Urgent Appeal Justice for Palestinian Matters

URGENT APPEAL: Ref: UA 05/ 07.
11 March 2007

VIOLATIONS: Criminal Obstruction of Medical Care and Emergency Services

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please copy the letter below the Background information or write in your own words and send to: Ms LOUISE ARBOUR, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
urgent-action@ohchr.org

AND Cc: (simply copy all addresses together and paste into Cc).
mailto:mission@palestine-un.org; info@who-health.org; presse.cabinet@consilium.eu.int; adamos.adamou@europarl.europa.eu; uk@un.int; usa@un.int
OPTIONAL: PLEASE ALSO SEND APPEALS TO: Diplomatic Representatives of ISRAEL in your country. Link to ISRAEL Embassies worldwide
http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/Israel/Israel1.html
The Foreign Minister of your country - WORLD-WIDE Governments:
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govpub/resource/internat/foreign.html
Please cut and paste and send this appeal to your mailing lists
BACKGROUND
Israel ratified and became a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on 3 October 1991, which entered into force on 3 January 1992. Under the Covenant, Israel is obligated to respect the rights included therein of the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,as most of these territories are under Israeli jurisdiction according to the Interim Agreement signed between Israel and Palestine Liberation Organization.
Although Israel ratified the Geneva Conventions in 1951, Israel refuses to recognise their de jure applicability claiming that its presence in the OPT is as an administrator, thereby rendering the Israeli authorities completely unaccountable to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and declared that it will only abide by the “humanitarian provisions” of the Convention. Israel remains isolated in this legal interpretation and position. The majority of the international legal community has rejected the Israeli arguments since 1967 outlined above, and has repeatedly reiterated that Israel is an occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and cannot evade the obligations it committed to undertake as a High Contracting Party to the Conventions. (http://www.alhaq.org/etemplate.php?id=70)
The Palestinian civilian population have the right to receive medical care, which is ensured by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention provides: "Each High Contracting Party shall allow the free passage of all consignments of medical and hospital stores and objects necessary for religious worship intended only for civilians…Articles 14 through 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention obligates parties to the conflict to create hospital and safety zones to protect the sick and injured, and civilians not involved in the hostilities from the dangers of war. These articles also prohibit attacks on hospitals established to provide medical treatment for the wounded and sick. The Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol 1) provides protection for medical personnel and obligates the parties to the conflict to allow the removal of the wounded in the areas of hostilities.


Ms LOUISE ARBOUR
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations
Geneva, Switzerland, urgent-action@ohchr.org

Your Excellency,
I strongly condemn the Israeli government’s criminal and uncivilized policy of restricting life-giving medical attention to Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) daily create humanitarian crises, while at the same time restricting the access of medical personnel to patients in need of medical assistance, including those wounded by Israeli forces. The denial of access of humanitarian organizations that provide relief consignments and/or medical services, into areas affected by a humanitarian crisis constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, further defined as a war crime in Additional Protocol I. On many occasions IOF deny ambulances access, apparently in an attempt to prevent them from carrying out their humanitarian mission, to those wounded causing an increase in fatalities among those injured by Israeli forces during military operations and at checkpoints.
The following cases of criminally restricted medical care occurred in February 2007, however these are not isolated cases of war crimes, but standard practice by the IOF.
Nablus: Thursday 1 February 2007, two armed Palestinian activists, Amer Bassam Mohammad Kalabona (21), Wa’el Khamis Saleh Awad (21), resisted an IOF incursion into the city. IOF troops cornered them, and injured them in the exchange of fire. IOF could have imprisoned them, or saved them; however, they were left to bleed to death while IOF did not allow ambulances to reach the scene. At approximately 6:10, IOF withdrew from the area. After that ambulances took the bodies of the killed activists to Rafedia hospital. The ambulance driver and paramedic who went to save the wounded stated,
“At 2:35 on Thursday, 1 February 2007, we were informed by our officer in the Red Crescent Society in Khillet El-Amoud Quarter in Nablus, that there is an injured person in Khan El-Tujar area in the old city. We went to the area, and tried to enter. However, the Israeli army was blocking the entrances to the old city. We tried to enter to from the market area, which leads to the area where the injured were. However, IOF jeeps in the area prevented us from entering. The soldiers instructed us to get out of the ambulance, and take off our clothes. We obeyed their orders. They ordered us to sit in the middle of the street for half an hour. Then they told us to stand on the sidewalk. After an hour, they allowed us into the area where the injured were reported to be. However, we did not find the injured there.”
Jerusalem: On Thursday, 1 February 2007, IOF troops deployed near Qalandia checkpoint, north of Jerusalem, fired at the child Taha Mohammad Sobhi El-Qeljawi (17), who was a resident of the old city in Jerusalem. He was hit by bullets in the legs, and was left to bleed to death. Palestinian medical sources indicated that the injuries the boy sustained initially were moderate and not life-threatening; however the soldiers left him to bleed in his place.
Beit Hanoun (Erez) Crossing: IOF have completely closed Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing, which links the Gaza Strip with Israel and the West Bank. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip had been prevented from traveling through this crossing. With this closure, few Palestinian patients have been able to travel to hospitals in Israel and the West Bank. IOF have prevented Palestinian female patients aged under 40 from passing through the crossing, even though most of these patients are in serious conditions and suffer from serious diseases. Since the beginning of this year, IOF have allowed only 45 patients to travel to hospitals in Israel and the West Bank through the crossing.
Jerusalem: 9 February 2007, IOF stormed the yards of the al-Aqsa Mosque in the old town of occupied Arab Jerusalem. At the conclusion of the Friday Prayer, the prayers saw hundreds of members of the Israeli Police and “Border Guard” in the yards of the Mosque, so a number of them started to loudly magnify God. Immediately, IOF fired dozens of tear gas canisters, sound bombs and bullets at the prayers. The payers moved back into the Mosque, but members of the Israeli police and “Border Guard” continued to move towards the Mosque, opening fire. They closed the doors of the Mosque with metal chains and held hundreds of prayers inside until 14:00. Dozens of prayers were wounded. IOF prevented ambulances from attending the wounded, so prayers were forced to carry the wounded and take them to ambulances which were far from the Mosque. According to sources of the al-Mqassed Hospital in Jerusalem, 24 of the wounded were admitted into the hospital. The others were evacuated to Israeli hospitals.
Qalqilya: IOF have continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians. At approximately 00:00 on Monday, 18 February 2007, ‘Aadel Rasheed ‘Omar, 22, from Beit Ameen village, east of Qalqilya, died as IOF closed the sole entrance of ‘Azzoun ‘Atma village and obstructed his evacuation to the hospital. According to the Mayor of ‘Azzoun ‘Atma village, at approximately 22:45 on Sunday, 17 February 2007, a tractor which ‘Omar was driving turned over him. Soon, a taxi transported him to the hospital. When the taxi arrived at the entrance of ‘Azzoun ‘Atma village, IOF soldiers prevented it from exiting the village. An hour later, IOF soldiers allowed the taxi to pass through, but ‘Omar was then dead.

