DCI/PS LAUNCHES THE CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN
On the occasion of the 52nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Defence for Children International/Palestine Section announces the launching of the Campaign to Protect the Rights of Palestinian Children. In conjunction with the Campaign, DCI/PS has posted a new section of its website, which features messages from Palestinian children, suggestions for international advocacy, and relevant resources for concerned individuals abroad, please see http://www.dci-pal.org/campaign/campaign2.html.
The Campaign to Protect the Rights of Palestinian Children was launched in order to increase international awareness regarding the conditions in which Palestinian children live. It seeks to mobilize international support for the protection of Palestinian children. Moreover, it strives to counter misinformation, both about the current crisis and its affects on children, that permeates mainstream media in the West. Above all, it seeks to remind the international community that Palestinian children are like children everywhere. They are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. They have names and birthdays and favorite toys, and they, like children all over the world, dream of a bright future.
Since clashes erupted throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the end of September 2000, we have seen the tragic consequences of Israel's failure to comply with its obligations under international law, both those it has willingly assumed, and those to which it is bound under customary international law. As of 5 December, 85 Palestinian children had been killed as a direct result of Israeli military and settler presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In addition, an estimated 2,900 children have been injured and thousands traumatized as a result of ongoing exposure to violence.
Unfortunately, what we have witnessed in the past six weeks is only an intensification of the difficult circumstances Palestinian children live under. The primary cause of the Intifada is the basic denial of Palestinian human rights resulting from the 33 year long Israeli military occupation. These ongoing, systematic, and institutionalized violations affect every sphere of daily life for Palestinian residents of the OPT. With particular reference to children, indicators of the present situation were easily identified within the last year. The primary manifestation of an intensification of violations of children rights was the re-implementation in 1999 of Israeli Military Order 132, which allows for the arrest, detention, and imprisonment of children between the ages of 12 and 14, and the initiation of "mass arrests" of Palestinian children. Military Order 132 had ceased to be implemented in the period following the 1993 Oslo Accords. With reference to the work of the DCI/PS Legal Program, the effects of increased violations were evident in the significant increase in the number of cases with which the program dealt in 1999, as compared with 1998. In 1998 the Legal Program followed up 89 cases of minors arrested by the Israeli occupation authorities. In 1999 that number jumped to 202.
Similarly, in a report the Legal Program produced following the series of demonstrations held between 11 and 28 May 2000, DCI/PS noted that the Israeli military utilized live bullets, rubber coated steel bullets, dumdum bullets and tear gas to disperse protestors. Of particular relevance to the current situation was the assessment that Israeli soldiers appeared to be implementing a policy of shoot to kill or seriously injure. According to DCI/PS documentation during this period, four Palestinian children were martyred and 136 injured. Of the injured, over 50% of the injuries (77 out of 136) were sustained to the upper parts of the body. The distribution of injuries was as follows: 30 were shot in the head, 44 in the chest and 43 in the lower part of the body. Of the injured children, 93 were between the ages of 15-18, 39 between 10-14, and 4 between 5-9 years old.
Similar to the events in May, since the beginning of the current Intifada, the Israeli military's use of force has been excessive and disproportionate. Among other methods, the Israeli military has used live ammunition, deployed snipers, helicopter gunships, and tanks, as well as fired missiles into residential areas, in their attack against Palestinian civilians. Particularly disturbing are the nightly attacks on numerous Palestinian cities and villages, characterized by heavy tank shelling and missiles fired from the ground and air. An examination of the cause of deaths and injuries of children indicates that the Israeli occupation forces are again implementing a policy of shoot to kill or seriously injure. With particular reference to patterns of injury among children who were killed, 68 out of 85 died as a result of wounds sustained to the upper parts of their body.
