net/2010/05/09/bnc-press-release/

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee
http://www.bdsmovement.net

The Green Party’s 2010 Annual National Meeting, Detroit, Michigan, June 24-27 http://greenpartymeeting2010.wordpress.com Media credentialing page: http://www.gp.org/forms/media More information: 1-866-41-GREEN, office@gp.org

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
Winter 2010 issue now online
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, May 20, 2010

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org

US Greens urge Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to reject Israel’s membership application until Israeli government observes international law and the rights of Palestinians

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on foreign policy http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-foreign-policy.php

• The Green Party’s 2010 Annual National Meeting, Detroit, Michigan, June 24-27 http://greenpartymeeting2010.wordpress.com Media credentialing page: http://www.gp.org/forms/media More information: 1-866-41-GREEN, office@gp.org