Shielded from Scrutiny!
The International amnesty recent report," Israel and the Occupied Territories: Shielded from Scrutiny, is a further proof of the Israeli systematic and permanent violations of human rights. "It is imperative that the international community stop being an ineffective witness of the grave violations that take place in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Meaningful, urgent and appropriate action is long overdue," the Amnesty stated to the world silence and disregard. The report sheds a glimpse on the Israeli occupation troops violations in Jenin and Nablus, documents serious human rights violations by Israeli forces including unlawful killings; torture, ill-treatment of prisoners; demolishment of hundreds of HOMEs sometimes with the residents still inside; the blocking of ambulances and denial of humanitarian assistance; and the use of Palestinian civilians as "human shields".
"Up to now the Israeli authorities have failed in their responsibility to bring to justice the perpetrators of serious human rights violations. War crimes are among the most serious crimes under international law, and represent offences against humanity as a whole. Bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice is therefore the concern and the responsibility of the international community. All states who are parties to the Geneva Conventions must search for those alleged to have committed grave breaches of the Conventions and bring them to justice," said Amnesty International. "There will be no peace or security in the region until human rights are respected. All attempts to end human rights violations and install a system of international protection in Israel and the Occupied Territories, in particular by introducing monitors with a clear human rights mandate, have been undermined by the refusal of the government of Israel. This refusal has been supported by the USA." Among the bereaved eye witnesses, the Amnesty quotes the following in its 76-page report:
"My family was at HOME on Friday 5 April. It was about 3 or 3:15 in the afternoon. We heard the knocking and calling for us to open the door. My sister 'Afaf said 'Just a moment'. She said this right away.... When she reached the door, she had just put her hand out to touch the handle of the door and it exploded. The door exploded in on her and the right side of her face was blown off.... I think she must have died instantly. We started shouting. The soldiers were just outside that door. The Israeli occupation soldiers began to shoot at the walls as if to try and scare us. We yelled at them to get an ambulance but they did not answer us."
"I looked and saw one of the large bulldozers coming from the west side bulldozing the al-Shu'bi family house and I saw the house tilt over. Without even thinking, I yelled to the soldier in the bulldozer, 'Let the residents leave the house.' At this point the soldier came out of the bulldozer, took his weapon and started to fire in my direction." Ten members of the Shu'bi family were buried under their house in Nablus for six days, only two survived.
"We entered my neighbour's house. The soldiers began to drill a hole in the wall. I went with three soldiers and the dog through the wall. The soldier kept the gun positioned at my head. This happened about six or seven times. In each case, when we passed from building to building the soldiers always kept me in front of them. At the last place I pulled the door back and just as I was walking out I heard shooting. The soldiers pulled me back from the alley and began to return fire. I was one meter behind them".
'Atiya Hassan Abu Irmaila, 44 , was shot in the head by the Israeli occupation soldiers in his HOME on 5 April. Desperate attempts by his family to call an ambulance failed. The family was even unable to leave their HOME to tell relatives that he had died. 'Atiya Hassan Abu Irmaila's body remained in the house for seven days. Suna Hafez Sabreh, 35, was shot and seriously injured on 7 April while closing the door to her house. The family called an ambulance, but it failed to reach them, on at least one occasion because it had come under fire. An ambulance finally arrived two days later, after Suna Hafez Sabreh's condition had seriously deteriorated. She has since had five operations.
"There is total devastation, no whole standing house, as though someone has bulldozed a whole community. If anyone was in a house they could not have survived. There is nothing but rubble and people walking around looking dazed. There is a smell of death under the rubble."
"The relationship of the conflict to the deteriorating human rights situation has led to a growing understanding that there can be no peace in the region until human rights are respected," Amnesty underlined and so did we and every all peace-loving. Wouldn’t it cost all less when war ends!
BY
Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim