Category: Human Right Violations

Jimmy Carter concerned about possible breach of international law by Washington

Monday, 31 March 2014 10:55

 

Jimmy CarterCarter reiterated the necessity to abide by UN resolution 242, which was accepted by the former Israeli PM Menachem Begin as part of the Camp David peace accords

Former American President Jimmy Carter has warned the US Secretary of State John Kerry of violating international law in his potential peace framework agreement between the Palestinians and the Israeli occupation. 

He also expressed his concerns about the remarks of Kerry’s senior aides Martin Indyk, which were delivered before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other Jewish groups.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s official news agency Wafa said Carter had shown the letter he sent to Kerry to the PA President Mahmoud Abbas. The letter included efforts to save the peace process and stressed on reaching an agreement to be accepted by the two sides.

According to Wafa, Carter warned of formulating an agreement which “in any form, breaches international law and the reinforced international precedents regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which have been accepted since 1967.”

Carter reiterated the necessity to abide by UN resolution 242, which was accepted by the former Israeli PM Menachem Begin as part of the Camp David peace accords and supported by the Quartet, Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

The sponsor of the first peace treaty between Israel and the Arabs said: “Official US proposal to cancel or breach international law will make it impossible for the Palestinians in the Holy Lands, or outside, to accept the framework agreement as a new basis for peace talks.”

15-year-old boy murdered by Israeli forces

in HebronReports March 20, 2014

20th March 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Early yesterday morning, 15-year-old Yousef Shawamri was shot dead by Israeli soldiers near the village of Deir Al-Asal al Fauqa.

Yousef and two of his friends were trying to pass though a hole in a wire fence to reach Palestinian land that has been stolen by the Annexation Wall, in order to collect vegetables for their families. The soldiers shot Yousef three times in the chest at close range resulting in his death. His two friends were shot in their legs and later arrested. In the past, children have crossed the Apartheid Wall at this point to collect food from the stolen land, but this is the first death.

Yousef’s body was returned to his home in the afternoon. The villagers of Deir Al-Asal al Fauqa are very close and describe themselves as coming from the same family. When Yousef was returned he was carried on the shoulders of his brothers into the local school grounds so that his people could pray and show their respect. His body was then carried; to be laid to rest on a hillside while his neighbours came out from their houses to pay their respects.

The internationally condemned Apartheid Wall imprisons the West Bank and directly affects may communities’ throughout Palestine. It runs for 420 kilometres, and has stolen 12% of the West Bank. Under the Oslo Interim Agreement a further 60% of the West Bank has been lost due to many illegal settlements and the military control of the Israeli army. Israeli forces have murdered 1519 Palestinian children since September 2000, an average of 1 child killed every 3 days.

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After Latest Incident, Israel’s Future in FIFA Is Uncertain

 

Dave Zirin on March 3, 2014 – 4:21 PM ET
Palestinian national team

The Palestinian national soccer team, a source of pride for many, has been under attack by the Israeli state. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)

Their names are Jawhar Nasser Jawhar, 19, and Adam Abd al-Raouf Halabiya, 17. They were once soccer players in the West Bank. Now they are never going to play sports again. Jawhar and Adam were on their way home from a training session in the Faisal al-Husseini Stadium on January 31 when Israeli forces fired upon them as they approached a checkpoint. After being shot repeatedly, they were mauled by checkpoint dogs and then beaten. Ten bullets were put into Jawhar’s feet. Adam took one bullet in each foot. After being transferred from a hospital in Ramallah to King Hussein Medical Center in Amman, they received the news that soccer would no longer be a part of their futures. (Israel’s border patrol maintains that the two young men were about to throw a bomb.)

This is only the latest instance of the targeting of Palestinian soccer players by the Israeli army and security forces. Death, injury or imprisonment has been a reality for several members of the Palestinian national team over the last five years. Just imagine if members of Spain’s top-flight World Cup team had been jailed, shot or killed by another country and imagine the international media outrage that would ensue. Imagine if prospective youth players for Brazil were shot in the feet by the military of another nation. But, tragically, these events along the checkpoints have received little attention on the sports page or beyond.

Much has been written about the psychological effect this kind of targeting has on the occupied territories. Sports represent escape, joy and community, and the Palestinian national soccer team, for a people without a recognized nation, is a source of tremendous pride. To attack the players is to attack the hope that the national team will ever truly have a home.

The Palestinian national football team, which formed in 1998, is currently ranked 144th in the world by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). They have never been higher than 115th. As Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association Jibril al-Rajoub commented bluntly, the problems are rooted in “the occupation’s insistence on destroying Palestinian sport.”

Over the last year, in response to this systematic targeting of Palestinian soccer, al-Rajoub has attempted to assemble forces to give Israel the ultimate sanction and, as he said, “demand the expulsion of Israel from FIFA and the International Olympic Committee.” Al-Rajoub claims the support of Jordan, Qatar, Iran, Oman, Algiers and Tunisia in favor of this move, and promises more countries, with an opportunity at a regional March 14 meeting of Arab states, to organize more support. He has also pledged to make the resolution formal when all the member nations of FIFA meet in Brazil.

