Author: ISM Media Group

Israeli Forces Carry Out Targeted Assassination of Palestinian in Ramallah

For report by Sam Bahour click

AL-HAQ PRESS RELEASE

As a human rights organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Al-Haq is gravely disturbed by the extrajudicial execution carried out on 29 May 2007, on Ramallah Main Street, near the city centre. A detailed report of the events will be prepared once Al-Haq has carried out further investigations. The information below is based on first hand testimony gathered by Al-Haq staff members in the immediate aftermath of the event.

At approximately 17:00 an Israeli force of about 20 soldiers, including under cover agents disguised as civilians, got out of a truck and a car on the Main Street of Ramallah and killed 22 year-old Omar Mohammed Abd al-Halim. The victim was standing outside Nazareth restaurant with another man. As a member of a Palestinian security force he was carrying a walkie-talkie and a firearm when the Israeli military forces appeared. The soldiers made no attempt to arrest Omar Mohammed Abd al-Halim. As he attempted to escape on foot he was shot in the neck by a uniformed soldier, and fell to the ground. An undercover soldier in civilian clothes then shot approximately six bullets into his body, finally kicking him to make sure that he was dead. A number of civilian bystanders were forced into Nazareth restaurant by the Israeli soldiers. In the meantime Palestinians had gathered and began to throw stones. The Israeli forces, reinforced by approximately ten military jeeps, responded with gunfire, lasting for approximately half an hour, during which eight civilians were injured.

Two ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society attempted to reach the area to provide medical assistance to the injured, but were ordered at gunpoint to stop by the Israeli forces. When the ambulances tried to proceed the Israeli soldiers opened fire and one of the ambulances was hit in the tyres. Consequently it was immobilised and could not reach the injured.

Al-Haq is deeply concerned at this and other recent extrajudicial executions of Palestinians carried out by Israeli military forces throughout the OPT. Omar Mohammed Abd al-Halim could have been arrested, rather than executed, after being wounded. The practice of targeted assassinations, officially endorsed by the Israeli executive and judicial branches, constitutes an inherent violation of the right to life and the right to a fair trial as enshrined in binding customary and conventional international law. Also, the execution of an injured person amounts to a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Additionally, under customary international humanitarian law, medical personnel exclusively assigned to medical duties must be respected and protected in all circumstances. The term medical personnel clearly includes ambulance services. The attack on the ambulances described above clearly violates this essential rule of international law and constitutes a war crime.

Finally the conduct of the operation by the Israeli forces raises serious concerns as to the disregard for the protection accorded to civilians under international humanitarian law. The operation was carried out at 17:00 in the afternoon, a busy time of day, on a crowded street near the centre of the city. Further, Israeli undercover agents operating within a civilian population increases the risk of casualties.

“Ticking Bombs”

Testimonies of Torture Victims in Israel

A New Report by
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI)

The report will be presented to the press on Wednesday, 30 May 2007, at 10:00 AM at the office of The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), 31 Blumenfeld Street, Kiryat Yovel, Jerusalem. Copies of the report (in PDF or Word files) will be sent to journalists upon request.

This report, issued by PCATI, describes the routine of torture in Israel from the point of view of its victims. Nine detailed case studies narrating the victims’ experiences from the moment of arrest, through interrogation and trial and through the routine refusal of the Ministry of Justice to investigate their complaints will provide us with a glimpse into the world of torture in Israel.

The detailed testimonies of these torture victims reveals the extent to which the practice of torture is widespread and not limited to General Security Service (GSS) interrogators. Practitioners and facilitators of torture include soldiers and their commanders, prison wardens and police officers, physicians and medical staff in hospitals, military attorneys and judges, the heads of the Ministry of Justice – the Attorney General, the State Attorney and the attorney responsible for the GSS Official in Charge of investigation Interrogees’ complaints in the (the MAVTAN) and members of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, all of whom, in practice or through lack of action, through knowledge or through their silence, are accomplices to the torture described in the report. The report, in addition, reveals the bureaucratic, almost banal, environment in which torture is carried out in Israel.

