For more information, please contact:
Addameer Association for Human Rights - Gaza Strip
Telefax: +9727-2826660
Tele: +9727-2840661
Email: aldameer@p-i-s.com
17 May 2001
Fifty-three years ago Zionist groups attacked Palestinians, killing hundreds, destroying homes and evicting the indigenous inhabitants of this land. Their aim was to occupy Palestinian land and establish their illegal state. International silence and complicity, in addition to the weak condition of neighboring Arab governments, protected and supported this occupation.
This year, the memorial events of 1948, known as Al Nakbe or The Catastrophe, are marked by similar Israeli practices. Israeli occupation forces commit daily crimes and severe human rights violations against Palestinians in all of the Palestinian territories. These crimes target not only human beings, but also livestock, crops and the very productive capacity of the land itself. To us the message is clear: The Israeli occupation seeks to destroy Palestinian society -gradually, without the high-casualty massacres that would draw international criticism-in order to halt the Palestinian struggle and all evidence of the origins and the historical rights of Palestinians.
Since 28 September 2000, the Israeli occupation forces have killed more than 500 Palestinians, 37 percent of them children under age 16. More than 30,000 have been injured, many of them in critical condition including limb and organ loss. Israeli bulldozers have mowed down thousands of agricultural trees, and swept clear large patches of formerly Palestinian-owned agriculture land. They have demolished hundreds of civilian homes, and continue to impose severe blockades and closure, dividing and isolating Palestinian areas.
All of these crimes are occurring in a period of history when the ability of the world to monitor what is going on via the media has never been higher. From the Arab world to the West, the media continue to speak the Israeli lies that the severe violations are all "return fire", that they shoot only when Palestinians shoot, and that Palestinian parents sacrifice their children in hope of winning international sympathy: This last lie is a racist myth, implying that Palestinians are not really human beings. And among those who sympathize, the only meaningful commentaries to date are expressions of sorrow and regret. Meanwhile, the violence continues.
It is totally clear that there is - perhaps unspoken - an international policy of silence that merely serves to encourage the Israeli crimes. This causes Palestinians to mistrust the international community and its institutions. At this moment, the international silence wants to equalize the victim and the victimizer, between the struggle for self-determination with stones and small arms and the occupier with helicopter gunships and tanks. Is it not enough for the international community to see the killing of infants to bring intentional protection for the Palestinians?
On the 53rd memorial of the Nakbe, Addameer Gaza condemns all of the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian and emphasizes that the international community is responsible side by side with the Israeli army for these crimes. Likewise, the international community is responsible for allowing the continuation of the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories.
On these grounds, Addameer demands that the international community overcome its guilt and fears and apologize to the Palestinians for its unjustified silence. Immediate steps must be taken to stop the historic crime in progress at this moment, and, for the sake of the peace that must be our future, international protection must be provided for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Iman Heju is a symbol of the Israeli occupation forces' severe human rights violations.
8 May 2001
On Monday 7 May 2001, at 11:10 am, Iman Heju, a 4-month-old infant, was killed as she sat in the lap of her 19-year-old mother, Sumaya Heju. Sumaya was critically wounded along with two of her sisters: 6- year-old Dunia Heju hit by shrapnel in the arms, and 21-year-old Suzan Heju critically injured after being hit by shrapnel in various parts of her body. Sumaya's brother, 18-year-old Mohamud Heju, was also hit by shrapnel in the abdomen.
Fifty year old Fayez Salah, who lives 10 meters from the Heju house witnessed the attack and told Addameer Gaza: "I was looking from the window to see where they were shelling and saw the smoke and the dust coming from the western part of the camp near El-Taffah roadblock. I heard the sound of shelling coming from the southern part, near the Naser hospital. Five minutes later, I saw an Israeli tank approaching rapidly from El-Tuffah roadblock. It stopped near the Israeli military camp located only 250 meters west of my house near Hay El-Amal neighborhood. At this moment I heard the market workers shouting at each other to escape because they saw the tank in attack position. After about three minutes the tank started to shell towards the market. They shot five rockets. The Heju family live in the neighborhood of the market. I saw Sumaya, Iman's mother, carrying her child in her lap trying to escape from the shelling. They were hit by the shrapnel of the second rocket. It was about two minutes between every rocket, and so the Israeli soldiers were able to see what was going on. They could stop shelling but they did not. They continued to launch a total of five rockets, and later they opened fire with machine guns using 500 and 800-artillery.
"I ran to help the family. I saw pieces of their bodies sticking to the walls. I could not continuing standing after seeing how the shrapnel had entered Iman's abdomen and had then exited from her back. There was no justification for the Israeli army to shell, there was nothing happening at the time. They could have avoided this crime, but they insisted on committing it anyway."
6 May 2001
Despite talks and negotiations aimed at stopping the Israeli escalation against the Palestinian people, Israeli occupation forces continue to carry out widespread crimes against Palestinians throughout areas of the Palestinian territories.
Israeli occupation forces are located alongside the bloc of settlements known as Gush Katif, near Khan Younis refugee camp. Israeli soldiers randomly open fire every evening towards the houses and at Palestinian citizens using the roads in this area. Palestinian residents living in the camp told Addameer Gaza that two week ago Israeli soldiers started to use a new kind of artillery resembling explosive bullets, which explode before reaching their target. Residents of the camp are extremely concerned and are afraid of leaving their houses after 8 o'clock in the evening. Youth from the camp told Addameer that they have not gone to their playground for six months, because it is located 40 meters east of the Neveh Dkalem settlement junction and they are afraid of random shooting from Israeli soldiers who gather near the area.
The youth added, "Israeli soldiers used to shoot towards us while we were playing football, they do not want to see us happy or playing sport, several of us have been injured while playing." Nineteen-year-old Walid Mohamed was shot in the head while playing in the playground, he is in critical condition. Twelve-year-old Abd el-Rahman was shot in his back while playing with other children.
Addameer
calls on the international community to end the conspiracy of silence and pressure
the Sharon Government to halt its severe violations against the Palestinian people.
Addameer emphasizes that the international community is responsible for providing
protection to the Palestinian people who are facing a comprehensive war.