Category: Press Releases

Right to Enter: International investors warned about accessing foreign investment in occupied Palestinian territory

By the Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry. To view website click here

As hundreds of international investors begin arriving in Bethlehem for the Palestine Investment Conference scheduled for May 21-23, the threat of being barred from entering the occupied West Bank by Israeli officials is likely to be foremost on everyone’s mind. Those hoping to actually invest in Palestine will be looking for answers regarding who will guarantee unhindered access in the future for themselves, their staff and the suppliers needed for investments to succeed in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

Along with movement and access restrictions for Palestinians, Israel’s denial of entry practices against foreigners trying to reach the oPt continues to pose severe obstacles on investment efforts to revive Palestinian economic life. The conference attempt to promote international investment in the occupation-strangled Palestinian territory is being undertaken despite the fact that Israel has not demonstrated any serious intention to reduce the restrictions it is placing on the Palestinian economy.

For this conference, though, some lucky participants will be passing Israeli-controlled crossings thanks to Israel’s pre-authorization of limited 14-day permits. Investors expecting future access to their investments are unlikely to have the U.S. Administration, the Quartet, and Quartet Special Representative Tony Blair regularly available to negotiate entry visas for themselves or for their staff. For investors, Israel’s refusal to establish a transparent, internationally lawful policy on which foreign nationals wishing to enter or maintain their presence in the oPt can rely is clear evidence that third states are not doing enough to create the necessary environment for investments to succeed.

Campaign members recently met with Mr. Blair, stressing the need for a comprehensive solution to foreign nationals’ vulnerability to arbitrary exclusion or expulsion by Israel and pointing out the futility of attempting to realize investments in the oPt while the ability of Palestinian institutions and businesses to recruit and retain the human resources needed for development remains uncertain and subject to Israel’s political discretion.

The Campaign urges the Quartet and other third state actors to send clear signals that the arbitrary exclusion and expulsion of foreign passport holders from the oPt, like Israel’s other abusive restrictions on movement and access, violates Israel’s treaty obligations to those states, is contrary to the UN Charter and directly concerns the States themselves.

Contrary to international law, Israel continues to exercise its control over entry and residency in the oPt in an arbitrary, capricious and political manner that seriously harms Palestinian economic, social and cultural life. Since the Campaign began in 2006, thousands of Palestinians with foreign passports as well as other foreign nationals were denied entry into the oPt, refused permits to stay, and/or have been deported. Israel’s refusal to act on the overwhelming majority of family unification applications since 2000 directly affects at least half a million people whose families remain separated or are threatened with separation. Vital health, educational, religious and social services are handicapped and disrupted. The results of Israeli practices includes business investment is deterred or thwarted and families being forced to relocate just to stay together.

Campaign member and businessman Sam Bahour observes that “real investment in Palestine starts with real access to all of the occupied Palestinian territory – the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.”

Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry

Telephone: +970.(0)59.817.3953 Facsimile: +970.2.295.4903

Website: www.RightToEnter.ps Email: info@righttoenter.ps

PCHR FACTSHEET: Extra-Judicial Executions of Palestinians by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) January– March 2008.

PCHR FACTSHEET: Extra-Judicial Executions of Palestinians by the Israeli
Occupation Forces (IOF) January– March 2008.

To download the full factsheet from PCHR, click here

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continue to implement a systematic policy of extra-judicial executions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). From the beginning of the second Intifada in September 2000 until the end of March 2008, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have extra-judicially executed 724 Palestinian men, women and children.

IOF claim these Palestinians are wanted by the Israel security services, and have been “targeted” because they pose serious threats to Israel’s security. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) has investigated and documented these extra-judicial executions in depth. The Centre has concluded that the IOF has consistently acted with utter disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians in the OPT, and continues to carry out state sanctioned extra-judicial executions, thereby consistently violating international human rights law.

IOF utilize a host of rhetorical terms, such as “self defence, military response, Palestinian terrorists/ militants” in order to claim these extra-judicial executions are essential preventative responses which ensure the continuing security of the State of Israel. However, the facts on the ground reveal although in the overwhelming majority of cases the Palestinian suspects could have been arrested, no efforts were made to either apprehend or arrest them, and they were instead extra-judicially executed. IOF continue to employ the rhetoric of national security in order to justify why it extra-judicially executes suspects, as opposed to apprehending, arresting and questioning them according to due process. Since September 2000, in addition to executing almost 500 suspects, the IOF has also executed 228 civilian bystanders, including 77 children, who were not suspected of having committed any crimes.

During the first quarter of 2008 (January 1- March 31, 2008) the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) documented the extra-judicial executions of 32 Palestinians by IOF in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Twenty six of the victims were specifically targeted by the IOF – nineteen were targeted in the Gaza Strip and seven in the West Bank. In addition, six bystanders were killed during the carrying out of these extra-judicial execution operations in the Gaza Strip.

