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-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 2:37 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: For moderation - BADIL Submission to Mary Robinson, UN Human Rights
Commission
BADIL Resource Center
For immediate release, 14-11-2000.
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The following letter was presented by BADIL to the UN High Commissioner on
Human Rights, Mary Robinson, yesterday during her meeting with Palestinian
human rights organizations at the Al-Bireh Municipality, Ramallah.
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BADIL Submission to:
Mrs. Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner on Human Rights at her Meeting with
Palestinian NGOs, Al-Bireh Municipality, 13 November 2000.
Bethlehem, 11 November 2000.
Dear Mrs. Robinson,
BADIL Resource Center welcomes your current mission to Palestine based on
Resolution E/CN.4/S-5/1 issued by the Special Session of the UN Commission
on Human Rights in Geneva on 19 October 2000.
I. Summary: Development and Consequences of Israeli Repression
Your visit to Palestine is taking place while the situation of the
Palestinian people in the 1967 Israeli occupied lands continues to
deteriorate as a result of new policies of repression and violations of
Palestinian rights, delineated in International Humanitarian, Human Rights,
and Refugee Law, by the Israeli political and military authorities as well
as armed Israeli settlers.
Since the outbreak of the current violence on 29 September 2000, we have
witnessed a transition of Israeli occupation policies from overt and massive
repression of the popular Palestinian protests characterized by excessive
and indiscriminate use of military force against the civilian population
(live ammunition against unarmed civilian demonstrators; LAU and TOW
missiles fired from gunship helicopters and tanks at residential areas)
towards a new stage of low-intensity warfare at minimal cost to Israel,
which aims to strangle the civil and economic life of the Palestinian
community on the one hand (e.g. restrictions on movement of persons and
goods, exclusion of the Palestinian labor force from the Israeli labor
market, withholding of tax-refunds to the Palestinian Authority), and to
liquidate organized Palestinian resistance to the occupation on the other
(operation of Israeli undercover units and spies in Palestinian controlled
areas in order to assassinate/arrest activists of the organized resistance
movement).
By 9 November 2000, Israel's occupation policies have resulted in 185
Palestinian deaths (14 of them inside the Israeli state territory), among
them 64 minors below the age of 18, and in some 7,000 injuries, many of
which will cause permanent disabilities. (For more details on developments
and consequences of the current crisis, see BADIL press releases attached.)
II. Based on findings and analysis of BADIL and our partner
organizations in the Palestinian community, the current violent crisis in
1967 occupied Palestine is mainly the result of two factors:
a) The use of excessive and indiscriminate force by the Israeli occupation
forces (military and settlers) against Palestinian civilians since the
Palestinian protests against the provocative
visit of Israeli MK Ariel Sharon, accompanied by some 3,000 police and
special forces, to the Haram al-Sharif compound in Jerusalem on 28 September
2000. Israel's excessive and indiscriminate use of force has since been
examined, documented and condemned by numerous NGO investigators (e.g.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights), by
United Nations organs (Security Council Resolution 1322 of 7 October 2000;
General Assembly Resolution A/ES-10/L.6 of 20 October 2000; Special Session
of the UN Human Rights Commission, Resolution E/CN.4/Res/S-5/1 of 27
October 2000), and by the final statement of the Special Summit of the Arab
League issued in Cairo on 22 October 2000.
b) Long-standing Israeli disregard and violation of international law
standards as defined in UN Resolutions (181, 194, 242, 338), as well as
international humanitarian, human rights, and refugee law. Israeli
violations of Palestinian human rights, documented in resolutions of the UN
Human Rights Commission since 1968, reached an unprecedented scope during
the "interim period" of the Oslo peace process (1993 - 2000), which has
excluded international mechanisms for enforcement of universal standards
delineated in the three bodies of international law mentioned above. Popular
Palestinian protests in the wake of the failed Camp David summit in July
2000 must be understood also as a broad Palestinian outcry against the
deplorable situation of Palestinian human rights, particularly among
vulnerable and
unprotected sectors of the Palestinian people, such as refugees and
internally displaced persons and the Palestinian community in occupied and
unilaterally Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.
III. Recommendations
Both levels of causes outlined above must be addressed immediately in
order to create conditions for the resumption of the political
efforts for a durable solution of the historical Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. BADIL calls upon the United Nations High Commissioner on Human
Rights to contribute to such effort by:
1. Making use of her mandate to prepare, based on this visit, an INDEPENDENT
COMMISSION OF INQUIRY into serious human rights violations and war crimes
during the current crisis which have resulted in the killing of civilians,
particularly children. Such
Commission must be truly independent, its members not appointed by states
but comprising, among others, international lawyers well-versed in human
rights and humanitarian law. The Commission must be established as soon as
possible, before information and evidence disappears, and IT MUST BE
EMPOWERED TO ESTABLISH A TRIBUNAL FOR WAR CRIMES.
2. To set up a SPECIAL HUMAN RIGHTS TASK FORCE to examine the lack of
protection of the Palestinian people in the 1967 Israeli occupied
territories and in exile. Special attention should be given to the
protection needs of vulnerable groups, particularly Palestinian
refugees and internally displaced persons and the Palestinian
community in 1967 occupied Jerusalem. The task force should work in liaison
with all UN agencies (potentially) involved (including UNCHR, UNRWA, UNHCR,
UNCCP) and the ICRC. It should examine all possible ways of for IMMEDIATE
INTERVENTION BY APPROPRIATELY MANDATED UN-BODIES FOR PROTECTION OF
PALESTINAINS in the various categories, including the re-activation of
UNRWA's ROA program and international peacekeeping troupes.
3. The Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights should take a
PRINCIPLED POSITION towards STRICT APPLICATION of INTERNATIONAL LAW and the
UN set out over the past 52 years in the resumption of the political
negotiations between the respective parties. Your office should launch an
initiative for drafting a formula for a durable peace with justice based on
the UN framework which should be put
forward for international involvement in resolving the historical
conflict. Non-political international experts should be invited to
assist in this process.
4. The MANDATE of the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip should be UPGRADED to include, in addition to
the current role as assistant to civil and human rights development in
Palestinian society, an active role in: i)
documenting, reporting, and publicizing human rights violations as they
occur; devising and implementing - in cooperation with other UN organs and
ICRC - mechanisms of immediate protection of civilians during crisis; and,
iii) monitoring the implementation of Human Rights standards during
implementation of durable solutions.
Ingrid Jaradat Gassner, Director, BADIL Resource Center
Salem Abu Hawwash, Head of Board, BADIL Resource Center
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For additional information on the Palestinian protection needs and
international standards and mechanisms, see:
www.badil.org/intifada2000/intifada2000.html
BADIL Resource Center aims to provide a resource pool of alternative,
critical and progressive information and analysis on the
question of Palestinian refugees in our quest to achieve a just and lasting
solution for exiled Palestinians based on the right
of return.
PO Box 728, Bethlehem, Palestine; tel/fax. 02-2747346; email:
[log in to unmask]; website: www.badil.org
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