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NPK-info 27-03-2001- Nederlands Palestina Komitee / www.xs4all.nl/~npk
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Berichten
* LAW & CIHRS Statement to the UN Commission on Human Rights, 57th
Session
* BADIL: UN Commission of Inquiry - Final Report
* Amnesty calls for right of return, international force
Citaat:
"Amnesty International Secretary General Pierre Sane
yesterday in
Jerusalem
publicly backed the right of return of Palestinian refugees
and demanded
that armed
international observers be deployed in the territories"
* The right to resist, Baruch Kimmerling, Ha'aretz 27-3-2001
Citaat: "Even today, most of the public simply does
not know
that every violent step taken against the Palestinians -
let alone the aggregate of those steps - borders on
war crimes, and cannot see the black flag of
illegality flying over each of those steps. "
* Palestinian Women's Demonstration, The Palestinian Working Women
Society,
19-3-2001
NPK/WL, 27-3-2001
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LAW Submission to the Commission on Human Rights
57th Session
Item five of the provisional agenda
THE RIGHT OF PEOPLES TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND ITS APPLICATION TO
PEOPLES
UNDER COLONIAL OR ALIEN DOMINATION OR FOREIGN OCCUPATION
Oral Statement made by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, a
non
governmental organisation with Special Consultative Status, and LAW, the
Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the
Environment.
22 March 2001
Calls to End Discrimination
We support Michael Melchior's stated calls for an end to all forms of
discrimination and the need for mutual tolerance. We also abhor anti
semitism: indeed Palestinians and other arabs are also semitic people,
and
have suffered from others anti semitism. Sadly, the ideals of
tolerance
expressed by Rabbi Melchior have not been practised in reality nor are
they
genuinely shared by the key Israeli political/military commanders of the
Israeli Occupying Power: including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
These same commanders wrongly believe that enjoyment of Jewish rights of
self determination requires and justifies the violation and subjugation
of
Palestinians' rights of self determination. The international community
by
ensuring Palestinians' rights of self determination and respect for
their
human rights are not denouncing Jewish rights of self determination.
Similarly, once the international community finally fulfils its
obligations
by taking effective measures to stop Israeli violations and passes
effective
resolutions it is not expressing racist, anti-Jewish sentiments, but
tackling Israeli practices and policies which have led to gross
violations
of Palestinians' rights, and the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators.
The Israeli Occupying Power undermining Palestinian rights of self
determination
The violence against Palestinians since 29 September 2000 cannot be seen
in
isolation: rights of the Palestinian people have been grossly violated
by
Israel since 1948 and 1967. The Israeli Occupying power has through all
its
discriminatory policies and practices and its belligerent occupation of
the
Palestinian Territories denied the Palestinian people their
"permanent and
unqualified" right to self determination, "including the
option of a State":
as reaffirmed by the Commission.
Continued Occupation
Israel's occupation of the Palestinian Territories is one of the longest
occupations and exercise of colonial domination in recent history.
Contrary
to Israeli claims, the Israeli occupying power continues,
following Oslo,
to occupy and exercise ultimate control over the Occupied Territories,
in
defiance of all relevant UN resolutions.
First, this is seen by the Interim Agreement between PLO and Israel.
Under
the agreement the Israeli military remains the ultimate source of
authority
in the Occupied Territories. Only certain civil government and policing
functions were transferred to the Palestinian Authority under the
agreement,
and only in relation to designated areas A. In areas B and C the Israeli
military retains control of "security matters", (with the PA
having
responsibility for civil affairs in areas B, and sharing such
responsibility
in areas C). Furthermore, the PA's authority and jurisdiction is
limited to
what is expressly provided for under the Interim Agreement, and all PA
legislation must be communicated to the Israeli military government.
The reality of the Israeli occupying power's continued occupation and
denial
of Palestinian rights of self determination is also illustrated by its
practices including as follows:
Israel continues to issue military orders affecting all the Occupied
Territories. Military courts established under Israeli military orders
continue to administer the so-called "justice" in the
territories.
Areas B and C of the occupied Territories, with their strong Israeli
military and settlers presence, encircle and close off areas A: so the
areas
within the Occupied Territories are not contiguous.
The Israeli occupying Power controls Palestinian exports/imports and
foreign
policy
Palestinian towns and villages are under siege by Israeli forces
and
settlers. Indeed under Ariel Sharon the siege has intensified. Israel
retains absolute control over Palestinians' freedom of movement within
and
outside the Territories.
The Israeli occupying power controls access to goods and services and
facilities, including humanitarian aid and assistance and water
supplies.
