Tag: International law

An open letter to President Obama from the Free Gaza Movement

Free Gaza Movement

3 June 2009

Dear President Obama,

Tomorrow you travel to Egypt to give one of the most important speeches of your presidency. With the words you deliver you have said that you want to “reset” U.S. relations with the Muslim world and create a fundamental change for the better. We sincerely wish you well. But you have also said that “part of being a good friend is being honest.” Let’s be honest.

Israel’s ongoing occupation and colonization of Palestinian land and the United States’ unquestioned financial, military and political support for Israel is at the heart of the negative perceptions and bitter anger that many Arabs and Muslims have of the United States. Tomorrow, we hope to hear from you a commitment to aligning U.S. policy in the Middle East with U.N. Resolutions and international law.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights gives everyone the right to freely enter and exit one’s own country. You will exercise this right when you arrive in Egypt tomorrow and then return to the United States. This is a right that Palestinians–particularly those trapped in Gaza–are routinely denied.

Over 200 Palestinian medical patients in Gaza, many critically ill, are unable to seek adequate treatment because Israeli authorities regularly deny Palestinian patients the right to travel abroad to receive the medical treatment that is not available in Gaza; at the same time import of many medicines and medical equipment into Gaza is prevented by Israel.

Over 700 Palestinian students in Gaza, many with scholarships, are unable to attend their universities abroad because Israel regularly denies them this right.

Thousands of Palestinians abroad are unable to visit their families because Israel will not allow them to re-enter their own country.

When you arrive in Egypt you will travel to your accommodations in a car maintained with spare parts banned to Palestinians, powered by gasoline denied to the people of Gaza. You will use electric lights that do not often work in Gaza, because Israel blocks the fuel needed to run Gaza’s electrical grid. You may enjoy a cup of coffee or tea during your visit – commodities Israel will not allow into Gaza.

The truth is that Israel lets in less than 20% of the ordinary supplies needed in Gaza, and allows no reconstruction materials whatsoever to enter. As a consequence over 95% of all industries have collapsed, creating massive unemployment and poverty. The purpose of the Israeli blockade is to punish and break an entire people. Collective punishment is strictly prohibited under international law, yet it remains Israel’s primary policy in regards to the Palestinian people.

On June 25th, the Free Gaza Movement sets sail on our eighth voyage to challenge the brutal Israeli blockade of Gaza. Though we have been threatened and our ships rammed by the Israeli navy, we will not be deterred. We sail in the spirit of the Freedom Riders who, in the year you were born, risked their lives so that African-Americans could travel freely in the United States. We sail in the spirit of international cooperation that helped create the United Nations, in the spirit of the international civil resistance that overcame Apartheid.

President Obama, you have based your political career on what you call the “audacity of hope” – the faith that each of us, individually and collectively, can change things for the better. But faith without action is dead. We too believe in hope, but from our experience we know that hope alone will not change the world. Like you, we know that the price and promise of our mutual humanity demands that each of us treat one another with dignity and respect, and that all of us strive to insure that our sisters and brothers around the world are free to make of their lives what they will, and pursue their full measure of happiness.

Mister President, you led the fight in the U.S. Senate to insure that aid was actually delivered to people after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. A man-made disaster continues to devastate the people of Gaza; due to Israel’s ongoing hermetic closure of the Gaza Strip over 80% of the population there require food assistance just in order to survive. We hope your speech tomorrow in Egypt is successful but, at a minimum, you must use your privilege to demand and secure open access to Gaza for all international humanitarian, reconstruction, and developmental supplies. Words matter, but words are not enough.

We in the Free Gaza Movement will sail to Gaza again and again and again, in vigorous unarmed resistance, until the Israeli blockade is forever shattered and the Palestinian people have free access to the rest of the world.

