Weekly report on human rights violations |
| Posted by: TWBR | | Weekly report on human rights violations
Report, PCHR, 17 June 2004
http://electronicintifada.net/artman/uploads/jafarishtayehnablus.jpg
Palestinian Red Crescent staff carry a Palestinian woman across a dirt road passing an Israeli tank near Nablus (Jafar Ishtayeh)
Israeli occupying forces have perpetrated more violations of human rights against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). Human rights violations perpetrated by Israeli occupying forces included extra-judicial and willful killings, incursions into Palestinian areas, indiscriminate shelling and house demolitions. Israeli occupying forces have also continued construction of the “Annexation Wall” inside the West Bank and have continued to impose a tight siege on the OPTs. This week, 8 Palestinian civilians, including a child, were killed by Israeli troops.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli occupying forces conducted 14 military incursions into Palestinian areas, during which they destroyed razed 315 donums of Palestinian agricultural land and 12 houses. They also arrested 4 Palestinian civilians in the central Gaza Strip.
In the West Bank, Israeli occupying forces launched a series of attacks against Palestinian civilians. Eight Palestinians, including a child, were killed by Israeli troops. Four of the victims were killed in 2 extra-judicial assassinations perpetrated by Israeli troops in Nablus and Jenin on 14 and 16 June 2004. Israeli troops also arrested dozens of Palestinians throughout the West Bank. They also demolished 2 houses in Bethlehem on 15 June 2004 in the context of a continuous retaliatory campaign against families of Palestinian activists.
Israeli occupying forces have continued construction of the annexation wall inside the West Bank, especially around Jerusalem. Israeli occupying forces continued to level large areas of Palestinian land for the purpose of the construction of the wall. They have isolated the northern suburbs of the city. They plan to construct a section of the wall to the west of these suburbs, which will eventually isolate them from Jerusalem. The construction of the wall in the area will isolate dozens of institutions and markets. In the same context, Israeli troops demolished 5 houses to the south of Ramallah.
Israeli occupying forces have continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPTs and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces have continued to close most border crossings.
In the West Bank, the spokesperson for the Israeli occupying forces claimed that his troops had dismantled 42 out of 150 checkpoints throughout the West Bank, and lifted the siege imposed on Palestinian communities, excluding Nablus. PCHR's field workers reported that they had reopened entrances to a number of villages and a number of roads, but many checkpoints remained in place. Israeli troops continued to impose restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians. This claim contradicts with another statement by an Israeli military spokesman on 9 March 2004, when they talked about only 29 checkpoints being enforced throughout the West Bank.
To download the full report click here. | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: TWBR | | Also,
Nablus: Israeli occupation forces attack PMRS Ambulance
Wednesday 16th June 2004
PMRS condemns the recent Israeli shooting at its ambulance operating in the West Bank city of Nablus, on Tuesday the 15th of June. The attack injured the ambulance driver and damaged the vehicle.
Dr Mustafa Barghouthi - President of PMRS, described the incident as another crime to be added to the long list of attacks against Palestinian medical teams working to save the lives of injured Palestinians by transferring them to hospitals, amidst the terrible conditions created by occupation policies of closures and sieges, that have been imposed on the Palestinian territories.
Dr Barghouthi added that attacks against all Medical services are clear violations of International agreements and laws, which serve to protect health service providers.
Dr Ghassan Hamdan, Head of PMRS services in Nablus, insisted that this ambulance was a target of Israeli soldiers’ bullets even though it was transferring an injured person to Hospital. They shot at the ambulance to prevent the emergency medical team from carrying out their essential humanitarian work. Dr Hamdan added that this is not the first time that Israeli soldiers have attacked Palestinian Medical services in Nablus. The PMRS medical center in Nablus has been frequently damaged by tanks and shelling. | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: woolfe99 | | Is there by chance a Palestinian "human rights group" that mentions any human rights abuses by Palestinians? Since the Israeli civil rights groups constantly criticize the IDF and the Israeli government, I was wondering if the Palestinians had a truly independent (i.e. not politically motivated) human rights organization. | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: antizionist2004 | |
| quote: |
| Is there by chance a Palestinian "human rights group" that mentions any human rights abuses by Palestinians? Since the Israeli civil rights groups constantly criticize the IDF and the Israeli government, I was wondering if the Palestinians had a truly independent (i.e. not politically motivated) human rights organization. |
Why change the subject? If you'd like to make a point of this, then start up a thread about it. Please stay on the subject of the topic.
