GENEVA, 27 September 2006 — Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians where life is “intolerable, appalling, tragic” and the Jewish state appears to have thrown away the key, a UN human rights envoy said yesterday.
Special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory John Dugard said that the suffering of the Palestinians was a test of the readiness of the international community to protect human rights.
“If ... the international community cannot ... take some action, (it) must not be surprised if the people of the planet disbelieve that they are seriously committed to the promotion of human rights,” he said in a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The South African lawyer, who has been a special UN investigator since 2001, repeated earlier accusations that Israel is breaking international humanitarian law with security measures which amount to “collective punishment.” Israel says its security restrictions, which include the construction of a steel and concrete wall in the West Bank, are designed to stop bombers entering Israel.
It also maintains tight restrictions on the movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza, a coastal strip that it pulled out of last year after 38 years of occupation, again as part of what it describes as security measures.
Dugard also attacked the United States, the European Union and Canada for withdrawing funding for the Palestinian Authority in protest at the governing party Hamas’ refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist.
Hamas, an Islamic group that came to power after elections in January, is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
“Israel violates international law as expounded by the Security Council and the International Court of Justice and goes unpunished. But the Palestinian people are punished for having democratically elected a regime unacceptable to Israel, the US and the EU,” Dugard said.
In another development, contacts on the formation of a Palestinian unity government were set yesterday to continue on a low-level, but high-profile talks between President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh have been put on hold indefinitely, an official close to Abbas said.
Abbas, leader of the Fatah party, canceled his scheduled meeting with Haniyeh, head of the ruling Hamas movement, because the premier did not honor an agreement reached earlier this month between the two men, Hanna Amira, a senior Fatah member close to Abbas, said.
Meanwhile, Israel said yesterday that snags could further delay its south Lebanon pullout until next week, as Lebanese and Israeli officers met with UN peacekeepers on the border to nail down a schedule.
The coordination meeting to finalize the schedule for the last few hundred Israeli soldiers to withdraw was held in a villa at a secret location in Naqura on the border, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said.
In comments likely to raise tensions in the region, meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed he would never return the occupied Golan Heights to Syria. “As long as I serve as prime minister the Golan Heights will remain in our hands because it is an integral part of the State of Israel,” Olmert was quoted as saying by Israeli newspapers.