Please recognize that the fact that we even have to ask (let alone risk our lives) to be allowed to provide food to the hungry, medicine to the sick, and shelter to the homeless is in itself an obscenity. We look forward to hearing from you an uncompromising commitment for the immediate end of the criminal siege of Gaza, as well as an assurance that respect for the human rights, dignity and equality of the Palestinian people will be at the core of your administration’s policy toward the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Sincerely Yours,
The Free Gaza Movement Board of Directors

Huwaida Arraf, JD
Greta Berlin
Eliza Ernshire
Derek Graham
Fathi Jaouadi
Ramzi Kysia

Open letter from Gaza to the government and people of Spain

30 May 2009

We write to you as Palestinians from Gaza to express our dismay at the proposal of the Spanish parliament to restrict the universal jurisdiction of Spain, particularly with regard to breaches of international humanitarian law. The proposal called for the existing legislation to be modified so that cases may only be pursued if they involve Spanish victims or if the accused is present on Spanish soil.

At approximately midnight on 22 July 2002, an Israeli Air Force fighter jet dropped a 2,000 lb bomb on the densely populated Daraj neighborhood of Gaza city. The main target of the attack was the family home of Salah Shehada, Commander of the military wing of Hamas. The bomb killed Shehada and an additional seventeen civilians, including his wife, his daughter, eight children (including a 2-month old baby), two elderly men, and two women. In addition, seventy seven people were injured, eleven houses were completely destroyed and thirty two houses damaged, leaving many families homeless.

The Government of the State of Israel confirmed that it was fully aware that Shehada’s wife and daughter “[w]ere close to him during the implementation of the assassination … and there was no way out of conducting the operation despite their presence1.” The practice of wanton willful killing of civilians exemplified in this extra-judicial assassination is not an isolated incident. It is one instance in an ongoing, comprehensive policy targeting us the civilian Palestinians of the Gaza strip and systematically denying us our rights to movement, work, medical care, study, livelihood and increasingly life itself.

In spite of Israel’s alleged unilateral withdrawal from the Strip, it still maintains a permanent military presence in Gaza’s territorial waters and controls the movement of people and goods onto the strip by land, air or water in addition to movement within the strip through targeting anyone entering the “no go” zone designated by the Israeli military. Israel also continues to control Gaza’s population registry. Yet, Israel claims that it is no longer the occupying power in the Gaza strip and uses this excuse in addition to the results of 2006 democratic election to intensify it’s policy of siege and lethal attacks on us, Gaza’s civilians.

On the 29th of February 2008 Matan Vilnai, Deputy Defense Minister of the State of Israel, threatened us with a bigger Shoah (holocaust) and lived up to his word. During the following Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip conducted in February 2008 dubbed as “Operation Hot Winter” The Israeli Occupation Forces killed 107 Palestinians including 64 children. The European Union, including Spain, not only refrained from taking action against the State of Israel for its policy of systematic mass murder, but announced its intent to upgrade its relations with the State of Israel. This announcement was the green light Israel needed to continue and escalate its policies, resulting in January 2009 assault on besieged Gaza.

The 1.5 million Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, 80 per cent of whom are refugees expelled from their homes by Zionist forces in 1948, were subjected to 22 days of relentless Israeli state terror, whereby Israeli warplanes, in a repeat of what happened at Al-Darraj on 22.July.2002, systematically targeted civilian areas, reducing whole neighborhoods and vital civilian infrastructure to rubble, including several run by the UN, where civilians were taking shelter. International human rights organizations are now calling for a war crimes investigation into Israel’s military assault on Gaza in which the Israeli Occupation Forces killed 1,440 Palestinians of whom 431 were children, and injured 5380.

One ray of hope for us in this time was the decision of Judge Fernando Andreu of the Spanish Audencia Nacional (National Court) to continue the investigation into the events surrounding the al-Daraj bombing of July 2002. We consider this decision a manifestation of Europe’s promise and commitment to the principle of “never again” to stand by in silence while ethnic cleansing is taking place. We have hope that it will serve as a deterrent to other would be war criminals.

If the Spanish parliament’s resolution calling on the government to limit Spain’s universal jurisdiction mechanisms is accepted, it will lead to continued impunity for war criminals and complicity with future war crimes including the ongoing collective punishment and genocide directed against us, the civilian population of the Gaza strip.

