Destroyed apartment blocks in the Gaza Strip (AIC archive photo).
We, the Israeli
organizations signed below, deplore the decision by the Israeli government to
cut off vital supplies of electricity and fuel (and therefore water, since the
pumps cannot work), as well as essential foodstuffs, medicines and other
humanitarian supplies to the civilian population of Gaza. Such an action constitutes a clear and
unequivocal crime against humanity.
Prof. John Dugard, the UN
Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories,
called the Israeli government’s actions “serious war crimes” for which its
political and military officials should be prosecuted and punished. The killing
of more than 40 civilians this past week violates, he said, “the strict prohibition on collective punishment contained
in the Fourth Geneva Convention. It also violates one of the basic principles
of international humanitarian law that military action must distinguish between
military targets and civilian targets.” Indeed, the very legal framework
invoked by the Israeli government to carry out this illegal and immoral act—declaring
Gaza a “hostile
entity” within a “conflict short of war”—has absolutely no standing in
international law.
We call on the Secretary
General of the UN, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, to lead the Security Council to a decisive
decision to end the siege on Gaza
when it meets in emergency session on Wednesday.
We call on the governments
of the world, and in particular the American government and the European
Parliament, to censure Israel’s
actions and, in light of recent attempts to revive the diplomatic process, to
end all attacks on civilians, including the continuing demolition of
Palestinian homes at an alarming rate.
We call upon the Jews of
the world in whose name the Israeli government purports to speak, and upon their
rabbis and communal leaders in particular, to speak out unequivocally against
this offense to the very moral core of Jewish values.
And we call upon the
peoples of the world to let their officials and leaders know of their
repudiation of this cruel, illegal and immoral act—an act that stands out in
its cruelty even in an already oppressive Israeli Occupation.
We condemn attacks on all
civilians, and we acknowledge the suffering of the residents of Sderot. Still,
those attacks do not justify the massive disproportionality of Israeli
sanctions over a million and half civilians of Gaza,
in particular in light of Israel’s
oppressive 40-year occupation. Such violations of international law by a
government are especially egregious and must be denounced and punished if the
very system of human rights and international law is to be preserved.
The Israeli government’s
decision to punish Gaza’s
civilian population, with all the human suffering that entails, constitutes
State Terrorism against innocent people. Only when Israeli policy-makers are
held accountable for their actions and international law upheld, will a just
peace be possible in the Middle East.
Signed,
The Alternative Information Center * Bat
Tsafon * Gush Shalom
* The Israeli Committee Against
House Demolitions (ICAHD) * Physicians for Human Rights * The
Women’s Coalition for Peace
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