Qatar’s place in this, as host of the 2022 World Cup, deserves particular scrutiny. As the first Arab state to host the tournament, they are under fire for the hundreds of construction deaths of Nepalese workers occurring on their watch. As the volume on these concerns rises, Qatar needs all the support in FIFA that they can assemble. Whether they eventually see the path to that support as one that involves confronting or accommodating Israel, will be fascinating to see.

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As for Sepp Blatter, he clearly recognizes that there is a problem in the treatment of Palestinian athletes by the Israeli state. Over the last year, he has sought to mediate this issue by convening a committee of Israeli and Palestinian authorities to see if they can come to some kind of agreement about easing the checkpoints and restrictions that keep Palestinian athletes from leaving (and trainers, consultants and coaches from entering) the West Bank and Gaza. Yet al-Rajoub sees no progress. As he said, “This is the way the Israelis are behaving and I see no sign that they have recharged their mental batteries. There is no change on the ground. We are a full FIFA member and have the same rights as all other members.”

The shooting into the feet of Jawhar and Adam has taken a delicate situation and made it an impossible one. Sporting institutions like FIFA and the IOC are always wary about drawing lines in the sand when it comes to the conduct of member nations. But the deliberate targeting of players is seen, even in the corridors of power, as impossible to ignore. As long as Israel subjects Palestinian athletes to detention and violence, their seat at the table of international sports will be never be short of precarious.

 

17 year old arrested at school in Al Sawiya

in NablusReports March 5, 2014

5th March 2014| International Solidarity Movement, Team Nablus| Al Sawiya, Occupied Palestine

On Monday March 3rd, in the early afternoon, Obada Muhammad Saleh, a 17 years old Palestinian was arrested by the Israeli Forces in his school in Al Sawiya.

Four youth detained by the checkpoint ( Photo via ISM archives)

Four youth detained by the checkpoint ( Photo via ISM archives)

Around 1pm last Monday, was school children were leaving Al Sawiya’s school, ten Israeli soldiers invaded the school’s courtyard and threw stun grenades and tear gas grenades at the children in order to arrest Obada Muhammad Saleh, who was quietly walking out of his class. Soldiers blindfolded and handcuffed him in the back, before bringing the teenager to their jeep. Teachers who were trying to protect Obada were verbally assaulted by Israeli soldiers on the scene.  The young 17 year old is now facing charges of “stone throwing.”

It is not the first time a minor gets arrested in Al Sawiya school located next to road 60, in Area C. Out of 413 students coming there from Al Sawiya, Al Lubban and ‘Ammuriya, twenty got arrested in the last 3 years.  Out of necessity, teachers need to walk the kids to school everyday due to the constant presence of the army around the school.

WATCH: Settlers assault Israeli in West Bank, tell soldiers to shoot

WATCH: Settlers assault Israeli in West Bank, tell soldiers to shoot

On Saturday morning, Israeli Ta’ayush activists accompanied Palestinian residents of the village of Shweika in the South Hebron Hills to their grazing and farm lands in a valley near the illegal Eshtamoa outpost. According to Guy, a veteran activist and documenter, settlers and Israeli soldiers have been obstructing or preventing access to the land in recent weeks, despite the fact that Israeli authorities recognize the valley as private Palestinian land and have restricted any Israelis from entering it.

Just before 11 a.m., 10-15 settlers came down from the outpost into the valley – most of them with their faces covered to avoid identification – and began throwing stones, some of them using slingshots. As can be seen in several videos below, three of the settlers violently assaulted one activist, with one of the settlers  using a club. Watch the second video to the very end: You can see a soldier slowly making his way up to the settlers who run off after the attack. He did not try and stop them, does not run after them, and in fact pats one on the shoulder in a friendly, not disciplinary manner. This kind of dynamic not only makes the double standard in treatment of Palestinians clear, but shows that it is in fact the settlers who run the show in these parts.

 

 

The activist was badly bruised on his arms, legs and back. According to Guy, soldiers in the area looked on and did nothing to prevent it, nor did they detain the settlers or demand to see their faces and identify them. Guy, along with the victim and another activist, went to the Kiryat Arba police station to file a complaint. The police said the incident will be investigated.

Two of the soldiers who were in the valley at the time of the incident also happened to be at the police station. They told Guy that an armed settler screamed at them to shoot at the Israeli Ta’ayush activists, threatening to do so himself if they refused his order. Unfortunately, based on over a decade of Ta’ayush experience with similar incidents, the chances that these settlers will be brought to justice is next to nil, despite clear evidence.

Several Israeli news sites reported on the incident in Hebrew. According toHaaretz’s report, the IDF Spokesperson responded by stating that the video was “tendentiously edited” and that the soldiers on the scene responded as per protocol: they “distanced the residents” [presumably they mean settlers] and called the police to investigate the suspects.

As far as Guy knows, no suspects were taken into custody – certainly not at the time of the incident, when it was most crucial.

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