ISRAELI OCCUPATION FORCES LAY MINES AROUND BLOCKADES SEPARATING PALESTINIAN DISTRICTS
At approximately 12:30am on 22 November, while Palestinian residents were attempting to remove a road block, which the occupation army had erected inside the village of Abu Da'eef, in the Jenin area, they discovered four anti-personnel landmines buried inside the blockade.
Prior to this incident, approximately one week ago, a mine severely injured 10 year old Khalil Atallah from Balatta Refugee Camp as he was on his way to the bakery. As Khalil neared the bakery, he came upon a strange object, which he went to investigate. He tried unsuccessfully to open the object, and then threw it against a wall. It exploded, scattering a large number of metal fragments, severely injuring the child.
Defence for Children International/ Palestine Section, along with the Palestinian Campaign to Ban Landmines, views with grave concern the Israeli practice, which violates the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty prohibiting the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel mines. This practice also constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which obliges the Israeli government, as an occupying power, to provide for the protection and safety of the occupied population.
DCI/PS research on the magnitude and effects of the problem of landmines and UXO in the West Bank revealed that Palestinians fall victim to landmines and UXO explosions each year, with an estimated 2,500 injured or killed since 1967. Moreover, the research indicated that the majority of these victims are children. Since 1997 alone, over 35 Palestinians have been injured or killed by landmines or UXO. To date, the Israeli government has refused to sign the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.
The recent discovery of anti-personnel landmines in Palestinian civilian areas constitutes yet another element of an ongoing siege against the Palestinian civilian population by the Israeli occupation authorities. Since 29 September, 87 Palestinians 18 years and under have been killed, with an additional 7 declared clinically dead, and approximately 2,700 injured. Moreover, thousands of Palestinian children have been traumatized by the daily exposure to extreme violence. In addition to the laying of anti-personnel landmines, other Israeli practices in the recent period include firing live ammunition and missiles from helicopter gunships and tanks into Palestinian residential areas and restricting the movement of persons and goods in and out of Palestinian areas.
In view of this, DCI/PS calls on all international organizations participating in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), as well as States Parties to the Ottawa Treaty, to intervene immediately for the protection of Palestinian civilians. Moreover, DCI/PS urges international organizations to pressure the Israeli government to cease its violations of the rights of Palestinian civilians and to forbid the use of mines in Palestinian areas.
Israel Continues To Attack Palestinians
This afternoon, in an assassination similar to that of Hussein Ebayat, Israeli forces fired an air-to-ground missile on the car of 34 year-old Ibrahim Bani Odeh, a father of 4 from the village of Tanoun. He had been driving in Nablus town centre, on Jamal Abdel Nasser Street in front of the Al Salam mosque.
Bani Odeh was a Hamas member who had been held as a political prisoner by the Palestinian Authority due to his affiliation with the organisation. He was released yesterday after three years in Juneid prison.
In Rafah, Gaza, 14 year-old Fathi Al Kurd was shot by Israeli soldiers in the head and chest with two live bullets and declared clinically dead. Twelve others were also injured in Rafah, two of whom are said to be in critical condition – Moussa Abu Ghneim (18), who received a live bullet in the chest, and Khaled Abu Sneineh (17), who was hit in the back also with a live bullet.
Also in Gaza, Israeli forces fired a missile from their position at Salah Al Din Gate, near the Gaza-Egypt border, onto a residential area. The missile hit the home of Farouq Breika, inhabited by 16 members of his family. Eighty-five year-old Jundieh Ismail was injured by shrapnel from the explosion.
