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In July, Amnesty International released a comprehensive review of Palestinian attacks against Israeli citizens and determined them to be "crimes against humanity under international law."
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| By Ellis Shuman November 4, 2002 |
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In a report to be issued today, Amnesty International accuses the Israel Defense Forces of "unjustified killing and maltreatment of Palestinians" during Operation Defensive Shield. The IDF responded to the report by saying Israel exercised her "right of self defense" when acting against terrorist infrastructures. On Friday, Human Rights Watch said Palestinians who launch suicide attacks against Israeli civilians are guilty of "crimes against humanity."
The London-based Amnesty International's 76-page report detailed what it called "unlawful killings" and "abusive treatment of detainees" during the Israeli army's operations in Jenin and Nablus in April.
"Amnesty believes some of the acts by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) described (here) amount to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and are war crimes," said the report, entitled: "Shielded From Scrutiny: Israeli Violations in Jenin and Nablus."
The report is based on interviews with local residents, Palestinian officials, members of international humanitarian organizations, physicians, IDF officers, human rights organizations and Amnesty field workers. The report documents cases in which Palestinians were killed or injured under circumstances that suggest the IDF's disproportionate use of force, or the failure by the army to protect those not involved in the fighting, Ha'aretz reported.
"While many Palestinians died during armed confrontations, many of these Israeli army killings appeared to be unlawful and over 70 of the victims were children," the report said.
In its report, Amnesty accuses Israel of using an array of measures, including imposing curfews, setting up roadblocks and declaring areas off limits, in efforts to prevent the world from getting a clear picture of what transpired in Jenin and Nablus. But the report clearly states that no "massacre" was committed in Jenin, and says the rumors reporting this spread when medical workers were not allowed to enter the refugee camp and relied on partial and incomplete testimonies of camp refugees.
Spokesmen for the IDF said they would have no official comment on the Amnesty report until they had fully studied it. But in response to the report's publication, an IDF spokesman said, "In its actions against terrorist infrastructure during Operation Defensive Shield, Israel was implementing her basic right of self-defense. The IDF acted with determination against these infrastructures, but took the required caution while operating among the civilian population."
A Foreign Ministry spokesman called the Amnesty report one-sided, asserting that it "ignores the fact that Israel is in the midst of an armed conflict that was imposed on it. Israel is struggling to defend its citizens against Palestinian terrorism that is deliberately conducted from behind the civilian population, including the use of children and ambulances," the spokesman said. "Israel regrets any harm to innocent people, and the Israel Defense Forces continue to make every effort to avoid harm to civilians."
The left-wing Peace Now movement responded to the Amnesty Report by calling on the government to rescind its appointment of former IDF chief of staff Shaul Mofaz as the country's next defense minister. "The supreme commander of the army has the duty not only to fight terror, but to uphold the 'purity of arms' as well as 'human dignity.' Mofaz failed at this important mission and therefore he is not worthy to serve as defense minister," the movement said in a statement.
Suicide attacks are "crimes against humanity"
In July, Amnesty International, which had frequently accused the Israeli army of human-rights abuses against Palestinians fighting "occupation," for the first time released a comprehensive review of Palestinian attacks against Israeli citizens and determined them to be "crimes against humanity under international law."
On Friday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said Palestinians who launch suicide attacks against Israeli civilians are guilty of "crimes against humanity," and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat had not done enough to deter them.
"The people who carry out suicide bombings are not martyrs, they're war criminals, and so are the people who help to plan such attacks," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of the international human rights organization in a statement. "They clearly fall under the category of crimes against humanity."
The organization's report, entitled "Erased in a Moment: Suicide Bombing Attacks against Israeli Civilians," was the first of its kind by Human Rights Watch and was similar to Amnesty International's July publication.
Human Rights Watch said it did not find evidence directly linking Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to terrorist activities, but noted that the Palestinians had not done enough to punish those responsible.
"The greatest failure of President Arafat and the PA leadership is their unwillingness to deploy the criminal justice system to deter the suicide bombings, particularly in 2001, when the PA was most capable of doing so," Roth said.
Palestinian officials criticized the Human Rights Watch report, saying the world should instead focus its attentions on getting the Israeli army out of the West Bank and Gaza. "The report should have criticized the Israeli policy of occupation which is behind all the violence," said Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeineh.
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