6thJuly 2014
With the Escalation of Israeli Violations of Human Rights and Increased Settler Violence, ICHR Calls for International Protection of the Palestinian Civilian Population in the OPT
The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) is deeply concerned on the continuous Israeli occupation’s ferocious aggression and collective punishments against the Palestinian civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) including Jerusalem. In retaliation of kidnapping and murdering of the three Israeli settlers on 13 June 2014, the occupying state of Israel intensified its military aggressive operations on the OPT and racist declarations and killing incitements and revenge against Palestinians.
The Israeli military operations have targeted all the Palestinian cities, villages and camps and civilian houses as well as the Palestinian civil society organizations, resulting in injuring and killing dozens of Palestinian civilians. The Israeli occupying authorities also imposed collective punishments on Palestinian civilian population by restricting their travel and movement within the OPT, arbitrary arresting them, demolishing their homes, further hardening the military siege and launching random airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, resulting in causalities among innocent civilian population.
The Israeli occupying authorities also did not prevent its settlers from assaulting Palestinian civilians and their properties leading to several attempts of abduction and assault against Palestinian kids and youth in different regions. The rising in Israeli settlers’ violence resulted in the abduction of Mohammad Abu Khdeir, a 17 years old from the neighbourhood of Shuf’at in Jerusalem, in the early morning of the 2nd of July 2014. The settlers tortured Mohammad aggressively and then burned him in an atrocious manner.
In complicity with Israeli military forces and police, settlers illegally residing in the OPT have remarkably increased their violence and vandalism against the Palestinian civilian population and their properties. The situation is alarming with the presence of over 450 thousand Israeli settlers combined with the absence of any form of protection to ensure the safety and well-being of the Palestinian civilian population in the OPT. This is in violation of Article 49 (6) of the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Times of War and Under Occupation, which prohibits the occupying forces from transferring its own population to the OPT.
ICHR deeply deplores those Israeli illegal attacks and the continuous escalations of aggression that violate International Humanitarian Law. We strongly urge the international community and specifically the High Contracting Parties of the Four Geneva Conventions to meet their legal and moral obligations under International Humanitarian Law. ICHR also urges the High Contracting Parties to meet their obligations under common Article (1) of the Four Geneva Conventions to respect and ensure respect of the Convention in all situations. Furthermore Article (146) of the Four Geneva Convention establishes the responsibility on High Contracting Parties to prosecute and pursue those who practice grave-breaches of the Convention. ICHR also calls on the international community to provide protection for the Palestinian civilian population in the OPT.
