International Community and Palestinians Rights: Facts, Steps and Goals

International Community and Palestinians Rights: Facts, Steps and Goals

 
Geneva April 5, 2018

 
Press conference organized by ACANU / Geneva Association of United Nations Correspondents :  https://acanu.ch/

The continued occupation by the Israeli army of the Occupied Territories in Palestine is a matter of great concern. The passivity and inaction of the international community, added to the attitude of the Trump’s administration by recognising Jerusalem/Alqods as capital of Israel generate anger, humiliation and frustration for Palestinians and throughout Moslem-Arab, third World countries and all those who strive for justice and peace.

Last week, Palestinians of all ages and various political and social groups met around the universal issue of the return of refugees as a national consensus. This march was calling for the refugee right of return. It was a legal and peaceful march and based on international resolutions.

As per the organizers, the march included the various locations of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jerusalem, the areas occupied in 1948, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and other countries around the world. It aimed to peacefully protest at the nearest points to their homes which they were forcibly displaced from.

The Participants seemed to be from all components of the Palestinian civil society and all political parties or factions that believe in peaceful public resistance as an effective way to contribute to achieving peace and justice based on the restoration of the national rights of Palestinians, foremost of which is the right of return.

As a reminder, since the creation of Israel in May 1948, a certain number of resolutions were adopted by UN Council most of them related to the right of return and evacuation of occupied lands:

• Resolution 194 of December 11, 1948 which provides for the right for refugees to return to their country
  
• Resolution 242 of November 22, 1967 for the evacuation by Israel of occupied Territories
  
• Resolution 3236 of November 22, 1974 reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return
  
• Resolution 465 of March 1, 1980 condemning the policy of colonisation of Israel and ordering immediate withdrawal of occupied territories

The right of return for the Palestinian refugees still exists according to international law and today the Palestinians’ march is to remind the whole world about their fundamental rights based on international declarations and conventions:

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights: everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
  
• The Geneva Conventions of 1949
  
• The General Assembly of the UN who recognized that the refugees wishing to return to their homes should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return
  
• No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country. -Article 12, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(23 March 1976)

Today we know that in response to the protestors the army of Israel has committed a massacre and a serious escalation in human rights violations such as extrajudicial killings, excessive use of force; and deprivation of freedoms of association, speech and expression. We insist that responses to demonstrations must comply with international standards that forbid the excessive use of lethal force, and do not justify the intentional murder of protestors by military snipers. The use of force must not exceed what is required to prevent the use of violence. Firing live ammunition at crowds is intolerable and should be considered a criminal act. Israel has consistently failed over the past years to conduct independent and impartial investigations related to the abuses committed by its army.

WE therefore urge the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to:

• Urgently dispatch a fact-finding mission and initiate a fair and independent investigation into the above-mentioned extrajudicial killings. The policy of impunity must come to an end;
  
• Communicate with the Israeli authorities about their obligations under International Human Rights Law, primarily the protection of peaceful demonstrators and their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly;
  
• Request the Israel forces to refrain from using excessive lethal force to disperse demonstrators, to fulfill its obligations under international human rights law by investigating these serious human rights violations, bring their perpetrators to justice, compensate the victims and halt any further escalation of violence.

Make no mistake, there will be no peace in the Middle East as long as justice is not rendered to the Palestinian people and this can only be obtained through the application of international law, namely the United Nations resolutions.  It is imperative that the United Nations Organisation as well as European Union leaders and indeed Switzerland use all that is in their power to:

1. Put an immediate end to the massacre of the Palestinian people and the blockade condemning these people to slow death;
   
2. Ensure the application of the United Nations resolutions which provide for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their country, to repossess their land and their belongings; the resolutions which provide also for the withdrawal of all the occupied territories, including Jerusalem (Alqods) by the occupying forces and finally the resolutions proclaiming Palestine an independent and sovereign state.
   
3. Start the investigation by the International Criminal Court against Israeli criminals. In fact impunity encourages Israeli crimes and international justice is the right level of answer. The will of the victims must be respected, and only an investigation by the ICC is likely to curb the Israeli criminals.

The lives of Palestinians are involved. They do not need declarations, but actions.

Anouar Gharbi
General Secretary
Geneva Council for International Affairs and Development GCIAD
www.gciad.ch