LAW demands that the State of Israel abide by the relevant provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
LAW demands that the State of Israel implement United Nations resolutions 242, 338 and 194
The belligerent Israeli Occupation Forces continue to shell the Palestinian civilians and to destroy their property
Following the killing of four Palestinian civilians in yesterday’s incident near Rafah in the Gaza Strip, the Israelis shelled the Palestinian cities of Rafah, Khan Younis, Ramallah, and al-Bireh. As a result several houses were damaged and one Palestinian civilian was killed. Another Palestinian civilian died due to earlier injuries. Yesterday's 6 martys were:
1. Awny Ismaeel Dhhair, 37 years old from Rafah.
2. Jamal Abd Alqadir Abd Arraziq, 29 years old from Rafah.
3. Samy Nasir Abu Laban, 30 years old from Annasr neighborhood in Gaza.
4. Nail Salim Allidawy, 25 years old from Rafah. These four people were killed near Rafah.
5. Najeeb Mahmoud Qishtah, 47 years old. He was injured in the head by a rocket.
6. Ibraheem Hasan Almqannan, 14 years old. He was shot in the head on 20/11/2000.
Today, 23/11/2000 in the morning, the belligerent Israeli Occupation Forces opened fire on Palestinian civilians near Salah Addeen border gate by Rafah. As a result 13 Palestinian civilians were injured, three of them were seriously so. These are:
1. Karam Fathy Alkurd, a 14 year-old resident of Rafah injured in the head and chest.
2. Mousa Ibraheem Abu Ghnaim, 18 years old, injured in the chest.
3. Khalid Suleiman Abu Snainah, 17 years old, injured in the back.
This morning at about 5:00 a.m. (3:00 GMT), the Israeli Occupation Forces opened fire on several houses located near Salah Addeen border gate. In this context, the house of Farouq Mohammad E’lian Braikah, inhabitated by 16 people, was shelled while they were asleep. As a result, Jindiah Ismaeel Eid Braikah, 85 years old, was injured in the hand, the house’s walls were cracked, and its windows and doors were damaged. This morning also, at about 8:00 a.m. (6:00 GMT), Israeli troops broke through the border line separating the Gaza Strip from Israel near Beit Hanoun, and took over the Palestinian Border Force base (16) located by the border line. 3 Palestinians were injured in this incident.
The belligerent Israeli Occupation Forces are still blocking the main roads in the Gaza Strip separating it into two isolated halves, and continued to bulldoze lands and to destroy houses owned by Palestinians. In this context, the following were observed:
1. 8 dunams, owned by Fuad Mohammad Ali Aljafarawy, and planted with olive and date trees were bulldozed. An additional 34 dunams owned by the same person were bulldozed two weeks ago. In the same incident, a 2-story villa owned by Fuad located in the same location was completely destroyed. Its area was 250 square meters. In addition, the house of a watchman whose area was 120 square meters was destroyed. Moreover, the irrigation network and a water pump were damaged.
2. The foundations of 4 villas, the area of each of them is 250 square meters, owned by Fuad Aljafarawy's sons, were severely damaged.
3. 40 dunams, owned by Aidah Khadhr Mostafa Aljafarawy and planted with fruit trees, were bulldozed. Her 3-room house located in the same place was also destroyed.
4. 'Metalko' Aluminum factory owned by Fuad Aljafarawy and Labeeb Arrayis was destroyed. The raw materials and an electricity generator which were inside the factory were confiscated by Israeli heavily armed soldiers before completely destroying, and later bulldozing the one dunam piece of land on which the factory was built. The loss resulting from this is about half a million $US.
It is worth mentioning that the total area of land planted with fruit trees, which were bulldozed by the Israelis in the vicinity of Kfar Darom is about 1000 dunams.
