Non-aligned Nations to Tag Israel With War Crimes

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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‘The draft NAM statement voiced “grave concern” over the situation in the Palestinian areas and “strongly condemned the systematic human rights violations and reported war crimes that have been committed by the Israeli occupying forces”.’

Non-aligned nations to tag Israel with war crimes](Clarifying the Complex | Homepage | Thomson Reuters) Reuters 23 Feb 03

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Developing nations agreed on Sunday on draft recommendations that Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas be treated as war crimes, delegates said. The head of the Palestinian delegation to the United Nations, Nasser al-Kidwa, attending the summit of the 114-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Malaysia, welcomed the draft as an important step forward. The draft “calls for the application of the relevant legal measures in relation to war crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian lands, including Jerusalem”, Kidwa told Reuters.

Israel says its military actions in the West Bank and Gaza are to stop Palestinian attacks on its soldiers and civilians. Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians, at least five of them armed, in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in the latest phase of a week-old army offensive against Islamic militant strongholds. **The deaths raised to 41 the number of Palestinians killed this week, most in Israeli military raids into the Gaza Strip. **

At least 1,868 Palestinians and 705 Israelis have been killed during a 29-month-old uprising against occupation. The draft NAM statement voiced “grave concern” over the situation in the Palestinian areas and “strongly condemned the systematic human rights violations and reported war crimes that have been committed by the Israeli occupying forces”.

The head of the political directorate in the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Farouq al-Qaddoumi, said the movement that includes almost two-thirds of United Nations members had shown it was clearly a friend to the Palestinian cause. NAM was set up in the Cold War as a counterweight to the Eastern and Western blocs. The Palestinian issue has been a major topic at this summit, along with Iraq and North Korea.

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This is a very significant development. The 114 member states of NAM account for 60% of the independent countries of the world, and it will clearly demonstrate that the vast majority of the world as a state committing war crimes.

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The UN has released an official report about Israels widespread human rights abuses in the occupied territories.

Israeli Abuses the Worst in 35 Years - U.N. Report](http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=20971) IPS 06 Nov 03

UNITED NATIONS - After 35 years of investigations, a UN committee monitoring human rights abuses of Palestinians has concluded that the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank was the worst ever last year. ‘‘We must sadly report that the situation drastically deteriorated in 2002,’’ Ambassador Chitambaranathan Mahendran of Sri Lanka, chairman of the Special Committee Investigating Israeli Practices in the Occupied Territories, told IPS.

The Palestinians did not only see their freedom of movement and residence severely restricted through curfews, road closures and checkpoints, but also their economic, social and cultural rights were harshly violated and undermined, he said. Mahendran said his three-member committee – including Ambassador Rastan Mohd Isa of Malaysia and Ambassador Ousmane Camara of Senegal – was barred from entering the occupied territories once again.

‘‘We made a formal request to Israel, but it was turned down,’’ he told IPS on Thursday. Israel, he added, ‘‘showed hostility towards our committee’’. The committee, which has never been permitted to enter the occupied territories, has been forced to hold sittings in Jordan, Egypt and Syria. Palestinians who appear before the body travel to Amman, Cairo and Damascus yearly to detail the continued human rights abuses by Israel.

In his report to the 191-member General Assembly, Mahendran said the committee tried to establish a meaningful dialogue with the State of Israel, ‘‘but to no avail’’. ‘‘In view of the gravity of the situation, the time has come for the special committee to be allowed by the Israeli authorities to get access to the occupied territories and assess for itself the current situation of human rights, as well as to ascertain the views of the Government of Israel,’’ he told delegates. The Israeli government, which is opposed to the very existence of the special committee, routinely refuses UN bodies entry into the occupied territories – particularly if they are probing human rights violations of Palestinians.

**‘‘Today the intangible and inalienable right of the Palestinians to a homeland of their own is threatened both by the erection of the separation wall, the unabated policy of new Jewish settlements, and the heavy destruction of infrastructure, properties and homes,’’ Mahendran said. He also pointed out that Palestinian sources believe the controversial wall will eventually annex about 55 percent of the West Bank, its central, western and eastern sides, including Jordan Valley, and major water sources.

Mahendran’s submission to the General Assembly was backed by the 15-member European Union (EU), which also criticized Israel’s decision to continue building the wall after international condemnation.** ‘‘The European Union demands that Israel stop and reverses the construction of the wall in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around Jerusalem, which is in departure of the Armistice Line of 1949,’’ Marco Carnelos of Italy told delegates Thursday.

Construction of the wall also violates various provisions of international law, he added, and entails other illegal activities, such as confiscation of land and demolition of houses. ‘‘The EU is gravely concerned by the continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian cities as well as the severe restrictions imposed on the freedom of movement of persons and goods,’’ added Carnelos.

While criticizing Israel’s abusive policies in the occupied territories, he also condemned violence against Israelis by Palestinians. ‘‘The EU strongly condemns terrorism, in particular the vicious attacks against Israeli citizens,’’ he said. In a separate report Thursday, Miloon Kothari, UN special rapporteur on housing demolitions, told delegates that thousands of residents of the occupied territories have been left homeless because of Israel’s policy of ‘‘house demolitions’’. …