TWBR:
Good post, the second bit about Israel shooting the ambulance is very worrying, I'm sure that must be in violation of yet another UN law, the situation must be bad if Israel are now shooting ambulances.
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| Posted by: TWBR | | Attacks on Emergency Medical Personnel and Services 9
25 (1 German) physicians / nurses / ambulance drivers killed while on duty (opening fire on ambulances/shelling of residential areas). 10
425 PRCS and Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC) Emergency Medical Technicians and first aid workers injured (including 2 physicians). 121 ambulances were attacked and damaged.
36 PRCS and UPMRC ambulances destroyed.
197 attacks on PRCS ambulances by live ammunition, rubber bullets, and/or stones thrown by Israeli settlers.
991 incidents of denial of access to PRCS ambulances at roadblocks were reported.
85 Palestinian deaths due to prevention of access to emergency health care or treatment of chronic diseases.
290 counts of hospitals and clinics attacked and damaged.
71 emergency personnel and volunteers arrested since the invasion on 29 Match. 11
During the long invasion in March/April 2002, UPMRC staff were stopped, detained and denied access up to 3 times daily, since April 2002 the mobile clinics severely obstructed.
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9 Palestinian Red Crescent Society , 27th October 2001
Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees
10 Palestinian Center for Human Rights : 28th June, 2002
11 Palestinian Red Crescent Society 10th July, 2002
Source : Palestine Monitor | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: TWBR | |
| quote: |
woolfe99 said this in post #3 :
Is there by chance a Palestinian "human rights group" that mentions any human rights abuses by Palestinians? Since the Israeli civil rights groups constantly criticize the IDF and the Israeli government, I was wondering if the Palestinians had a truly independent (i.e. not politically motivated) human rights organization. |
Some of these Human Rights Group so critize the action of the Militants, but im not sure if there are any Palestinian Human Rights group that mentions any abuses by Palestinians.
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| Posted by: oneofpeace | |
| quote: |
antizionist2004 said this in post #4 :
Why change the subject? If you'd like to make a point of this, then start up a thread about it. Please stay on the subject of the topic.
TWBR:
Good post, the second bit about Israel shooting the ambulance is very worrying, I'm sure that must be in violation of yet another UN law, the situation must be bad if Israel are now shooting ambulances. |
I find it quite convenient when faced with a logical question of response you and TWBR want to dismiss it as irrelevant to the topic.
To answer Woolfe's question, no there isn't any kind of independant org in Palestine that report human right violations. If they did, they'd be put to their deaths.
As for the point Antizion point out here, I find that you are being disengenuous. Time and time again terrorists move about that territory in ambulances and civilian vehicles. It is inevitable that one will get mistaken for such sooner or later.
I find your air of pretense here disengenuous. And if you are attempting to be genuine, then I rank you up there with TWBR's delusion that Palestinians making bomb labs in their neighborhoods are justified, even while knowing the IDF will eventually pay them a visit.
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| Posted by: woolfe99 | |
| quote: |
antizionist2004 said this in post #4 :
Why change the subject? If you'd like to make a point of this, then start up a thread about it. Please stay on the subject of the topic.
TWBR:
Good post, the second bit about Israel shooting the ambulance is very worrying, I'm sure that must be in violation of yet another UN law, the situation must be bad if Israel are now shooting ambulances. |
I'm not changing the subject at all. It matters whether a group that is supposed to be investigating "human rights violations" is politically motivated, because it makes a difference in terms of how much credibility their reports have. I think its natural for someone to believe a report more when it points out violations on both sides.
On to the report itself. It is unsourced, unfootnoted. I'll set that one aside for a moment, but read a report from a group like Amnesty or HRW and you'll see a very different presentation, one that is a lot more solid.