PCHR reiterates that the IOF policy of extra-judicial executions in the OPT is illegal under international human rights law. This is made explicit in the (1949) Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 3 (d)) which states that “the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgement pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples” is prohibited at any time and in any place “whatsoever.” In addition, Article 32 of the same Convention states,

“The High Contracting Parties specifically agree that each of them is prohibited from taking any measure of such a character as to cause the physical suffering or extermination of protected persons in their hands. This prohibition applies not only to murder, torture, corporal punishment, mutilation and medical or scientific experiments not necessitated by the medical treatment of a protected person, but also to any other measures of brutality whether applied by civilian or military agents.”

Alt-Arch: From Shiloah to Silwan – Urgent Update

By: From Shiloah to Silwan: An Alternative Archaeological Tour of Ancient Jerusalem

More links are available in the website http://www.alt-arch.org

During the last months the efforts to raise awareness and to try to change the deteriorating situation in Silwan in East Jerusalem have gained momentum. We offer a short update and invite you to take part in bringing on a change.

International petition signed by university professors:

In recent weeks, university professors and lecturers from all over the world have been signing a petition aiming to stop using archaeology against the residents of Silwan. The petition calls to prevent the ELAD organization from running the National Park “City of David” and from using archaeology for their political needs. It is still possible to sign the petition. You can find it at our website: http://www.alt-arch.org/petition.html

Hearing in the Supreme Court:

On the 21st of May at 9 a.m., there will be a hearing in the Supreme Court in Jerusalem regarding the archaeological excavations under the houses of the Silwan village in East Jerusalem. Your presence is important!

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) financed by Elad organization is excavating a tunnel under the houses of Silwan residents, without informing them about it and ignoring their property rights.

The residents of Silwan filed a petition to the Supreme Court concerning the illegality of this excavation; demanding that the IAA will halt the excavation under their homes until a better solution will be found based on an agreement with the residents.

Silwan residents would appreciate if you could attend the hearing as a demonstration of support in their plight and in demand that the court instructs the state and its institutions (IAA and National Parks Reservation Authority) to cease their slanted use of archaeology as a political tool, and will mark a begging to an end of the existing cooperation of the state with ELAD’s expansionist agenda.

Finally, here are a two links to media coverage on the issue from the last few months.

Archaeologists for Hire:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/yigal_bronner/2008/05/archaeologists_for_hire.html
Digging Too Deep:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204214000979&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Al-Haq – Broad daylight, not the “fog of war”: Unlawful use of force against civilians in the Gaza Strip continues unabated

Press Release

As a Palestinian human rights organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Al-Haq is compelled yet again to raise the spectre of Israel’s continuing disregard for the customary international humanitarian law principles of distinction and proportionality. The incursion on 14 May 2008 into ‘Izbet ‘Abed Rabba, in the occupied Gaza Strip provides clear examples of the impact on civilians of Israel’s consistent willful misinterpretation of its obligations under international humanitarian law.

On Wednesday, 14 May 2008, at approximately 8:00 am, 15 Israeli tanks entered the village of ‘Izbet ‘Abed Rabba, west of Beit Hanoun and east of Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, with aerial cover provided by the Israeli Air Force. Upon entry to the village, Israeli ground forces engaged in random gun fire despite not being fired upon. At approximately 9:15 am, 17-year old Hamdi Salemeh Khader was riding his bicycle on Al-Karama Road near the local cement factory when he was shot twice (once in the shoulder and once in the upper right quadrant of the chest) by machine gun fire emanating from the tanks, killing him instantly. The distance between Hamdi and the tanks was approximately 500 metres at the time they fired upon him. Further, the topography of the land in this part of the Gaza Strip is flat and unobstructed by buildings. As such the visibility for the tank commanders, when coupled with surveillance provided by aerial cover, must be assumed to have been definitive, providing a clear image of Hamdi on his bicycle, unarmed and presenting no threat to Israeli forces.

By 9:50 am the Israeli occupying forces had begun to encounter Palestinian armed resistance to the incursion in the form of gunfire. Between 10:15 am and 11:10 am when the Israeli forces withdrew, four tank shells were fired towards Jabaliya refugee camp in quick succession from 1 – 1½ kilometres outside of the camp. Two tank shells were fired at a combatant in a residential neighbourhood east of the camp, killing him as well as an unarmed 19-year old civilian bystander, Ibrahim Hasan Salah, who was walking to school. Another shell fell inside the densely populated camp next to the house of Baker Muhammed Al-Jamal, the shrapnel from the blast injuring 69-year old Zeina Muhammad Al-Jamal and her daughter, Siham. The last shell penetrated the house of Ghassan Mahmoud Abu-Habal inside the camp without detonating, leaving behind a dangerous unexploded ordinance and damage to the house at the shell’s entry point.

