Press Release

August 17 2000
Press Release Index
Israeli Military Raid on Palestinian village
Leaves Elderly, Prominent Palestinian Figure Dead
On August 16, 2000 at approximately 2:00 am in the village of Surda near Ramallah, a Special Unit of the Israeli Military shot Mahmoud Ass’ad Abdullah El-Bazar, aged 71 and the former mayor (Mukhtar) of the village. The ambulance that was called to the scene by the deceased’s son, Hisham, was held at the Israeli checkpoint and not allowed to enter to treat Mahmoud, and as a result, he died from his bullet wounds before he reached the hospital.

According to eyewitness testimonies given to Al-Haq, Mahmoud El-Bazar was sitting with his family, who recently arrived from the United States to visit, at around 2:00am on August 16, when he heard noises around his house. Since there had been an attempted burglary on his house a few months earlier, he went to the roof to investigate the noises, carrying his pistol that was licensed by the PNA.  He made several attempts to ask the intruders to identify themselves. When Mahmoud’s son Hisham reached the roof, there had been a barrage of gunfire and Mahmoud was hit in the head. The ambulances (there were two called to the scene one Palestinian and one Israeli) were not permitted to enter and administer treatment to Mahmoud and were held for nearly one and a half hours. Later, an Israeli Military ambulance was permitted to enter but Mahmoud died in the ambulance.

This is a crime committed by the Israeli military authorities. This crime comes at a sensitive juncture, after the failure of the Camp David Summit and before the planned declaration of the Palestinian State, making the situation prone to more violent confrontations. Al-Haq calls upon the Israeli and Palestinian Authorities to jointly investigate this crime and prosecute those responsible for the killing.  The Israeli military authorities must implement procedures  deregulate their use of force and open fire used during the Intifada  in the Occupied Territories (in area B and C) to suit the changes in the area after the Israeli redeployment, the establishment of the PNA, and in the spirit of the Peace Process with the Palestinian People.     

Al-Haq has fully documented this and similar incidents, and reiterates that willful killing and summary executions constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as defined in Article 147 of that convention. Article 146 imposes an obligation on the states parties to the convention, especially those who have incorporated it into their domestic legislation, to search and prosecute in their domestic courts those who commit grave breaches or order them to be committed. However, States Signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention have to date failed to discharge their legal and moral duty under the Convention. Until they have implemented measures which effectively deter such criminal behavior as the willful causing of grave injuries by the Israeli military, States signatories will not have satisfied the minimum requirements of the Fourth Geneva Convention to which they are a party.