[News] Addameer Holds Israeli Occupation Responsible for the Recent Escalation in Occupied Palestine
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Mon Oct 26 10:43:37 EDT 2015
*Addameer Holds Israeli Occupation Responsible for the Recent Escalation
in Occupied Palestine*
Ramallah- 25/10/10/2015- Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights
Association holds Israeli occupation authorities responsible for the
recent escalation in the West Bank and 1948 territory. The practices and
violations by Israeli occupation and Israeli settler in addition to the
provocation at Al-Aqsa mosque are the main reasons for the recent
deterioration and escalation. Israeli practices of collective punishment
and daily violations including house demolitions, arrests, extrajudicial
executions and assaults on Palestinians in addition to confiscating
Palestinian land for settlement and overlooking settler violence –the
most recent of which was the arson of the Dawabsheh family in Duma south
of Nablus have all factored to fuel the current escalation.
Since the beginning of the Palestinian popular uprising that started
this October, the occupation authorities carried out mass arrests in the
West Bank and 1948 territory. Addameer’s statistics show that since the
beginning of October and until the afternoon of 25 October 2015, 942
Palestinians including 144 children were arrested as follows; 790 were
arrested from the West Bank including 247 from occupied Jerusalem and
152 were arrested from 1948 territory. The total number of Palestinians
in Israeli detention thus rises to approximately 6300 Palestinians
including 270 children and 36 female prisoners. Israeli occupation
authorities have also issued 60 administrative detention orders since
the beginning of the month, 43 of which were new orders and the
remaining 17 which were renewals. These statistics are alarmingly
increasing on a daily basis.
The recent wave of mass arrests has resulted in a severe overcrowding in
Israeli occupation prisons and detention and interrogation centers and
in exacerbating their already poor conditions. Addameer’s lawyers
documented during recent visits the suffering of prisoners and detainees
who testified they were not receiving enough food, hygiene products,
clothes, mattresses or pillows in addition to the overcrowing in cells
and other inhuman and degrading detention conditions.
IOF have also resorted to using live ammunition and lethal force against
Palestinian demonstrators and against anyone upon suspicion. Since the
beginning of October, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has reported
that 58 Palestinian were killed by IOF including 12 children.
Furthermore, over 2245 Palestinians were injured by IOF including 645
with live ammunition and 1600 with rubber coated bullets. Over 4200
other Palestinians were hurt as a result of teargas inhalation.
Israeli occupation authorities have further escalated their oppressive
measures against Palestinians and have resorted to holding the bodies of
22 Palestinian who were suspected of allegedly attempting stabbing
attacks, despite little evidence to support such suspicions. The
families of these individuals were also targeted and harassed as several
of them were arrested and some received punitive house demolition
orders, all being policies and acts of collective punishment and reprisal.
Israeli practices aim at creating facts on the ground by imposing and
validating the status quo of settlements, displacing Palestinians from
occupied Jerusalem and Area “C” of the West Bank in addition to
isolating Jerusalem from the West Bank and harassing Palestinian
civilians. Israel’s practices will only result in further deteriorating
the current situation and escalating it.
*Grave Violations against Palestinians*
IOF have gravely escalated their human violations in response to the
recent uprising in the occupied territory. IOF have arrested dozens of
wounded Palestinians and took them for interrogation regardless of their
medical condition. Furthermore, IOF have kidnapped and arrested wounded
Palestinians from ambulances (4 cases have been documented) and from
hospitals. The IOF has broken into the Specialized Arab Hospital in
Nablus and kidnapped one of the patients there, Karam Al-Masri (23 years
old) and have also broken into several hospitals in Jerusalem, searched
ambulances and obstructed their work.
Addameer further monitored several punitive arrests and harassment of
family members of Palestinian youth suspected of allegedly attempting
stabbing attacks. So far seven family members of suspects were arrested
including two who were placed under 6 months administrative detention;
the father of Thaer Abu Ghazaleh and the brother of Shuruq Dwaiat both
suspected of stabbing attacks.
Addameer also documented an escalation with arrests of Palestinians
accused of allegedly inciting violence and racism through social media
outlets including Facebook. So far, Addameer has documented the arrest
of 30 Palestinians charged with incitement 25 of whom were placed under
administrative detention without charge or trial. Such arrests are a
major blow to freedom of expression and a violation of international
human rights norms. It is noteworthy that Israeli occupation authorities
have not arrested an Israelis under such allegations.
The majority of those arrested face all forms of physical and
psychological abuse and illtreament by Israeli occupation forces and the
undercover Mustaribin forces. Addameer has documented an upsurge in
brutal assaults during arrest and interrogation since the beginning of
the recent events earlier this month. Among the cases that Addameer has
documented was that of 18-year-old Mohammad Burqan who was shot with a
rubber bullet in his left eye by Israeli occupation forces in Al-Turi
Neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem. The injury resulted in the loss of
eyesight in Burqan’s left eye. Following his injury, Israeli special
forces physically assaulted him and repeatedly punched him on his head
and kicked him on his stomach. Burqan was later transferred to Hadasa
Ein Karem hospital where his left eye had to be surgically removed.
