April 11, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Palestinian gunmen, Israeli army violated civilian rights Ð report

LONDON, April 11, Graphic News: The international group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has highlighted ÒwidespreadÓ human rights abuses by both Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank town of Hebron. 

HRW says the flashpoint city -- where some 400 extremist Jewish settlers live cheek-by-jowl alongside a Palestinian population of 120,000 -- is a microcosm of Òthe devastating impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on civilians.Ó 

The groupÕs executive director for the Middle East and North Africa, Hanny Megally, said: ÒBoth sides have shown a blatant disregard for the rights of civilians.Ó

HRW said Palestinian gunmen have violated international law by deliberately targeting and killing Israeli civilians -- but the Israeli army was responsible for the Òmost extensive abuses.Ó

These included Òexcessive use of force against unarmed demonstrators, unlawful killings, indiscriminate and disproportionate use of fire in response to Palestinian attacks and a consistent failure to protect Palestinians from attacks by Israeli settlers.Ó

Hebron, al-Khalil in Arabic, is the only large Palestinian city in the occupied territories where the Israeli military still exercises direct daily control over a substantial part of the population. The city is holy to Muslims and Jews as the traditional burial place of the biblical Abraham.

The city -- which sits in a basin 32 kilometres (20 miles) south of Jerusalem, has long been a cauldron. It was here in 1994 that Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish-American settler, shot dead 29 Muslims while they were at prayer in a mosque.

After the killing by a sniper of a 10-month-old Jewish baby in Hebron earlier this month, settlers went on a rampage of looting and burning Palestinian homes and shops. Hebron settler spokesman Noam Arnon told Reuters last week that the pressure of being Òunder fireÓ caused anger to boil over.

The lid could now be about to blow off anew, with results that will dwarf the relentless violence of the last six months that has claimed the lives of at least 371 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 71 Israelis.

Human Rights WatchÕs Peter Bouckaert criticised the Israeli military curfew on Palestinians in central Hebron. Settlers are not under curfew.

ÒBasically the Israelis are punishing 30,000 people who have not fired on Israeli settlers for abuses committed by other Palestinian gunmen. That is a violation of international law that amounts to collective punishment,Ó Bouckaert said.

The severity of the crisis, and the scale of the brutality feeding it, is documented in an 82-page report published by Human Rights Watch, whose researchers spent five weeks in the city -- in November last year and in February -- conducting 180 interviews. Many human rights organisations have been vocal throughout the intifada, but none has provided such depth and detail. 
/ENDS
Sources: Human Rights Watch, Reuters, Associated Press