Second, the report blandly ticks off incident after incident, for example arrests, as if it is self-evident to the reader that each incident is a human rights abuse.
Joe Schmoe, at 34, arrested in such and such on such and such a date.
There are some 100 arrests that are discussed in that report with no more detail than that. Uh, is there something MISSING there before we can decide whether these incidents are human rights violations? How about knowing WHY the people were arrested? I kind of think that information is important before you deem an arrest to be a human rights violation. If the group doesn't know, or cannot obtain the information, its pretty disingenuous to put it in a report like this. Sounds like they needed filler to make the report longer.
And incidents where they describe Israel entering a town, and singling out one particular house, whose occupants are named, and conducting a search of the house. Sounds like a non-random activity to me. Do we know why the Israelis picked out that particular house and not any others? Not from this report we don't.
When Israel establishes checkpoints in a particular area, do we know WHY they're doing it? Half of an equation is missing here.
Some of these things could in fact be human rights violations, but it is extraordinarly unlikely that they all are, or anywhere close.
Human rights are at a deplorable level in Arab nations. Yet the only time they concern themselves about human rights is when they want to "blow the whistle" on Israel or the US. What does that tell you? Is there a genuine concern for human rights, or is it all about politics?
- woolfe
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| Posted by: TWBR | |
| quote: |
oneofpeace said this in post #7 :
I find it quite convenient when faced with a logical question of response you and TWBR want to dismiss it as irrelevant to the topic.
To answer Woolfe's question, no there isn't any kind of independant org in Palestine that report human right violations. If they did, they'd be put to their deaths.
As for the point Antizion point out here, I find that you are being disengenuous. Time and time again terrorists move about that territory in ambulances and civilian vehicles. It is inevitable that one will get mistaken for such sooner or later.
I find your air of pretense here disengenuous. And if you are attempting to be genuine, then I rank you up there with TWBR's delusion that Palestinians making bomb labs in their neighborhoods are justified, even while knowing the IDF will eventually pay them a visit. |
What about me? I didnt dismiss it as irrelevant to the topic, i even asnwered his question.
Please OFP tell me where are the Palestinians going to make bomb labs besides in their neighborhoods and refugee camps?
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| Posted by: TWBR | |
| quote: |
woolfe99 said this in post #8 :
I'm not changing the subject at all. It matters whether a group that is supposed to be investigating "human rights violations" is politically motivated, because it makes a difference in terms of how much credibility their reports have. I think its natural for someone to believe a report more when it points out violations on both sides.
On to the report itself. It is unsourced, unfootnoted. I'll set that one aside for a moment, but read a report from a group like Amnesty or HRW and you'll see a very different presentation, one that is a lot more solid.
Second, the report blandly ticks off incident after incident, for example arrests, as if it is self-evident to the reader that each incident is a human rights abuse.
Joe Schmoe, at 34, arrested in such and such on such and such a date.
There are some 100 arrests that are discussed in that report with no more detail than that. Uh, is there something MISSING there before we can decide whether these incidents are human rights violations? How about knowing WHY the people were arrested? I kind of think that information is important before you deem an arrest to be a human rights violation. If the group doesn't know, or cannot obtain the information, its pretty disingenuous to put it in a report like this. Sounds like they needed filler to make the report longer.
And incidents where they describe Israel entering a town, and singling out one particular house, whose occupants are named, and conducting a search of the house. Sounds like a non-random activity to me. Do we know why the Israelis picked out that particular house and not any others? Not from this report we don't.
When Israel establishes checkpoints in a particular area, do we know WHY they're doing it? Half of an equation is missing here.
Some of these things could in fact be human rights violations, but it is extraordinarly unlikely that they all are, or anywhere close.
Human rights are at a deplorable level in Arab nations. Yet the only time they concern themselves about human rights is when they want to "blow the whistle" on Israel or the US. What does that tell you? Is there a genuine concern for human rights, or is it all about politics?
- woolfe |
Are you reading this from the article i posted or the full report which i have provided at the end of the article.
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| Posted by: oneofpeace | |
| quote: |
TWBR said this in post #9 :
What about me? I didnt dismiss it as irrelevant to the topic, i even asnwered his question.