Signed by:

-The One Democratic State Group – Gaza
-University Teachers’ Association in Palestine – Gaza
-Palestinian Student’s Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel
-Arab Cultural Forum – Gaza
-Al-Quds Bank for Culture and Information Society
-Society Friends for Rehabilitation of Visually Impaired

Spanish translation:

Carta abierta desde Gaza al gobierno y la población de España,

Os escribimos con consternación debido a la propuesta del Congreso de los diputados para restringir vuestra jurisdicción universal. En particular en lo que se refiere a las violaciones del Derecho Internacional Humanitario. La propuesta de modificación pretende conseguir que se actúe solo en casos en los que haya víctimas españolas o los acusados se encuentren en suelo español.

En la medianoche del 22 de Julio de 2002, un caza de combate de la Fuerza Aérea Israelí lanzó una bomba de casi dos toneladas sobre el barrio de Al Daraj, en la ciudad de Gaza. El objetivo principal de dicho ataque era la casa de Salah Sehadeh, Comandante del brazo armado de Hamas. La bomba le asesinó a él, a su guardaespaldas y a 14 civiles, incluyendo a su mujer, ocho niños (uno de ellos era un bebé de dos meses), dos ancianos y dos mujeres. Además alrededor de 150 civiles resultaron heridos, ocho casas fueron destruidas, nueve más resultaron dañadas y otras 21 sufrieron daños considerables, lo que derivó en dejar a decenas de familias sin hogar.

Los oficiales del ejército de ocupación israelí han reconocido que decidieron lanzar la bomba a sabiendas de que Sehadeh se encontraba junto a su mujer y su familia, asesinándola intencionalmente. La decisión de atacar fue tomada asumiendo que al menos 10 civiles morirían junto a él. La práctica de asesinatos selectivos, ejemplificada a través de este caso de ejecución extrajudicial no es de ninguna manera una práctica aislada. Es parte de una política en marcha que señala como objetivo al conjunto de los civiles de Gaza y niega sistemáticamente el derecho a la libertad de movimientos, trabajo, tratamiento medico, estudio, vida digna y, cada vez más, el derecho a la vida en su conjunto.

Pese a la supuesta retirada unilateral israelí de la Franja de Gaza, aún se mantiene una presencia militar constante en sus aguas territoriales, se restringe el movimiento de ciudadanos y bienes desde y hacia la Franja. También existe una zona de no-acceso dentro del territorio, decidida por el ejército israelí. Israel controla el censo de población. Y aún así Israel asegura que no es la potencia ocupante y utiliza esta excusa, junto al resultado de las elecciones de 2006 para mantener su bloqueo y ataque continuado contra nosotros, los civiles de Gaza.
El 29 de Febrero de 2008, Matan Vilnai, Vice-Ministro de Defensa del Estado de Israel nos amenazó con un “holocausto” aún mayor y cumplió su palabra. A lo largo del siguiente ataque militar contra la Franja de Gaza, desarrollado el mismo 2008, bajo la denominación “invierno caliente”, el ejército israelí asesino a 107 palestinos, entre ellos 64 niños. La Unión Europea, incluyendo a España, no solo no movió un dedo contra las actividades de Israel y su política de asesinatos masivos sino que anunció que elevaría sus relaciones con el Estado de Israel. Este anuncio constituyó la luz verde que Israel buscaba para continuar e incrementar su castigo contra Gaza, como pudimos observar los pasados meses de diciembre y enero

El millón y medio de palestinos de la Gaza asediada, el 80% de los cuales son refugiados expulsados de sus hogares por las milicias sionistas en 1948, han sido sometidos a 22 días de terror ininterrumpido en los que los aviones y tanques israelíes repitiendo a escala masiva lo que ya había sucedido en Julio de 2002 en el barrio de Al Darraj. Destruyeron sistemáticamente todo tipo de instalaciones civiles, reduciendo a escombros barrios enteros e incluso instalaciones de la Media Luna Roja y las Naciones Unidas donde miles de civiles buscaban refugio. Diversas organizaciones internacionales investigan la comisión de crímenes de Guerra durante un ataque que ha asesinado a 1440 palestinos, entre los cuales había 431 niños, y ha herido a otros 5380.

