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-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2000 7:09 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: For moderation - BADIL: Over 16,000 Appeal to United Nations:
Protect Palestinian Rights!
BADIL Resource Center & Media Alternatives on Palestine (MAP)
For immediate release, 23-11-2000.
-----------------------------------------
Petition to UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Mary Robinson
Endorsed by over 16,000
Palestinians Demand INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION
As a Step towards Implementation of their
Right to SELF-DETERMINATION and Refugees' RIGHT of RETURN
Over 16,000 Palestinians, as well as individuals and organizations
worldwide, endorsed - within nine days of its launching - a petition
appealing to UN High Commissioner Mary Robinson to "call for the
implementation of the Palestinian right to self-determination and, as a
first step, to call for an international protection force for the
Palestinian people, before continued violence against the Palestinian
society results in massive destruction for the second time in 52 years."
The petition was signed, among others, by some 3,000 residents of the
cities and villages in the Hebron, Jerusalem and Ramallah area;
representatives of Palestinian political parties, public
institutions, NGOs and university student organizations; refugees and
their community organizations in the camps of 'Aida, Beit Jibrin
('Azza), al-'Arroub, and Balata; over 100 representatives of
political parties, unions, women committees, NGOs and refugee organizations
in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria; and more than 13,000 academics and
professionals, Palestinian expatriates, solidarity and human rights
activists and their organizations in Arab countries, Europe, Asia and the
United States.
Implementation of international law and UN resolutions in our region must no
longer be conditional on the consent of the Israeli occupier.
The urgency of this Palestinian demand is highlighted by the Israeli
cabinet decision - in the wake of a Palestinian attack against
Israeli settlers in Gaza on 20 November - to escalate its military
repression of the Palestinian uprising by more intensive shelling of
Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps, and to tighten sieges
and blockades aimed at strangulating the Palestinian people's
economic and social infrastructure. At this moment, and following the
Israeli air-raid on Gaza on 20 November, extensive shooting by
Israeli military and settlers, as well as shelling of Palestinian
communities, is being reported from all over the occupied Gaza Strip and
West Bank. 250 Palestinians have been killed, 86 of them minors below the
age of 18 (data of 21-11), and more then 10,000 injured since 28 September
2000, and the Israeli government is determined to continue the colonization
of the 1967 occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, even at the expense of
another war in the Middle East.
The petition, sponsored by Media Alternative on Palestine (MAP) and BADIL
Resource Center, was launched on 11 November 2000 on the occasion of UN High
Commissioner Robinson's visit to Palestine. It is presented to her today, in
order to emphasize the urgency of rapid action by the UN Commission on Human
Rights, both towards the UN Security Council's vote on the deployment of
international protection forces expected for Friday, 25 November, and
towards the establishment of a new, rights-based and UN-supervised mechanism
for a just and durable solution of the historical Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
Attached: Appeal text
------------------------------------------------
AN URGENT CALL to MRS. MARY ROBINSON
UN HIGH COMMISSIONER on HUMAN RIGHTS
WE, the undersigned, call urgently on Mrs. Mary Robinson to uphold,
in full, the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
and of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on
behalf of the Palestinian people, at this most critical and dangerous
historical juncture. In particular, we call on her urgently to affirm
Article #1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which calls for the inalienable right of all peoples to self-
determination, and which continues to be grievously and
systematically violated by Israel's occupation, and by its refusal to accept
the right of return.
The right to self-determination and continued occupation stand in
fundamental conflict. Continued occupation is the root cause of the present
situation. It is the machinery of occupation which produces the systematic
violation of the range of other individual and collective rights provided
for by the Covenant, including the right to liberty and security of person,
the right to freedom of movement, the right to control one's own natural
resources, and others. It is the machinery of occupation which produces
settlements, closures, checkpoints, home demolitions, land confiscation,
destruction of crops, and wanton killings by settlers and occupation forces,
which the Palestinian people have continued to endure even during the last 7
years under cover of the peace process.
Occupation can be maintained only by violence or the threat of violence.