The report challenges and refutes the “ticking bomb” scenario that forms the basis for the legal “the necessity defence,” which facilitates the use of torture following the High Court of Justice ruing of 1999. The testimonies that make up the core of this report, which are among the harshest cases to reach PCATI in the years 2004-2006, contradict the “ticking bomb” scenario. These testimonies illustrate the fact that any Palestinian detainee might find himself tortured during interrogation under the pretext that he is a “ticking bomb” and that today in Israel there is no effective legal control –and certainly not moral control – against of the use of torture.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel underscores that the use of torture is absolutely prohibited under International Humanitarian Law (The Fourth Geneva Convention ratified by Israel in 1951) and under international human rights law (The UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment that were ratified by Israel in 1991).

The automatic immunity that the Israeli prosecution and judicial authorities grant torturers and their collaborators will not protect them. Each of the 142 member states who ratified the UN Convention against Torture or the 193 member states of the Geneva Convention (all the nations in the world) are obliged to bring to justice or extradite for the purpose of legal action, any person in their territory who is suspected of involvement in torture. The decision of the House of Lords in Britain on the matter of Chile’s former dictator, Augusto Pinochet, and the legal process initiated in Germany (that was subsequently dismissed) against form US Secretary of State, Donald Rumsfeld, prove that this is more than a theoretical option.

In its recommendations, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, continues to call on the State of Israel to absolutely prohibit the use of torture, without exception and without “special permits”, and to pass legislation specifically outlawing and criminalizing torture. To do otherwise will cast doubt on Israel’s claims of upholding the most basic moral and democratic principles expected of members of civilized society.

For additional details please call:

Eyal Hareuveni, PCATI Spokesperson

Tel: 972-2-6429825, 972-54-4660248

Fax: 972-26432847

E-mail: eyal@stoptorture.org.il

Being Respectful is Not a Part of Our Duty

by ISM Hebron, 26 May 2007

At approximately 15:00 hours on Saturday May 26, two Human Rights Workers (HRWs) were standing on Shuhada street in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron when five Israeli settlers between the ages of 7 and 10 years old walked past making faces and shouting remarks at both HRWs. The HRW passed onto Tel Rumeida street where they met two Palestinian teenagers who continued to walk up the hill, some distance behind the settlers.

Proceeding to the top of Tel Rumeida St., HRWs witnessed that the settlers had stopped at a soldier’s guard post and pointed at the two Palestinian teenagers. The soldiers immediately approached the Palestinians. The settler children had accused the Palestinians of threatening to hurt them. Both teenagers denied the accusations and both HRWs who had been with them at the time attempted to testify to their innocence. The soldiers detained the two Palestinian teenagers and took their IDs for checks. Another senior officer, known as Nir, came onto the scene and questioned both the children and the teenagers as to what happened. He did not address the HRWs who maintained their presence and when the HRWs attempted to address the situation and explain that they had been present throughout the whole incident, they were told “not to interfere.” Eitan, a settler who is currently under investigation for harassment and the father of one of the settlers kids, arrived at the scene. Eitan proceeded to discuss with both the police and the soldiers the incident and called both HRWs “liars” for backing up the Palestinians and protesting their innocence. After approximately 40 minutes the police arrived and arrested both the teenagers.

The two teenagers were arrested for five hours and following this were forced to sign a “condition of release” to the sum of 2000 Israeli shekels each and to attend the police station at a future date. At no point were the HRWs questioned as witnesses to the event. The Palestinians were, in effect, arrested on the accusations of the settlers alone without actual evidence or proof.

At approximately 20:15, six soldiers and their commanding officer Nir invaded the roof of a house in Tel Rumeida where a group of 5 HRWs have been residing. Despite repeated attempts to engage with the soldiers to question them as to why they were on their roof and what they were doing, the 5 HRWs present were repeatedly ignored and at one point the soldiers pointed their guns at a female HRW and further aimed his gun at a Palestinian child who was on the street below. The soldiers proceeded to search around the roof area and despite the commanding officer deciding to leave after around 10 minutes, 4 of the soldiers remained on the roof without following command. The soldiers proceeded to hang about the roof, holding conversation and continually ignoring requests by the HRWs to leave the premises.

After the soldiers left they maintained a presence on the street outside the house and when a female HRW attempted to engage in a formal and respectful conversation regarding the incidence, she was told that it was a security check and that the soldiers have no obligation to engage in conversation with them or to tell them what they were doing. The soldier claimed that as they had not been violent they had therefore been respectful to all parties involved. Soldiers further claimed that they had the right to undertake their checks without warning and without consent or approval from senior authority and that “being respectful was not part of their duty.”

