8 nov 2019

The Palestinian Center For Human Rights (PCHR):104 Palestinian civilians, including 43 children, a woman and a paramedic, were shot and injured by Israeli occupation forces’ (IOF) fire against peaceful protestors at the 82nd Great March of Return (GMR), this Friday, 08 November 2019.
This week, IOF continued the use of excessive force against peaceful protestors, as 41 civilians sustained live-bullet-injuries – including 2 children in critical condition- in addition to other injuries by rubber bullets and tear gas canisters mainly in protesters’ upper bodies.
Large crowds participated in the protest, as thousands of civilians joined across the 5 GMR encampments. Today’s protest titled: “We Shall Carry On” and lasted from 14:00 to 17:30.
Since the outbreak of GMR on 30 March 2018, PCHR documented 214 civilian killings by IOF, including 46 children, 2 women, 9 persons with disabilities, 4 paramedics and 2 journalists. Additionally, IOF shot and injured 14,706 civilians, including 3,691 children, 387 women, 253 paramedics and 218 journalists, noting that many sustained multiple injuries on separate occasions.
The following is a summary of today’s events along the Gaza Strip border:
Northern Gaza Strip:
demonstrations took part in eastern Jabalia. Protesters threw stones at IOF stationed along the border fence. It was noted that IOF installed surveillance cameras on the sand berms, 50 meters away from the border fence.
These cameras were directed towards the protestors. IOF shot and injured 23 civilians, including a woman and 11 children; one was deemed critical: 8 with live bullets and shrapnel, 11 with rubber bullets and 4 were hit with tear gas canisters. ‘Abed al-Rahman Talal ‘Abed al-Latif al-Hisami (16) was shot with an explosive live bullet, causing serious laceration in his legs bones and cuts in the veins and tendons.
Gaza City:
protests took part in Malaka area in eastern Gaza City. IOF shot and injured 13 civilians, including 6 children: 2 with live bullets and shrapnel, 10 with rubber bullets and one was hit with a tear gas canister.
Central Gaza Strip:
protests took part in eastern al-Buriej Camp and the area witnessed several shows. Hundreds gathered near the border fence and attempted to throw stones and sound bombs at IOF, who fired live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, 11 civilians, including 4 children, were injured: 8 with live bullets and 3 with rubber bullets.
Khan Younis:
Hundreds of civilians joint today’s protests in Khuza’ah area in eastern Khan Yunis. The protest involved activities such as raising flags and banners written on them “To Continue” by protestors. Dozens gathered near the border fence, set fire to tires and attempted to throw stones and firecrackers. IOF fired live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at them.
As a result, 12 civilians, including 7 children and a paramedic, were injured and taken to hospitals: 7 shot with live bullets and shrapnel and 5 with rubber bullets. Moreover, many civilians sustained superficial rubber bullets wounds and suffocated due to tear gas inhalation.
They received treatment on the spot. The wounded paramedic, Kamal Jawad Kamal al-Shehri (24), was shot with a rubber bullet in his head. It should be noted that some Palestinian young men flocked to today’s protests at 13:00 and were shot with live bullets and hit with tear gas canisters.
Rafah:
hundreds of protestors gathered in eastern al-Shawka neighborhood while others remained at the protest encampment, where speeches and theatrical performances were performed. Dozens attempted to approach the fence and throw stones and burnt tires. IOF fired live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at protestors and pumped wastewater at them.
As a result, 45 civilians, including 15 children, were injured; one was deemed critical: 16 shot with live bullets and shrapnel, 24 with rubber bullets and 5 were hit with tear gas canisters. Mousa Fawzi ‘Ali Abu Hussain (12) was directly hit with a tear gas canister in his head causing fracture in his skull. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Yunis.
Public Document
**************************************
Follow PCHR on Facebook and Twitter
For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 – 2825893
Gaza- Jamal ‘Abdel Nasser “al-Thalathini” Street – Al-Roya Building- Floor 12 , El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail: [email protected], Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org
This week, IOF continued the use of excessive force against peaceful protestors, as 41 civilians sustained live-bullet-injuries – including 2 children in critical condition- in addition to other injuries by rubber bullets and tear gas canisters mainly in protesters’ upper bodies.
