PRESS RELEASE
RELEASED @ 15 January 1998
UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR, HANNU HALINEN, VISITS THE PALESTINIAN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND IS BRIEFED ON THE DEPLORABLE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION
The UN Special Rapporteur in the Palestinian Occupied Territories (OT) visited the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) and was briefed on the human rights situation in the OT.
Mr. Hannu Halinen, the Special Rapporteur in the OT, visited the PCHR on 15 January 1998 and met with Mr. Raji Sourani, the director. He was briefed about the deteriorating human rights and socio-economic situation. Mr. Halinen is working on behalf of the UN to assess the human rights situation in the OT, and to prepare a report addressed to the Human Rights Commission (in time for its meeting next March). Mr. Halinen has been appointed to this post by the decision of the UN Human Rights Commision in 1993. Mr. Sourani has informed the visiting guest of the human rights situation in the OT, affirming the fact that although the Israeli army has redeployed from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (per the peace agreements signed between the PLO and Israel), the Israeli occupation continues to manifest a legal and physical presence. The Israelis are still responsible for human rights violations in the OT. From the legal point of view, Israel is still an occupying power, and is still obliged to implement the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.
Mr. Sourani has also said that though a peaceful atmosphere should be at least attempted by both parties, the Israeli government has only escalated its policies and measures against the Palestinian people, especially the confiscation of Palestinian lands in order to build new settlements, the widening of existing settlements, and the construction of bypass roads connecting one settlement to another and to Israel. The Israeli government aims to create more facts on the ground which would alter the nature of the final settlement. It appears that they wish to annex the OT, in a defacto way first, and then by legal means. This settlement fervor and land confisctaion is highly dangerous, especially in Jerusalem, where the current Israeli government is rabid in its attempt to judaize the city. They have been demolishing Palestinian homes under the pretext that their owners lack proper building licenses. Such licenses are usually denied Palestinians living in Jerusalem. This is accompanied by the confiscation of thousands of Palestinian ID cards. These measures aim to empty the city of its Palestinian residents.
Moreover, the issue of Palestinain detainees in Israeli prisons has also been addressed. 5,500 detainees are imprisoned in Israel in substandard conditions. Among those imprisoned, there are around 600 administrative detainees. Some of them have been imprisoned without trial or formal charges for the last five years. The detainees are also denied periodic family visits. The Israeli authorities also refuse to allow young men visits to their relatives in Israeli prisons. Detainees are also subject to excessive use of force by Israeli security personnel.
The attention of Mr. Halinen was also drawn to the fact that the Israeli government did not fulfill its obligations under the peace agreements, which called for the release of the detainees. The Israeli government wants to keep these detainees hostages, as a means to pressure the Palestinain Authority and crush the spirit of the detainees.
Mr. Halinen’s visit is taking place while the Israeli government is imposing strict measures on the movement on Palestinain people, as a result on the closure it has imposed on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the last two years. Closure measures include tight restrictions on the movement of individuals and goods to and from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This has resulted in the deprivation of work for thousands of Palestian workers. Consequently, the unemployment level has jumped to nearly 50%. This policy is a collective punishment prohibited under international law. The closure has resulted in the debilitation of the socio-economic fabric of the OT. Even the elected members of the PLC have been subjected to restrictions on movement to and from Gaza and the WB. These closures have had a serious impact on Palestinian political and legislative life.
After briefing Mr. Halinen on the human rights situation in the OT, Mr. Sourani discussed with Mr. Halinen the content of the report he presented last year to the Human Rights Commission. Mr. Sourani expressed the PCHR’s appreciation for Mr. Halinen’s work and raised some points in the report which the PCHR criticized; such as: 1)Although the Israeli government refused to allow Mr. Halinen to visit Israel and the OT in his capacity as UN Special Rapporteur, Mr. Halinen did not mention this in the report. The PCHR believes that it would be important if he condemns this ban in the report. 2) Although Mr. Halinen has referred to the grave Israeli violations of human rights in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, instead of approaching the international community with the intention of asking them to help put an end to these violations (which amount in many cases to war crimes, as defined by international humanitarian law, especially the legalization of torture, wrongful killling, and collective punishment), Mr. Halinen has refrained from doing so. Rather, he suggested that Israel should no longer be isolated from the international arena, as this isolation “will not improve Israel’s human rights record”. He stressed that the international community,
instead of adopting an inflexible stand on the systematic and continuous Israeli violations on human rights, should dialogue with Israel and convince her that it is in her interest to respect human rights. The PCHR has said that the international community is under legal obligation to ensure respect for human rights, and that the crimes perpetrated by the Israeli government must be stopped. The maximum pressure must be exerted — even if sanctions must be levied against Israel — to put an end to the systematic and continuous policy of human rights violations.
At the end of the meeting, PCHR wished Mr. Halinen success in his mission and asked that his report be more comprehensive in dealing with the Palestinian human rights situation, especially regarding the following: 1)clearly condemning the policy of the Israeli government, which refuses to allow the Special Rapporteur to visit Israel and the OT; 2) the international community is asked, based on the seriousness of the violations, to pressure Israel to fulfill its obligations to respect human rights and to protect Palestinian civilians; 3)condemning illegal Israeli measure and policies, especially settlement construction, the judaization of Jerusalem, and the legalization of torture — and to consider all these measures illegal and subject to punitive international action; and 4) Mr. Sourani asked that the Special Rapporteur commit himself only to the mandate with which he was authorized, that is, to assess the human rights situation and report Israeli violations in terms of international law.