Instead of respecting the principles of human rights and international law,
and acknowledging the Palestinian right to self-determination, Israel has
declared war on the Palestinian people. It has openly unleashed an arsenal
of military violence against them. In just six weeks, more than 200
Palestinians have been killed and over six thousand wounded. We demand a
total end to the occupation. We appeal urgently to the High Commissioner for
Human Rights to call for the implementation of the Palestinian right to
self-determination, and as a first step, to call for an international
protection force for the Palestinian people, before continued violence
against Palestinian society results in massive destruction for the second
time in 52 years.
------------------------------------------------
* For additional information on the current uprising, Israeli
repression, relevant UN resolutions, and the Palestinian demand for
international protection, see
www.badil.org/Intifada2000/Intifada2000.html
* For more information about Media Alternatives on Palestine (MAP), please
contact: [log in to unmask]
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
BADIL Resource Center
For immediate release, 22-11-2000.
-------------------------------------------------
URGENT NEED for UN Protection Forces to STOP the MASSIVE Assault on
PALESTINIAN RIGHTS in the Occupied Territories
Quantification of Losses and Clarification of Protection Mandate
1. QUANTIFCATION of Palestinian Losses
In the face of ongoing aggression by the Israeli military and settlers
against the Palestinian people, lobbying efforts continue for the deployment
of an international protection force in the occupied West Bank, eastern
Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip under the auspices of the United Nations
despite Israeli opposition. Urgent action is required by the United Nations
in order to stop the massive Israeli assault on the basic rights of the
Palestinian people since the beginning of the uprising (Al-Aqsa Intifada) in
late September.
"If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead
would put an end to the fighting at a stroke," stated Israeli Prime
Ehud Barak on Israel Radio, "we would use much more force." (Quoted
by AP, 16-11-00)
In eight weeks, 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli occupying
forces (including 14 Palestinians inside Israel) and nearly 10,000 have been
injured by live ammunition (19%), plastic and rubber bullets (41%), gas
(31%). Of those killed, 86 are children (18 years and under). Sixty-six of
the children were killed by live ammunition, approximately a third of whom
were shot in the head. During the first week of the uprising some 2,860
Palestinians were injured and 69 killed. Since that time, around 25
Palestinians have been killed and some 1,000 injured each week by Israeli
occupying forces.
To date the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupying forces
is 4 times greater than during the first two months of the intifada
that began in December 1987, and equal to the total number of
Palestinians killed between December 1987 and June 1988. While the
Israeli military continues to claim that its soldiers only fire when
their lives are in danger, investigations by several international
human rights organizations have concluded, based on the number and
type of injuries and fatal wounds, that Israeli soldiers are firing
at Palestinian demonstrators with intent to injure and kill. This
conclusion is further supported by the fact that Israeli occupying forces
are outfitted with sophisticated protection gear, including flak jackets
that can stop an M-16 and an AK-47 bullet at any range and armored jeeps,
while most Palestinian demonstrators are unarmed.
The Palestinian people have also suffered enormous material damage after
more than two months of shelling and heavy machine gunfire on residential
and commercial areas. This includes attacks using American-made munitions
and military hardware. In the past two months, the US granted Israel an
additional several million dollars of financial aid, some of which will
surely go towards the purchase of an additional 100 armored jeeps and 1,300
advanced flak jackets earmarked for purchase by the Israeli military in the
last week.
Meanwhile US arms manufacturers continue to supply Israel with the same
weapons systems used against Palestinian civilians, including a recent sale
of Appache attack helicopters built by McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems,
and a new $200 million contract between Lockheed Martin and the Israeli
company Raphael for a new anti-tank missile, first tested in live action on
Palestinian residential areas in Beit Jala.
Since the beginning of the uprising more than 400 Palestinian homes
(excluding the recent attack on Gaza on 20-11-00) have been damaged by
Israeli shelling, heavy machinegun fire, and helicopter launched missiles.
Damage includes the complete destruction of homes, shattering of glass in
windows and doors as well as solar heating systems, structural damage to
roofs and exterior/interior walls, puncturing of water tanks, and damage to
movable property inside homes. Based on the average number of persons per
housing unit in the Palestinian territories, the damage to private property
affects some 3,000 persons.
Public property, including PA administrative and police offices, radio
stations/towers, schools and hospitals have also been targeted by the
Israeli military. According to the PA Ministry of Education, Palestinian
schools have suffered more than $400,000 damage in the last eight weeks.