We, at Al-MEZAN Center for Human Rights, stress that the Israeli aggressive acts are parts of a general Israeli policy aiming to impose collective punishments upon the Palestinian civilians and creating a state of starvation amongst them. The killing of Palestinians by the Israeli army constitute extra judicial executions, thus they constitute war crime. We request the international community to immediately intervene to protect the Palestinian civilians and to put an end to the Israeli violations of the human rights of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
Petition to UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Mary
Robinson
Endorsed by over 16,000
Palestinians Demand INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION
As a Step towards Implementation of their
Right to SELF-DETERMINATION and Refugees' RIGHT of RETURN
Over 16,000 Palestinians, as well as individuals and organizations worldwide, endorsed - within nine days of its launching - a petition appealing to UN High Commissioner Mary Robinson to "call for the implementation of the Palestinian right to self-determination and, as a first step, to call for an international protection force for the Palestinian people, before continued violence against the Palestinian society results in massive destruction for the second time in 52 years." The petition was signed, among others, by some 3,000 residents of the cities and villages in the Hebron, Jerusalem and Ramallah area; representatives of Palestinian political parties, public institutions, NGOs and university student organizations; refugees and their community organizations in the camps of 'Aida, Beit Jibrin ('Azza), al-'Arroub, and Balata; over 100 representatives of political parties, unions, women committees, NGOs and refugee organizations in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria; and more than 13,000 academics and professionals, Palestinian expatriates, solidarity and human rights activists and their organizations in Arab countries, Europe, Asia and the United States.
Implementation of international law and UN resolutions in our region must no longer be conditional on the consent of the Israeli occupier. The urgency of this Palestinian demand is highlighted by the Israeli cabinet decision - in the wake of a Palestinian attack against Israeli settlers in Gaza on 20 November - to escalate its military repression of the Palestinian uprising by more intensive shelling of Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps, and to tighten sieges and blockades aimed at strangulating the Palestinian people's economic and social infrastructure. At this moment, and following the Israeli air-raid on Gaza on 20 November, extensive shooting by Israeli military and settlers, as well as shelling of Palestinian communities, is being reported from all over the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. 250 Palestinians have been killed, 86 of them minors below the age of 18 (data of 21-11), and more then 10,000 injured since 28 September 2000, and the Israeli government is determined to continue the colonization of the 1967 occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, even at the expense of another war in the Middle East.
The petition, sponsored by Media Alternative on Palestine (MAP) and BADIL Resource Center, was launched on 11 November 2000 on the occasion of UN High Commissioner Robinson's visit to Palestine. It is presented to her today, in order to emphasize the urgency of rapid action by the UN Commission on Human Rights, both towards the UN Security Council's vote on the deployment of international protection forces expected for Friday, 25 November, and towards the establishment of a new, rights-based and UN-supervised mechanism for a just and durable solution of the historical Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
AN URGENT CALL to MRS. MARY ROBINSON UN HIGH COMMISSIONER on HUMAN RIGHTS
WE, the undersigned, call urgently on Mrs. Mary Robinson to uphold, in full, the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on behalf of the Palestinian people, at this most critical and dangerous historical juncture. In particular, we call on her urgently to affirm Article #1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which calls for the inalienable right of all peoples to self- determination, and which continues to be grievously and systematically violated by Israel's occupation, and by its refusal to accept the right of return.
The right to self-determination and continued occupation stand in fundamental conflict. Continued occupation is the root cause of the present situation. It is the machinery of occupation which produces the systematic violation of the range of other individual and collective rights provided for by the Covenant, including the right to liberty and security of person, the right to freedom of movement, the right to control one's own natural resources, and others. It is the machinery of occupation which produces settlements, closures, checkpoints, home demolitions, land confiscation, destruction of crops, and wanton killings by settlers and occupation forces, which the Palestinian people have continued to endure even during the last 7 years under cover of the peace process.
Occupation can be maintained only by violence or the threat of violence. Instead of respecting the principles of human rights and international law, and acknowledging the Palestinian right to self- determination, Israel has declared war on the Palestinian people. It has openly unleashed an arsenal of military violence against them. In just six weeks, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed and over six thousand wounded. We demand a total end to the occupation. We appeal urgently to the High Commissioner for Human Rights to call for the implementation of the Palestinian right to self-determination, and as a first step, to call for an international protection force for the Palestinian people, before continued violence against Palestinian society results in massive destruction for the second time in 52 years.
* For additional information on the current uprising, Israeli repression, relevant UN resolutions, and the Palestinian demand for international protection, see www.badil.org/Intifada2000/Intifada2000.html
* For more information about Media Alternatives on Palestine (MAP), please contact: mapalestine@hotmail.com
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