Given the ongoing, gross, and systematic violations of Palestinian children's rights, and the deteriorating overall human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, DCI/PS urges international activists, organizations, and institutions to join them in promoting and protecting the rights of the Palestinian child. For more information about the Campaign to protect the Rights of Palestinian Children, please contact DCI/PS (dcipal@palnet.com).
return to top
Settler aggression against Palestinians
On Friday, outside the settlement of Qiryat Arba in the Baq'a valley,
dozens of settlers occupied Atta Jaber's home, bringing in their own
furniture and raising an Israeli flag over the house. They spent the
night in the occupied house and on Saturday proceeded to spread around
the hills, throwing stones at Palestinian houses and terrorizing the
helpless residents. At about midday, a settler shot and seriously
injured Mansour Naji Jaber, a 13 year old Palestinian boy. Mansour was
shot in the arm and abdomen, and transferred to Hadasah hospital where
he remains. The shooter, a 37 year old Qiryat Arba resident, turned
himself over to the police today. All throughout Saturday settlers
kept swarming to the house and were not prevented from doing so by the
army, who was present in small numbers, or by the police, who were
also present but under IDF orders. Armed settlers were allowed to
pass, even after the child Mansour was shot. According to the IDF
soldiers on the site, they were given orders to allow the settlers to
stay. The settlers were eventually evacuated late in the evening but
left the house burnt and severely damaged from the inside. The house
has now been declared a closed military zone and no one is allowed to
enter it until March, including Atta Jaber and his family. Atta's home
has been demolished twice before, and his father's house, adjacent to
Giv'at Harsina, has been under continuous settler attacks for weeks.
Settlers have broken all the windows in his house (as well as in about
a dozen more houses nearby), have uprooted grapevines, trees, and
destroyed agricultural equipment.
Alternative Information Centre
return to top
LAW Reveals the Details of the shooting of a child in
Hebron
The Israeli security forces continue to deploy excessive lethal force
against unarmed Palestinian children. Based on its field
documentation
and information gathered on the 8 and 9 of December 2000, LAW
investigated the shooting of Ahmad el Qawasmi (15) from Hebron.
Ahmad
el Qawasmi was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier on Friday the
8
December.
In a sworn affidavit, Ashraf Julani, an eyewitness to the shooting
told LAW that “On Friday, December 8, 2000, at 13:45, while I was
sitting on the balcony of my home in Harit el Sheik, in downtown
Hebron, I heard intensive gunfire. I saw an Israeli soldier standing
with his foot pressed against the neck of a young Palestinian; I then
saw the soldier shoot the child in the forehead. There were four other
soldiers shooting eastward it an alley leading to the Ali Baka mosque.
I went down to the street to take the injured child to safety; he was
only 15 meters away. I carried him for almost 30 meters.
A number of soldiers ran after me and ordered me to put the child
down. They searched the injured child and then searched me. They also
pointed their guns at us. The search went on for five minutes. Then I
was told to take the child and leave. I carried him for another 100
meters to Bab el Zawyi where an ambulance took the child to hospital.
I later learned that the victim’s name was Ahmad el Qawasmi. He was 15
years old. He was in critical condition. Ahmad was shot in H1 area,
which is under Palestinian control. He did not threaten the lives of
any of the Israeli soldiers when he was shot.”
The eyewitness added that Ahmad was bleeding heavily. LAW’s field
researcher was in the area when the soldiers opened fire but could not
reach the site where the incident had occurred due to heavy shooting.
However, the researcher went to el Ahli Hospital, where the wounded
child was admitted.
Dr. Mohammad Dwaik explained the child’s condition to LAW’s
researcher; “the child was shot at point-blank range. The bullet
penetrated the victim’s forehead, damaged part of the skull and lodged
in the brain”. Two other Palestinians were wounded including Muhanad
el Hirbawi (15) who was shot in the pelvis and the right thigh.
LAW
return to top
Israeli Soldiers and Settlers continue to Attack
Palestinians
Today in the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers shot at Palestinian workers
who were fixing a school in Dir a bala. As a result, Walid el
Majedlawi was shot in the ear.
In Bethlehem, Mahmoud el Mughrabi (24) was shot and killed by
Israeli
security forces near the bypass road situated to the west of Beit
Jala. According to Israeli sources Mughrabi was preparing an
explosive
device shortly before the incident.
In Beit Djan village near Nablus, Israeli soldiers stopped Oreib
Younis (28) who was in labour, from getting to a nearby hospital. An
ambulance eventually reached Younis after the Village Council
contacted the DCO office.
Settlers and Israeli soldiers shot at children at the entrance of Beit
Furiek and Beit Djan Villages. One child, Hamada Afeef (15) was
wounded in the neck and right shoulder.
LAW calls on the international community to pressure Israel to respect
the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention and to implement UN
resolutions 242, 338 and 194.
LAW calls on the Israeli security forces to abide by international
regulations concerned with the use of force by law enforcement
officials and to refrain from harming Palestinian civilians who do not
pose an imminent danger to the life of soldiers.
