On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 17:20:07 -0400, "Faris Jawad"
<
ana_faris_...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Israeli Violations Of Palestinian Rights "Unprecedented"
>
>OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, June 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israel's
>human rights violations in the Palestinian territories reached unprecedented
>levels and could not be justified by security pretexts, a leading Israeli
>rights group said Wednesday, June 30.
>
>"The scope and gravity of human rights violations in the occupied
>territories reached an unprecedented scale in the last year," the
>Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said in a report carried by
>Agence France-Presse (AFP).
>
>The watchdog asserted that Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip had
>killed dozens of innocent civilians, citing the latest Rafah military
>offensive as a case in point.
>
>The Israeli army operations in Rafah during May "were accompanied by blatant
>violations of the residents' human rights," read the report.
>
>"Soldiers opened fire indiscriminately, prevented the evacuation of the
>injured, killed dozens of people, some of whom were armed, but many more of
>whom were innocent children, women and men."
>
>The Israeli military offensive on Rafah and its refugee camp, the bloodiest
>of its kind in years, has claimed the lives of up to 62 Palestinians,
>flattened 155 homes and drove some 2000 residents homeless.
>
>Nearly a quarter of the victims were killed when the army used a helicopter
>and a tank in a bid to disperse the crowds protesting against the offensive.
>
>The international human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, had
>dismissed the operation as "war crimes".
>
>An Amnesty report said 3,000 houses were demolished by Israeli forces in
>Rafah since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada against the occupation.
>
>Gross Violation
>
>Arab Israeli citizens, who make up a fifth of Israel's population, were also
>victims of a discriminatory land policy, while the disabled were being
>prevented from integrating into society through a lack of access to public
>places, said the Israeli human rights group.
>
>The report said the building of the West Bank separation wall "disregarded
>international law and human rights."
>
>"The state's obligation to ensure the well being of its citizens cannot be
>used as a justification for the gross violation of Palestinian residents'
>rights that are directly infringed by the barrier's route."
>
>The report was issued as the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the rerouting of
>the wall near occupied Jerusalem.
>
>"Very Badly"
>
>ACRI exeuctive director Rachel Benziman said the overall picture painted in
>her organisation's report reflected "very badly on the image of Israel."
>
>"Our duty is to say what's wrong ... We think that even in times of war,
>human rights should be protected. It's the duty of the government to
>reconcile human rights when planning military operations."
>
>Israel has come under fire from world human rights groups for oppressive
>practices against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
>
>Amnesty condemned in a report released in September last year the Israeli
>policy of assassinations, adding that restrictions imposed by Israel in the
>West Bank and Gaza Strip have had a disastrous impact on the lives of
>Palestinians.
>
>The assassinations policy is vehemently condemned as a violation of the
>international law, since they are adopted by the whole country and not as
>individual acts, said the report.
>
>Other reports slammed Israel for targeting Palestinian children and women,
>and using them as shields.
>
>With a photo in evidence, the Newsweek cited in April a 13-year-old
>Palestinian "grabbed" by Israeli soldiers and put on the hood of an Israeli
>jeep to protect them from young Palestinian stone-throwers.
>
>
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2004-06/30/article08.shtml
>
The IDF is every bit as bad as the Waffen SS, maybe even a little
worse.