PCHR Gravely Concerned over the Deterioration of the Human Rights Situation

[oberliner]

Full Title: PCHR Gravely Concerned over the Deterioration of the Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

PCHR is gravely concerned over the continuous deterioration in the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory caused by Palestinian security services in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including attacks against civil society organizations, political arrests campaigns and attacks against journalists. PCHR calls upon the two Palestinian governments in Gaza and Ramallah to stop such human rights violations and to ensure respect for the Basic Law and international human rights standards.

Also:

On another front, PCHR has documented additional attacks by members of Izzedeen El-Qassam Battalions, the armed wing of Hamas, which included shootings, severe beatings, and torture against people and raids against houses.

The Center’s preliminary investigation indicates that the most prominent of these violations are the shooting of persons after being abducted by Izzedeen El-Qassam Battalions. In Gaza City, El-Qassam masked gunmen in a vehicle abducted Emad Ahmad El-Sheikh Khalil (28) in the afternoon of 26 July. They abducted him from his neighborhood of El-Twan in Jabalia as he was walking near his house. Later during the same day, an unknown caller contacted Emad’s brother using Emad’s cellular phone and informed him that Emad is injured and is near El-Nawras resort west of the town. Emad’s relatives headed to the area and found him injured by several bullets in the pelvis and legs. They took him to Shifa Hospital where his condition is listed as serious.

Full article: http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2008/71-2008.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[LeftishBrit]

2. This is so depressing

Sometimes I think that if human beings, especially in a political situation, CAN find the most destructive and counterproductive way to act, they WILL!

[oberliner]

3. At least there are organizations that are bringing these violations to light

The PCHR has done an admirable job of documenting and reporting about these issues.

Here is their report on the most recent violence:

Excerpt:

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 05:00 on Saturday, 2 August 2008, security services launched a wide scale operation in al-Shojaeya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, aimed to arrest wanted members of the Helles clan. A large force of the police and the internal security service besieged al-Turkman quarter in the east of al-Shojaeya neighborhood and armed clashes erupted between them and gunmen from the Helles clan. These clashes continued until 20:00 on the same day, during which time 11 persons, including 2 police officer and 8 members of the Helles clan, were killed, and 103 others, including 17 children and 6 women, were wounded. Eight of the wounded have been admitted into the intensive care unit at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Several civilian bystanders, who were forcibly caught in the line of fire, were wounded. For instance, at approximately 07:15, a mortar shell fell near a chicken shop belonging to Maher Shukri Esleem in al-Ghalatha Street. As a result 9 civilians, including Esleem and his son, were wounded. Another shell hit a house belonging to Isma’il Ya’qoub Halasa in Baghdad Street. As a result, 6 members of the family, including 3 children and woman, were wounded.

http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2008/72-2008.html

[shira]

4. Where are HRW and AI ???

Oh yeah, now I remember.

Can't blame the Israelis, so who gives a rip. No sense wasting time condemning Fatah and Hamas by putting major pressure on them using the media, UN, etc. The politics of low expectations, you know - quite racist actually. Can't expect Palestinian leadership to react as responsibly as Israeli. Maybe the death count needs to exceed 5,000 or something like that.

[Violet_Crumble]

5. Oh, they're off at the latest Hoax Convention!

Facts can be yr friend, Shira

Occupied Palestinian Territories: New Arrests Highlight Abuses by Hamas, Fatah
Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank Suffer From Factional Strife

Jerusalem, July 30, 2008) – Hamas forces in Gaza and Fatah forces in the West Bank have carried out a wave of unlawful arrests against opponents in recent days, Human Rights Watch said today. In Gaza, Hamas forces physically abused some of the people they apprehended and closed roughly 100 organizations they consider allied with Fatah.

In a 113-page report released today, “Internal Fight: Palestinian Abuses in Gaza and the West Bank,” Human Rights Watch documents a pattern of serious abuses by Hamas against Fatah in Gaza, and by Fatah against Hamas in the West Bank, since June 2007, when Hamas took control in Gaza. The latest spike in the internal Palestinian conflict comes after a year of politically motivated arrests, torture and ill-treatment in detention by both sides.

“The political fight between Hamas and Fatah is claiming more and more victims of serious human rights violations every day,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, who presented the report in recent days to senior Palestinian officials in Gaza and the West Bank. “Security forces from both sides have targeted activists and organizations of the other party. Their abusive behavior has victimized Palestinians from all walks of life and weakened the rule of law.”

Human Rights Watch called on both the Hamas and Fatah authorities to release all those arbitrarily arrested in recent days and over the past year, and allow immediate access for independent human rights monitors to those in detention. Security forces and militia members who order or use torture must be held to account.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/07/30/isrlpa19482.htm

And both organisations have condemned the factional violence in Gaza consistantly. This is from AI from June last year

Palestinian Authority: Fatah and Hamas violations leave Gaza's civilians trapped in their homes - Growing concerns about violence spreading to the West Bank

Amid unprecedented political violence in the Gaza Strip, both Fatah and Hamas security forces and armed groups have shown utter disregard for fundamental principles of international law and have committed grave human rights abuses.

The indiscriminate attacks and reckless gun battles in residential neighbourhoods have left a beleaguered civilian population, already suffering from a year of international sanctions and continuing Israeli military blockades, virtual prisoners in their own homes. Both parties have killed captured rivals, and have abducted scores of members of rival groups and held them hostage, to be exchanged for friends and relatives held by their rivals, Killing captured fighters and hostage-taking are war crimes.

Rival security forces loyal to the Fatah party of PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas party of Prime Minister Isma'il Haniyeh, have signally betrayed their responsibility to uphold and enforce the law and to protect the population. Instead, acting in concert with the armed groups which serve as their proxy militias, they have engaged persistently in armed clashes, killing and injuring civilians not involved in the clashes with complete impunity.

Now that Hamas has gained control of Fatah' security forces installations in Gaza and repudiated President Abbas' decision to dissolve the coalition government and impose a state of emergency in the OPT, fears are growing that the fighting will spill over into the West Bank. In recent days Fatah's gunmen have been abducting Hamas members and holding them as hostages and ransacking Hamas offices in Nablus, Ramallah and elsewhere in the West Bank, deepening concern that abuses will increase if the fighting escalates there.

Palestinians calling for an end to the violence risk being killed. On 13 June gunmen in Gaza City and Khan Younes fired on unarmed demonstrators who were calling for an end to the armed clashes, killing one protester and injuring several others.

On the same day two Palestinian employees of the United Nation Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main relief agency in the Gaza Strip, were killed and two others were injured in the course of their work by reckless shooting during Fatah-Hamas armed clashes. UNRWA also reported that gun battles took place inside two of its facilities.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE21/010/2007/...

[LeftishBrit]

6. Here.

www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE21/003/2008/en/f39ebb74-5d91-11dd-a592-c739f9b70de8/mde210032008eng.pdf

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2007/10/20...

www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2007/1025/1193257250100.html

www.alarabiya.net/articles/2007/10/24/40739.html

www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/07/30/isrlpa19482.htm

www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1006996.html

www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL926295820080730