That then brings us to this Summer -- the so-called Camp David Negotiations. This was not the idea of the Palestinian leadership; rather it was the idea of Prime Minister Barak with the support of President Clinton. Basically, Clinton pressured the leadership of the Palestinian People into accepting a permanent Bantustan arrangement for the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And of course, for that reason, it failed. The negotiations at Camp David failed. Now, at that point, President Clinton proceeded to blame the leadership of the Palestinian People for rejecting a Bantustan and then proceeded to illegally threaten the movement of the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if President Arafat did not accept the Bantustan Proposal permanently, which he refused to do and to his credit.

That being said, on September 28, former General Ariel Sharon, the Butcher of Sabra and Shatilla, the man responsible for the massacre of 2,000 innocent Palestinians at the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla, the architect of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, that killed 20,000 people in Lebanon, a man cashiered by his own government, at that time appeared at Haram al Sharif in Jerusalem -- the big plateau -- the third holiest site in Islam -- where it's the Al Aqsa Mosque on the one hand and the Dome of the Rock on the other, where Mohammed ascended to Heaven -- surrounded by about 1,000 troops undoubtedly with the approval of Prime Minister Barak. They knew exactly what they were doing. They knew exactly what the reaction of the Palestinian People would be to this provocation and desecration. And if there was any doubt about it, the Israeli Army returned the next day and shot dead several Palestinians on Haram al Sharif, thus setting off what has come to be known as the Al Aqsa Infada, in support of the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Indeed, it's far more serious than that. The United Nations Human Rights Commission sent a Special Rapporteur to occupied Palestinian Lands to investigate the situation that has occurred as a result of the Al Aqsa Intifada. And the U.N. Human Rights Commission then adopted a resolution condemning Israel for violating the Fourth Geneva Convention, its rights as a belligerent occupant, and stating that Israeli policies constitutes "a war crime and a crime against humanity." Let me repeat that: "a war crime and a crime against humanity." I think we all have a general idea of what a war crime is and I'm not going to lecture on that here. There are different varieties of war crimes. There are the more serious "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and we see that every day -- willful killing of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army is a grave breach mandating universal prosecution for these war crimes.

But I want to focus for a moment on "a crime against humanity" -- as determined by the U.N. Human Rights Commission set up pursuant to the United Nations Charter. What is a crime against humanity? This goes back to the Nuremberg Charter of 1945. And in the Nuremberg Charter of 1945 drafted by the United States Government there was created and inserted a new type of international crime specifically intended to deal with the Nazi persecution of the Jewish People. The paradigmatic example of a crime against humanity is what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish People. This is where the concept of crime against humanity was formulated and came from. And this is what the U.N. Human Rights Commission is now saying that Israel is doing to the Palestinian People. A crime against humanity.

Moreover, a crime against humanity is the direct precursor to the international crime of genocide recognized by the 1948 Genocide Convention. Again, the theory here was that what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish People required a special international treaty that would codify the concept of a crime against humanity. And that treaty ultimately became the 1948 Genocide Convention. You will note the U.N. Human Rights Commission does not go so far as to condemn Israel for committing genocide against the Palestinian People. But it has condemned them for committing a crime against humanity, which is the precursor to genocide. And I submit that if something is not done quite soon by the American People and the United States Government to stop Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian People, it could very well degenerate into genocide, if it is not there already.

Now, that is, I think, a fair and accurate legal characterization of the situation and you will note even the United States Government did not veto the Security Council Resolution although it did oppose the U.N. Human Rights Commission Resolution which is not unexpected.

Now today we've heard a proposal from Prime Minister Barak to accelerate negotiations with the Palestinian People. All I've read are the press accounts and his descriptions of it. It does appear to me that he continues to intend to impose his Bantustan model upon the Palestinian People. Personally I have always been of the opinion along with my client and my friend Dr. Haidar Abdul Shaffi that the Bantustan model will never work. That if the United States and Israel attempt to continue imposing the Bantustan model, or even somehow bully, threaten, intimidate and coerce President Arafat into signing a Bantustan agreement, it will never work, and we will continue to see violence and bloodshed in these occupied Palestinian Lands.