La decisión del Juez Andreu, miembro de la Audiencia Nacional, de continuar con la investigación de los hechos alrededor del bombardeo de Al-Darraj en Julio de 2002 era para nosotros un rayo de esperanza. La considerábamos una manifestación europea del “nunca más” al silencio frente a la limpieza étnica. Esperábamos que esto sirviera para evitar que los crímenes de Guerra se repitan y continúen impunes.

Si la resolución del Congreso de los Diputados que le pide al Gobierno que limite la jurisdicción universal se aprueba finalmente, incrementará la impunidad de los criminales de Guerra y cubrirá de complicidad con los crímenes de guerra a quienes la han impulsado y la aprueben

Firmado por:

-Grupo para un Estado único y democrático. Franja de Gaza.
– Asociación de Profesores de Universidad de Palestina. Franja de Gaza.
-Campaña de Estudiantes Universitarios por el Boicot académico al Estado de Israel.
– Forum Cultural árabe – Gaza
– Banco Al-Qud para la cultura y la información.
-Sociedad de rehabilitación de los deficientes visuales de la Franja de Gaza.

An independent fact-finding committee calls for the prosecution of Israeli political leaders and members of the military

30 May 2009

An independent fact-finding committee (IFFC) established by the League of Arab States (LAS) to investigate and report on violations of human rights and international humanitarian law arising out of Israel’s offensive in Gaza from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, code named Operation Cast Lead, has submitted a report to the LAS in which it finds that there is sufficient evidence to substantiate prosecutions of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report also finds that the Israeli political leadership is responsible for such crimes.

The IFFC, comprising of Professor John Dugard (South Africa, Chairman), Professor Paul de Waart (the Netherlands) , Judge Finn Lynghjem (Norway), Advocate Gonzalo Boye (Chile / Germany), Professor Francisco Corte Real (Portugal) and Ms Raelene Sharp (Australia: Rapporteur), bases its findings on a visit to Gaza, during which it interviewed victims and witnesses of the conflict and visited sites of destruction, and on official publications of the Israeli government and NGO’s operating in the Territory. This evidence showed convincingly that the IDF had failed to distinguish between military and civilian targets in killing over 1,400 Palestinians (of which at least 850 were civilians, including 300 children and 110 women) and wounding over 5,000, and in destroying over 3,000 homes, damaging a further 11,000 and destroying or damaging hospitals, mosques, schools, factories, businesses, UN properties and government buildings.

On the basis of these facts and information collected in Gaza the IFFC found that the IDF had committed four separate war crimes:

  • Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilians;
  • Killing, wounding and terrorizing civilians;
  • Wanton destruction of property not justifiable on grounds of military necessity; and
  • Attacks on hospitals and ambulances and obstruction of the evacuation of the wounded.

The IFFC also found that the IDF had committed crimes against humanity in that it had committed acts of murder, persecution and inhumane acts as part of a widespread and systematic attack on a civilian population.

The IFFC examined the firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from Gaza during the conflict, which had caused the death of four Israeli civilians and wounded 182, and traumatized the population of Southern Israel . It found that the evidence showed that these militants were responsible for the commission of the war crimes of indiscriminate attacks on civilians; and the killing, wounding and terrorization of civilians.

The weaponry used by the IDF in Operation Cast Lead was examined by the IFFC, which found that Israel had used white phosphorus in violation of international law by using it as an incendiary weapon in densely populated neighbourhoods.

The IFCC considered the internal investigation conducted by the IDF which found that that the IDF had acted in accordance with the requirements of international law in the course of Operation Cast Lead . It rejected the conclusions of this investigation on the grounds that it was not an independent investigation, that it failed to consider most of the allegations made against the IDF and that it had not had regard to Palestinian sources. While the IFFC was prepared to accept that some buildings destroyed had been used to store munitions and that the Palestinians had on occasion used civilians as human shields, this could not explain or justify the heavy loss of life and injury and the massive destruction of property.