Large crowds participated in the protest, as thousands of civilians joined across the 5 GMR encampments. Today’s protest titled: “We Shall Carry On” and lasted from 14:00 to 17:30.
Since the outbreak of GMR on 30 March 2018, PCHR documented 214 civilian killings by IOF, including 46 children, 2 women, 9 persons with disabilities, 4 paramedics and 2 journalists. Additionally, IOF shot and injured 14,706 civilians, including 3,691 children, 387 women, 253 paramedics and 218 journalists, noting that many sustained multiple injuries on separate occasions.
The following is a summary of today’s events along the Gaza Strip border:
Northern Gaza Strip:
demonstrations took part in eastern Jabalia. Protesters threw stones at IOF stationed along the border fence. It was noted that IOF installed surveillance cameras on the sand berms, 50 meters away from the border fence.
These cameras were directed towards the protestors. IOF shot and injured 23 civilians, including a woman and 11 children; one was deemed critical: 8 with live bullets and shrapnel, 11 with rubber bullets and 4 were hit with tear gas canisters. ‘Abed al-Rahman Talal ‘Abed al-Latif al-Hisami (16) was shot with an explosive live bullet, causing serious laceration in his legs bones and cuts in the veins and tendons.
Gaza City:
protests took part in Malaka area in eastern Gaza City. IOF shot and injured 13 civilians, including 6 children: 2 with live bullets and shrapnel, 10 with rubber bullets and one was hit with a tear gas canister.
Central Gaza Strip:
protests took part in eastern al-Buriej Camp and the area witnessed several shows. Hundreds gathered near the border fence and attempted to throw stones and sound bombs at IOF, who fired live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, 11 civilians, including 4 children, were injured: 8 with live bullets and 3 with rubber bullets.
Khan Younis:
Hundreds of civilians joint today’s protests in Khuza’ah area in eastern Khan Yunis. The protest involved activities such as raising flags and banners written on them “To Continue” by protestors. Dozens gathered near the border fence, set fire to tires and attempted to throw stones and firecrackers. IOF fired live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at them.
As a result, 12 civilians, including 7 children and a paramedic, were injured and taken to hospitals: 7 shot with live bullets and shrapnel and 5 with rubber bullets. Moreover, many civilians sustained superficial rubber bullets wounds and suffocated due to tear gas inhalation.
They received treatment on the spot. The wounded paramedic, Kamal Jawad Kamal al-Shehri (24), was shot with a rubber bullet in his head. It should be noted that some Palestinian young men flocked to today’s protests at 13:00 and were shot with live bullets and hit with tear gas canisters.
Rafah:
hundreds of protestors gathered in eastern al-Shawka neighborhood while others remained at the protest encampment, where speeches and theatrical performances were performed. Dozens attempted to approach the fence and throw stones and burnt tires. IOF fired live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at protestors and pumped wastewater at them.
As a result, 45 civilians, including 15 children, were injured; one was deemed critical: 16 shot with live bullets and shrapnel, 24 with rubber bullets and 5 were hit with tear gas canisters. Mousa Fawzi ‘Ali Abu Hussain (12) was directly hit with a tear gas canister in his head causing fracture in his skull. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Yunis.
Public Document
**************************************
Follow PCHR on Facebook and Twitter
For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 – 2825893
Gaza- Jamal ‘Abdel Nasser “al-Thalathini” Street – Al-Roya Building- Floor 12 , El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail: [email protected], Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org
5 nov 2019

Friends of 15-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Ibrahim Ayoub, who was shot and killed by Israeli army along the Israel-Gaza border, sit by his grave in a cemetery in Beit Lahia on 21 April, 2018
Israel's approach to international law can be summed up as 'If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it'
Since removing settlers and redeploying its armed forces to the perimeter fence in 2005, Israel has subjected Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to numerous devastating assaults, a blockade, and routine attacks on the likes of farmers and fishermen.
Many of these policies have been the subject of substantial condemnation – from Palestinians, of course, as well as Israeli and international human rights groups, and even world leaders and politicians – albeit, critically, with little concrete action at the state level.
Israel, however, has sought to thwart even the possibility of meaningful accountability. Its approach has been very simple: in the face of criticism for breaking the law, change the law.
