Ref: 28/ 2010

On Saturday, 06 March 2010, Mr. Jaber Weshah, Deputy
Director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), met with a delegation
of British Parliamentarians headed by Stephen Williams. The delegation included Lord David Steel,
Former Leader of the Liberal Party, Andy Slaughter, Karen Buck and Graham
Bambrough.

Weshah welcomed the delegation’s members and highly
appreciated their visit to the Gaza Strip so as to closely observe the catastrophic
impacts of the latest Israeli offensive the Gaza Strip and the impacts of the
ongoing siege. He also highlighted human
rights conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) in general, and
in the Gaza Strip in particular. He pointed
out the latest updates developments in the past few months, and the failure of
the international community to fulfill their obligations regarding the
unprecedented deterioration in human rights conditions resulting from the
Israeli violations and siege.

The meeting discussed that responsibility of Europeans, in
particular, for continued Israel’s behavior as a State above law, enjoying
impunity, which encourages Israel to perpetrate more violations. Wishah indicated that EU Member States
countries bear the responsibility in accordance with Euro-Israeli Association
Agreement, which stipulates that Israel should respect human rights, so as to
continue cooperation with each other.

The meeting discussed  also efforts exerted to amend the British Law in
order to let Israeli war criminals escape punishment. In this context, developments related to the
Goldstone Report were discussed, and Weshah stressed that reaction of the
international community was disappointing and did not ensure bringing war criminals
before courts.

Additionally, Weshah and the delegation addressed situation in
the OPT, where they discussed the impacts of the internal fragmentation and its
reflections on human rights conditions and on all aspects of life,
particularly, the performance of governmental, legislative and judicial
bodies. They also highlighted PCHR’s
stance from holding the Palestinian elections, confirming the necessity of the availability
of the appropriate atmosphere in order to guarantee transparent elections; in addition
to the significance of the international community’s declaration on showing
respect for elections’ results so as to rectify its denial of the results of
2006 elections.

It is worth noting that the delegations’ visit to the Gaza
Strip lasted for 3 days, where its members met different figures and
representatives of institutions. They
also visited several areas in the Gaza Strip to observe the impacts of the
latest Israeli offensive, which are still existent a year after the offensive,
due to the siege and imposition of restrictions on allowing materials needed
for reconstruction into the Gaza Strip.