PHA-Exch> Press release of UN special Rapporteur for Human Rights on Gaza

[Garance UPHAM]

*PRESS RELEASE* * STATEMENT BY PROF. RICHARD FALK,

UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

* *ON THE CRISIS IN THE GAZA STRIP

*
*The Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive
violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva
Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in
the requirements of the laws of war.

Those violations include:

*

   - *Collective punishment – the entire 1.5 million people who live in the
   crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the actions of a few militants.
   *
   - *Targeting civilians – the airstrikes were aimed at civilian areas in
   one of the most crowded stretches of land in the world, certainly the most
   densely populated area of the Middle East. *

*
Disproportionate military response --the airstrikes have not only destroyed
every police and security office of Gazas elected government, but have
killed and injured hundreds of civilians; at least one strike reportedly hit
groups of students attempting to find transportation home from the
university.


Earlier Israeli actions, specifically the complete sealing off of entry and
exit to and from the Gaza Strip, have led to severe shortages of medicine
and fuel (as well as food), have resulted in the inability of ambulances to
respond to the injured, the inability of hospitals to adequately provide
medicine or necessary equipment for the injured, and the inability of Gaza's
besieged doctors and other medical workers to sufficiently treat the
victims.

Certainly the rocket attacks against civilian targets in Israel are
unlawful. But that illegality does not give rise to any Israeli right,
neither as the Occupying Power nor as a sovereign state, to violate
international humanitarian law and commit war crimes or crimes against
humanity in its response.  I note that Israel's escalating military assaults
have not made Israeli civilians safer; to the contrary, the one Israeli
killed today after the upsurge of Israeli violence is the first in over a
year.

Israel has also ignored recent Hamas' diplomatic initiatives to reestablish
the truce or ceasefire since its expiration on 26 December.

The Israeli airstrikes today, and the catastrophic human toll that they
caused, challenge those countries that have been and remain complicit,
either directly or indirectly, in Israel's violations of international law.
That complicity includes those countries knowingly providing the military
equipment including warplanes and helicopters used in these illegal attacks,
as well as those countries that have supported and participated in the siege
of Gaza that itself has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.

I remind all Member States of the United Nations that the UN continues to be
bound to an independent obligation to protect any civilian population facing
massive violations of international humanitarian law – regardless of what
country may be responsible for those violations.  I call on all Member
States, as well as officials and every relevant organ of the United Nations
system, to move on an emergency basis not only to condemn Israel's serious
violations, but to develop new approaches to providing real protection for
the Palestinian people.

* ********

SILENCE IS NOT AN OPTION
Press Release by Special Rapporteur for OPT (4/12/08 rev.)
(prepared by Richard Falk)


*
*       In recent days the desperate plight of the civilian population of
Gaza has been acknowledged by such respected international figures as the
Secretary General of the United Nations, the President of the General
Assembly, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Such a flurry of denunciations has not occurred on a global level since the
heyday of South African apartheid. And still Israel maintains its Gaza siege
in its full fury, allowing only enough food and fuel to enter to stave off
mass famine and disease. Such a policy of collective punishment, initiated
by Israel to punish the 1.5 million Gazans for political developments within
the strip, constitutes a continuing flagrant and massive violation of
international humanitarian law as set forth in Article 33 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention.

       It is long past time when talk suffices. The UN is obligated to
respond under these conditions. Some governments of the world are complicit
by continuing their support politically and economically for the Israeli
punitive approach, and even at this stage by  passivity. In light of such
persisting and wide-ranging violations of the fundamental human right to
life and in view of the emergency situation that could produce an outright
humanitarian catastrophe any day, it is time to act. At the very least, an
urgent effort should be made at the United Nations to implement the agreed
norm of a 'responsibility to protect' a civilian population being
collectively punished by policies that amount to a Crime Against Humanity.
In a similar vein, it would seem mandatory for the International Criminal
Court to investigate the situation, and determine whether the Israeli
civilian leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza siege
should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal
law.

       It should be noted that the breakdown of a truce between Hamas and
Israel had been observed for several months by both sides. The truce was
maintained by Hamas despite the failure of Israel to fulfill its obligation
under the agreement to improve the living conditions of the people of Gaza.
The recent upsurge of violence occurred after an Israeli incursion that
killed several alleged militants within Gaza. It is a criminal violation of
international law for elements of Hamas or anyone else to fire rockets at
Israeli towns regardless of provocation, but such Palestinian behavior does
not legalize Israel's imposition of a collective punishment of a life and
health threatening character on the people of Gaza.

*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20090105/d391dabe/attachment-0001.html>