Providing cover
More precisely, Israel has been working hard to develop, and promote, interpretations of international law that provide cover for its policies and tactics in the Gaza Strip.
In January 2009, in the aftermath of an Israeli offensive that led to the UN-commissioned Goldstone report, a lengthy piece was published in Haaretz on the work being done by the international law division within the Military Advocate General’s office.
These are the officials responsible for vetting (or perhaps rubber-stamping) the military’s actions and tactics, and providing legal justification for such actions.
One of the interviewees in the article was Daniel Reisner, who had earlier served as the head of the international law division. “If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it,” he said. “The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries … International law progresses through violations.”
It is the Gaza Strip that Israel has used as a laboratory for such “progressive” violations. One example is the status of Gaza itself. Since 2005, Israel’s position has been that Gaza is neither occupied nor sovereign, but rather constitutes a “hostile entity”.
In her recent book Justice for Some, scholar Noura Erakat spells out the implications of such a designation, which renders Gaza “neither a state wherein Palestinians have the right to police and protect themselves nor an occupied territory whose civilian population Israel had a duty to protect”.
“In effect, Israel usurped the right of Palestinians to defend themselves because they did not belong to an embryonic sovereign, relinquished its obligations as an occupying power, and expanded its right to unleash military force, thus rendering Palestinians in the Gaza Strip triply vulnerable,” Erakat noted.
Deliberate targeting
The claim that the Gaza Strip is no longer occupied is, of course, flawed, not least because Israel has retained effective control over the territory. Its armed forces enter at will on land and at sea, and Israel retains control over Gaza’s airspace, electromagnetic spectrum, most entry-exit points and the population registry – in addition to the ongoing blockade.
The Gaza Strip is merely one part of the occupied Palestinian territory, along with the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), that forms a single territorial entity. Gaza’s occupied status since 2005 has thus been affirmed by numerous relevant bodies, including the UN Security Council.
Israeli officials’ legal “creativity” is most frequently demonstrated by some of the tactics adopted by the Israeli military during assaults.
During the 2014 Israeli offensive on Gaza, 142 Palestinian families had three or more members killed in the same incident. Such shocking figures were partly the result of Israel deliberately targeting dozens of Palestinian family homes, in addition to those struck as a result of indiscriminate bombardment.
Key here was Israel’s determination that any (alleged) member of an armed Palestinian faction was a legitimate target, even when they were not participating in fighting – ie, at home with their families – and that family members became legitimate “collateral damage” on account of the presence of a suspect in the home (even, by the way, if that individual wasn’t actually at home at the time). As one Israeli official put it: “You call it a home, we call it a command centre.”
Civilian casualties
Despite the fact that under international law, Israel needed to show that any targeted structure was performing a military function, as rights group B’Tselem described, “no official claimed that there was any connection between a house that was targeted and any specific military activity there”.
Therefore, the Israeli military’s explanations for the destruction of homes appeared “to be no more than a cover-up for the actual reason for the destruction, namely the identity of the occupants” – that is to say, these were “punitive house demolitions … carried out from the air, with occupants still inside”.
Another tactic used by the Israeli military is the issuing of “warnings” to civilians, whether in the form of phone calls or text messages to specific properties, or leaflets dropped to entire neighbourhoods. Israel presents this tactic as evidence that it goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, even though such warnings are, in fact, an obligation rather than “acts of charity”.
Crucially, of course, such warnings do not remove protected status from civilian residents. However, there is good evidence to suggest that this is not a view shared within the Israeli military.
In the aforementioned 2009 Haaretz article, one official said: “The people who go into a house despite a warning do not have to be taken into account in terms of injury to civilians, because they are voluntary human shields. From the legal point of view, I do not have to show consideration for them.”
So, in a disturbing twist, while warnings are presented as minimising civilian casualties, in reality, they serve to facilitate the attacks and can even contribute to the death toll.
Normalising illegality
These are just a few examples, as Israel seeks to normalise the illegal, with two goals in mind. Note that it was after the publication of the Goldstone report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “instructed government officials to draft proposals for changing international laws of war”.
Israel’s “innovations” in international law are thus intended to facilitate the increasingly brutal suppression of Palestinians on the ground, while internationally, such interpretations are promoted to either muddy the waters in legal fora or, ultimately, to gain support from other state parties.