According to public statements by Israeli officials, the incursion was a response to the firing by Palestinian armed groups of indiscriminate missiles towards Israel. Al-Haq emphasises that the use by Palestinian armed groups of indiscriminate, and therefore unlawful, weapons against Israel civilian areas provides no justification in law for Israel to employ equally unlawful tactics. Such unlawful tactics include the violation of the customary international humanitarian law prohibitions on collective punishment and reprisals against protected persons; indiscriminate attacks failing to distinguish between civilians and military targets, and between civilian objects and military objects; disproportionate attacks; and attacks launched without taking feasible precautions in the choice of means and methods of warfare with a view to avoiding injury to civilians and damage to civilian property.

The wilful killing of 17-year old Hamdi is a war crime which may amount to a grave breach of Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. It is impossible to imagine that tank crews stationed at a distance of 500 metres from the child, with a clear line of sight and the benefit of aerial surveillance, could not distinguish between an armed person and an unarmed person. Given that there was no exchange of fire between Palestinian armed groups before the child was shot, the “fog of war” cannot provide a defence. Moreover, the child was nowhere near a legitimate military target and as such cannot be considered as lawful “collateral damage.” Those who planned, ordered or executed this attack are individually criminally liable under the grave breaches regime of the Fourth Geneva Convention and all High Contracting Parties of the Convention are legally bound to search for and prosecute these persons. This obligation on High Contracting Parties is of heightened importance in light of the fact that Israeli authorities have only opened some 270 investigations resulting in a mere 30 indictments with very lenient sentences in relation to over 2,000 Palestinian civilian deaths since September 2000.

The attack that killed 19-year old Ibrahim Hasan Salah and the attack inside Jabaliya refugee camp which injured 69-year old Zeina Mohammad Al-Jamal and her daughter Siham are representative of Israel’s practice of neutralising the enemy using means and methods of warfare in urban combat which are incapable of avoiding civilian casualties. Ibrahim was killed and Zeina and her daughter were injured because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time when Israeli tank crews stationed outside the Jabaliya camp employed heavy weaponry against armed Palestinians in the vicinity. The use of such weapons nullifies any expressed commitment by Israel to respect the principle of distinction.

The consistent use of heavy weaponry in densely populated urban areas of the Gaza Strip accounts for a disturbing number of the deaths and injuries among Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip so far this year, including the 28 April killing of a mother and her four children in Beit Hanoun.[1] Implicit in Israel’s policy choice to use the above described means and methods of warfare is the desire to minimise its own combat casualties. However, a willingness to accept the risk of combat casualties is an inherent element of a good faith commitment by Israel to respect the customary international humanitarian law principle of proportionality.

Al-Haq calls upon:

* The Israeli Military Prosecutor for Operational Issues to order a full independent military police investigation into the killing of Hamdi Salemeh Khader.
* The High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations under Article 146 to search for and prosecute those responsible for the wilful killing of Hamdi Salemeh Khader in the likely event that Israeli authorities fail to investigate.
* The Legal Advisor to the Israeli military to review the legality of the means and methods of warfare used by Israel in urban combat in the Gaza Strip.

PCHR: IOF Kill Mother in front of her Children inside their House in Khan Yunis

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the killing of a mother in front of her children yesterday, during an IOF incursion into New Abasan town, east of Khan Yunis.

PCHR investigations indicate that at approximately 16:30 on Wednesday, 7 May, IOF troops raided the house of Majdi Abd El-Raziq El-Daghma during an incursion into New Abasan.

The troops opened the outside metal door, then blew up the wooden interior door. The force of the blast killed 33 year old Wafa Shaker El-Daghma instantly. The IOF troops then stormed into the house and covered her body with a rug, having ascertained that she was dead. The troops then detained her 3 children, who had all witnessed the killing of their mother, in one of the rooms of the house. A soldier remained on guard at the entrance to the room. The children, who included a two year old, were confined inside the room for the next six and a half hours.

At approximately 23:00 the children were finally able to leave the room after the IOF withdrew from the house. Twelve year old Samira ran to a neighboring house, and the neighours called an ambulance. Wafa Shaker El-Daghma’s body was immediately transferred to Naser hospital in Khan Yunis.

In addition to the killing of Wafa Shaker El-Daghma one Palestinian resistance member was also killed, and twenty three others were injured. IOF also damaged 22 houses, destroying several in the process.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights:

– Reiterates its condemnation of the killing of Wafa El-Daghma, which represents a continuation of Israeli war crimes in the OPT and is another clear indicator of IOF disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians. The Centre considers these actions to be acts of reprisal and collective punishment, and therefore in violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949).

– Affirms that IOF uses excessive force against Palestinian civilians without any threat to the lives of IOF troops, which is a violation of International Humanitarian Law.

– Calls upon the international community to act immediately to stop these crimes; and renews the call to the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligation under Article 1 of the Convention to ensure that it is respected at all times, and their responsibilities under Article 146 to pursue perpetrators of serious violations of the Convention, which are determined in Article 147 that lists violations of the Convention amounting to war crimes.