Palestine Updates 646
Ranjan Solomon
Jenin attacks rank as collective punishment
Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations have criticized punitive measures taken by the Israeli government against Palestinians as fears grow of escalation after the deadliest unrest for years in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the arrests a gross violation of international law and the Geneva Convention, adding that the collective punishment was an extension of the occupation policy aimed at removing the Palestinian presence from Jerusalem. Various groups said the Israeli action amounted to collective punishment and is illegal under international law. Shawan Jabarin, director of Al-Haq Palestinian Human Rights organization, told Arab News: “These collective punishments are war crimes that the Israeli government takes against the Palestinians, as it punishes people who have nothing to do with those who carry out attacks against the Israeli occupiers. The Israeli government is fully responsible for the deterioration of conditions and massacres perpetrated by Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territories. The decision of the Israeli Cabinet to distribute more weapons to settlers in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, and to call on the occupation police to take up arms, constituted a green light for Jewish terrorist organizations – which take settlements and outposts as safe havens under the protection of the occupation army – to commit more crimes. Israeli HaMoked human rights organization, said that members of Israel’s Cabinet were threatening a range of measures, all of which constituted collective punishment against innocent people.
Meanwhile Workers World made a shocking compelling report on the insidious role of Human Rights Watch. The U.S. not only had weapons to ship and diplomatic support to provide, but also well-financed organizations that could speak hypocritically in the name of human rights. In every global crisis, these organizations will step forward to issue reports of political assistance to support U.S. imperialist aims. In 2002, international bodies and United Nations bodies resoundingly called for a war crimes investigation of the Zionist massacre in Jenin. There was a world outcry. The U.S. government used Human Rights Watch (HRW), a notorious NGO funded by the U.S. Congress through the National Endowment for Democracy, to divert and railroad the call for an international inquiry.The Israeli military conveniently lifted the total lockdown of Jenin’s desperate civilian population to give HRW investigators a special opportunity to gain entrance into the barricaded Jenin refugee camp. In the confusion of the continuing military lockdown and bulldozers plowing up roads, electric lines and plumbing. Workers World reports how HRW opened spaces to allow them to pass Israeli checkpoints and patrols along with the HRW delegation. It became obvious to Workers World that their report and photos they provided were sharply different from the sanitized report from HRW. Bertrand Russell once posed this pertinent question: “How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty?”(Bertrand Russell)
13 July 2023