Press Release

Ref: 164/2000

Date: November 12, 2000

Representatives of NGOs and civil society in the Gaza Strip met with Mrs. Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Dr. Amin Mekki Madani, her advisor in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Mrs. Robinson was welcomed here and given respect and appreciation by the Palestinian civil society for whom she is a symbol and a moral power for human rights. She was thanked for the interest she has shown since she assumed her post in the situation of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories. Furthermore, it was mentioned that she had added a moral dimension to her work through her credibility and adherence to fundamental human rights issues.

The situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories was reviewed before Mrs. Robinson. Representatives of human rights organizations and civil society asserted that the major victim of “the peace process” and the Oslo Accords was Palestinian human rights. The harvest of seven years was de facto apartheid and economic and social strangulation directed at the Palestinian people.

The representatives asserted that the conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, held on July 15, 1999, proved the position of Palestinian human rights organizations that the United States sought to politicize international humanitarian law by having a meaningless conference. They praised the honorable stance of Mrs. Robinson then, which was in accordance with the spirit and word of the Fourth Geneva Convention, for her calls on Israel, as an occupying military force, to implement de jure the Convention in the occupied Palestinian territories.

These organizations reviewed the Israeli actions since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada and mentioned the blatant and grave breaches by the Israeli occupation forces of the Fourth Geneva Convention. They mentioned willful killing, the excessive use of force, and the lack of necessity and proportionality in the use of force. They referred to the use of US weaponry, including helicopters, directed missiles, tanks and heavy weapons against Palestinian civilian targets. This has resulted in victims, including children and women, and the destruction of houses, offices and agricultural land. The attending organizations asserted the following demands with the expectation that the UN High Commissioner will work to achieve them with all the authority and moral power she has:

1. There is a need to provide international protection for the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories in light of the crimes that have been perpetrated and are still being perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces. Analysis of the Israeli approach indicates that the worst has not yet come even though Israel has already fired shells at Palestinian demonstrators, cities and villages from tanks and helicopters. The Palestinian people will not wait for a new Kosovo or Sabra and Shatila in order for the world to be convinced of the necessity for international protection. They also called on Europe to stop the conspiracy of silence regarding what is transpiring in the occupied Palestinian territories.
2. There is a need to call on the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to convene a conference to address how to obligate Israel to implement the Convention, de jure, in the occupied Palestinian territories. They asserted that the conference was cut short on July 15, 1999, through pressure from the United States. Furthermore, it was stated that Europe surrendered to pressure or colluded with the US call to convene the conference formally for a mere 10 minutes before putting it off to an unnamed future date due to the expectation that the Barak government would be a government of peace. But in light of the serious and grave breaches of the Convention, the High Contracting Parties have no choice except to reconvene the hastily adjourned conference in order to adopt deterrent measures and positions against Israel, including economic and diplomatic sanctions.
3. Establishing an international investigation committee according to the resolution of the UN General Assembly and the resolution of the UN High Commission on Human Rights of October 19, 2000.
4. Immediately implementing in word and spirit the full resolution of the UN High Commission on Human Rights of October 19, 2000.

 Mrs. Robinson asserted that she is with the Palestinian people in their right to international protection and that what she herself saw confirms the necessity and need for such protection. She also added that she would use all her authority and moral power to raise the issue in a forceful manner.

She said that she started to implement the resolution of the UN High Commission on Human Rights of October 19, 2000, although it had not yet been ratified by ECOSOC. Nevertheless, she used her authority and the spirit and wording of the resolution in order to make this visit. She also asserted that she had started the procedure for the visit of the UN special rapporteurs to investigate the grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and other crimes.

Mrs. Robinson emphasized the need for calling on the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to reconvene their hastily adjourned conference of July 15, 1999. She asserted that she would work on this.

Finally, she talked about the deep impression made on her during her field visit to Shifa’ hospital, to the houses and greenhouses shelled by the Israeli occupation forces, and to the schools attacked during this Israeli aggression. She asserted the moral and legal responsibility to halt such aggression immediately.