Plowshares and Swords

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Human rights groups have focused much attention on the physical violence that erupts periodically under Israel's occupation of the West Bank, but the authors of this scholarly indictment stress that Israeli-directed economic violence affects Palestinians in ways that also warrant serious attention as a human rights issue. Drury and Winn, lawyers both, review the international law of belligerent occupation formulated at the Hague and Geneva conventions, and argue that Israel's exploitation of West Bank agriculture, the backbone of West Bank economy, is precisely what this body of law was established to avoid. The Israelis have stifled Palestinian agricultural enterprise in a deliberate and systematic way, according to the authors, transferring West Bank land and water resources into Israeli hands, imposing collective punishment that includes uprooting thousands of fruit-bearing trees and vines. By ignoring the requirements of international law, the authors conclude, Israel has treated the West Bank as an exploitable source of labor, water and land, using its power over Palestinian agriculture to reorient the West Bank to serve Israeli interests. Drury and Winn call it ``creeping annexation.'' (June)

Library Journal

The authors, both attorneys and trained in international human rights, characterize the Israeli occupation of the West Bank as both oppressive and repressive of the Palestinian Arab population. They argue that Israel, by the manner of its continued occupation, violates the intent of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the law of war by subordinating ``the interests of the indigenous West Bank population to those of Israel.'' The authors focus on how the Israeli government has, for all intents and purposes, integrated the West Bank economy into its own while simultaneously exploiting the labor market and using the territory as a captive market for Israeli-produced goods. Other sensitive topics examined are both land and water resource control. This powerful and highly charged study is a good companion to Allan Gerson's Israel, the West Bank, and International Law (Internat. Specialized Bk. Svcs., 1978) and is recommended for larger public and academic library collections.-- Sanford R. Silverburg, Catawba Coll., Salisbury, N.C.

Booknews

Human rights violations, the authors argue, include not only the obvious--unfair imprisonment and torture--but also economic oppression. They show how the Israeli government policies have undermined the Palestinians' economic self-sufficiency and replaced a relatively stable agricultural economy with a satellite economy that serves as a captive market for Israeli goods and a source of cheap labor. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)