It is important to remember that the problem of accountability predates more recent developments. Israel has long violated international law, and justified certain policies in legal terms – from the confiscation of land in occupied territory to the establishment of settlements.
This helps us understand that the key problem is a political one – and that the answer to how to challenge impunity and resist Israel’s “innovative” interpretations of the law is the same: political pressure.
Failure on this front will be felt most keenly by those most vulnerable – the Palestinians.
Israel's approach to international law can be summed up as 'If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it'
Since removing settlers and redeploying its armed forces to the perimeter fence in 2005, Israel has subjected Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to numerous devastating assaults, a blockade, and routine attacks on the likes of farmers and fishermen.
Many of these policies have been the subject of substantial condemnation – from Palestinians, of course, as well as Israeli and international human rights groups, and even world leaders and politicians – albeit, critically, with little concrete action at the state level.
Israel, however, has sought to thwart even the possibility of meaningful accountability. Its approach has been very simple: in the face of criticism for breaking the law, change the law.
Providing cover
More precisely, Israel has been working hard to develop, and promote, interpretations of international law that provide cover for its policies and tactics in the Gaza Strip.
In January 2009, in the aftermath of an Israeli offensive that led to the UN-commissioned Goldstone report, a lengthy piece was published in Haaretz on the work being done by the international law division within the Military Advocate General’s office.
These are the officials responsible for vetting (or perhaps rubber-stamping) the military’s actions and tactics, and providing legal justification for such actions.
One of the interviewees in the article was Daniel Reisner, who had earlier served as the head of the international law division. “If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it,” he said. “The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries … International law progresses through violations.”
It is the Gaza Strip that Israel has used as a laboratory for such “progressive” violations. One example is the status of Gaza itself. Since 2005, Israel’s position has been that Gaza is neither occupied nor sovereign, but rather constitutes a “hostile entity”.
In her recent book Justice for Some, scholar Noura Erakat spells out the implications of such a designation, which renders Gaza “neither a state wherein Palestinians have the right to police and protect themselves nor an occupied territory whose civilian population Israel had a duty to protect”.
“In effect, Israel usurped the right of Palestinians to defend themselves because they did not belong to an embryonic sovereign, relinquished its obligations as an occupying power, and expanded its right to unleash military force, thus rendering Palestinians in the Gaza Strip triply vulnerable,” Erakat noted.
Deliberate targeting
The claim that the Gaza Strip is no longer occupied is, of course, flawed, not least because Israel has retained effective control over the territory. Its armed forces enter at will on land and at sea, and Israel retains control over Gaza’s airspace, electromagnetic spectrum, most entry-exit points and the population registry – in addition to the ongoing blockade.
The Gaza Strip is merely one part of the occupied Palestinian territory, along with the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), that forms a single territorial entity. Gaza’s occupied status since 2005 has thus been affirmed by numerous relevant bodies, including the UN Security Council.
Israeli officials’ legal “creativity” is most frequently demonstrated by some of the tactics adopted by the Israeli military during assaults.
During the 2014 Israeli offensive on Gaza, 142 Palestinian families had three or more members killed in the same incident. Such shocking figures were partly the result of Israel deliberately targeting dozens of Palestinian family homes, in addition to those struck as a result of indiscriminate bombardment.
Key here was Israel’s determination that any (alleged) member of an armed Palestinian faction was a legitimate target, even when they were not participating in fighting – ie, at home with their families – and that family members became legitimate “collateral damage” on account of the presence of a suspect in the home (even, by the way, if that individual wasn’t actually at home at the time). As one Israeli official put it: “You call it a home, we call it a command centre.”
Civilian casualties
Despite the fact that under international law, Israel needed to show that any targeted structure was performing a military function, as rights group B’Tselem described, “no official claimed that there was any connection between a house that was targeted and any specific military activity there”.
Therefore, the Israeli military’s explanations for the destruction of homes appeared “to be no more than a cover-up for the actual reason for the destruction, namely the identity of the occupants” – that is to say, these were “punitive house demolitions … carried out from the air, with occupants still inside”.
