Today, 20 November 2007, marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Sixty years ago, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted Resolution 181; also known as the partition resolution, which determined the partition of historic Palestine into two states.
This date marks the injustice with which the Palestinian People has been treated by the international community, as it continues to be deprived of its rights to self-determination and statehood in equal terms as other peoples in the world.
In 2007, the Solidarity Day comes as the Palestinian people lives the worst conditions through its history.
Israel’s Occupation Forces (IOF) continue to disregards the legal obligations assumed by international law in its treatment of the Palestinian population under its occupation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
IOF has continued to subject Palestinians to flagrant human rights violations, which result from the grave breaches of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL).
This day also comes as Israel continues to disregard the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 9 July 2004, on the legal consequence of the construction of the Wall in the West Bank.
In its arriving at this opinion, the ICJ reaffirmed the applicability of both IHL and IHRL in OPT.
It particularly established that the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War (of 1949) is applicable in OPT.
It identified clear obligations both on Israel, the Occupying Power, and the international community.
It asked the UNGA to consider taking actions to uphold international law and ensure justice.
Nonetheless, Israel has increasingly shown disregard to international law as its forces escalated its aggression and violations of human rights.
During the past years, Al Mezan and the international community witnessed the perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity in OPT.
Those are engendered in indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian property, movement and access restrictions, forced evictions and other serious forms of collective punishment that affected all aspects of Palestinians’ life and the displacement of thousands of families.
The Wall has isolated approximately 2,448 families in the West Bank.
The Wall has also infringed upon Palestinians rights to work, education and health.
This includes restricting the access of students and teachers to more than 320 schools and about 220,000 people’s access to clinics and hospitals.
To build the Wall Israel has destroyed and/or confiscated 395,000 dunams (one dunam equals 1,000 square meters) of agricultural land and uprooted over 100,000 olive trees.
There are now 238,350 dunams of agricultural land that has been separated from their owners by the Wall; including in 71 Palestinian villages.
This has led to the deprivation and dispossession of thousands of Palestinian families, which lost their sources of subsistence.
In the Gaza Strip, IOF continues to impose a strict siege, which represents one of the worst forms of collective punishment and violates the population’s fundamental human rights; including, but not limited to, their rights to life, healthcare, work and education.
According to information collected by Al Mezan IOF has killed 2,766 Palestinians since September 2000 in Gaza alone.
The number of destroyed houses has reached 7,348, including 2,992 that were destroyed completely.
In addition, IOF leveled an area of 31,916 dumans of cultivated land and destroyed 361 public facilities, 637 vehicles, and 876 private industrial and commercial facilities.
Al Mezan Center renews its condemnation of IOF’s occupation and violations of IHL and human rights standards in OPT.
It calls upon the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to act in accord with its obligation to ensure respect of applicable rules of IHL.
The international community should effectively acts to stop Israel’s conducts, many of which amount to crimes against humanity, and to provide protection for the civilian population in the OPT.
It is also called on to exert pressure to bring to an end the collective punishment of Gaza’s population, which violates civilians’ human rights on a daily basis.
Al Mezan calls on human rights and peace advocates around the world to double their efforts to promote the solidarity with the Palestinian people and their strive for justice and peace.
This Solidarity Day should also be an occasion to intensify the efforts to lift the siege of Gaza and strive for the fulfillment of the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights to self-determination and freedom.
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