GAZA:
AN ISRAELI CALL FOR URGENT ACTION
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 condemns 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.
The Alternative
Information Center * Bat Tsafon * Gush Shalom * The
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) *
Physicians for Human Rights * Coalition of Women for Peace