Ramallah: On Wednesday evening, 21 February 2007, Mowaffaq Younis Shafeeq Erhaimi, 34, from Beit Reema village, northwest of Ramallah, died at ‘Attara checkpoint north of the city as IOF soldiers denied him passage to the hospital. According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 15:30, Erhaimi was seriously injured to the head while working in a construction site in his village. His colleagues called from an ambulance, which evacuated him. When the ambulance arrived at ‘Attara checkpoint searched it and obstructed its passage. At approximately 17:10, IOF allowed the ambulance to pass through the checkpoint, but Erhaimi died before reaching the hospital.
Nablus: At approximately 12:00 on Monday, 26 February 2007, an IOF sniper shot dead ‘Anan Mohammed al-Teebi, 42, with a bullet to the neck, and wounded his son, 24-year-old Ashraf, with a bullet to the hand, when he attempted to offer help to his father. The victim was on the roof of his house in the old town, when the IOF sniper shot him. IOF prevented ambulances from entering the area and arrested the son.
Attacks on Hospital and Medical Crews: On 25 February 2007, IOF besieged the National Hospital and Rafidya Hospital and denied access to medical care in the two hospitals. The two hospitals serve many patients in the northern West Bank. On the following day, IOF besieged private hospitals in the city. IOF also prevented medical crews from offering medical aid to the wounded and patients. IOF soldiers fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs at medical crews when they wanted to offer medical aid to the wounded.
Large areas of this city of 50,000 people are now being held under military curfew, and once again, Palestinians are being confined to their homes for an indeterminate period. This, of course, has terrible implications for the sick and elderly who are not able to even seek medical assistance. Medics have had to find ways of reaching patients in crisis putting their own lives at risk, particularly since soldiers have taken up positions in peoples’ homes and are using the rooftops as sniper towers. Soldiers have also stationed themselves in the corridors of Rafidiya Hospital and are checking IDs and the belongings of doctors, patients and staff. The old city of Nablus is progressively turning into rubble as soldiers and bulldozers arbitrarily destroy buildings that they decide are security risks. (http://www.womenforpalestine.com/)

I call on the United Nations, as matter of urgency,
to engage Israel in a programme of action to bring its practices in the OPT into line with the country’s obligations under national and international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and The Fourth Geneva Convention
demand that Israel take immediate steps to ensure the IOF respect emergency medical professionals and allow unimpeded ambulance services and delivery of medical supplies
demand that Israel immediately end the regime of closures as well as other forms of restrictions on freedom of movement of emergency services, people and goods that result in death and in collective punishment.
implement sanctions, including economic and diplomatic, which would ensure Israel's respect of its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention and ensure that the occupying power fulfils its obligation to provide for the protection and welfare of the Palestinian population, and refrain from imposing restrictions that negatively affect the provision of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population.
establish a war crimes tribunal to bring to trial those responsible for the perpetration of grave breaches of the Convention and other war crimes in the OPT.

Yours sincerely