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Friday, March 11, 2005
Continued Loss of Human Rights in Palestine
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Continued Loss of Human Rights in Palestine
CNI Info Alert
Date: March 11, 2005
Two recent reports, one issued by Human Rights Watch in preparation for the 61st Session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, and the other by the U.S. Department of States underline the continued disrespect for human rights in Israel and Occupied Palestine.
Human Rights Watch makes a concerted effort this year to report abuses of human rights by both Israelis and Palestinians, but the bulk of the report focuses on the gross violations of human rights in the Occupied Territories by Israeli troops and by the construction of the Wall. Since the beginning of the Second Intifada, more than 4,200 people have been killed and tens of thousands have been injured. The overwhelming majority were civilians. More than three-quarters of the dead were Palestinians.
The Report highlights the following abuses:
(1) Israel failed to investigate numerous killings of civilians by the Israeli Defense Forces, and no one has been held accountable for these deaths. Rarely are Palestinian witnesses consulted, and Palestinian deaths are generally treated less seriously than are Jewish Israeli deaths.
(2) The construction of the Wall wrecks havoc with basic human and civic rights of Palestinians, especially those caught in the area between the path of the Wall and the Green Line, called the Seam Zone. The deviation between the Green Line and the Wall is clear: the newly announced path of the Wall which supposedly take greater account of the human rights of the Palestinians in its way, is 670 kms long, twice the length of the Green Line; and it incorporates 10% of the West Bank and encompasses some 49,416 Palestinians and 170,123 Jewish colonists. These figures do not include the annexations inherent in the path of the Wall around Jerusalem, which will affect thousands more. Moreover, the Wall affects the lives of thousands of Palestinians left east of the Wall. As the Report states, "Israeli settlers or any person of Jewish descent from anywhere in the world can move freely in and out and around the Seam Zone, while Palestinians living or working between the wall and the Green Line must apply for permits to continue living in their homes or to access their means of livelihood.
"The wall has aggravated the already crippling restrictions on freedom of movement, and imperils essential access to education, work, water, and family life."
(3) As for the disengagement from Gaza, the Report finds that any "steps that will reduce the extent to which Palestinians are subject to day-to-day contact with Israeli troops that are often abusive" is welcome, but points out that the Disengagement Plan includes onerous restrictions, compromising the true independence for Gaza. Israel retains control over Gaza's borders, airspace and sea space, all entry and exit points, electricity, water, and sewage. Until those restrictions are lifted, Israel will remain responsible for the humanitarian welfare of the Palestinians living in Gaza.
(4) Israel has destroyed hundreds of homes since 2000, leaving as many as 16,000 people homeless in the town of Rafah alone. They have destroyed homes along the Philadelphi road between Gaza and Egypt, and are widening the buffer zone in the south between Rafah and the Egyptian border, already 300 meters wide. The destruction of many of the homes has been done without clear military necessity. In February, the Israeli government announced that it would end punitive house demolitions (destroying houses of families of Palestinian suicide bombers or those deemed to be 'ticking bombs'), but made no mention of providing compensation for the over 4000 people who have lost their homes.
The Report condemned the loss of Israeli civilians in suicide attacks, and also the loss of Palestinians executed by Palestinian gunman for allegedly collaborating with Israelis.
Finally the Report deplores the failure to address the issue of human rights in the Sharm al-Sheikh cease-fire in February and that a human rights mechanism has not been included in the framework of peace negotiations.
The 2004 Human Rights Report issued by the Department of State in February bends over backward not to place blame in even the obvious areas of human rights violations (the Wall, for example), but the disrespect for human life by the Israeli security forces is evident in the details supplied under the sections, "Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment" (pp. 17-19) and "Use of Excessive Force and Violations of Humanitarian Law in Internal and External Conflicts" (pp.21-24).
Elsewhere, the Report also details methods by which the Israeli authorities limit free speech in East Jerusalem, prevent Palestinian journalists from reporting effectively on the Intifada, close schools and universities, and cause damaged to educational buildings themselves.
In the area of "Freedom of Religion," it points out that Muslim males under the age of 45 were prohibited from attending Friday prayers at the Haram al-Sharif, and most West Bank residents and all Gazans were prohibited from entering Jerusalem during Ramadan.
As for the freedom of movement of Palestinians, the difficulties of travel between areas of the Occupied Territories include references to the construction of the Wall.
The section on Israel proper contains a long discussion of the discrimination faced by Israeli Palestinians ("Arabs") (pp. 11-13) and by Palestinian workers, who can only be employed on a daily basis but cannot spend the night in Israel; but in the year 2004, only 12,500 Palestinians were actually employed on a daily basis in Israel.
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posted by Somebody @ 11:00 PM Permanent Link
 
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