At 9:00am this morning the Israeli Army demolished the home of Abdel Rahman Al Jawabra. CPTers received a call shortly thereafter. Anita Fast and Jamey Bouwmeester rushed to the scene to find the bulldozer at work on a second house belonging to Nassin Alamiyeh. Members of a CPT delegation arrived on the scene shortly afterward.
Alamiyeh reported that he was completely surprised by the demolition because he had never been issued a demolition order or even a "stop work" order. When CPTers accompanied Alamiyeh to ask the officer in charge for the demolition order, but he was unable to present them with any documentation.
The army declared a large area around the house a closed military area. A contingent of more than 50 soldiers and an armoured personnel carrier with three mounted machine guns kept CPTers and journalists from coming closer than 100 metres from the house.
Although the house was still under construction and the Alamiyehs had not yet moved into it, it represented more than four years of savings. The family was helpless to do anything but watch as the bulldozer rammed at the cement columns of their nearly completed home.
At 1:00pm it began to rain and the army started to pack up and leave the area. The house had still not been completely razed, but is damaged beyond repair.
These are the first demolitions in the Hebron District since May 1999. In the past 18 months people had begun to hope that their homes would be safe. Now, many fear that this is the beginning in a new wave of demolitions. Wa'el Abu Ayyash, another resident of the area with a home demolition order, asked Fast, "When they finish with this house, do you think they will come to mine next?"
return to top
Israeli Occupation Forces assassinated their sixteenth Palestinian
leader yesterday. Mohammad al-Madani, 25, from Balata
Refugee camp near the West Bank City of Nablus was
assassinated as he was on his way from the camp’s Mosque to
his store nearby. Al-Medani was active in Hamas in the Nablus
area. Israeli sources reported that he was suspected of having
participated in planning the bombing in Netanya last November
and that he was killed in response to this attack, but released no
evidence to back up their claims.
Eyewitness testimonies and other information gathered by al-Haq
fieldworkers give the following account. Shortly after noon
prayers al-Madani and his brother left the camp’s mosque and
headed down Jerusalem Street towards a store al-Madani owned
close by in an “A” area under the control of the PNA. As they
were walking down the street Israeli forces located in the Tel
Arras outpost 200 meters from al-Madani’s location and Israeli
soldiers positioned nearby along the road opened fire. Al-Madani
was struck in the chest, but remained conscious and attempted to
crawl to cover. The Israeli forces continued to shoot at him and
he was struck in the upper body a total of four times before the
shooting ceased allowing bystanders to assist him. He was
rushed to Rafidia hospital in Nablus where four operations were
performed upon him, but the doctors were unable to save him and
he died several hours later.
Al-Haq condemns Israel’s continued implementation of its policy
of assassination and its blatant disregard for international law.
Article 1 of the Resolution on the Principles of Effective
Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and
Summary Executions from 1989 states that,
“Governments shall prohibit all extra-legal, arbitrary and summary
executions and shall ensure that any such executions are
recognized as offences under their criminal laws, and are
punishable by appropriate penalties, which take into account the
seriousness of such offences. Exceptional circumstances
including a state of war or threat of war, internal political
instability or any other public emergency may not be invoked as a
justification of such executions.”
Additionally, Article 23 of the Hague Convention of 1907 and
Articles 32, 33, and 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949
also prohibit such acts. Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention qualifies assassination as a grave violation of the
convention that must be prosecuted by States Parties to the
convention. In this light the international community must take
action to stop Israeli aggression against unarmed Palestinian
civilians and must pressure the Israeli government to end its policy
of assassination.
Al-Haq is highly critical of the statement released by the US State
Department following the assassination of Colonel Masoud Ayad,
as reported in Haaretz on 16 February 2001, which stated that
Israel did not violate any understanding or agreement with the US
when it used combat helicopters in the Ayad assassination. As
Israel’s actions are a clear and blatant violation of international
law, discussion of understandings and agreements between the
US and Israel are of no significance and deflect attention from the
real issue at hand. The US Government must take a principled
stand by strongly condemning the continued use of this
unjustifiable policy by the Israeli authorities.
In other events yesterday Israeli forces launched an indiscriminate
attack on an amusement park near Tulkarem. Two foreign
workers employed as technicians at the park we injured. Martin
Van Win of South Africa suffered from a broken leg, and Isbrard
Van Sande from the Netherlands was injured in the chest.
Israel’s complete disregard for life as displayed in its continued
use of excessive force against the civilian Palestinian population
and foreigners and its policy of assassination was clearly manifest
in the decision of High Court released Sunday to grant early
parole to Yoram Skolnick.Skolnick was convicted of
premeditated murder after he shot and killed Mousa Abu Sabha
while Sabha was under attest and lying chained on the ground.
(More information on this case documented by al-Haq over the
last seven years is available) This decision comes close upon the
heels of another decision in which a settler was sentenced to only
six months community service for brutally beating a Palestinian
child to death. Al-Haq denounces these decisions and believes
that they only serve to exacerbate tensions. Israel’s continued
policy of assassination, its use of excessive and indiscriminate
force, and the lack of value placed upon the lives of Palestinians
by the Israeli courts all contribute to an environment in which the
killing of Palestinian civilians is legitimized.
