Ref: 25
/ 2010

Because
of the total closure imposed on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Government, Raji
Sourani, the Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), was
prevented from travelling and thus unable to testify before the Russell
Tribunal on Palestine.

Today, 1 March 2010, the first
international session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine will be held in Barcelona.
The mandate of the Tribunal is to consider whether the European Union and its
member states are complicit in the ongoing occupation of Palestinian territory
and in Israel’s violations of the rights of the Palestinian people.

The
jury, composed of eminent personalities including the Irish Nobel Peace Price
Mairead Corrigan Maguire, will hear an account of the breaches of international
law committed by the State of Israel and will examine the policy and practice
of the European Union and of its member states in their relations with Israel.
On 3 March 2010 the jury will render its conclusions and assess whether the
policy of the EU and its member states is compatible with their obligations
under international law.

Raji
Sourani was invited to attend the 3-day session of tribunal and to testify as
the main witness of the crimes committed by the Israeli military in Gaza Strip,
especially, but not only, during the military operation of last year, codenamed
‘Cast Lead’.

The Russell Tribunal is an opinion
tribunal without judicial powers. It is composed by eminent personalities,
jurists, intellectuals and Nobel laureates and aims to raise public awareness
by drawing attention to grave situations of violations of human rights,
commission of war crimes and other breaches of international law.

The first Russell Tribunal was
constituted, upon an initiative of the British philosopher Bertrand Russell and
the French philosopher and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre, in November 1966 as a
response to the crimes committed in the Vietnam War. The tribunal committee
consisted of 25 notable personalities, many of which were Nobel laureates and
recipients of awards in the humanitarian and social fields.

After the first very successful
experience of the Russell Tribunal on Vietnam, a second one was established to
investigate Latin America. Later, other similar institutions were created to
deal with grave crimes committed in many other countries (such as Argentina,
Philippines, El Salvador, Afghanistan,
East Timor, Zaire, Guatemala). Similar opinion tribunals have also investigated
the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Turkish State and the recent invasion
and occupation of Iraq.