That all being said, I still believe that peace is possible. Indeed, it was my job as Legal Adviser to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations to figure this out on paper on instructions of Dr. Haidar Abdul Shaffi himself. On November 15, 1988, the Palestine National Council proclaimed an Independent Palestinian State in Algiers and also in front of Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Again, notice the importance and the significance Al Aqsa to the Palestinian People. This created a remarkable opportunity for peace if Israel really wants peace. The Declaration of Independence accepted the U.N. General Assembly Partition Resolution 181 of 1947 calling for the creation of a Jewish State and an Arab State in the former mandate for Palestine together with an international trusteeship for the City of Jerusalem. In my opinion, this is the only solution to the problem: A Palestinian State -- a genuine free, independent Palestinian State on the West Bank and Gaza and shared sovereignty over the City of Jerusalem, sovereignty shared between Israel and Palestine, Jerusalem as the joint capital of both states. In my opinion, this arrangement can produce peace between Israel and Palestine. The current Bantustan Proposal offered by Barak with the support of President Clinton would only produce more war.

Indeed, it should be emphasized that Israel officially accepted the U.N. Partition Resolution in its own Declaration of Independence and as a condition for its admission to membership in the United Nations Organization. So there is no dispute here as to the legality of the two-state proposal and some type of shared arrangement for Jerusalem. Moreover, as another express condition for its admission to the United Nations Organization, Israel officially endorsed and agreed to carry out U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948 which determined that the Palestinian refugees have a right to return to their homes, or that compensation should be paid to those who choose not to return. Prime Minister Barak has rejected Resolution 194 despite the fact that Israel accepted it as a condition for its membership in the United Nations Organization. Indeed, this same right is recognized in article 13, paragraph 2 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- and here, we are commemorating the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and we are also commemorating the anniversary of the Partition Resolution. And that article 13(2) says quite clearly, "Everyone has the right ... to return to his country." It's a basic human right of the Palestinian People. This is customary international law. There will be no peace until the Government of Israel is prepared to live up to the promise it gave to implement Resolution 194. As you know, Israel accepted one million people from the former Soviet Union and moved many of them on to occupied Palestinian Lands in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Well they could have easily accepted a million Palestinians instead and have gone a long way towards solving this problem. But again, the potential is still there for a peace settlement if we see good faith on the part of Israel and the United States Government. I regret to report that so far we have not.

I really do not know what will happen. As you know the Clinton administration will be going out of power. We don't know who the next President will be. Prime Minister Barak has called for new elections. There is enormous turmoil in the situation. Palestinians are being killed every day as we speak courtesy of the United States Government. And I submit that it is up to you students to do something about this situation. I remember when I first came to the University of Illinois in 1978. The anti-apartheid movement that was started in this country by students and student organizations protesting, demonstrating, organizing leaflets, demanding divestment, disinvestment, organizing on a national and international basis. And eventually it culminated in the adoption of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 which was the death blow to the racist Afrikaaner Apartheid Regime in South Africa. When that was adopted and the United States was completely cut off from any cooperation with South Africa, it was very clear to the Afrikaaner Apartheid Regime that apartheid had to be dismantled. Soon thereafter, Nelson Mandela was released from prison. Negotiations began. Democratic elections occurred in South Africa and now the African National Congress governs South Africa. De jure apartheid has been dismantled in South Africa. Nelson Mandela became the President of the Republic of South Africa. The same situation can happen here.

You students can go out, research what the anti-apartheid movement did in this country, and your predecessors starting twenty years ago, and do the exact same thing here. You have to. If you want to see peace in the Middle East, you're going to have to go out and do something because so far the United States Government is not an honest broker. They never have been. I have been at these negotiations. I can tell you that the United States fully supports whatever Israel wants.