Building Design: Big names urge Israelis to end ‘oppressive’ works

Alsop, Farrell and MacCormac join call to stop work on schemes that oppress Palestinians
by Helen Crump, 25 May 2007

A host of celebrated architects including Will Alsop, Terry Farrell, Richard MacCormac, Rick Mather and Ted Cullinan have waded into the politics of the Middle East with a challenge to fellow professionals in Israel to cease work that “excludes and oppresses” Palestinians.

The architects, who also include RIBA president Jack Pringle and president-elect Sunand Prasad, have signed a petition organised by Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine which accuses construction professionals working on three separate Israeli developments of “social, political and economic oppression.”

“APJP asserts that the actions of our fellow professionals working with these enterprises are clearly unethical, immoral and contravene universally recognised professional codes of conduct,” a spokesman said.

“We ask the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA) to meet their professional obligations … to declare their opposition to this inhuman occupation.”

The IAUA was unavailable for comment, but the action was condemned as foolish and damaging by Michael Peters, founder and chairman of the Identica brand agency, who has worked extensively with architects in Israel.

“British architects are going to burn their bridges with a number of developers — Israeli, British and European,” he said.

Last year Richard Rogers faced stinging criticism from US clients after he hosted a meeting of APJP (News March 10, 2006).

The petition, which focuses on the village of Silwan in east Jerusalem, the E1 plan for the expansion of Israeli settlement Ma’ele Adumim, and former Palestinian village Lifta, was strongly defended by Alsop.

“I think the Palestinians are living in a prison and they deserve better than that,” he said. “I’d like fellow colleagues in Israel to feel some responsibility about this shabby treatment. Architects are a fairly humanitarian lot and perhaps they could help.”

He added: “This is not against Israel, it’s for Palestine.”

Petition organiser Abe Hayeem, a London-based architect and APJP chair, called his fellow architect supporters “pretty courageous”, and insisted architects would not be deterred from backing causes they supported.

But Peters said British architects did not understand the situation in Israel.”Getting involved in a lobby group can only do a disservice to the whole architectural profession,” he added. “To accuse [Israeli] architects of being complicit is nonsense.”

Demonizing the Non-violent Resistance

IDF spokesperson’s campaign to demonize Non Violent peace activists
by the ISM Media Crew, 26 May 2007

According to the Israeli news internet site Walla on Friday, May 25, the Israeli military spokesperson claimed that the demonstration in Bil’in “ended in relative quiet.” The military spokesperson claimed that “this relative quiet stems from the fact that there were almost no leftist Israeli activists present”, since they “cause most of the friction between the demonstrators and the IDF”.

During this “relatively quiet” demonstration, soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd from a distance of 200 meters without provocation, injuring six Palestinians, including an AFP journalist, who was rushed to the hospital after being shot in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet. Two activists were detained during the demonstation. The first, Mohammad Khatib, from the Bil’in popular committee against the wall and settlements, was beaten during his arrest and after he was handcuffed. The second, Israeli David Reev, was approached by a soldier who twisted David’s arm while demanding that David hand over his camera.


Video of Mohammad Khatib being arrested and abused

Abbas Momani, 33, a photographer for Agence France-Presse, was shot when Israeli soldiers fired at a group of journalists. Turkish Daily News reported that Momani stated he was outside of a Palestinian residence in Bil’in when soldiers confronted them and told them to leave. Momani said, “We explained that we would leave but that we were waiting for the army jeeps who were blocking our cars from getting out. One of the soldiers, who was barely two metres away from us, then fired.”

For full AFP story click HERE

Is it really these leftist Israeli activists who incite “friction” and “provoke” the soldiers into throwing tear gas and sound grenades, and to shoot rubber-coated steel bullets?

Or is there another reason why the military wants to be rid of the Israeli and International activists? Israeli soldiers have stated in court that their regulations regarding opening fire differ when Israelis are present than when Palestinians demonstrate alone. If the soldiers assess that Israelis are present they are restricted from firing live ammunition on the crowd. A striking example is Beit Likya, a village neighboring Bil’in. In contrast to its neighbor, there have been no organized demonstrations against the wall and therefore no Israeli or International activists present in Beit Likya over the last two years. And yet within this time, three of the villages children were murdered, shot dead with live ammunition by a solider and a private security guard in incidents related to the Apartheid wall.

This demonization of nonviolent activists is not original or surprising. Muhatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King were also labeled provocateurs and trouble makers by those that supported the racist systems that they worked against.