<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<h1> Statement on International Human Rights Day: Addameer sends its
condolences to Ziad Abu Ein’s family and demands the formation of
an international investigative committee to hold the Occupation
accountable for its continuous violations.
</h1>
<span class="text">
<div>10 December 2014 - Ramallah<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=738">http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=738</a></small></small></b><br>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>With sadness, Addameer sends condolences to the family of
martyr Ziad Abu Ein, the head of the Palestinian Authority
committee regarding the settlements, who was killed by the
Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) after being beaten and tear
gassed in Turmosayya today during a demonstration.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>The cold-blooded murder of Ziad Abu Ein on International
Human Rights Day is representative of the occupation’s
continuous and rampant destruction of Palestinian life and land
since the establishment of Israel in 1948, which ironically
coincides with the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. On this International Human Rights Day, the
international community must realize that it is complicit with
Israeli’s continued suppression, murder and displacement of the
Palestinian people until Israel is held accountable for its
crimes.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>The Universal Declaration of Human Rights serves as an
inspiration for Palestinian resistance against the Zionist,
racist project to ethnically cleanse Palestine of its indigenous
inhabitants. Simultaneously, Palestinians continue to suffer due
to the United Nation’s failure to uphold and respect the rights
and principles enshrined by the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, allowing the Occupying power to continue its crimes with
impunity.</div>
<div>The Israeli state was established as a result of war crimes
implemented by Zionist gangs in 1948 by murdering and displacing
hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and pilfering of the land.
Sixty-six years later, they continue to commit these war crimes
to slowly ethnically cleanse the indigenous Palestinian people
and deny them the right to self determination.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>During 2014, Palestinians saw this impunity reinforced in a
51-day assault on Gaza, large scale military operations
throughout the West Bank, mass hunger strikes amongst
Palestinian administrative detainees met with brutal force, and
targeted assassinations of at least 20 Palestinians. In the war
on Gaza, the occupation killed more than 2,000 civilians,
including 450 children, injured over 10,000 Palestinians and
displaced 300,000 Gazans. At least 10,000 homes were demolished
and 190 civilians arbitrarily arrested and tortured.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>According to Addameer’s statistics, the number of arrests has
increased dramatically this year, pointing to an increased use
of arrest and detention in an attempt to control and suppress
Palestinian resistance. At least 1,500 children were arrested
since the beginning of 2014, the majority of them in Jerusalem,
as well as 35 women. In June alone, over 3,000 Palestinians
were arrested from the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem and the 1948
territories. Now, there are over 7,000 Palestinian prisoners and
detainees in the occupation’s prisons, the highest number in
over five years. Over 530 of them are administrative detainees,
held without charge or trial based on secret evidence that the
detainee and their lawyer are denied access to. One of the
administrative detainees is Addameer’s Legal Unit Coordinator,
Ayman Nasser, who has been repeatedly targeted by the IOF.
Palestinian Legislative Council members also continue to be
targeted, with 25 currently in prison, of which 16 are under
administrative detention.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>The treatment of Palestinian detainees has degraded
considerably in 2014. The detainees continue to be denied their
right to a fair trial in the Israeli military court system, in
direct violation of the 4<sup>th</sup> Geneva Convention. This
year, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) imposed greater
punishments on Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including
denial of family visits, exorbitant fines, solitary confinement
and denial of educational, cultural, religious and athletic
activities. The detainees also suffer from beatings, attacks and
arbitrary transfers at the hand of the Special Units of the IPS.
Their demands for basic medical treatment and care are
systematically ignored, exacerbating the number of ill detainees
due to medical negligence and inhumane conditions.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Today, on International Human Rights Day, seventy Palestinian
prisoners and detainees have declared an open hunger strike to
demand an end to the severe punitive measures imposed on them,
especially the policies of solitary confinement and denial of
proper medical treatment. Having been abandoned by the
international community, Palestinian detainees must go on hunger
strike at great cost to their lives and health in order to
realize basic human rights. This year, the administrative
detainees engaged in a 63-day hunger strike, the longest in
Palestinian history, to demand an end to the arbitrary detention
policy. They were met with severe punitive measures, beatings,
isolation and threats of force-feeding, all punishments that
continue to this day.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>On this 66<sup>th</sup> commemoration of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, Addameer calls on the United
Nations to exercise its mandate by holding the occupation’s
leaders and ministers accountable in the international courts as
war criminals. The continued impunity of the occupying power is
a threat to security and peace across the world.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Addameer also demands that the Palestinian Authority join the
International Criminal Court immediately to hold Israel
accountable for its crimes. Addameer also demands that the
Palestinian Authority respect its responsibilities as according
to signed international conventions, especially regarding public
freedom and the end of political detention.</div>
</span>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>