In a very dangerous decision and in strict violation of International Law and human rights norms, the Israeli High Court, the Highest Israeli Judicial body, yesterday, Tuesday 3 September 2002, approved the Israeli occupation forces order to deport Kifah Ahmad Ajuri and his sister Intisar Ajuri to the Gaza Strip.
The Ajuri brothers, both from the refugee camp of Askar in Nablus, West Bank are expected to arrive at the Beit hanun / Erez Crossing point this morning, Wednesday 4 September 2002.
The Israeli forces, in justifying the deportation of Ajuri brothers, claim that the two persons provided assistance to their brother, Ali Muhammad Ajuri, who was assassinated earlier on 6 August 2002, to carry out alleged military attacks inside Israel.
It is worth mentioning that the Israeli forces destroyed with explosives Ajuri’s home , a three-story-house occupied by 26 people, on Friday 19 July 2002.
The Israeli High Court’s decision legitimizes the deportation of civilians (a war crime according to international law) and provides a legal cover for these crimes of the occupying forces.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights gravely condemns the Israeli procedures against the Ajuri family, especially because these persons are innocent and have not been charged with any criminal act.
The destruction of the Ajuris home and deportation of two of them constitute collective punishment procedures and a grave breach of Article (33) of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949.
Article (33) prohibits the punishment of protected persons for an offence they have not personally committed.
The Court’s decision to permit the military to forcibly transfer detained civilians to Gaza constitutes another war crime violating Article (49) of the same Convention, which prohibits forcible individual or mass transfer of protected persons.
As such, Al Mezan warns of the dangerous implications of the international community’s silence in the face of this crime.
The Center calls upon the international community to intervene immediately to stop the crime of forcible transfer of Palestinians.
Al Mezan views such intervention as an essential precursor to an urgently required international protection of civilians and property in the OPTs, and to bringing to justice the Israelis responsible for ordering and perpetrating such war crimes against Palestinians.
Al Mezan believes that the international community, and especially the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, are obliged to fulfill these legal responsibilities.
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