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Press Release
Ref.,: 43/2001
Date: August 12, 2001
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights condemns the Israeli appropriation of Orient House in East Jerusalem on Friday, August 10, 2001 as the latest act of aggression in the continuing illegal belligerent occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
In the early hours of Friday morning, a number of Israeli officers forcibly appropriated Orient House, arrested several guards and tore down the Palestinian flag, replacing it with the flag of Israel. Israeli government statements declared the seizure a retaliation for the suicide bombing of a pizza restaurant in Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon in which 15 Israelis were killed. However, PCHR asserts that the seizure of Orient House is an illegitimate response to the bombing.
Orient House has come to symbolize the aspirations of the Palestinian people for their right to self-determination. It has become the cultural and political centre for the Palestinian people in East Jerusalem and has been recognised by governments around the world as a civilian establishment and politically symbolic of the right of the Palestinian people to an independent state. Thus, Israeli government claims that the seizure of Orient House was a valid and necessary “security” measure following the suicide bomb are entirely meaningless. No activity conducted at Orient House, nor any of its work could be considered a threat to Israeli State security. If the seizure was conducted for non-security related considerations, no prior warning order was issued. The seizure of Orient House by force is therefore illegal under Israeli law, in addition to a violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.
It is clear that the seizure of Orient House can have no benefit for the security of the state of Israel and its citizens. Indeed, the claims of military necessity have been refuted in statements issued by the United States government and by Israeli former Justice Minister, Yossi Beilin and former Israeli Minister of Education, Yosi Sarid. Rather this act can be viewed only as a signal that the Israeli government seeks to continue the illegal belligerent occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The obviously inciteful and provocative nature of this action also indicates that the Israeli government has no intention of controlling the security situation, but rather it intends to escalate the violence and tension in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Furthermore, Minister of Internal Security, Uzi Landau’s claims that the seizure would end the buildings “challenge to Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem” are entirely void since Israeli claims to sovereignty over Jerusalem are baseless; the occupation and later annexation of the city have been recognised as illegal and a breach of international humanitarian law by the international community, including the United Nations, since 1967.
The forcible appropriation of this entirely civilian establishment is a further breach of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of August 12, 1949 (the Fourth Geneva Convention) which is de jure applicable throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem. The Fourth Geneva Convention affords protected status to all civilians and civilian property; the appropriation of protected property, “not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” is a grave breach of the Convention under Article 147.
PCHR also asserts that this latest incident is part of the continuing Israeli policy of judaization of Jerusalem, a form of ethnic cleansing, which is a direct and grave breach of article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits population transfer into an occupied territory.
PCHR calls upon the international community, including governments, international organisations and states parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention,
1. to condemn this latest act of aggression against the Palestinian people and to demand that the Israeli forces immediately withdraw from Orient House.
2. PCHR also asserts that this latest incident serves to illustrate the urgency of the need for an effective independent protection force for the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and calls upon the international community to deploy such a force immediately.
3. PCHR also calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure its effective implementation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
