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Press Release
On Thursday, July 27, 2001, a delegation of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights testified before the United Nations Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories. The Special Committee opened its session in Cairo on Thursday morning and gathered testimonies regarding human rights violations in the Occupied Territories. The Special Committee is due to conclude its work in Cairo on Saturday, and will then move to Jordan and Syria to conduct further investigations. Israel refuses to cooperate with the Committee and does not allow its members to conduct their investigations in the Occupied Territories.
The PCHR’s delegation, comprised of Hamdi Shaqqura, Coordinator of the Democratic Development Unit, and Iyad Alami, Coordinator of the Legal Unit. The delegation focused their testimony on the unprecedented escalation in human rights violations and war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian civilians, since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in September 2000. Shaqqura highlighted the excessive use of force by the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian civilians. He highlighted the use of combat helicopters, F-16 fighter jets, gunboats, tanks and surface-to-surface missiles to shell Palestinian residential areas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, causing death and injury to dozens of Palestinian civilians, destroying houses and other property and leaving many civilians homeless.
PCHR’s delegation asserted that the Israeli occupation forces had shot at Palestinian civilians who were participating in organized peaceful marches protesting the continuing occupation, although the lives of the Israeli soldiers were in no danger. From September 2000 to the middle of July 2001, more than 500 Palestinians were killed in these circumstances, one-third of them were children.
PCHR’s delegation also strongly condemned the policy of assassination and extra-judicial executions instituted by the Israeli government since November 2000. PCHR also expressed its dismay at the continuing silence of the international community with regard to crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian civilians and called for the immediate deployment of independent international protection for the Palestinian people.
PCHR’s delegation also highlighted attacks on Palestinian medical personnel by the Israeli occupation forces. These attacks have resulted in a number of deaths of medical personnel and have left many more injured. In addition, a number of ambulances have been destroyed or severely damaged. In all cases medical personnel were dressed in clearly marked uniforms. Attacks by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers against dozens of Palestinian and foreign journalists were also referred to. Both attacks on medical personnel and attacks on journalists are in direct violation of international humanitarian law.
PCHR’s delegation also identified the conditions in which Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli jails and prison camps. They highlighted the deterioration of prisoners’ living conditions, the denial of visits by their families and lawyers. They also referred to the continuing pattern of torture techniques used practiced against Palestinian prisoners by the Israeli security services.
In conclusion, PCHR’s delegation updated the Special Committee on the developments in cases in which PCHR is representing victims of Israeli aggression. PCHR has submitted more than 500 complaints to the Israeli authorities, but not a single case has been investigated, receiving replies that all such attacks were carried out as military necessities. PCHR’s delegation asserted that these justifications were wholly unsatisfactory and that the Israeli occupation forces should be held accountable for their crimes against Palestinian civilians. PCHR’s delegation reiterated PCHR’s calls for immediate international intervention to provide protection for Palestinian civilians, and to work towards the implementation of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of August 12, 1949 in the Occupied Palestinian Territories