Another tactic used by the Israeli military is the issuing of “warnings” to civilians, whether in the form of phone calls or text messages to specific properties, or leaflets dropped to entire neighbourhoods. Israel presents this tactic as evidence that it goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, even though such warnings are, in fact, an obligation rather than “acts of charity”.
Crucially, of course, such warnings do not remove protected status from civilian residents. However, there is good evidence to suggest that this is not a view shared within the Israeli military.
In the aforementioned 2009 Haaretz article, one official said: “The people who go into a house despite a warning do not have to be taken into account in terms of injury to civilians, because they are voluntary human shields. From the legal point of view, I do not have to show consideration for them.”
So, in a disturbing twist, while warnings are presented as minimising civilian casualties, in reality, they serve to facilitate the attacks and can even contribute to the death toll.
Normalising illegality
These are just a few examples, as Israel seeks to normalise the illegal, with two goals in mind. Note that it was after the publication of the Goldstone report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “instructed government officials to draft proposals for changing international laws of war”.
Israel’s “innovations” in international law are thus intended to facilitate the increasingly brutal suppression of Palestinians on the ground, while internationally, such interpretations are promoted to either muddy the waters in legal fora or, ultimately, to gain support from other state parties.
It is important to remember that the problem of accountability predates more recent developments. Israel has long violated international law, and justified certain policies in legal terms – from the confiscation of land in occupied territory to the establishment of settlements.
This helps us understand that the key problem is a political one – and that the answer to how to challenge impunity and resist Israel’s “innovative” interpretations of the law is the same: political pressure.
Failure on this front will be felt most keenly by those most vulnerable – the Palestinians.
2 nov 2019

Al-Mezan Center For Human Rights: In one of the dozens of cases pursued by Al Mezan Center for Human Rights for the killing of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza’s ‘Great March of Return’ protests, an Israeli military court has sentenced a soldier who killed on July 13 2018, 14-year-old child, Othman Hillis, to only 30 days in prison.
A suspended 60-day sentence and a demotion in rank were added by the court, which indicted the soldier on the charge of “disobeying an order leading to a threat to life or health”, per article 72 of Israeli Martial Law (1955).
Convicting—even charging—an Israeli soldier for conduct that led to death or harm of a Palestinian is rare; however, the case is very troubling in that it was centered on disciplinary charges, instead of properly based on criminal charges for unlawful killing.
The absence of a criminal conviction is a testament to the perpetual manner in which the Israeli justice system, including the military courts, shields State actors from genuine accountability and denies justice and redress to the victims, even in cases amounting to potential war crimes.
Al Mezan submitted a criminal complaint to the Israeli Military Advocate General on 4 September 2018, requesting a criminal investigation into the 13 July 2018 killing of Hillis; the Military Police initiated a criminal investigation two months later.
On 6 March 2019, with Al Mezan’s legal and technical support to the family, investigators interviewed Hillis’ father at Erez crossing. Al Mezan was then informed in writing on 29 October 2019 that, “the investigation is concluded […] and based on the findings, the Military Advocate General has convicted the soldier in question with exceeding his authority” (unofficial translation of the text by Al Mezan).
The evidence collected by Al Mezan shows Hillis’ shooting to be an act of willful killing, requiring a sentence commensurate with the gravity of the crime.
The sentence handed down by the court for failure to follow orders and show discipline is woefully derisory and demonstrates rampant impunity in Israel and a lack of effective means of redress for Palestinian victims and/or their families.
Al Mezan’s documentation shows that since 30 March 2018, Israeli forces have killed 214 Palestinians at the ‘Great March of Return’ protests in the Gaza Strip, including 46 children, four paramedics, two journalists, and nine persons with disability. Over 18,000 more have been injured.
The use of lethal and other excessive force against unarmed protesters and media and medical personnel at the demonstrations, resulting in the fatalities and injuries, constitutes a grave violation of the right to life enshrined in International Human Rights Law and demonstrates a complete disregard for the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.
After investigations, the 2018 United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, detailed a “lack of confidence” in the Israeli justice system, whereby the Military Advocate General “has yet to accept the implications of accountability”.[1]
The Commission continued that the “principles of promptness, independence and impartiality, and effectiveness appear to be compromised”.[2]
Al Mezan’s similar findings of persistent failure by the Israeli justice system to hold perpetrators to account in accordance with international law necessitate the intervention of international justice mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court. The protection of civilians and the rule of law are gravely undermined through the perpetuation of a state of impunity.
