[News] Palestine - National Day for the Retrieval of Martyrs' Bodies

[Anti-Imperialist News]

addameer.org <https://www.addameer.org/news/5394>
National Day for the Retrieval of Martyrs' Bodies
August 27, 2024
------------------------------
[image:
uuid=C5374470-21FE-4E19-87BD-4566339DE520&library=1&type=1&mode=1&loc=true&cap=true.png]

Facts about the Martyrs Whose Bodies are Held in Numbered Cemeteries,
Refrigerators, and the Sde Teman Military Base:

The number of martyrs whose bodies are held amounts to 552, including 256
in numbered cemeteries and 296 since the return of the policy of holding
bodies in 2015. Among them are:

- 9 female martyrs.

- 32 martyrs from the prisoners movement.

- 55 children under the age of 18.

- 5 martyrs from the 1948 occupied territories.

- 6 martyrs from Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Since the start of the genocide against our people in Gaza, the occupation
has escalated its policy of holding bodies. Since the war, the occupation
has held 149 bodies, which constitutes more than half of the martyrs held
since 2015. It is important to note that this figure does not include the
bodies held from the Gaza Strip. The number of martyrs from Gaza held by
the occupation is estimated to be in the hundreds, but there is no official
statement from the occupation regarding the actual number of bodies from
Gaza to this day.

Key Data on the Crime of Holding Martyrs' Bodies (As a Systematic
Historical Policy):

The crime of holding martyrs' bodies, practiced by the Israeli occupation,
is one of the prominent historical policies used as part of the crime of
collective punishment against martyrs and their families, and as a
mechanism of control and punishment of Palestinians. This issue has passed
through several stages and has been closely linked to the escalating level
of resistance and confrontation against the Israeli occupation system.
Since the occupation of Palestine in 1948, the occupation has used this
policy, continuing its implementation until 2008, and resumed it with a
decision by the Israeli cabinet in 2015, at the beginning of the popular
uprising. The occupation did not stop at holding the bodies but also
imposed certain conditions when returning the bodies. It also applied a
classification policy as part of the conditions imposed on families,
particularly affecting martyrs with Jerusalemite identities, by imposing
harsh and unjust restrictions in the context of the occupation's desire for
revenge against the living and the martyrs.

This issue underwent legal transformations since 2017. On December 14,
2017, the so-called Israeli Supreme Court decided to postpone its ruling
invalidating the holding of martyrs' bodies to allow the Israeli
authorities to legislate clear and explicit provisions authorizing the
military and police leadership to hold martyrs' bodies. In September 2019,
the Supreme Court issued a decision allowing the military commander to hold
the martyrs' bodies and bury them temporarily for use as bargaining chips
in negotiations. It also imposed broad conditions authorizing the
previously mentioned authorities to issue orders to hold the bodies of some
martyrs. In reality, the vast majority of the martyrs whose bodies are held
do not meet the conditions imposed by the court, making this issue a new
phase in the role played by the so-called Supreme Court in consolidating
the crime of holding martyrs' bodies. This was followed by efforts by the
Israeli Knesset to legislate a law authorizing the occupation police to
hold martyrs' bodies, and later an amendment was made to the
"Anti-Terrorism Law."

Holding Martyrs' Bodies Since the Start of the Genocide:

The ongoing genocide against our people in Gaza has brought about
transformations on all levels, with the enormous crimes committed by the
Israeli occupation. The issue of martyrs' bodies is one of the most
prominent of these issues, with the number of bodies held by the occupation
increasing. Since thestart of the war, the number of bodies held reached
149, which constitutes more than half of the martyrs held since 2015. This
number does not include the martyrs from Gaza whose bodies are held,
estimated to be in the hundreds.

To this day, there is no official statement from the occupation regarding
the actual number of bodies held from Gaza, in addition to the fact that
the occupation employs a policy of concealing identities as another face of
the systematic crime of enforced disappearance, instead assigning numbers
to the bodies. The only information that has emerged regarding the bodies
of martyrs from Gaza held by the occupation was in July 2024, when the
Hebrew newspaper Haaretz revealed in an article that the Israeli occupation
holds about 1,500 bodies of Palestinians whose identities are unknown,
stored in refrigerated containers inside the military base known as Sde
Teman, and they were classified by numbers rather than names. The newspaper
mentioned that the condition of the bodies had reached a certain stage of
decomposition, with some missing limbs and others without identifiable
features.

During the war, the occupation handed over the bodies of 428 unidentified
martyrs in several batches, and they were buried in mass graves in Khan
Younis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The scene of the occupation
handing over the bodies of martyrs in blue bags was one of the most
striking images, reflecting the level of savagery of the occupation and its
disdain for human dignity as one of the aspects of the ongoing genocide for
more than ten continuous months.

Holding Martyrs' Bodies in Violation of International Conventions and
Charters:

This policy contradicts all international customs and charters that
stipulate respect for the victims and the return of their bodies. The
relevant rules of international humanitarian law concerning the treatment
of the dead, their remains, and their graves include Rule 112 on searching
for and collecting the dead, Rule 113 on protecting the dead from pillage
and mutilation, Rule 114 on the return of the dead's remains and their
personal belongings, Rule 115 on the disposal of the dead, and Rule 116 on
identifying the dead.

The First Geneva Convention of 1949, in Article 17, emphasizes the
importance of decent and respectful burial, stating that the parties to the
conflict must "ensure the dead are honorably interred,
if possible according to the rites of the religion to which they belonged,
that their graves are respected, grouped according to nationality, and
properly maintained and marked so that they can always be found."

In addition to Article 17 of the First Geneva Convention, Article 120 of
the Third Geneva Convention, Article 130 of the Fourth Geneva Convention,
and Article 34 of the Additional Protocol require facilitating the return
of the bodies and remains of the dead.

The National Campaign for the Retrieval of Martyrs' Bodies and Palestinian
human rights organizations renew their constant demand for the
international legal system to resume its necessary role in stopping the
genocide and to stand up for humanity by addressing the terrifying state of
paralysis that surrounds its role in the ongoing Palestinian tragedy that
has persisted for decades and to exert pressure to free the bodies of our
martyrs.

Release the bodies of the martyred prisoners, release the
martyred prisoners.

We have names... We have a homeland.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20240827/90fbc121/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: uuid=C5374470-21FE-4E19-87BD-4566339DE520&library=1&type=1&mode=1&loc=true&cap=true.png
Type: image/png
Size: 114575 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20240827/90fbc121/attachment-0001.png>