In a message dated 7/24/2002 1:37:15 PM Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> Amnesty International: End collective punishment of Palestinians
> 7/24/2002
>
> Amnesty International has released the following statement:
>
> One month after Israel reoccupied villages and towns in the West Bank
> more than 800,000 Palestinians still suffer the effects of prolonged
> curfews and closures.
>
> Israeli soldiers continue to carry out unlawful killings of Palestinians
> with impunity. Hundreds of Palestinians remain in detention, including
> in administrative detention without charge or trial, and destruction or
> damage to homes and property continues.
>
> The organization calls on the Israeli authorities to end curfews,
> closures at checkpoints and other measures which are designed to punish
> indiscriminately rather than improve effectively the security of Israel.
> The effects on the daily life of ordinary Palestinians are devastating.
>
> After 19 June 2002 Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) launched "Operation
> Determined Path" and reoccupied the West Bank. Official statements said
> that this was to prevent further attacks on Israelis after two suicide
> bombings in Jerusalem on 18 and 19 June 2002 which killed 26 Israelis.
> Amnesty International is gravely concerned at the worsening conditions
> and the erosion of basic human rights of Palestinians, as the whole
> Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories is being punished.
> As people living under military occupation, Palestinians are "protected
> people" under the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection
> of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949.
>
> Grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention include not only
> "willful killing" but also "wilfully causing great suffering." Measures
> taken by the IDF have included: Since 21 June most Palestinian towns
> (except for Jericho) and many villages in the West Bank have been
> under curfew for up to 24 hours a day forcing Palestinians to live
> under virtual house arrest.
>
> In Nablus the 24-hour curfew has only been lifted once a week for up
> to six hours. In Tulkarem, the curfew imposed on 20 June has reportedly
> been lifted only eight times, for up to four hours a day. Even where
> the curfew has been officially eased it confines inhabitants of towns
> under curfew to their homes from sunset to sunrise.
>
> More than three million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
> are living under closures. Nearly every road to a town or village is
> cut by barriers manned by soldiers or closed by blocks of concrete,
> piles of earth, and trenches. A journey of 40 kilometres can take
> several hours. Palestinians are barred from many primary roads and
> special passes, often unobtainable, are needed for Palestinians to
> travel from one area to the other.
>
> Denial of freedom of movement for the Palestinian population in the
> Occupied Territories has affected the ability of ordinary Palestinians
> to access work, education and health care, as well as their ability
> to conduct business, travel, and maintain family contacts. The impact
> on the Palestinian economy has been severe.
>
> The reoccupation took place at the same time as the final school
> exams, leaving teachers, students and supervisors unable to reach
> schools.
>
> Violations of the right to life and medical care continue. Israeli
> soldiers sometimes appear to consider that the imposition of a
> curfew authorizes them to shoot at anyone in the street; in addition
> soldiers have shot at people in streets even when curfews were lifted.
> In Jenin three children were killed by fire from Israeli tanks, during
> the temporary lifting of curfew on 21 and 26 June. Also in Jenin, on
> 11 July 2002, Israeli soldiers on a tank shot two Palestinian
> journalists wearing jackets clearly marked "Press;" one journalist
> died from his wounds.
>
> More than 600 Palestinians are now held under administrative detention,
> mostly in tents in the detention centres Ofer and Ketziot (Ansar III).
> Several hundred other Palestinians, many of them arbitrarily detained
> over the past three months, are also held in pre-trial detention in
> centres in Israel and the Occupied Territories.
>
> During the reoccupation of the West Bank the IDF have continued to
> destroy or damage Palestinian homes and property without absolute
> military necessity. On 22 June 2002 in Jenin the IDF demolished a house
> on top of a family with five children, killing a 12-year-old boy, Fares
> al-Sa'adi. In the Nablus area two houses belonging to families of men
> wanted for organizing attacks on Israelis were destroyed as collective
> punishment on 19 July; other neighbouring houses were severely damaged
> by the force of the explosions set off by the IDF. It is time for the
> Israeli government and world leaders to recognize that respect for
> fundamental human rights is not only compatible with security, but that
> without human rights there will be no security and no peace, Amnesty
> International concluded.  The statement was released on Monday.
>
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>             The American Muslim Council (AMC)
>         1212 New York Ave, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20005