It implements policies and practices designed to cripple the Palestinian
economy.
It impedes Palestinian rights of development.
It bombs and shells civilian areas as a collective punishment.
It continues its land confiscation and house demolitions.
It continues to establish and expand Israeli colonies/settlements within
the
Occupied Territories
Equally illuminating have been the statements made by Israeli political
and
military commanders themselves, including that of the former Prime
Minister
Rabin where he said: "We see the final arrangements as including
most of the
Land of Israel.., and alongside it a Palestinian entity, which is less
than
a state."
Failure to comply with its obligations as an Occupying Power
The UN Security Council on 7 October 2000 called for: "Israel, the
occupying
Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations . under the Fourth
Geneva Convention .." The Israeli occupying power has
failed to adhere to
its obligations and violated Palestinians' rights under the agreements,
and
international human rights and humanitarian law. The
Commission and
International Community are called upon to abide by their obligations
under
international law, and take immediate and effective measures to ensure
that
the Israeli occupying power:
adheres to the terms of UN (Security Council) Resolutions (242 and 338,
and
the Commission's Resolution 2000/4); and
ends all its discriminatory policies and practices towards Palestinians
leading to a denial of their rights to self determination, (including
gross
violations of human rights and humanitarian law).
****************************************************************************
LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the
Environment is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to preserving
human
rights through legal advocacy.
LAW is affiliate to the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ),
Fédération Internationale des Ligues de Droits de l'Homme (FIDH),
World
Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and Member of the Euro-
Mediterranean
Human Rights Network
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BADIL Resource Center
For immediate release, 23-2-2001 (E/17/2001)
--------------------------------------------------------
UN Commission of Inquiry Releases Final Report -
Emphasizes the Urgent Need for International Protection for
Palestinian Refugees and the Palestinian People in the Occupied
Territories
In a sixty page report submitted this week to the 57th Session of the
UN Commission on Human Rights, the special UN Commission of Inquiry,
established (Resolution E/CN.4/S-5/1, 19 October 2000) to investigate
human rights violations committed by Israel in the occupied
Palestinian territories, emphasized the urgent need for international
protection for Palestinian refugees and the Palestinian people.
The report covers the legal status of the conflict, Israel's
excessive use of force, extra-judicial executions/political
assassinations, settlements, and the deprivation of the enjoyment of
economic and social rights (effect of closures, curfews, restrictions
and movement, and destruction of property in addition) and includes a
separate section which emphasizes the "distinctive
vulnerability" of
Palestinian refugees.
The Commission of Inquiry report notes that "no other refugee
community in the world is so excluded ... from the protective
mechanisms and responsibility of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR)" and concludes, on the basis of a legal
analysis
of the status of Palestinian refugees in international refugee law,
that urgent international efforts are required to extend UNHCR
protection to Palestinian refugees under Article 1D(2) of the 1951
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The Commission report
further notes that while the question of the right of return is
mostly beyond the scope of the Commission's mandate, a
"comprehensive
settlement must deal equitably with the issue of Palestinian refugees
and their rightful claims" including those living outside of the
occupied territories.
The Commission of Inquiry further recommends that an adequate and
effective international presence should be established immediately in
the occupied Palestinian territories to monitor and regularly report
on compliance by all parties with human rights and humanitarian law
standards. The commission members also recommend that protection
should be accorded in strict compliance with the 1949 Fourth Geneva
Convention and that the High Contracting Parties to the Convention
should act with urgency to establish an effective international
mechanism for taking the urgent measures needed.
Among its other recommendations the report notes that a
comprehensive, just and durable peace should be guided at all stages
by respect for human rights and humanitarian law and the full
application of international human rights standards and is linked to
the end of the Israeli occupation and realization of the right of the
Palestinian people to self-determination. The report concludes that
Israeli security forces (i.e., military and police) have used
"excessive and disproportionate force" from the outset of the
al-Aqsa
intifada and recommends that Israeli forces should not resort to the
use of rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition, except as a last
resort; that provision of protection for settlers cannot be used for
preemptive shooting of unarmed civilians in areas near settlements or
on access and bypass roads leading to settlements or for the
destruction of Palestinian property; an immediate end to Israel's
extrajudicial execution/assassinations; investigation and prosecution
of persons found responsible for the use of lethal force or the
excessive use of force which has caused death or serious injury; an
immediate end to Israeli closures, curfews and other restrictions on
freedom of movement; respect for Palestinian economic and social
rights; an end to measures that amount to collective punishment;
freedom of movement and safety for the provision of medical relief
and treatment and in providing humanitarian assistance including that
of UNRWA; special protection for children; and, free access to all
places of worship and holy sites.