The IFCC considered the question whether the IDF had committed acts of genocide in the course of its offensive. Here it found that while IDF actions met some of the requirements for the crime of genocide, Israel lacked the necessary special intention to destroy in whole or in part a national or ethnical group as required by the Genocide Convention because its operation had been motivated by an intention to collectively punish the people of Gaza in order to compel the population to reject Hamas or subdue the population into a state of submission. The IFCC rejected Israel ’s claim that it had acted in self-defence as Israel ’s actions failed to satisfy either the legal or the factual requirements for this defence.

The IFCC made a number of recommendations to the LAS. It recommended that the LAS should:

  1. endorse the request of the Palestinian Authority that the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza be investigated and prosecuted by the International Criminal Court;
  2. request the Security Council of the United Nations to refer the situation in Gaza to the International Criminal Court as it had done in the case of Darfur with a view to prosecution of those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity;
  3. request the General Assembly of the United Nations to ask for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Operation Cast Lead; and
  4. recommend to states which recognize the principle of universal jurisdiction for international crimes that they prosecute Israeli political and military leaders for the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

UN moves on Gaza probe despite Israeli objections

Voice of America

20 May 2009

A U.N. human rights expert says he will proceed with a mission to the Gaza Strip to investigate possible war crimes during the recent Israel-Hamas conflict despite Israeli objections.

The U.N.’s Richard Goldstone says Israel has not responded to his request to enter the country and cross into Gaza for his investigation of Israel’s offensive against Hamas rulers.

Speaking in Geneva Wednesday, he said his four-member team hopes to visit the southern Israeli town of Sderot, before crossing into Gaza. But, he says the team will enter Gaza through Egypt if necessary.

Israel objects to the mission because, in its view, it is based on a biased mandate.

The 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council initially instructed the investigators to examine accusations of Israeli war crimes against Palestinians. It later broadened the mission’s scope to look at the actions of both sides in the war.

Goldstone says he also has decided to hold public hearings in which witnesses will testify about the conflict. He says the hearings will be held in Geneva if it is not possible to locate them in the region.

It will be the first time a U.N. human rights investigation conducts such public hearings. The hearings will be modeled on inquiries Goldstone conducted in post-apartheid South Africa, where he served as a judge.

Goldstone, who is from South Africa, says his team must submit its report by August 4. The other investigators include British law professor Christine Chinkin, retired Irish army colonel Desmond Travers and Pakistani human rights advocate Hina Jilani.

The U.N. team also plans to visit the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel says it launched the Gaza offensive in December, 2008 to stop cross-border rocket attacks by Palestinian militants. The fighting killed at least 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. Before it ended in January it also had destroyed thousands of homes in Gaza and damaged its infrastructure.

Palestinians and international rights groups accuse Israel of war crimes. Israel blames Hamas for the heavy casualties, accusing the militants of using schools, mosques and residential areas for cover.

UN accuses Israel of Gaza ‘negligence or recklessness’

Rory McCarthy & Ed Pilkington | The Guardian

A fire at the UN building in Gaza City after Israeli air strikes. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty
A fire at the UN building in Gaza City after Israeli air strikes. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty

5 May 2009

A United Nations inquiry today accused the Israeli military of “negligence or recklessness” in its conduct of the January war in Gaza and said the organisation should press claims for reparations for deaths and damage.

The first investigation into the three-week war by anyone other than human rights researchers and journalists held the Israeli government responsible in seven separate cases in which UN property was damaged and UN staff and other civilians were hurt or killed.

However, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, rejected the report’s call for a full and impartial investigation into the war, and refused to publish the complete 184-page report. Only Ban’s own summary of the report (pdf) has been released.

Israel rejected the inquiry’s findings, even before the summary was released, as “tendentious” and “patently biased”.

The board of inquiry, led by Ian Martin, a Briton who is a former head of Amnesty International and a former UN special envoy to East Timor and Nepal, had limited scope, looking only at cases of death, injury or damage involving UN property and staff. But its conclusions amount to a major challenge to Israel.

It found the Israeli military’s actions “involved varying degrees of negligence or recklessness”, and that the military took “inadequate” precautions towards UN premises. It said the deaths of civilians should be investigated under the rules of international humanitarian law.

The UN should take action “to seek accountability and pursue claims to secure reparation or reimbursement” for UN expenses and payments over deaths or injury to UN staff and damage to UN property where the responsibility lay with Israel, Hamas or any other party, the report added. In total, more than $11m worth of damage was caused to UN premises.