Forty-one schools, providing education for some 20,000 students, have been
closed or unable to operate because of Israeli military order, siege,
curfews or because they are located in areas unsafe for children and staff.
Some $10 million in damage has been done to the Palestinian industrial
infrastructure. Approximately 14 mosques have been damaged by Israeli
attacks since the end of September. Significant damage has also been done by
the Israeli military and settlers to the Palestinian agricultural sector.
The PA Ministry of Agriculture estimates that more than 25,000 olive and
fruit trees have been destroyed and 2,400 dunums of land bulldozed.
Based on the average daily loss of $8.5 million (UNSCO) during the first
three weeks of the uprising the total loss, excluding loss of life and
damage to physical assets, during the past two months has reached some half
a billion US dollars. The inclusion of damage to movable and immovable
property, as well as lost income from damage to Palestinian transport
vehicles at Israeli military checkpoints and the destruction of agricultural
crops, would raise this figure significantly. These figures are sure to rise
with the decision this week by the Israeli cabinet to impose an economic
siege on the PA. It is impossible to put a value on the non-material losses
sustained by Palestinians since the beginning of the uprising.
2. CLARIFICATION of the MANDATE for UN Protection Forces
The absence of a rights-based approach towards a political settlement
of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Israeli non-compliance with
all UN resolutions pertaining to the conflict (especially UNGA 181,
194 and UNSC 242) and international humanitarian, human rights, and
refugee law has lead to the current uprising in the occupied
Palestinian territories and inside Israel. The mandate of a UN
protection force must therefore clearly relate to these underlying
problems and concomitant solutions: Israeli withdrawal from all of
the West Bank, including eastern Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip,
realization of the right of the Palestinian people to self-
determination, and implementation of the right of return for
Palestinian refugees and displaced persons.
Critical concerns regarding the mandate of a potential UN protection
force have been raised in the context of statements made the United
States and the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Both have stated that
an international protection force cannot be deployed in the occupied
territories without the consent of the government of Israel. This
view requires immediate clarification in light of the international
framework outlined above and the consistent and repeated demand by the
United Nations (Security Council, General Assembly, Commission on Human
Rights, Economic and Social Council, a.o.) for Israel to withdraw from the
territories occupied in 1967.
According to international humanitarian law, a military occupier can never
attain de jure sovereignty over occupied territory.
Consequently, the de jure sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian
territories which vested in the Palestinian people with the 1919 League of
Nations Covenant - which is the fundamental legal basis of the Palestinian
people's collectively-held right of self-determination in those areas - can
never be overridden by the lesser order of military control exercised by
Israel. Israeli consent for the deployment of UN forces in the occupied
Palestinian territories incorrectly implies recognition of the legitimacy of
the Israeli occupation as well as the American position that the territories
are disputed rather than occupied. Regardless of the issue of Israeli
consent, UN forces can be deployed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, a
measure previously recommended by the UN Commission on Human Rights.
Secondly, and related to the status of the occupied territories, is the
intervention mandate of any UN protection force. The mandate must clearly
reflect and allow for what the United Nations has already recognized as the
legitimacy of struggle against occupation, foreign domination, and
colonialism. The source of the current unrest in the West Bank, eastern
Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, is not the Palestinian street. The source of
the problem has always been, and continues to be the illegal Israeli
occupation.
Finally, a UN protection force must have a mandate to move throughout
the occupied Palestinian territories, investigate and publicly
disseminate violations of Palestinian rights, and have the
authorization, backed up by appropriate resources, to intervene to
protect the Palestinian people under occupation, especially
vulnerable groups such as children, refugees, the Palestinian
community in occupied Jerusalem, and Palestinians living in remote rural
areas facing ongoing attacks by the Israeli military and settlers.
"Impartiality for UN operations must [...] mean adherence to the principles
of the [UN] Charter: where one party to a peace agreement clearly and
incontrovertibly is violating its terms, continued equal treatment of all
parties by the UN can in the best case result in ineffectiveness and in the
worst may amount to complicity with evil. No failure did more to damage the
standing and credibility of the United Nations peacekeeping in the 1990s
than its reluctance to distinguish victim from aggressor."