So I leave here with an injunction that you students go out and study the situation. Study the techniques of your predecessors in the anti-apartheid movement. Proceed to organize and try to promote peace in the Middle East. Peace between the Israeli People and the Palestinian People that can last. I believe this is possible. But you cannot rely on the government, on the politicians in Washington to do it. You're going to have to do it yourselves. Thank you.

  

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

• Crimes against humanity:
  
  Question: "Mr. Boyle, we all know that, as mentioned before crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and war crimes constitute violation of human rights under universal jurisdiction. My question is since we had the tribunal for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, how come we don't have an ad hoc tribunal for Israel. Thank you."
  
  Boyle: Yes, we could and I've made this proposal. The tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda have been established by the United Nations Security Council. The United States would clearly veto any attempt to establish such a tribunal by the Security Council. But the United Nations General Assembly has the authority to establish an international criminal tribunal for Palestine by a majority vote of the General Assembly pursuant to article 22 of the United Nations Charter. Article 22 allows the General Assembly to establish subsidiary bodies. And so the General Assembly could if it wanted to set up an international criminal tribunal for Israel and adopt the statute for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Rwanda would not be appropriate because that's an internal armed conflict. The Yugoslav tribunal is an international armed conflict. So it can be done, but what will be needed is a majority vote in the General Assembly to do this.
  
  I have made this suggestion to Arab and Muslim states. So far they haven't done anything with it. I think you must understand that so many of these Arab states and leaders -- not the people but the leaders -- really could not care less about the Palestinians. They are on their own as they always have been. And so for many of these Arab leaders the Palestinian People are just a domestic public relations problem. All they need to do is try to convince their own people that they're really doing something when they're not doing something. So they'll issue declarations, proclamations. The League of Arab States will have a meeting in Cairo that means absolutely nothing. All the diplomats know it. But it's a total PR job for these leaders to convince their people that they really care about the Palestinians. Their people care, but the leaders don't.
  
  So, for that reason, again, it's very important for America's students to do something. Understand, we give five billion dollars a year to Israel to kill, oppress, and destroy the Palestinian People. All the weapons you're seeing here are either provided directly by the United States or are paid for or parts or components are provided by the United States. None of this could be happening without the consent and approval of the United States Government. So we have enormous power and leverage here in the United States to stop this and to produce a just, lasting, comprehensive peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But in turn that will again depend I think on student organizations working at the grass roots level to do something about the problem. And we can succeed. We succeeded with the anti-apartheid movement. It's a similar situation here.
      

• One State for Israelis and Palestinians.
       
  Well, let me say this. At one point the Palestinian People called for the creation of one, secular democratic state for the entire mandate of Palestine. Israel accused them of then calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. So in order to respond to this point, they then adopted the Declaration of Independence that said to Israel, well alright, if you do not want one, democratic secular state for the entire mandate of Palestine, you can have your state and we want our state. So that's the current situation. Under these circumstances, that seems to be the alternative preferred by both Israel and Palestine. Out of respect for the Palestinian People, until they change their position I think this is what we have to support. You know, Edward Said is a friend of mine -- I have great respect and admiration for him and perhaps at some point in the future, when you have a period of time that the Palestinian State can establish itself and its freedom and independence and self-identity, then you might be able to talk about two separate sovereign states coming together freely and voluntarily but not because of duress, force and coercion, but freely and voluntarily coming together to establish one state. That could be possible. But right now, in answer to the question, I think we certainly have to respect the wishes of the Palestinian People. The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Palestine National Council itself back in the days back when they had a real Palestine National Council. And in those days, the Council represented all elements of the Palestinian People -- not only those living in occupied Palestine, but also those living in The Diaspora. So this is the reality that we are currently dealing with. And I think we have to deal with the situation as it currently exists.