Ref:38 /2010

On Friday, 02 April 2010, the Palestinian
Center for Human Rights (PCHR) received a Spanish delegation in its office in
Ramallah. The delegation, headed by
Christina Ruiz, was comprised of 14 persons representing 4 Spanish NGOs: Al-Quds Association – Malaga; Social Forum;
Andalusia Association for Support and Peace; and Support Program for
Palestinians. 

Members of the delegation met with Sameeh
Mohsen, Coordinator of PCHR’s Activities in the West Bank, who highly
appreciated the support of Spanish NGOs, especially in Andalusia, for PCHR’s
policies and goals for defending human rights in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory (OPT), and its efforts to prosecute suspected Israeli war criminal
and ensure effective remedy for Palestinian victims and their families.

Mohsen provided a detailed review of the
human rights situation in the OPT, focusing on the Gaza Strip, which has been
under a tightened siege for more than three years, preventing the
reconstruction of civilian property destroyed by Israeli Occupation Forces
(IOF) during the wide-scale offensive they launched 15 months ago that took the
lives of hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

Mohsen also briefed members of the
delegation on Israeli violations of human rights in the West Bank, including
efforts to create a Jewish majority in Jerusalem; settlement activities;
construction of the annexation wall; incursions into Palestinian communities;
house demolitions; the use of excessive force against peaceful protests;
restrictions on the freedom of movement; and denial of access of Palestinian
civilians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to Jerusalem. 

He further criticized the European
governments, both individually and collectively, for their silence towards
crimes committed by IOF in the OPT and their support for the Israeli government
in its attempts to evade accountability. In this context, he drew the attention to efforts by some European
government to amend their laws in order to frustrate efforts by human rights
organizations and victims of human rights violations to prosecute suspected
Israeli war criminals under the principle of universal jurisdiction. He also criticized those governments’
attempts to obstruct mechanisms of accountability included in the report of the
UN Fact-Finding Mission on Gaza Conflict (the Goldstone Report). He emphasized that if Israel was not held
accountable for its crimes, there would by no guarantees for the non-recurrence
of such crimes, especially as the Israeli government threatens to wage launch
another war on the Gaza Strip.

Mohsen also emphasized the importance of
the role played by European civil society groups in supporting the just cause
of the Palestinian people, and called on them to make efforts to exert pressure
on their governments to fulfill their legal and moral obligations under
international humanitarian law.

Moreover, Mohsen pointed out that the
European Union can play an effective role in pressurizing the Israeli
government through activation of Article 2 of the Euro-Israel Association
Agreement, which set Israel’s respect for human rights as a condition for
continuous economic cooperation. He
called for boycotting the products of Israeli settlements, which constitute a
war crime that Israeli must be held accountable for.

Following the meeting, PCHR’s staff
members escorted the delegation in a field tour in Ramallah and al-Am’ari
refugee camp.