Please OFP tell me where are the Palestinians going to make bomb labs besides in their neighborhoods and refugee camps? |
If they can dig tunnels all over Palestinian territories, then they can find places to perpetrate their heinous acts of murder. If they make the labs in their homes, then expect to be confronted there period. Don't talk about Israel coming into them and blowing them up leaving them dead and others homeless.
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| Posted by: woolfe99 | |
| quote: |
TWBR said this in post #10 :
Are you reading this from the article i posted or the full report which i have provided at the end of the article. |
I read the full report, top to bottom.
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| Posted by: TWBR | | Then i guess that those who they arrested didnt do anything, since they were civilians or the report is crap. | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: TWBR | |
| quote: |
oneofpeace said this in post #11 :
If they can dig tunnels all over Palestinian territories, then they can find places to perpetrate their heinous acts of murder. If they make the labs in their homes, then expect to be confronted there period. Don't talk about Israel coming into them and blowing them up leaving them dead and others homeless. |
Tunnels? You don't remeber the Rafah massacre? They went there to search for tunnels, and all they got was about 40 Palestinians dead, some of them children, and one or two tunnels.
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| Posted by: oneofpeace | | Yeah, I'm sure Israel woke up one day and said, "today I'm going to kill 40 Palestinians" and used tunnels as an excuse to do so. I'm certain all 40 of them were innocent civilians too, sitting in their homes while Israel broke down their doors and shot them on the sofa.
How dare they do such a thing as kill innocent Palestinians.  | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: TWBR | |
| quote: |
oneofpeace said this in post #15 :
Yeah, I'm sure Israel woke up one day and said, "today I'm going to kill 40 Palestinians" and used tunnels as an excuse to do so. I'm certain all 40 of them were innocent civilians too, sitting in their homes while Israel broke down their doors and shot them on the sofa.
How dare they do such a thing as kill innocent Palestinians. |
Extremely out of the topic.
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| Posted by: TWBR | |
| quote: |
oneofpeace said this in post #15 :
Yeah, I'm sure Israel woke up one day and said, "today I'm going to kill 40 Palestinians" and used tunnels as an excuse to do so. I'm certain all 40 of them were innocent civilians too, sitting in their homes while Israel broke down their doors and shot them on the sofa.
How dare they do such a thing as kill innocent Palestinians. |
What the hell......
I suggest reading about what happened in Rafah.
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| Posted by: oneofpeace | |
| quote: |
TWBR said this in post #17 :
What the hell......
I suggest reading about what happened in Rafah. |
And my suggestion would be for you to find a new source of information since you seem to only search out things that point to Israel as the tyrants and Palestinians as the victims.
Besides, my post wasn't off topic, it was a sarcastic response to your preceding post and quite accurate of the dipiction of events from your point of view it would seem.
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| Posted by: TWBR | | No, it was such a horrible reply, we all know that Israel didnt just wake up one and go to Rafah to kill civilians.
I believe i didnt say anything to get this reply.
They went to Rafah to search for tunnels which the Palestinian Militants used to get smuggled weapons.
D | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: oneofpeace | | Well if Israel went there to search for those tunnels you don't think they were justified in doing so. In turn, neither do the Palestinians who's smuggling the weapons in to kill innocent civilian.
So if there is a fight that ensues over the tunnels and there is casualties, then how is it that it's all Israel's fault? Wait, I get it. Because Israel is in their territory right?
Now do you see why I was sarcastic in my earlier reply? | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: woolfe99 | |
| quote: |
TWBR said this in post #13 :
Then i guess that those who they arrested didnt do anything, since they were civilians or the report is crap. |
You're right. If they we were not guilty of anything, the report is crap. Unfortunately, the report itself does nothing to clue us in about that one way or another. Nor do we find out the fates of these people. How many were kept in detention long term? How many were released the same day after being questioned? How many were charged with crimes? Before you can label something an abuse, you have to know the facts. It isn't self-evidence that an arrest or a house search or a checkpoint or a curfew is an abuse unless you know why it is being done.
- woolfe
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Israel & Palestine Forum: Weekly report on human rights violations
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