Ms. Louise Arbour
High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Geneva
6 March 2008
Dear Ms. Arbour,
We, the undersigned Palestinian and Arab human rights organizations, are writing to you with regard to the current situation in the Gaza Strip, and to request that you intervene immediately and effectively, in accordance with your mandate as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to speak out on behalf of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who are being subjected to escalating and indiscriminate Israeli military attacks. We appreciate your statement condemning the Israeli military attacks against the Palestinian civilian population and calling for impartial investigation, but we believe that the statement is not enough and that the situation requires further action.
Since 27 February, 2008, these Israeli military attacks in the Gaza Strip have killed 108 Palestinians, including 54 unarmed civilians, 26 of whom were children. Israel claims that its most recent incursion into the Gaza Strip, which was launched on 17 February 2008 and has now apparently been temporarily suspended, was a “Routine military operation.” However, when undertaking any form of military action, Israel is obliged to act within the confines of international humanitarian law, and to apply the principles of proportionality and distinction, as laid down in international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention. The conducts of the Israeli forces are not just regrettable mistakes, but are also being carried out with intent, as the frequent statements of Israeli government officials clearly indicate.
In clear defiance of international law, the Israeli military is, however, continuing to use excessive lethal force against the civilian population of Gaza, and is also launching indiscriminate military attacks in densely populated areas, where it is impossible to distinguish between military targets and civilians. These grave and lethal human right violations require an immediate and effective response from the entire international human rights community, of which you, as the UN Human Rights Commissioner, are a focal point.
Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, is one of the most densely populated places on earth, and it bore the brunt of much of the Israeli military incursion into Gaza which has apparently been suspended pending further Israeli military operations. The 108 Palestinian victims of this latest incursion included a number of children who were killed whilst either sheltering inside their own homes, or playing outside in open areas away from any signs of fighting.
On 28 February, 2008, four young cousins were struck by Israeli rockets whilst playing football in an open area near their home in El-Qerem Street, East Jabaliya. The four children, 9-year-old Mohammad Na’im Hammouda, 8-year-old Ali Munir Dardouna, 12-year-old Dardouna Deeb Dardouna and 14-year-old Omar Hussein Dardouna were dismembered by the rockets. Mohammed’s father, Naim Hamouda, told Ibrahim Sourani, a human rights lawyer at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights that when he found the four dead children, he could not identify which one of them was his son because the bodies had been completely torn apart.
These actions, as well as scores of others committed by Israel prior to and during this incursion, including the tightened siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, are clearly a form of both collective punishment and reprisal attacks against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip; and as such represent a flagrant violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits reprisal attacks against protected persons and their property: “No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.”
Other notable United Nations representatives, including the UNRWA Gaza Field Office Director, John Ging, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, John Dugard, and the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, have recently spoken out about Israel’s continuing and systematic violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) in general and the Gaza Strip in particular. We are therefore asking for an effective intervention from the UN Office of the Higher Commissioner for Human Rights.
In order for you to witness the effects of Israel’s continuing use of collective punishment and excessive lethal force against the civilians of the Gaza Strip, we would like to extend an invitation to you to visit the Gaza Strip and see the conditions on the ground for yourself. The civilians of the Gaza Strip need the protection of the international human rights community, and you would be very welcome in Gaza.
237 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip this year, including 128 civilians, 32 of whom were children. As organisations dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights, we are gravely concerned about Israel’s escalating military operations and continuing use of excessive lethal force against civilians, including children. The facts on the ground reveal that Israel is continuing to commit war crimes against the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip, and these crimes are escalating in their severity, despite the fact they are illegal under international human rights and humanitarian law. Therefore, we reiterate our request for your immediate and effective intervention.
Signatories
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights – Gaza
Al-Dameer for Human Rights – Gaza
Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights – Gaza
The Arab Orgnization for Human Rights – Cairo
Hafez Abu Saa’da
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights – Cairo
The Arab Institute for Human Rights – Tunisia
The Arab Center for the Independence of Judiciary and Legal Profession – Cairo
