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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Address the Root Cause of
Violence: End the prolonged Israeli occupation and oppression of
Palestinians</h1>
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<div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">22
October 2015<br>
<b><small><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.addameer.org/news/address-root-cause-violence-end-prolonged-israeli-occupation-and-oppression-palestinians">http://www.addameer.org/news/address-root-cause-violence-end-prolonged-israeli-occupation-and-oppression-palestinians</a></small></small></small></small></b><br>
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<p class="rtejustify">The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations
Council (PHROC) and the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in
Jerusalem (CCPRJ) deplore and condemn all forms of attacks on
civilians, and emphasize that the current escalation in violence
cannot be explained, addressed or remedied in a vacuum. There is a
root cause for this violence – Israel’s continued violations of
international law, including its brutal and illegal military
occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) that has
lasted 48 years and its racist policies against Palestinian
citizens of Israel - and this root cause cannot be ignored. The
undersigned human rights organization stress that all
Palestinians, regardless of where they live, are fighting a common
struggle to exercise their right of self-determination.</p>
<p class="rtejustify">During the last three weeks, the Israeli
Occupation Forces (IOF) have killed 46 Palestinians, including 10
children, and injured over 5,000 Palestinians. Eight Jewish
Israelis have been killed. The upsurge in violence is the result
of the growing frustration of generations of Palestinians who have
lived under military occupation with no promise of change in the
future. Instead of hope, Palestinians have grown accustomed to
Israel's continued confiscation of their land and the displacement
of its inhabitants; the demolition of their homes; the aggressive
expansion of Israeli settler colonies (settlements); settler
violence against Palestinians and their property facilitated by
the state; torture and ill-treatment; and increasing numbers of
arbitrary arrests and administrative detentions, amongst other
manifestations of Israel's violent occupation. Therefore, the only
way to address this rise in violence is to end to the occupation.</p>
<p class="rtejustify">Frustrations have been increasingly mounting
due to Israel's latest intensification of attacks against East
Jerusalem and its residents. The attacks come in various forms,
including restricting and denying Palestinian access to the
Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound while continuing to back incursions by
settler groups into the Compound. This has led Palestinians across
the OPT, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, to take to the
streets and exercise their right to demonstrate against and resist
the Israeli occupation. In response, Israel has accelerated
measures that further entrench the occupation and suppress
Palestinian resistance. These measure include the use of
excessive, and often lethal, force against Palestinian protesters
in both the OPT and Israel, the use of punitive home demolitions,
and an increase in the number of arrests and detentions. In Gaza,
as the unlawful closure policy continues, the IOF killed 15
protestors (5 children) and injured approximately 680, since 9
October 2015. The protestors posed no apparent threat to the life
of fortified Israeli soldiers in the border areas.</p>
<p class="rtejustify">The undersigned human rights organizations
strongly condemn the extreme measures that Israel has taken in
recent weeks and calls on the international community to take
action. Of specific concern is Israel's arbitrary and expansive
use of live fire, in part due to the recent relaxation of
live-fire regulations for stone-throwers, and the excessive use of
force against Palestinian demonstrators both by the IOF in the OPT
and Israeli police in Israel. Our organizations are also deeply
troubled by Israel's apparent practice of shoot to kill in cases
where Palestinians carry out or are merely suspected of carrying
out attacks against Israelis. Palestinian deaths under these
circumstances may amount to wilful killings and/or extrajudicial
killings. As the number of Palestinian deaths rise, Israel has not
questioned whether the use of force in any circumstance was
necessary or proportional. No credible and transparent
investigations have taken place, even with increasing video
evidence that puts into question the actions of the IOF. Instead,
Israeli leaders have justified and encouraged increased use of
force. For example, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barakat urged Israeli
civilians to carry their weapons, and Member of Knesset Yair Lapid
stated, “you have to shoot to kill anyone who pulls out a knife or
screwdriver.”</p>
<p class="rtejustify">PHROC and CCPRJ also call specific attention
to Israel's use of the current escalation in violence and security
as a pretext to expedite the implementation of longstanding
policies aimed at erasing Palestinian presence from occupied East
Jerusalem. This is clear given the Israeli security cabinet’s
recent authorizations to impose closures on Palestinian
neighborhoods, demolish the homes of alleged attackers and their
families without the ability to rebuild, revoke Jerusalem
permanent residency for all alleged attackers, and the
confiscation of their property, among other measures. Many of
these measures constitute unlawful collective punishment under
international law. These measures also undermine the fundamental
rights of East Jerusalemites, including freedom of movement,
freedom to choose one’s residence, and right to an adequate
standard of living. Palestinians' right to life and right to
health is also compromised, as shown by the death of an elderly
woman after being delayed from reaching a nearby hospital because
of an Israeli checkpoint recently erected in the Al-Issawiya
neighborhood of East Jerusalem. </p>
<p class="rtejustify">We have long called on the international
community to hold Israel, as the Occupying Power, accountable for
its violations of international law. Lack of action by the
international community and third state parties encourages Israel
to continue these violations. The United Nations and members
states, therefore, share responsibility for the renewed surge of
violence across the OPT and Israel because of their failure to
recognize and address the systematic violence inherent to the
Israeli system of occupation, settler colonialism, and apartheid
that has oppressed Palestinians for decades.</p>
<p class="rtejustify">We, therefore, call on the international
community to:</p>
<p class="rtejustify"> • Condemn Israel for the current escalation
of violence and recall that Israel’s occupation, including its
illegal annexation of East Jerusalem, is the root cause of the
ongoing situation;<br>
• Condemn Israel’s violations of international law, foremost those
that rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity;
and accordingly;<br>
• Insist that Israel put an end to the institutionalized impunity
and call on Israel to carry prompt, thorough and transparent
investigations into the killings of Palestinians, and bring
perpetrators to justice while providing reparations to families of
victims;<br>
• Ensure that persons responsible for war crimes and crimes
against humanity are brought to justice, including those Israeli
officials involved in the recent escalation in violence, by
supporting efforts of Palestine to hold Israel accountable via
international fora such as the International Criminal Court;<br>
• Call for sanctions against Israel at the UN Security Council;<br>
• Condemn the intensification of unlawful arrest, imprisonment and
torture of Palestinians, especially children;<br>
• Prevent further escalation of violence by immediately halting
all military trade and cooperation with Israel and Israeli
security companies, divestment from Israel, and take measures to
ensure a ban on the trade of Israeli colony (settlement) goods.</p>
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