The inquiry looked in detail at nine incidents, in which several Palestinians died. It found the Israeli military responsible in seven cases where it had “breached the inviolability” of the UN. In one other case, Palestinian militants, probably from Hamas, were held responsible; in a final case, responsibility was unclear.

The report summary will now go to the UN security council. In a later press conference , Ban confirmed that he would be seeking no further official inquiry into the Gaza events. But he did say he would be looking for reparations from Israel on a “case-by-case” basis.

The secretary general was asked whether his decision not to publish the full report amounted to a watering down of the inquiry’s findings. He categorically denied the suggestion: the inquiry was independent, and he was powerless to edit its conclusions.

Israel’s foreign ministry said the Israeli military had already investigated its own conduct during the war and “proved beyond doubt” that it had not fired intentionally at UN buildings. It dismissed the UN inquiry.

“The state of Israel rejects the criticism in the committee’s summary report and determines that in both spirit and language the report is tendentious, patently biased and ignores the facts presented to the committee,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said the inquiry had “preferred the claims of Hamas, a murderous terror organisation, and by doing so has misled the world”.

The most serious incident investigated took place on 6 January, near a UN boys’ preparatory school in Jabaliya that was being used as a shelter for hundreds of Palestinians who had fled their homes to escape the fighting. The Israeli military had fired several 120mm mortar rounds in the “immediate vicinity” of the school, killing between 30 and 40 Palestinians, the inquiry found.

Although Israel at the time said Hamas had fired mortars from within the school, the inquiry found this as not true: there had been no firing from within the compound and there were no explosives in the school.

It held Israel responsible for the attack and said the deaths of civilians should be “assessed in accordance with … international humanitarian law.” It also called for a formal acknowledgement from Israel that its allegations about Palestinian militants being present in the school were untrue.

The other incidents investigated were:

29 December The headquarters of the UN political mission in Gaza was damaged when Israeli air strikes hit the presidential compound next door. Staff were on site, but were protected in a bunker and not injured. The inquiry held the Israeli government responsible for the damage.

5 January An Israeli air strike hit the UN Asma elementary school in Gaza City, where hundreds more Palestinians were sheltering. The missile killed three young men who had been walking to the bathroom in the school compound. The inquiry found no weapons or ammunition were being stored in the school, and that the men had been going to the toilet and not taking part in military activity. The attack was “an egregious breach of the inviolability of the United Nations premises”, the inquiry said, again holding Israel responsible for the deaths and damage.

6 January An Israeli air strike damaged the UN Bureij health centre, injuring nine people. The inquiry said the air strike had targeted and destroyed an apartment opposite the centre. It held Israel responsible for the damage to the health centre, and noted that the UN had been given no advance warning of the attack.

8 January Israeli soldiers fired at a UN convoy, damaging one of the vehicles in Ezbet Abed Rabou. The marked convoy, flying a UN flag, had been cleared by the Israeli military to travel out to pick up the dead body of a UN staff member.

15 January The UN’s main headquarters in Gaza was badly damaged when it was hit by several Israeli artillery shells, including some containing white phosphorus. The shelling continued despite warnings from the UN to the Israeli military, and fires caused serious damage to the UN warehouse. Three people were injured. The inquiry held Israel responsible and said the Israeli military had a “particularly high degree of responsibility” to ensure the safety of the UN headquarters.

17 January Israeli 155mm artillery loaded with white phosphorus exploded early in the morning above the UN Beit Lahiya elementary school, where nearly 2,000 Palestinians were sheltering from the fighting. Two children, aged five and seven, were killed inside a classroom and their mother and cousin were seriously injured by shards of shell casings. Eleven others were also hurt. The inquiry held Israel responsible for the deaths, injuries and damage.

In one other case, damage worth around $29,000 was caused to a World Food Programme warehouse by a Palestinian militant group, probably Hamas. In the last case, a UN guard outside the gate of a UN girls’ preparatory school in Khan Younis was killed on 29 December by shrapnel. The inquiry was unable to determine who was responsible.