Al-Haq calls upon the Israeli Authorities to act in accordance with
international law, to end its excessive use of force and its policy of
assassination, to prosecute all those who violate or order violations
of international law, and to ensure equality before the law. Al-
Haq also reiterates its calls for:
1. States Party to the Fourth Geneva Convention to act
immediately to provide the Palestinian people with protection
from Israeli human rights violations and demand an end to
abuses committed by Israeli forces. The assassinations of
Palestinian activists constitute grave breaches of the
convention obligating States Parties to act under Article 1,
which calls for them “to respect and ensure respect for the
present Convention in all circumstances.”
2. The Security Council and the UN General Assembly to end
their indefensible silence regarding Israeli’s blatant violations
against Palestinian’s human rights.
3. The international community to take the necessary
measures to pressure the Israeli Government to stop its
excessive use of force and aggression against Palestinian
civilians.
4. The Security Council to reconsider its decision regarding
the deployment of an international protections force for the
Palestinian people and to immediately take steps to form such
a force to ensure Israeli compliance with United Nations
Resolutions and international law.
return to top
BADIL Delegation Briefs UN Special Investigation Committee
on the
Urgent Need for International Protection of Palestinian
Refugee Rights
On February 16, 2001 a delegation of BADIL Resource Center
met with
the United Nations' Special Committee mandated with the
investigation
of the causes of the current violent crisis in the 1967
occupied West
Bank and Gaza Strip as well as Israeli human rights
violations
committed since 28 September 2000 (UN High Commission on
Human
Rights, Resolution E/CN.4/S-5/1 of 19 October 2000).
BADIL's meeting
with the three-member UN Committee was part of a series of
meetings
with Palestinian, international and Israeli NGOs and
official
Palestinian institutions. The Israeli government continued
to uphold
its boycott of the UN Committee and official Israeli
institutions
refused to meet its members. The UN Special Investigation
Committee's
report is scheduled for discussion at the upcoming 57th
session of
the UN Commission on Human Rights to be opened in Geneva on
March 19,
2001.
BADIL presented to the Committee a joint NGO-appeal for
urgent
international intervention to protect the Palestinian right
to self-
determination and refugees' right of return which was
endorsed by
52,000 individuals and groups. BADIL also presented and
discussed
with UN Committee member Prof. Richard Falk, documents
illustrating
the specific impact of the current Israeli violence on
Palestinian
refugees as well as their specific protection needs.
BADIL emphasized that Palestinian refugees, who comprise 50
percent
of the population in the 1967 occupied West Bank and Gaza
Strip,
represent an especially vulnerable group, because their
rights are
violated two-fold: by the Israeli occupation under
international
humanitarian law, and by the absence of protection of their
rights as
refugees under international human rights and refugee law.
The lack
of protection and resolution of their 52-years-old refugee
situation
has turned them into a landless, economically poor and
marginalized
sector of the population in the 1967 occupied territories
that lacks
savings and means of subsistence needed to cope with loss
of income
from labor and employment resulting from the current
Israeli closure
policy.
The absence of an international protection agency also
means that it
is difficult, if not impossible, to gather comprehensive,
standardized information on the impact of Israel's
violations of
human rights on refugees during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Data
presented
in BADIL's report has been assembled by BADIL community
workers and
partners supplemented by material from other
non-governmental and
governmental agencies. According to this partial data, 69
or nearly
35% of the total of 204 Palestinians killed by Israeli
armed forces
in the West Bank by 11 February are refugees. In the Gaza
Strip, of
the total of 145 Palestinians killed, 77, or about 60% are
refugees.
This figure, however, is probably low, given the fact that
the data
represents only refugees registered with UNRWA. An
indication of the
damage incurred to refugee property is provided by the
damage
assessment of two refugee camps in the Bethlehem District -
'Aida and
Beit Jibrin/'Azza camps reported damages of US $120,000 by
31
December 2000 - and by estimates of damage to refugee
property
located outside refugee camps in the Beit Jala, which
amount to US
$2.5 million. It is important to mention here, that each
incident of
Israeli shelling has devastating effects. The amount of
damages
incurred to 'Aida refugee camp was almost doubled in the
night of 11
to 12 February, when residents reported an additional
damage of US
$100,000 (not included in BADIL's report to the UN
Committee).
BADIL urged the UN Committee to raise in its report the
urgent need
for a UN supervised mechanism of protection for Palestinian
refugees,
which, in addition to UNRWA assistance, could monitor and
safeguard
implementation of their daily human and civil rights, as
well as
refugees' right of return, restitution and compensation in
the
framework of a future durable solution.
A copy of BADIL's report to the UN Special Investigation
Committee is
available upon request.
Al Haq
Israeli Forces Assassinate Another Palestinian, and
Two Foreign Workers Sustain Injuries in an Indiscriminate
Attack on an Amusement Park
BADIL
PALESTINIAN REFUGEES and the AL-AQSA INTIFADA -
THE IMPACT of the LACK OF INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION