Saturday, June 30, 2012

Israeli demolitions up 87%" - UN Special Rapporteur, UK takes on Israel over children clapped in irons

LATextra today headlines today's Wallmart protest and indicates thousands
will be there.
Please join us. -Ed


From: Suzanne de Kuyper <suzannedk@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 12:36 AM
Subject: Fwd: [R-G] Israeli demolitions: "Number of Palestinians affected
has increased by 87%" - UN Special Rapporteur
To: a-list@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu


Goldstone Report needed adjudicated with or without Sir Goldstone. Israel
is writing G E N O C I D E so the world can read it daily with the US, the
EU, the UK, and Canada enthusiastically supporting it.
Just another method of Holocaust. Except it is spreading by way of US
directed NATO genocide country after country in the Middle East. Soon
Africa? Where Hitler decimated the Jewish/Roma populations, North America
will decimate the species. Both North American countries use Israeli foreign
policy rather than their own. Why does not the the Bilderberg
Group take up Palestine? Queen Wihelmina intended it for peace. Her
grand-daughter Queen Beatrix, could bring it back to it's original meaning
or, quit it. A truly royal gesture. Suzanne


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sid Shniad <shniad@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 8:40 PM
Subject: Israeli demolitions: "Number of Palestinians affected has increased
by 87%" - UN Special Rapporteur
To: Suzanne de Kuyper <suzannedk@gmail.com>


<http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/Media.aspx>

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights* Media
centre *Israeli demolitions: "Number of Palestinians affected has increased
by 87%" - UN Special Rapporteur*

GENEVA (27 June 2012) - United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation
of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk,
warned Wednesday that the number of people displaced by the demolition of
Palestinian structures has increased by 87% compared to 2010. Mr. Falk also
demanded that the Israeli Government immediately stop demolishing
Palestinian homes and start fulfilling its obligation to protect the right
to housing.

"Already this year, Israeli authorities have demolished over 330 Palestinian
structures, including homes, animal shelters, water cisterns and roads," the
human rights expert said, and stressed that half of the 536 Palestinians who
have been displaced in 2012 are children. "Such demolitions amount to
violations against 2,100 Palestinians who have been affected."

Mr. Falk highlighted the disturbing case of Salim and Arabiya Shawamreh.
"The home they share with their seven children has been demolished five
times over 14 years. While it will be rebuilt once again next month, the
family will live under the threat of having its home demolished at any
moment."

"Living under the threat of having your home demolished is no way to bring
up a family," said the UN Special Rapporteur recalling his meeting with
Salim during a visit to the region last February. "The ever-present threat
of Israeli bulldozers perverts the sense of normalcy so essential for
raising children."

The independent expert also expressed particular concern regarding the
Palestinian community of Susiya, in the southern West Bank. "If the
demolition orders are executed by Israel, over 160 people will be forcibly
displaced, including 120 Palestinian children; is a deeply troubling
situation."

"Israelis expand their illegal outposts near Susiya, without any effort by
the Government of Israel to hinder them. At the same time the Israeli High
Court of Justice facilitates the demolition of Palestinians' homes nearby,"
Mr. Falk noted, recalling that an appeal from an Israeli settler
organization Regavim to the High Court had led to demolition orders against
Palestinians in Susiya. "Such discrimination is part and parcel of Israel's
occupation of Palestine."

"If Israeli authorities want to respect their international legal
obligations, they will freeze the demolition orders against Palestinians in
Susiya and ensure that Salim and his wife and children no longer live in
fear of having their home and well-being demolished by Israeli bulldozers,"
the human rights expert said.

On 2 July, the Special Rapporteur is scheduled to present his report to the
twentieth session of the Human Rights Council. Since his appointment in
2008, he has spoken at the Human Rights Council in 2009, 2010, and 2011 on
the human rights situations in the occupied Palestinian territory.

In 2008, the UN Human Rights Council designated Richard Falk (United States
of America) as the fifth Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights
on Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. The mandate was originally
established in 1993 by the UN Commission on Human Rights. Learn more, log on
to:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/countries/ps/mandate/index.htm

OHCHR Country Page - Occupied Palestinian Territories:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/countries/MENARegion/Pages/PSIndex.aspx

OHCHR Country Page - Israel:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/MENARegion/Pages/ILIndex.aspx

For more information and media requests, please contact Kevin Turner (+41
(0)22 928 9603 / kturner@ohchr.org) or write to sropt@ohchr.org.

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts:
Xabier Celaya, UN Human Rights - Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9383 /
xcelaya@ohchr.org)

UN Human Rights, follow us on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unitednationshumanrights
Twitter: http://twitter.com/UNrightswire
Google+ gplus.to/unitednationshumanrights
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/UNOHCHR

Check the Universal Human Rights Index: http://uhri.ohchr.org/en

* * *

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/uk-ready-to-take-on-isra
el-over-fate-of-children-clapped-in-irons-7888914.html


UK ready to take on Israel over fate of children clapped in irons

Report funded by Foreign Office details claims of routine abuse for
Palestinian youths

Terri Judd

The Independent Wednesday 27 June 2012

The Foreign Office revealed last night that it would be challenging the
Israelis over their treatment of Palestinian children after a report by a
delegation of senior British lawyers revealed unconscionable practices, such
as hooding and the use of leg irons.

In the first investigation of its kind, a team of nine senior legal figures
examined how Palestinians as young as 12 were treated when arrested. Their
shocking report Children in Military Custody details claims that youngsters
are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, have their wrists
bound behind their backs, and are blindfolded and made to kneel or lie face
down in military vehicles.

Children from the West Bank are held in conditions that could amount to
torture, such as solitary confinement, with little or no access to their
parents. They can be forced to stay awake before being verbally as well as
physically abused and coerced into signing confessions they cannot read.

The team - led by Sir Stephen Sedley, a former Court of Appeal judge - heard
that "every Palestinian child is treated like a potential terrorist". In a
damning conclusion, the report points out repeated breaches of the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment.

"We were sitting in court and saw a section of a preliminary hearing when a
very young looking child, a boy, was brought in wearing a brown uniform with
leg irons on. We were shocked by that. This was a situation where we had
been invited into the military courts for briefings from senior judges,"
explained one of the report's authors, human rights barrister Greg Davies.
"To hold children routinely and for substantial periods in solitary
confinement would, if it occurred, be capable of amounting to torture," the
report said. Last night the Foreign Office, which backed the report, said it
would be taking up the claims with the Israeli authorities:

"The UK government has had long-standing concerns about the treatment of
Palestinian children in Israeli detention, and as a result decided to fund
this independent report. While recognising that some positive recent steps
have been made by the Israeli authorities, we share many of the report's
concerns, and will continue to lobby for further improvements."

While the legal team said it was in no position to prove the truth of the
claims of cruelty made repeatedly by Palestinian children, but denied by the
Israeli authorities - which offered unprecedented access to the delegation -
it pointed to the disparity in the law.

Israeli children must have access to a lawyer within 48 hours and cannot be
imprisoned under the age of 14. But Palestinian children as young as 12 are
jailed and can be kept for three months without legal representation.
Between 500 and 700 are jailed each year.

"The other shocking thing is they are incarcerated in breach of many
conventions. The practical effect is parents can't get there because they
can't get permits," said Marianna Hildyard QC.

While the investigating team welcomed improvements introduced by the Israeli
authorities, both Palestinian and Israeli lawyers on the ground insisted
much of it was "rhetoric ra ther than real change".

Last night, Israeli Embassy spokesperson Amir Ofek said the country
appreciated the efforts of the delegation but blamed Palestinians who
"glorify terrorism". He said: "As a result [children] are frequently
involved in lethal acts. With the Palestinian Authority unable or unwilling
to meet its obligation to investigate and prosecute these offences, Israel
has no choice but to do so itself.

"Israel notes the detailed recommendations in the report and will study them
closely as part of its ongoing efforts to find the most appropriate balance
between preventing violence and treating perpetrators with humanity."

The report details claims children are dragged from their beds, bound and
blindfolded

www.childreninmilitarycustody.org

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