International Fora:Recommendations for Action

European Court of Human Rights
An initial campaign with a high likelihood of success, that could be launched with relatively few resources and with a focus on "testing the waters" in Europe, should aim at the EU conditioning trade agreements with Israel on the latter's submission tothe ECHR (and/or on passage of legislation in Israel  to permit restitution and compensation claims for Palestinians). Another campaign suggested by the recent cases, which appear to be strong precedent for Palestinian restitution and compensation  claims, could examine the possibility of bringing claims directly to the ECHR.

Palestinian residents or citizens of an EU state are prospective petitioners in such actions. Such a petition would have to be extremely well-researched, and would require a coalition of European lawyers with experience in cases before the ECHR, as well as a broad-based coalition for campaigning, to focus attention and publicity on the case/s.

Treaty Committees
A second level of campaign could focus on bringing petitions before several of the treaty bodies at the same time. This would require substantial resources, close coordination, and also sophisticated and sustained publicity. Since the treaty committee procedures are lengthy and it is difficult to maintain interest in them, it would be critical to plan such a campaign around several coordinated petitions before different committees. Simply filing petitions-- such as the ones before the Economic, Social and Cultural Committee, the Human Rights Committee or the Committee on Racial Discrimination-without a coordinated campaign of publicity and public action, are unlikely to have the impact or create sufficient pressure to force necessary governmental response.

Domestic Claims/Pressure
Outside the US, this arena also holds great possibility for an activist-based, rather than a legal-based campaign. The Scandinavian countries,other European countries besides Germany and France, and possibly some Latin American countries in which there are large diaspora Palestinian communities are very good candidates for pressuring governments to make claims against Israel. If there are sufficient legal resources, of course, research should be done in countries with sizable resident Palestinian populations to determine whether claims could be filed directly in the courts of those states.

COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION March 1998 "The right of many Palestinians to return and possess their homes in Israel is currently denied. The State Party should give high priority to remedying this situation. Those who cannot re-possess their homes should be entitled to compensation." COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND CULTURAL RIGHTS November 1998 "In order to ensure the respect for article 1(2) of the Covenant and to ensure the equality of treatment and non-discrimination, the Committee strongly recommends a review of re-entry policies for Palestinians who wish to re-establish domicile in their homeland, with a view to bring such policies to a level comparable to the Law of Return as applied to Jews."

International War Crimes Tribunal
This option needs to be carefully evaluated. On the one hand, it could be extremely sensational in terms of the publicity that might be generated around compilation of evidence that reflects Israeli war cr imes against Palestinians; on the other, if the political atmosphere is such that the special prosecutors refuse to prosecute against Israeli defendants, the entire effort could be a useless waste of precious resources. This option would require a substantial team of dedicated lawyers to prepare the evidence in such a way that the prosecutors would have a hard time refusing to file charges. It would also require significant financial resources to pay for the legal research and evidence gathering, as well as for a broad-based and multi-faceted media campaign.

Israeli Legislation/Court Claims
This appears to be the least favorable option given the apparent lack of standing of Palestinian claimants to make claims for restitution and compensation for property in Israeli courts. Nevertheless, the research should be done-and as quickly as possible-to determine precisely what Israeli law is in this regard, and whether there are indirect avenues to raise such claims that have not been adequately considered. This information could, moreover, be useful in the campaigns to pressure the EU to require Israel to implement appropriate legislation, as well as in the campaigns to use other states' domestic legislation to raise such claims.

The EU and Palestinian Refugee Rights In February, two EU working groups recommended in principle that Israel be admitted as a temporary member of the UN's Western European and Others Group. They must now discuss the conditions and the status under which Israel would be admitted. Among the conditions should be those set down forIsrael's membership into the United Nations under General Assembly Resolution 273(III), 11 May 1949. This included implementation of UN Resolution 194 (Right of Return). More recently, the EU has conditioned membership, in the case of Poland, on implementation of legislation for restitution ofproperties and assets confiscated during World War II. Similarly, Israel's membership in the UN's Western European and Others Group, as well as other international bodies should be conditioned on restitution of Palestinian refugee properties and assets. In early March 2000, EU parliament members demanded that the EC take action to stop Israel from gaining preferential treatment for goods exported from Jewish settlements, in contravention of its trade agreement with Brussels. (Financial Times, London, 3 March 2000) "An EU diplomat said the Commission had been turning a blind eye to Israel's violation of the trade agreement. It was reluctant, he said, "to rock the boat" in its relations with Ehud Barak, Israeli prime minister, as Brussels sought a political role in the Middle East peace process beyond economically supporting the Palestinians."