[News] Families of slain Palestinians still held by Israel - protest demands return of kidnapped martyred youth

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*Families of slain Palestinians still held by Israel protest outside 
mortuary in Jaffa*


June 21, 2016 - http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771963


JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Family members of slain Palestinians whose bodies 
are still held by Israeli authorities protested on Tuesday outside of 
Israel’s Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine in Jaffa where the 
bodies are being stored, as they called Israel’s policy of withholding 
Palestinian bodies “a crime of torture for the dead and the living.”

As parents held up signs emblazoned with the names of their children and 
the dates they were killed, the slain bodies, only a few meters away, 
lay inside locked refrigerators in Israel’s mortuary, withheld from the 
families since the day they were killed by Israeli forces.

Ma’an reporters witnessed demonstrators clutching signs that read “no to 
collective punishment,” and “we want our children,” as others raised a 
white sheet etched with the names of all Palestinian bodies currently 
being held by Israel.

The family members who attended the demonstration were mostly 
Palestinians with Israeli citzenship or East Jerusalem residency, as 
Palestinians from the occupied West Bank are not freely permitted to 
enter Israel or East Jerusalem until age 55 for men and age 50 for women.

Head of the Palestinian follow-up committee in Israel Muhammad Baraka, 
in addition to several Palestinian members of Israel’s parliament, the 
Knesset, took part in the demonstration.

Baraka addressed the crowd of grieving demonstrators, saying “the policy 
of holding the bodies of killed Palestinians aims to take revenge on the 
martyr and his family and to break the will of [Palestinian] families.”

The father of Bahaa Elayyan, a Palestinian shot dead during an alleged 
attack in October, also spoke at the protest: “Today we are standing 
near our martyred children and taking part in this sit-in, confirming 
[to the world] that we are one nation and that we were not divided by 
Israel.”

Elayyan said that months had passed since their children were killed, 
without any information provided from medical, journalistic, or police 
reports that could confirm the narrative that was given to them by 
Israeli authorities following the killing of their children.

He demanded that international rights organizations intervene in the 
situation and reveal to them the conditions of the bodies in order that 
families can know the truth of what happened to their children, adding 
that the end of Israel’s policy of withholding slain Palestinian bodies 
represents a “national fight.”

“This is a crime of torture for the dead and the living. It is a war 
crime,” the bereaved father added.

Israeli authorities dramatically escalated a policy of withholding 
Palestinian bodies killed by Israeli forces since a wave of unrest 
erupted across the occupied Palestinian territory in October, having 
repeatedly claimed that funerals of Palestinians had provided grounds 
for “incitement” against the Israeli state.

However, following an uproar of protest among Palestinians over the 
policy, Israeli authorities began rescinding the practice.

Following an attack in Tel Aviv earlier this month, newly appointed 
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman issued an order to suspend 
the return of slain Palestinian bodies, claiming it had sent the “wrong 
message” to Palestinians, and that halting their return could prevent 
future attacks against Israelis.

Despite this, however, Israeli authorities agreed to return several 
Palestinian bodies to their families within the same week of Lieberman’s 
order. An exact date of their return has yet to be confirmed.

In the past, when Israeli authorities have decided to return a slain 
body and permit a funeral in the occupied Palestinian territory, the 
ceremonies have been restricted by a long list of conditions imposed by 
Israeli authorities, including limiting the number of attendees and the 
deployment of Israeli soldiers throughout the event.

Palestinian families have also been forced to pay large financial 
deposits to the Israeli government, which act as collateral for 
potential “incitement” during the funerals and ensures families abide by 
Israeli-imposed conditions.

Israeli police announced this month that slain Palestinians from 
occupied East Jerusalem suspected of “terrorism” would no longer be able 
to have funerals in their neighborhoods or villages, but would instead 
be buried in cemeteries chosen by the Israeli police.

Israeli authorities continue to hold at least a dozen Palestinian bodies 
in refrigerated conditions in Israel -- some of which have been held 
since October -- despite the Israeli Supreme Court ordering the release 
of all Jerusalemite Palestinian bodies withheld by Israel before the 
start of Ramadan.

A joint statement released by Addameer and Israeli minority rights group 
Adalah in March condemned Israel’s practice of withholding bodies as "a 
severe violation of international humanitarian law as well as 
international human rights law, including violations of the right to 
dignity, freedom of religion, and the right to practice culture."

The statement said it appeared "many" of the Palestinians whose bodies 
Israel was holding had been "extrajudicially executed by Israeli forces 
during alleged attacks against Israelis, despite posing no danger."

-- 
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