Press Statement

The Ministry of Information Appeals for International Protection

For the fourth consecutive day today, the Netanyahu government continues to clamp down a tight siege over the entire Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, to infringe the basic human rights of this people including the right of employment and medication, the right of movement by Palestinian citizens throughout the Palestinian territories, and up to banning the distribution and circulation of the press inside the Palestinian homeland.
The Netanyahu government is exerting a collective punishment policy to revenge the suicide bombing in Jerusalem.

Undoubtedly, this punishment is branded with aggressiveness and racism and breeds more hatred and grudge which is apt to destroy any hopes by the Palestinian people to a just peace and to the domination of the principles of international law and justice. The long sufferings of the Palestinian people pile up and aggravate day by day as a result of this black siege, which prompts an international intervention to ensure protection for the Palestinian people and obligates the Israeli government to observe all international convention which prohibit the use of collective punishment methods against human beings.

The Palestinian Ministry of Information
The Press Office
Aug. 2, 1997