Israeli occupation forces transferred Burqan to interrogation 4 days
after the surgery, despite the fact that he had already been subjected
to an interrogation in the hospital. During his 4 days at the hospital
Burqan was chained to the hospital bed at all times. A charge sheet was
presented against Burqan despite his critical medical condition. Burqan
informed Adv. Farah Bayadsi from Addameer during a visit in Mascobiyya
detention center that he suffers from severe headaches and dizziness. He
was not able to eat for days as he could not open his mouth due to the
pain in his jaw and he has been bleeding from his nose at night which
has prevented him from sleeping. Adv. Bayadsi confirmed that Burqan was
not receiving medication or medical treatment since he was transferred
to Mascobiyya detention center despite his critical medical condition.
Addameer further documented the arrest of Ahmad Hamed, a 21 years old
student at Birzeit University who was brutally assaulted by the
undercover Mustaribin unit and shot at point-blank range in his thigh
before being arrested and transferred to the settlement Beit El near
Ramallah. Hamed was left to bleed for over an hour while his hands were
tied with plastic handcuffs. Hamed informed Adv. Samer Sama’an from
Addameer during a visit that he was taken into interrogation a day after
his arrest despite his medical condition. He could not walk and had to
be taken with a wheelchair. He suffers from severe pain in his legs and
all over his body. Hamed was charged with allegedly throwing stones and
assaulting the undercover Mustareb policeman.
Addameer confirms that the Israeli occupation practices and
ill-treatment against Palestinians violate International Humanitarian
Law which strictly bans acts of collective punishment and reprisals
against protected persons living under occupation as provided for under
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention applicable in the occupied
Palestinian territory.
*Excessive Use of Force and Extrajudicial Executions*
Since the beginning of the current events, IOF has resorted to excessive
use of lethal force against Palestinian civilians and those allegedly
accused of attempting stabbing attacks. Footage and several eyewitnesses
have confirmed that the Israeli occupation’s forces have use lethal
force against unarmed Palestinians upon suspicion without them posing
any direct threat or harm which would justify opening fire. Furthermore,
IOF have also used live ammunition and rubber bullets aimed at the upper
body of protesters during demonstrations and clashes. This dangerous
escalation has resulted in the death and injury of many Palestinian youth.
The excessive use of force against suspects has resulted in the death of
28 Palestinian youth and the injury of several others. These numbers
suggest the deliberate use of lethal force against Palestinians in
violation of international law and human rights norms which limit the
use of lethal force to cases where a suspect poses serious threat. Even
in the cases where Israeli occupation claimed the suspect held a knife,
international law norms prohibit the use of lethal force and instead
allows the use of force to wound following warnings and apprehend a
suspect, not to shoot to kill. This recent trend constitutes a grave
breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention as provided for under Article 147
and a war crime as provided for under Article 8 of the Rome Statute.
Among the most notable cases of extrajudicial executions committed by
IOF in the past month was the killing of 19-year-old Fadi Alloun, who
Israeli police claimed held a knife and attempted stabbing an Israeli
settler in Jerusalem. The circumstances of the alleged stabbing are
still not clear; however footage has emerged which shows that Alloun was
unarmed when he was shot and was actually trying to take cover from a
group of Israeli settlers who tried to lynch him, and who subsequently
asked the police to shoot Alloun claiming he tried to stab someone. The
footage clearly shows Alloun did not pose a threat to anybody or to the
officer who shot him, and therefore his extrajudicial killing was not
legally justified. Following Alloun’s unlawful killing, Israeli
occupation authorities held his body for close to week in violation of
ethical and democratic values as well as domestic and international law
and human rights norms. Israeli insistence on holding the body of Fadi
Alloun despite the family’s pleas to recover the body and bury him even
under the Israeli occupation’s terms, clearly indicate that holding the
body is simply an act of collective punishment.
Addameer demands the following:
* That the United Nations and UN Security Council to fulfill their
obligation to stop the crimes and violations by the Israeli
occupation and provide protection for the Palestinian population.
* That the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention
fulfill their obligation of protecting Palestinian protected
persons, civilian objects and places of worship in times of war.
* That the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to
immediately initiate an investigation into these crimes committed by
the Israeli occupation against Palestinian people.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association*
P. O. Box: 17338, Jerusalem
3 Edward Said Street
Sebat Bldg.
1st Floor, Suite 2
Ramallah, Palestine
Tel: +972 (0)2 296 0446 / 297 0136
Fax: +972 (0)2 296 0447
Email: info at addameer.ps
Website: www.addameer.org
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