Al Mezan calls on the international community to fulfill its responsibilities and legal obligations to end serious violations of the rules and norms of international law, and to ensure that civilians living under occupation are granted due protection.
The Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court must investigate the alleged grave and systematic crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory to provide justice and an effective deterrent to the possible future commission of crimes.
* This statement was issued by the Al-Mezan Center For Human Rights
————–
[1] UN Commission of Inquiry report into the Gaza 2018 protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2019) Report of detailed findings (UN Doc. A/HRC/40/CRP.2)
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session40/Documents/A_HRC_40_74_CRP2.pdf para. 726
[2] Ibid footnote 1
A suspended 60-day sentence and a demotion in rank were added by the court, which indicted the soldier on the charge of “disobeying an order leading to a threat to life or health”, per article 72 of Israeli Martial Law (1955).
Convicting—even charging—an Israeli soldier for conduct that led to death or harm of a Palestinian is rare; however, the case is very troubling in that it was centered on disciplinary charges, instead of properly based on criminal charges for unlawful killing.
The absence of a criminal conviction is a testament to the perpetual manner in which the Israeli justice system, including the military courts, shields State actors from genuine accountability and denies justice and redress to the victims, even in cases amounting to potential war crimes.
Al Mezan submitted a criminal complaint to the Israeli Military Advocate General on 4 September 2018, requesting a criminal investigation into the 13 July 2018 killing of Hillis; the Military Police initiated a criminal investigation two months later.
On 6 March 2019, with Al Mezan’s legal and technical support to the family, investigators interviewed Hillis’ father at Erez crossing. Al Mezan was then informed in writing on 29 October 2019 that, “the investigation is concluded […] and based on the findings, the Military Advocate General has convicted the soldier in question with exceeding his authority” (unofficial translation of the text by Al Mezan).
The evidence collected by Al Mezan shows Hillis’ shooting to be an act of willful killing, requiring a sentence commensurate with the gravity of the crime.
The sentence handed down by the court for failure to follow orders and show discipline is woefully derisory and demonstrates rampant impunity in Israel and a lack of effective means of redress for Palestinian victims and/or their families.
Al Mezan’s documentation shows that since 30 March 2018, Israeli forces have killed 214 Palestinians at the ‘Great March of Return’ protests in the Gaza Strip, including 46 children, four paramedics, two journalists, and nine persons with disability. Over 18,000 more have been injured.
The use of lethal and other excessive force against unarmed protesters and media and medical personnel at the demonstrations, resulting in the fatalities and injuries, constitutes a grave violation of the right to life enshrined in International Human Rights Law and demonstrates a complete disregard for the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.
After investigations, the 2018 United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, detailed a “lack of confidence” in the Israeli justice system, whereby the Military Advocate General “has yet to accept the implications of accountability”.[1]
The Commission continued that the “principles of promptness, independence and impartiality, and effectiveness appear to be compromised”.[2]
Al Mezan’s similar findings of persistent failure by the Israeli justice system to hold perpetrators to account in accordance with international law necessitate the intervention of international justice mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court. The protection of civilians and the rule of law are gravely undermined through the perpetuation of a state of impunity.
Al Mezan calls on the international community to fulfill its responsibilities and legal obligations to end serious violations of the rules and norms of international law, and to ensure that civilians living under occupation are granted due protection.
The Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court must investigate the alleged grave and systematic crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory to provide justice and an effective deterrent to the possible future commission of crimes.
* This statement was issued by the Al-Mezan Center For Human Rights
————–
[1] UN Commission of Inquiry report into the Gaza 2018 protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2019) Report of detailed findings (UN Doc. A/HRC/40/CRP.2)
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session40/Documents/A_HRC_40_74_CRP2.pdf para. 726
[2] Ibid footnote 1
Page: 29 - 28 - 27 - 26 - 25 - 24 - 23 - 22 - 21 - 20 - 19 - 18 - 17 - 16 - 15 - 14 - 13 - 12 - 11 - 10 - 9 - 8