RAMALLAH, West Bank, 1 July 2007 — Kholoud Daibes, the minister of women’s affairs in the new Palestinian emergency government, yesterday condemned the behavior of Israeli soldiers in forcing Palestinians to submit to strip searches at a military checkpoint near Beit Safafa, north of Bethlehem.
Kholoud said in a press statement that several Palestinian women had raised complaints with human rights organizations and had petitioned Arab members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) over being taken to separate rooms in the Israeli checkpoint and being forced to remove all clothes, to become fully naked. The Israeli soldiers claim to be looking for weapons. Some women have refused to comply with the orders to remove all clothing.
Kholoud demanded that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the international community to protect Palestinian women, and force Israel to commit to international human rights agreements, to guarantee the security of unarmed Palestinian women and children.
In the meantime, the head of the public servants union, Bassam Zakarneh, has said that the emergency government “should give priority to the salary payment of the public sector employees and security forces in the Gaza Strip, because of the difficult situation they are facing following the coup of Hamas.”
