AN URGENT LETTER TO SECRETARY OF STATE ALBRIGHT ON THE OCCASION OF HER VISIT FROM PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATIONS

11 September, 1997

Madeleine Albright

Secretary of State

United States Government

Dear Secretary of State

We are writing to you to express our grave concerns about the deterioration of the human rights situation in the Occupied Territories. The closure of the Gaza Strip and West Bank is having a devastating impact on the social and economic well-being of Palestinians; currently arrests are being undertaken that appear to be indiscriminate and other violations, such as the employment of the draconian emergency defence regulations of 1945 and the closure of a newspaper, are being conducted. The measures have been imposed on Palestinians and the Palestinian National Authority by the Government of Israel in violation of human rights and international law.

The Israeli authorities have intensified the closure to a level that is crippling to the Occupied Territories. This closure began on 30 July 1997, only being relaxed slightly before the blockade was imposed on 4 September following the most recent attacks. Moreover the Government of Israel has sought to exacerbate the impact of the closure by halting payments of levies raised in Israel due to the Palestinian National Authority.

These measures are being undertaken for a single purpose: to pressure the Palestinian Authority to undertake mass arrests of Palestinians with Islamic affiliations. As a consequence already tens of Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; Al Resala newspaper, associated with the Al Khalas party, (both of which are licensed by the Palestinian Authority) has been closed; and the obscene British Defence Emergency Regulations of 1945 are being employed by the Palestinian National Authority against Palestinians.

Of course, the Palestinian Authority has commitments to seek to maintain security, but this must be done lawfully, in respect of human rights and the rule of law.

Israel, by placing this pressure and requiring these moves to be undertaken, is seeking to secure and maintain the power it exercised in the Occupied Territories before the peace agreements and the advent of the Palestinian National Authority.

Unfortunately, the United States Government has not only supported Israeli demands, but has done so actively; by freezing its financial contribution to the Palestinian Authority. Supporting these demands (and actively doing so in a manner that exacerbates present suffering) is a human rights violation, it poses a significant risk to the rule of law within the Occupied Territories, and can only have a detrimental impact on security in the region. Human rights cannot be employed selectively, knowingly advocating serious human rights violations in some situations whilst claiming and seeking to protect human rights in others.

This pressure and the demands are particularly reprehensible as the cause for the increase of the violence rests in Israel’s continued disregard for the peace agreements and the principles that lay behind them. The opening of the tunnel under the Old City and the attempts to establish a settlement on Jabal Abu Ghneim in Occupied West Bank including Jerusalem, and elsewhere, are the real reasons for the increase in violence. These actions were clearly intended to inflame Palestinians. The only means of tackling the violence is to deal with these root causes.

We, as human rights organisations, condemn the pressure exerted on the Palestinian people and the Palestinian National Authority and urge the rejection of these demands because of the unlawful nature of the pressure being applied, the indecencies involved in requiring human rights violations to be undertaken and the ruin it will bring to the rule of law and civil society.

We urge the international community, and the Government of the United States in particular, demands the Israeli Government immediately end measures of collective punishments including the lifting of the closure, an end to house demolitions and land confiscation, for settlement building, and the release of the Palestinian prisoners illegally held in and by Israel. Also, the US Government must itself stop pressuring the Palestinian National Authority to illegally arrest Palestinians and commit other human rights violations. Human rights must be respected and the international community should demand that Israel complies to this obligation.

The only solution to this violence is the complete withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including Jerusalem, respect and abidance to UN Security Council resolutions and the honouring of the interim agreements.

If the pressure by the United States and Israel is continued through unlawful measures and the demands for massive human rights violations maintained the consequence will be the complete disintegration of the rule of law, democracy and human rights. Sadly this breakdown is already occurring. Unless something is done now to stop it, the repercussions will be dire.

Ehab Abu Ghosh

Director

Jerusalem Legal Aid Centre

Khader Shkirat

Director

Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (LAWE)

Iyad Sarraj

Commissioner-General

The Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen’s Rights

Raji Sourani

Director

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights