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-----Original Message-----
From:	[log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent:	Monday, October 09, 2000 12:39 PM
To:	[log in to unmask]
Subject:	For moderation - BADIL Appeal to UN Human Rights Commission

BADIL Resource Center
For immediate release, 9-10-2000.
----------------------------------------------------

The following appeal was sent today by BADIL Resource Center to the UN Human
Rights Commission:
------------------------------------

To the
UN Human Rights Commission
Mrs. Mary Robinson, High Commissioner
Representatives of Member States
Fax: 0041-22-917 9018

HALT ISRAELI VIOLENCE AGAINST PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS!
* Conduct a thorough Investigation of the current acts of violence;
* Establish International Protection for the Palestinian People;
* Intervene for Israeli Adherence to UN Resolutions, International Human
Rights Conventions and Humanitarian Law;

Appeal by BADIL Resource Center, Bethlehem, 6 October 2000.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mrs. Robinson
Dear Members of the UN Human Rights Commission,
Aware of the fact that your Commission will meet on Tuesday, 10 October in
order to take decisions concerning its future steps for the solution of the
current violent crisis in Palestine, we would like to present briefly facts,
analysis, and recommendations as viewed by a Palestinian NGO, part of the
Palestinian community effected by the events.
1. SUMMARY OF THE EVENTS
On 28 September 2000, Ariel Sharon, head of the Israeli Likud party,
conducted a so-called private visit, accompanied by 3,000 Israeli police and
special forces, to the Muslim holy site of al-Haram al-Sharif (site of the
al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock) in the Old City of Jerusalem,
despite warnings by Palestinian, Arab, and some Israeli and western
officials that the visit could destabilize the situation on the ground.
On Friday 29 September, thousands of Palestinians gathered for worship at
the Haram al-Sharif in response to the Israeli provocation. The massive
Israeli police presence in the Old City and around the Haram al-Sharif led
to an atmosphere of extreme tension and resulted in Israeli occupation
forces, including snipers, opening fire on the Palestinian worshippers, thus
triggering the bloodiest Israeli-Palestinian confrontations since the
beginning of the Oslo process in 1993.
Consequently, popular demonstrations and street fighting between civilian
Palestinian protestors and the Israeli occupation army and police forces
spread all over the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Palestinian population
centers inside Israel. Israeli measures applied to repress the popular
protests escalated from day to day, including measures which are clearly
outlawed by international conventions (Fourth Geneva Convention/Protection
of Civilians under Occupation; Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
Convention on the Rights of the Child), such as the use of life ammunition
and dum-dum bullets against civilians, many of them children; the use of
tanks, LAW missiles, and gun-helicopters against large crowds of protestors,
Palestinian civilian homes and security targets; shooting at Palestinian
medical staff and ambulances; collective punishment (military closures and
curfews on Palestinian communities); attacks against civilians with the
purpose of inducing panic and fear.
The circle of violence caused by attacks of the heavily armed occupation
forces and the response of the Palestinian popular resistance equipped with
stones and Molotov-cocktails - supported by weakly armed Palestinian
security forces - has resulted in an unprecedented toll of deaths and
injuries among the Palestinian people. By October 6, over 80 Palestinians
have been killed, 14 of them Palestinian citizens of Israel.Among the killed
are at least 15 children below the age of eighteen. In addition, over 2,500
have been injured, mainly by bullet wounds to the upper part of the body and
head.
2. ANALYSIS OF CAUSES UNDERLYING THE CRISIS
a) Israeli non-compliance with all UN resolutions pertaining to the
historical Palestinian/Arab - Israeli conflict (especially UN Resolution 181
providing for a special international regime over all of Jerusalem;
Resolution 194 calling for the repatriation and restitution of Palestinian
refugees; Resolutions 242 and  338 calling for Israeli withdrawal from the
Palestinian territories occupied in 1967) and international humanitarian and
human rights conventions (e.g. Fourth Geneva Convention; Convention on Civil
and Political Rights; Convention on the Rights of the Child; conventions on
the status of refugees, internally displaced and stateless persons) has
never been effectively challenged by the international community, in
particular by the United Nations. Moreover, abstention from rights-based
intervention against Israeli violations of UN resolutions and international
law standards became an explicit international policy after 1993, when
"support for the Middle East Peace Process" - i.e.  support for the results
of regional power politics irrespective of their conformity with
international human rights standards - became the predominant role of the
international community in the Middle East. Israeli governments have
interpreted this international stand as a carte blanche for more violations
of UN resolutions and international conventions - the excessive use of armed
force in the current crisis is one of the results.
b) For the Palestinian people, the absence of rights-based intervention in
the Oslo process by the international community has meant additional proof
of international disregard and disrespect for basic Palestinian rights; it
further deepened Palestinian/Arab doubts in the universality and enforcement
capacity of the international human rights system - doubts which have
characterized the Palestinian/Arab relationship to the international (United
Nations) system at least since the UN Partition Resolution of 1947. Although
termed "Jerusalem (Al-Aqsa) Intifada", the current popular protest is thus
not mainly a struggle over religious symbols, but an expression of the deep
Palestinian frustration over the ongoing disrespect and denial of the
Palestinian people's basic rights - including the right to free access to
Jerusalem, security and development in the homeland, and the refugees' right
to return, restitution and compensation - by a political process which is
experienced as a process imposed by Israeli and the United States, supported
by the United Nations,  in order to negate Palestinian human and national
rights for all times to come.
RECOMMMENDATIONS: TOWARDS A SOLUTION OF THE CURRENT CRISIS
As public protest against Israeli violence and support for the Palestinian
people has spread from the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and the Arab
world to the United States, Canada and Europe, an adequate official response
by the international community is urgently needed in order to rebuild
Palestinian confidence in the universality and efficiency of the
international political and human rights system.
SPECIFICALLY, we call upon the UN Human Rights Commission, its member states
and High Commissioner, Ms. Mary Robinson, to make use of the Commission's
mandate by:
1. Holding a SPECIAL SESSION n to discuss the current violent events
and issue a SPECIAL STATEMENT, which calls upon Israel to halt
immediately all military operations against the Palestinian people
and condemns injuries and loss of life caused by Israel, as the
ruling military power in the area, through the excessive and
indiscriminate use of military and police force against the
Palestinian people in the 1967 occupied territories and in Israel.

2. Launching an INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATION to determine responsibility and
accountability for the injuries, loss of life and human rights violations by
Israel. Such investigation must not only address the immediate circumstances
of the current violent events, but also the underlying causes outlined
above. It must include a thorough investigation of the human rights
situation of particularly vulnerable sectors of the Palestinian people, i.e.
Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem and Israel, and Palestinian refugees and
internally displaced persons.
3. Demanding that the Commission receive UN AUTHORIZATION TO FULLY
INVESTIGATE Israeli violations against Palestinians, both within Israel, and
in the 1967 occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
4. STIMULATING and COORDINATING ACTION (including PREVENTIVE ACTION) for the
PROTECTION of the human rights of the Palestinian people throughout the UN
system. Protective human rights mechanisms, based on the existing UN
Resolutions, human rights conventions and humanitarian law, must be extended
especially to vulnerable groups, i.e. Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem and
within Israel, and to Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons,
who - excluded from the international protection regime for 50 years -
continue to be denied a broad range of basic human rights, especially their
right to repatriation, restitution and compensation based on UN Resolution
194 and the standards set by the 1951 Refugee Convention.

In deep concern and with sincere greetings,
Salem Abu Hawwash, Head of Board
Ingrid Jaradat Gassner, Director
BADIL Resource Center

Copies to:	Offices of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in
	Geneva, West Bank and Gaza Strip

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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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