Ref: 16/2008
Date: 3 June 2008
International Delegations Visit PCHR
Over the past several days, PCHR met a number of international delegations including the UN High Profile Fact Finding Mission into the Beit Hanoun massacre in November 2006, a European parliamentary delegation, a CIDSE (Catholic development) delegation from Ireland and Belgium, and the American “Council for National Interest.”
On Wednesday, 28 May, a PCHR delegation met Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who headed the UNHRC High Level Fact Finding Mission investigating the massacre by the Israeli army against El-Athamna family on 8 November 2006. The PCHR delegation consisted of Jaber Weshah (Deputy Director), Hamdi Shaqoura (Director of Democratic Development Unit), and Eyad El-Alami (Director of Legal Unit). The Center’s delegation welcomed the arrival of the mission despite Israel’s rejection to cooperate with it. And they presented the mission with documented evidence about the massacre that resulted in the death of 18 members of the same family. The Center’s delegation stressed that the massacre under investigation was not the first perpetrated in the Gaza Strip; and that massacres are an old Israeli policy used during incursions. PCHR’s staff stated that many massacres were perpetrated over the past several years without any noticeable action by the international community. In addition, the meeting discussed the overall human rights situation and the impact of the siege imposed on the OPT, especially the deteriorated situation in the Gaza Strip.
On 29 May, Jaber Weshah met a delegation from the Irish Charity and Development Agency (Trocaire) and representatives of French and Belgian member organizations of the International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity (CIDSE). The meeting discussed the human rights situation in the Gaza Strip and the deteriorated humanitarian situation in the territory. On 30 May, PCHR organized a field visit for the visiting delegation in Khan Yunis and Rafah. They witnessed the IOF destruction of civilian property and farms over the past month. The delegation met a number of victims of IOF operations and listened to their accounts.
On 1 June, a delegation from the National Council of Interest from the US visited PCHR and met Jaber Weshah. The delegation was headed by the Chairman of the Council former US Ambassador to Jordan Richard Viets. The meeting discussed the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and systematic violations of human rights of the Strip’s civilian population. Weshah affirmed to the delegation the importance of lobbying to pressure IOF to respect their legal responsibilities towards the occupied territory, including the immediate lifting of the siege.
Also on 1 June, Jaber Weshah met a European Parliament delegation that included Luisa Morgantini, the Deputy Speaker of the European Parliament. Weshah gave the visitors an account of the human rights situation in the OPT, especially the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip as a result of a hermitic IOF siege. Weshah asked the Parliament Members to lobby European governments to take a more proactive role against the human rights violations against Palestinians, especially through the utilization of the human rights stipulations of the European-Israeli Partnership Agreements.
And on 1 June, a delegation from the office of UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, Karen Abu Zayd, visited PCHR and met Jaber Weshah, who congratulated the visitors on the extension of Ms. Abu Zayd’s tenure for another year. He affirmed the importance of increasing UNRWA’s services, especially health and educational services, in light of the escalating poverty and unemployment. Weshah also stressed the importance of exposing all IOF actions that hinder UNRWA from delivering its services.