It is now up to Israel, the United Nations and the international
community to translate the urgent recommendations of the Commission
of Inquiry into concrete policies and programs.
The complete report of the Commission of Inquiry is available on the
UNCHR website (www.unhchr.ch)
and on the BADIL website in PDF format.
A delegation from BADIL Resource Center met with the Commission of
Inquiry in mid-February and submitted a report on the impact of the
lack of international protection of Palestinian refugees during the
al-Aqsa intifada. The report is also available on the BADIL website.
----------------------------------
BADIL Resource Center aims to provide a resource pool of alternative,
critical and progressive information and analysis on the
question of Palestinian refugees in our quest to achieve a just and
lasting
solution for exiled Palestinians based on the right
of return.
PO Box 728, Bethlehem, Palestine; tel/fax. 02-2747346; email:
info@badil.org; website: www.badil.org
_______________________________________________________________________
Amnesty calls for right of return, international force
By Amira Hass (Ha'aretz, 27 March 2001)
Amnesty International Secretary General Pierre Sane yesterday in
Jerusalem
publicly backed the right of return of Palestinian refugees and demanded
that armed international observers be deployed in the territories.
Israel responded by declaring the London-based human rights group was
losing
the moral high ground, since siding with the Palestinians on these two
explosive issues involved it in political arguments.
Both issues have been at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian acrimony, with
the
right of return emerging as one of the causes for the collapse of the
peace
talks.
Sane said the presence of observers could help reduce friction between
Israelis and Palestinians, and that the right of refugees to return is
universal.
"Palestinian refugees were forcibly exiled from their homes,"
Sane told a
news conference that capped his week-long tour in the territories, where
he
met with Israeli and Palestinian officials. Sane also met with
Palestinian
Authority (PA) Chairman Yasser Arafat, but Israeli ministers refused to
meet
with him.
"[The refugees] have the right to exercise their right of return to
their
homes. This is an international human right that can't be negotiated
away by
politicians," Sane said. He pointed to solutions in El Salvador,
Bosnia and
Rwanda that could serve as models.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Amnesty was losing its
credibility: "The group's suggestions on armed observers and
Palestinian
refugees are just a recipe for more violence and friction," said
Raanan
Gissin.
In a 10-point document, Sane accused both Israel and the PA of sweeping
human rights violations. The document decried PA execution of
Palestinians
suspected of aiding Israeli security forces, as well as Israel's
destruction
of Palestinian property and its imposition of travel restrictions on
West
Bank and Gaza Strip residents.
"Recent months clearly showed, more than once, that when human
rights are
sacrificed on the altar of peace and security, there can be no peace and
no
security," the Amnesty document said.
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14806
Ha'aretz March 27, 2001
The right to resist
By Baruch Kimmerling
As difficult as it may be for us, it's important to make
clear the political, legal and moral reality in its
historical context: Since 1967, millions of
Palestinians have been under a military occupation,
without any civil rights with, and most lacking even
the most basic human rights. The continuing
circumstances of occupation and repression give
them, by any measure, the right to resist that
occupation with any means at their disposal and to
rise up in violence against that occupation. This is a
moral right inherent to natural law and international
law.The problem is worsened by physical proximity,
in which the two populations live next door to one
another, and how that imposes itself on the form of
fighting. Indiscriminate Palestinian terrorism against
civilian populations in the heart of Israel is immoral,
and has a boomerang effect. It increases anger and
hatred in the Jewish community and blocks the
possibility that an empathetic, rational view can be
taken of rightful Palestinian demands. The terrorism
also serves as a political tool, consciously used by
cynical politicians on the right, and lately by some
leading army commanders, to torpedo any possibility
of agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
Furthermore, steps initiated by the army and the
settlers often result in the indiscriminate killing of
Palestinians, which is equally unacceptable by any
human measure. Hundreds of Palestinians have been
killed and thousands wounded since the outbreak of
the Al-Aqsa Intifada in late September. Israel now
turns frequently to collective punishments - sieges
and carving up of Palestinian territory - that are
expressedly forbidden by international law and
convention. And Israel uses personal terrorism
against those it defines as field commanders of the
Palestinian uprising.
The Palestinian right to resist the occupation is
strengthened by the Fourth Geneva Convention's ban
on creating irreversible facts on the ground in
occupied territories, and especially the ban on
transferring populations from the occupying state to
the territories it has conquered. Israel's claim that it
is not an occupier - because there was no
sovereignty over those lands since the British left in
1948, and the Palestinians rejected the 1948 partition
plan - is at best, dodgy.