(Report of the Panel on the UN Peace Operations)
LETTERS and FAXES directed to Secretary General Kofi Annan REQUESTING
CLARIFICATION Of the United Nations position towards the occupied
territories should be directed to:
Kofi Annan
Secretary General
c/o Office of the Spokesman
United Nations S-378
New York, NY 10017
tel. 212-963-7162
fax. 212-963-7055
Sources: Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, PA Ministries of
Agriculture and Education, Defense for Children International-
Palestine, Palestine Red Crescent Society, The Independent, Ha'aretz,
Yediot Aharanot
-------------------------------------------------
For additional information on Israeli repression, Palestinian rights
and international protection 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
BADIL Resource Center
For immediate release, 14-11-2000.
----------------------------------------------------------
PETITION for INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION and IMPLEMENTATION of the
PALESTINIAN RIGHT to SELF-DETERMINATION
Sponsored by Media Alternative on Palestine (MAP) and BADIL Resource
Center
This petition was launched as an effort to send a strong and clear
message from the Palestinian community to the UN High Commissioner on
Human Rights, Mary Robinson, who - based on the resolution issued by
the Special Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights
(E/CN.4/RES/S-5/1; 19 October 2000) - is currently on a fact-finding
mission in Palestine. Based on her mandate, Mrs. Robinson is to "take
stock of the violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people
by the Israeli occupying power; to facilitate the activities of the
mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights in implementing the present
resolution; to report to the Commission on Human Rights at is next
(fifty-seventh) session and, on an interim basis, to the General Assembly at
its fifty-fifth session."
An initial presentation of this petition to the UN High Commissioner,
including some 1000 signatures, was made yesterday, 13 October, prior to her
meeting with Palestinian human rights organizations at the Al-Bireh
Municipality/Ramallah. Additional signatures will be gathered for one more
week (until 21 November 2000) and forwarded to High Commissioner Robinson
prior to the completion of her report.
* BADIL Resource Center calls for wide endorsement of this petition.
PLEASE SIGN ON directly via our website:
www.badil.org or www.badil.org/intifada2000/intifada2000.html
("Petition for International Protection Forces")
* For additional information on the current uprising, Israeli
repression, relevant UN resolutions, and the Palestinian demand for
international protection, see
www.badil.org/intifada2000/intifada2000.html
* For more information about Media Alternative on Palestine (MAP), please
contact: [log in to unmask]
Attached: Petition Text
-------------------------------------------------
AN URGENT CALL to MRS. MARY ROBINSON
UN HIGH COMMISSIONER on HUMAN RIGHTS
WE, the undersigned, call urgently on Mrs. Mary Robinson to uphold,
in full, the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
and of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on
behalf of the Palestinian people, at this most critical and dangerous
historical juncture. In particular, we call on her urgently to affirm
Article #1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which calls for the inalienable right of all peoples to self-
determination, and which continues to be grievously and
systematically violated by Israel's occupation, and by its refusal to accept
the right of return.
The right to self-determination and continued occupation stand in
fundamental conflict. Continued occupation is the root cause of the present
situation. It is the machinery of occupation which produces the systematic
violation of the range of other individual and collective rights provided
for by the Covenant, including the right to liberty and security of person,
the right to freedom of movement, the right to control one's own natural
resources, and others. It is the machinery of occupation which produces
settlements, closures, checkpoints, home demolitions, land confiscation,
destruction of crops, and wanton killings by settlers and occupation forces,
which the Palestinian people have continued to endure even during the last 7
years under cover of the peace process.
Occupation can be maintained only by violence or the threat of violence.
Instead of respecting the principles of human rights and international law,
and acknowledging the Palestinian right to self-determination, Israel has
declared war on the Palestinian people. It has openly unleashed an arsenal
of military violence against them. In just six weeks, more than 200
Palestinians have been killed and over six thousand wounded. We demand a
total end to the occupation.
We appeal urgently to the High Commissioner for Human Rights to call
for the implementation of the Palestinian right to self-
determination, and as a first step, to call for an international
protection force for the Palestinian people, before continued
violence against Palestinian society results in massive destruction for the
second time in 52 years.
------------------------------------------------
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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