Posted on 5-11-2002

Amnesty Sites Israeli War Crimes
Palestine Media Center, 04/11/2002

Amnesty International, a leading human rights organization, has accused
Israel of committing war crimes that violated the Fourth Geneva Conventions
against Palestinian civilians during their invasion of the West Bank cities
of Jenin and Nablus last April, demanded trials of responsible Israelis and
called upon countries it accuses of shielding Israel from accountability,
particularly the United States, to apply political pressure and to stop the
sale of weapons to the Jewish state.

The organization released a report Monday entitled “Shielded from Scrutiny:
IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus” in response to the so-called ‘Operation
Defensive Shield’ that Israeli occupation Forces (IOF) embarked on between
April and June, which it demanded be investigated along with those
responsible for the atrocities that were perpetrated, no matter how high
their rank or power positions.

In the 76-page report, Amnesty says IOF committed unlawful killings,
torture and the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields. It says that
among other “grave breaches” of international law, soldiers were guilty of
ill-treatment of prisoners, wanton destruction of hundreds of homes,
sometimes with the residents still inside, and the blocking of medical and
humanitarian aid to the wounded. “Amnesty International believes that some
of the acts by the IDF (Israeli army) described in this report amount to
grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and are war crimes,” Amnesty
says.

The London-based organization has called upon Britain and other signatories
to the Geneva conventions to put on trial the Israeli military “responsible
for war crimes” in the two Palestinian towns. “There will be no peace or
security in the region until human rights are respected. All attempts to
end human rights violations and install a system of international
protection in Israel and the Occupied Territories, in particular by
introducing monitors with a clear human rights mandate, have been
undermined by the refusal of the government of Israel. This refusal has
been supported by the USA.” Amnesty charged, reinforcing the Palestinian
call for the deployment of international observers in the territories.

Amnesty also says the months-long investigation is the most thorough to
date and provides the documentation necessary for war crimes trials by
documenting five separate grounds for prosecution. The report is based on
interviews with local Palestinian residents, officials, local and foreign
medical personnel, journalists, members of humanitarian organizations in
the occupied territory, Israeli army officials, reports by local
physicians, High Court protocols regarding petitions submitted by Israeli
human rights groups, and the results of field investigations carried out by
Amnesty personnel.

Accordingly, the rights watchdog called for “a full, thorough, transparent
and impartial investigation into all allegations of violations of
international human rights and humanitarian law.” Amnesty’s international
director of regional strategy, Javier Zuniga, said Israel should take full
responsibility for its actions and cooperate with an investigation into its
army’s conduct during the spring offensive. “The culpability goes from the
soldier who shot somebody with no necessity to those in the line of the
command who ordered or condoned or covered up and to the highest authority
of the state because they are politically responsible -- that would be the
prime minister,” said Zuniga.

Meanwhile, the professor of international law who researched the report,
Kathleen Cavanaugh, says Amnesty has asked the Israeli government to act on
the evidence and try those responsible.

US Urged to Stop Arms Sales to Israel

Amnesty is also calling upon countries it accuses of shielding Israel from
accountability, particularly the United States, to apply political pressure
and to stop the sale of weapons to the Jewish state. If Israel still
refuses to act in spite of international pressure, then Amnesty says those
implicated in war crimes should be detained and tried when they travel
abroad. “If you have an army commander ... who takes a holiday in a country
that is a high contracting party [to the Geneva conventions] like the UK,
then the UK can launch an investigation and hold a trial if it chooses. It
has a legal obligation under international law to do so,” says Cavanaugh.
“It’s not a mystery who was in charge. The names of those responsible are
known and they travel regularly to Europe and the United States.”

The report comes several days after former army chief of staff, Shaul Mofaz
fled Britain, which he was visiting, after reports that Scotland Yard was
investigating him for war crimes perpetrated in the occupied Palestinian
Territory. The General who headed the army while atrocities were committed
in Jenin was then named Israel’s defense minister by the extreme-rightwing
PM Ariel Sharon. However, his appointment has attracted much criticism from
within the Israeli government itself. One Meretz MP, Ran Cohen called for
delaying Mofaz’s appointment until the Jewish state probed Amnesty
International’s charges against him.

The Amnesty report states that in the four months between February 27 and
the end of June, IOF killed at least 500 Palestinians. “Many of these IDF
killings appeared to be unlawful and at least 16 percent of the victims,
more than 70, were children,” the report states. “In Jenin and Nablus, the
‘IDF’ blocked access for days to ambulances, humanitarian aid and the
outside world while the dead and wounded lay in streets or houses. In Jenin
a whole residential quarter of the refugee camp was demolished leaving
4,000 people homeless.” The report added. Moreover, Amnesty quotes figures
published by the United Nations Works Relief Agency (UNWRA), which says
that 2,629 Palestinian homes, in which 13,145 people were living, were
badly damaged or destroyed by IOF in the West Bank in the period from March
20 to April 23, 2002. “During military operations, commercial, religious,
cultural, and civic buildings were also destroyed without absolute military
necessity,” the report confirms.

The human rights organization further outlines the mass detention of males
between the ages of 15 and 55, and includes testimony from detainees who
say they were tortured and subjected to cruel treatment during their
detention. “Many described treatment amounting to torture, mostly in the
form of random beatings with rifle butts,” the report states. Among the
cases cited by Amnesty in the report is that of al-Shu’bi family, whose ten
members were buried under the rubble when IOF bulldozed their home with
them inside and gave no prior warning or time to enable them to leave the
house. They were buried under the debris for ten days. Only two survived.
Another case is that of Jamal Fayed, 38, who is a severely disabled man
living in Jenin refugee camp, which resulted in the leveling of the homes
of about 4,000 people. Many died as the army bulldozed their houses. “The
family had shown Jamal Fayed’s ID to the soldiers who were preparing to
demolish the house to prove he was paralyzed and could not get out of the
home without their help. The soldiers refused to help and soon after a
bulldozer approached the house. The family yelled at the driver to stop. He
didn’t and Jamal Fayed, still trapped inside, was killed,” the report said.

Meanwhile, the report harshly criticizes the report released by the UN into
the atrocities carried out in Jenin last April, which concluded that no
widespread killings had occurred. The probe was seen as biased since Israel
prevented the on-the-scene investigating team named by UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan from getting into the country. Amnesty says the report was no
substitute for a thorough and impartial investigation, since the officials
did not visist Jenin themselves. “This report was written without a visit
to Jenin or any other Palestinian cities. “Israel did not respond to any
request by the UN undersecretary general for political affairs to provide
information for the report ... The secretary general’s report on Jenin can
not be a substitute for a full, independent, impartial and thorough
investigation or inquiry,” it added.

In Nablus, Amnesty said at least 80 people were killed last April,
including seven women and nine children under the age of 15. It also says
IOF tortured detainees there. “In Nablus, the [IOF] ill-treated and
sometimes tortured detainees arrested in mass roundups of males between 15
and 45 years old,” it said. In one case, the report chronicles the beating
of a 25-year-old man in a wheelchair who was taken into detention and
pushed down a stairwell.