LAW calls on Israel to respect article 38 (1) of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child which stipulates: State Parties undertake to
respect and to ensure respect for the rules of international
humanitarian law applicable to them in armed conflicts which are
relevant to the child.
return to top
On the 51st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the international community is unable to protect Palestinian civilians
Today, December 10, 2000, is the 52 nd anniversary of the adoption of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly.
The Declaration upholds the common ideal that humanity, through both
governments and individuals, should pursue and seek to achieve rights
and freedoms original to human nature. The approval of the
Declaration in 1948 was the first occasion on which governments of the
world approved collectively (through members of the UN) a declaration
of human rights that became a guide and a reference point for
humanity, as well as a standard for measuring the degree of respect
for human rights.
As usual, the Palestinian people celebrate in their own way the
anniversary of the Declaration, which was issued a few months after
Zionist militias and the Israeli military uprooted and dispersed them,
in one of the biggest and long-lasting ethnic cleansings in
contemporary history. Since then, the Palestinian people have daily
paid the price for the silence of the international community before
killings, dispersion and massive violations of basic collective and
individual rights perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces.
Violations committed by the Israeli occupation forces reached their
peak in the last quarter of 2000. During this time, the Israeli
military faced the Palestinian people with weapons of destruction and
killing because the Palestinian people reject occupation and insist on
attaining their legitimate rights. The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and other Covenants that constitute the International Bill of
Human Rights ensure these legitimate rights.
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and human
rights.” All the Palestinian people understand this provision of
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the longing
for freedom and the insistence on human dignity are fundamental to all
the Palestinian people – children, elderly, women and men – in their
struggle against occupation. The scenes of the last three months have
exposed the cruelty and excessive resort to violence of the Israeli
occupation forces. The response of the Israeli occupation forces to
Palestinian civilians, who have continued their protests against the
Israeli occupation since September 29, 2000, in what has come to be
known as “Al-Aqsa Intifada,” has been harsh and totally
disproportionate. The Israeli occupation forces have imposed a total
siege on the occupied Palestinian territories, isolating them from the
outside world. Tanks and armored vehicles of these forces have
blocked the entrances of Palestinian cities and the main roads,
transforming the occupied Palestinian territories into bantustans no
different from the extinct apartheid reign in South Africa. Since
September 29, 2000, the Israeli occupation forces have killed more
than 271 Palestinians, including 96 children, and wounded thousands,
many of whom will remain handicapped for the rest of their lives due
to serious wounds in the upper part of the body. The use of lethal
force by the Israeli occupation forces has not been limited to live
bullets and banned dumdum bullets, but has gone so far as to include
firing artillery shells from tanks, combat helicopters and gunboats at
Palestinian civilians, residential neighborhoods and civilian
facilities throughout the occupied Palestinian territories. Medical
personnel have not been immune from attacks by the Israeli occupation
forces. In addition to preventing these medical personnel from
reaching wounded Palestinians, the Israeli occupation forces have shot
at clearly marked medical vehicles, killing and wounding a number of
medical personnel. Furthermore, the Israeli occupation forces have
wounded a number of international and local journalists and reporters.
Armed settlers have escalated their attacks on Palestinian civilians,
and bulldozers of the Israeli occupation forces have swept thousands
of donums of Palestinian agricultural land, destroyed agricultural
facilities and demolished houses, displacing children, woman and the
elderly.
PCHR is deeply frustrated by the failure of the international
community to take effective measures in order to stop the grave
violations of the international humanitarian law and human rights
covenants perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces. PCHR
appreciates the importance of the steps taken in the UN Security
Council, the UN General Assembly and the UN High Commission on Human
Rights following the visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights to the occupied Palestinian territories; however, these efforts
have not resulted in real guarantees to protect Palestinian civilians.
PCHR, on the 52nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, makes an appeal to the international community and
organizations, and all human rights defenders in the world to
immediately intervene to stop the grave abuses perpetrated by the
Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people, and to
provide immediate international protection for Palestinian civilians
in the occupied territories. Palestinian civilians continue their
rejection of occupation and insist on obtaining their legitimate
rights that are ensured by human rights conventions and the principles
of international law, mainly the right to self-determination, the
right to independence and the right of refugees to return to their
homeland.
LAW
PCHR