According to the High Court of Justice, which is
well aware of the Fourth Geneva Convention, all the
settlements over the Green Line were built for
"security" reasons, which is the loophole Israel
found in international law to justify their
construction. The second "legal" loophole used by
Israel is that it does not expropriate private property,
only establishing settlements on "state lands."
Since 1967, more than 60 percent of the West Bank
has been defined as "state lands," which in effect has
meant selective, de facto annexation of the
territories. This "legal" step was made possible
because most of the land was not properly listed in
the books - whether Ottoman, British or Jordanian.
But all those governments recognized the traditional
ownership of the territory's farmers.
Israel made an unprecedented land grab in the 1980s,
when it surveyed the entire territory, compared its
findings to the tabu (land registration documents),
and declared everything unlisted as state property -
without allowing local inhabitants prove their
ownership and record their holdings. Thus, the
legality and morality of all the Jewish settlements
and holdings in the territories is highly doubtful.
Several phenomena have dulled Israel's political and
more senses. Until the end of 1987, Palestinian
resistance to the occupation was only a minor
discord. Israeli society enjoyed the fruits of the
"permanent temporary" occupation without paying
any significant and immediate price for it. Under
such circumstances it was easy to combine
nationalist-religious messianism, Likud-style secular
chauvinism, and the security-above-all ideology of
Mapai and Ahdut Avoda to conquer Israel's political
culture.
Even today, most of the public simply does not know
that every violent step taken against the Palestinians -
let alone the aggregate of those steps - borders on
war crimes, and cannot see the black flag of
illegality flying over each of those steps. A state that
regards itself as enlightened cannot behave like a
terror-state, even if it suffers from terrorism.
Statesmen, generals and simple citizens must see that
black flag before it's too late and we are all stained
with the blackest of the black
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Monday 19th March
Palestinian Women's Demonstration
At eleven o'clock hundreds of Palestinian Women went out on a peaceful
demonstration to the new military checkpoint, which was established by
the
Israelis within the new Sharon plan that has included 90 new military
posts
within the West Bank and Gaza. This new checkpoint was placed at
Kalandia, a
refugee camp north of Jerusalem to consolidate the severing of Jerusalem
from the rest of the West Bank and another checkpoint only half a mile
away
set up at Al-Ram neighborhood since 1991 for the same purpose. The women
raised their voices in demand of protection for the Palestinians,
implementing U.N resolutions and to establish a just peace and guarantee
security. The women's voices was lifted high in the space of Jerusalem
in
the hope that they would find echo in the Arab world and
internationally.
The policy of mass punishment is increasingly suffocating the
Palestinians
and the Israelis intend to make the Palestinians succumb as a result of
Sharon's aggressive policies that are enveloped by the gossamer web of
Peres' lies. The women moved forwards confidently challenging the
soldiers'
weapons and saying to them, go back to your girlfriends and wives , your
governments have transformed you into tools for murdering us and your
own
humanity every second of the day. The soldiers glared at us but remained
silent and the women marched past them continuing their demonstration ,
while at the top of the hill the soldiers in the tank held their guns up
ready to shoot. The soldiers at Al-Ram chekpoint however, threw sound
bombs
and tear gas at us and the Israeli jeep drove into the crowd to disperse
the
demonstration. Some women were injured - Itaf from Beitunia and Kawthar
from
Kufr 'Ein. Hanan "Ashrawi's legs were burnt by the sound bomb . The
smoke
rose in columns in the area and the young men rushed forward to build
barricades in preparation for the funeral of a young Palestinian
boy,Mouhamed Nassar,who was martyred after his skull was crushed by the
settlers of Neve Ya'cov ( an Israeli settlement built on the lands of
Beit
Hanina , north of Jerusalem) His ribs were crushed and he was then
thrown in
a parknext to the settlement. The tortured women and children of
Palestine
call on you to end the occupation, your silence is a position that does
not
help in building a true and just peace in the area. Your silence will
not
help us to achieve this peace in the whole region. Why, why does the
world
see that monetary support , which comes to the dead could make us calm
down
and why do they not see that economic and political support should come
to
the living so that we can survive. What are you waiting for ? - For the
Palestinians to annihilated like the Red Indians in America? The
movement of
nations and their struggles have obliterated the principle of
eliminating
nations and their human and national rights. We call on you to be with
us as
Israel's iniquitous aggression is a disgrace for all humanity in the
21st
century. No one should shirk their responsibility!!
Amal Khreshe
The Palestinian Working Women Society
Tel: 972-2-2986761 / 2981977 Fax: 2963288
Email: pwws@planet.edu
Web site: www.pal-pwws.org
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