Statement to the UN Commission on Human Rights, Israel and Occupied Territories
Commission on Human Rights, 58th Session, March 18 - April 26, 2002, April 2.
Chairperson,
In the recent negotiations for a ceasefire in Israel and the Occupied
Territories there has been much mention of "security", little or none of
human rights. Yet human rights are at the heart of this conflict and if
human rights are not firmly on the agenda of the ceasefire talks there can
be no durable ceasefire and no sustainable peace. Palestinians and Israelis
will continue to be slaughtered in the alleyways of refugee camps and the
streets of Israeli towns.
Armed Palestinians have breached fundamental principles of international humanitarian law on numerous occasions. It is not acceptable to deliberately target civilians, to let off a bomb where women and children are standing, to shoot a girl on a street, to arbitrarily target cars on roads or to kill people who are held as prisoners.
These actions are shocking. Yet they can never justify the human rights violations and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions which, over the past 18 months, have been committed daily, hourly, even every minute, by the Israeli authorities against Palestinians.
Commission on Human Rights, 58th Session, March 18 - April 26, 2002, April 2.
Chairperson,
In the recent negotiations for a ceasefire in Israel and the Occupied
Territories there has been much mention of "security", little or none of
human rights. Yet human rights are at the heart of this conflict and if
human rights are not firmly on the agenda of the ceasefire talks there can
be no durable ceasefire and no sustainable peace. Palestinians and Israelis
will continue to be slaughtered in the alleyways of refugee camps and the
streets of Israeli towns.
Armed Palestinians have breached fundamental principles of international humanitarian law on numerous occasions. It is not acceptable to deliberately target civilians, to let off a bomb where women and children are standing, to shoot a girl on a street, to arbitrarily target cars on roads or to kill people who are held as prisoners.
These actions are shocking. Yet they can never justify the human rights violations and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions which, over the past 18 months, have been committed daily, hourly, even every minute, by the Israeli authorities against Palestinians.