Palestine: Jenin update-13 Apr 2002

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

source - LAW, Palestine

http://www.lawsociety.org/Press/Preleases/2002/April/apr13.html

UPDATE: 13 April 2002

Israel continues to commit war crimes in Jenin refugee camp
   
At 3.50 this afternoon, eyewitnesses from Jenin refugee camp report
that all homes and shelters of al-Somran and Jorid a-Dhahib quarters
of Jenin refugee camp, are being systematically demolished by Israeli
bulldozers. Israeli bulldozers and tanks have already completely
destroyed the quarters of Tahbash, Abu Zeid, and al-Damesh.

All surviving men of the refugee camp are now outside the refugee
camp. A great number of them are detained or considered missing. Only
an estimated 3,000 women and children are still in Jenin refugee
camp.  They have been trying to leave the refugee camp, in order to
save their lives.

In order to save the lives of these families and to prevent further
Israeli attempts to hide the truth. LAW believes that it is
imperative that humanitarian agencies, journalists and independent
monitors are allowed inside the refugee camp to record what has
happened in the refugee camp.

The Israeli government continues its attempts to avoid accountability
for its abuses by offering unconvincing justifications for its
conduct unsupported by the findings of independent investigations.
This is even more imperative since Israeli army officers have said:
"When the world sees the pictures of what we have done there, it will
do us immense damage" (Ha'aretz, 9 April, 2002).

Last night, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the Israeli army not to
remove bodies of Palestinians killed in fighting in the Jenin refugee
camp until a hearing is held on the matter. LAW together with Adalah
filed a motion for an injunction and a petition demanding the
immediate cessation of the burial of Palestinians in mass graves in
the camp. The petition also requested that the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Palestinian Red Crescent
Society (PCRS) be permitted to enter the camp and to evacuate the
dead bodies and bring them to hospital. In addition, they sought to
allow burials to be conducted in a respectful manner by family
members of the deceased.

Tomorrow, Sunday, 14 April 2002, the Israeli Supreme Court will hear
petitions calling for the cessation of the burial of bodies of
Palestinian fighters and civilians in mass graves in the Jenin
refugee camp. The petitions will be heard at 11:30 am by a
three-judge panel of Justices Matza, Englard and Rivlin.

At 10:10 pm last night, Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak
upheld the petitioners' request for an injunction calling on the
Israeli army to immediately stop any evacuation or burial of bodies
until the 11hearing has taken place.

Immediately after the filings, Justice Englard ordered the State to
respond to the motion for the injunction and the petition without\
delay. At approximately 9 pm yesterday, the representative of the
Attorney General's office responded, stating that Israeli forces will
not distinguish between the bodies of fighters and civilians in
regards to their burial, but that the Israeli army has not yet buried
any bodies and will not do so until Sunday.

This contradicts evidence received by eyewitnesses from the Jenin
refugee camp, who reported that the Israeli army was currently
conducting such burials. It also contradicts previous statements by
the Israeli army, who said that Palestinian fighters killed in Jenin
would be buried in a separate cemetery.

The State added that the Israeli army cannot permit humanitarian
organizations to enter the area because some of the bodies may be
booby- trapped with bombs. While humanitarian organizations will be
permitted to evacuate the bodies and transfer them to the families of
the deceased in the near future, they conditioned that the bodies
must be buried at once. If this is not done in the first such
evacuation, no further evacuations will be permitted.

Professor Derrick Pounder, MD, expert forensic pathologist from
University of Dundee (Scotland) and part of Amnesty International's
current delegation to Israel/Palestine, will be accompanying LAW and
Adalah to the Court. He will also be available for comment to the
media following the hearing.

 
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nytmid-04.13.02-22:47:02-26596