Reuters Alertnet:
In an open letter to EU leaders on International Human Rights Day and ahead of a European Council meeting next week, Amnesty's Secretary General Irene Khan set out a list of recommendations to help reverse rights' violations.
"We urge you ... to use your utmost influence on all sides to immediately end the killings and attacks on civilians and to agree to human rights measures which can help to build confidence and hope," she wrote.
Khan proposed the deployment of international human rights monitors across Israel and Israeli-occupied territories, who should report publicly and suggest corrective measures.
According to the letter, Israel has been guilty of "deliberate and reckless shooting and artillery shelling or air strikes by Israeli forces carried out in densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip." Palestinians, for their part, have been launching homemade rockets which have damaged "homes and public buildings and killing Israeli civilians" and "created a climate of fear." Which, of course, makes the israelis decide to be even bigger assholes, which makes the palestinians be bigger assholes, which makes the israelis... You get the idea.
"The economic situation in the Occupied Territories is dire, trapping an entire population in deep poverty. The cumulative impact of measures by the Israeli authorities, including increasingly severe restrictions on freedom of movement, expansion of settlements and the building of the wall inside the Occupied Territories has strangled the local economy," Khan writes. "To that has now been added what is effectively an international sanctions regime against the Hamas-led Palestinian government. The Gaza Strip, in particular, is in the grip of a deep humanitarian crisis as a result of the blockade imposed by the Israeli authorities."
Khan calls for EU leaders to "[i]mmediately stop the sale or transfer of weapons to all parties until such time as guarantees can be secured that such equipment will not be used to violate human rights and international humanitarian law" and "[e]nsure that the Occupying Power fulfils its obligation to provide for the protection and welfare of the Palestinian population and refrain from imposing sanctions that negatively affect the provision of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population," among other measures.
"The current truce in the Gaza Strip is extremely fragile but it provides an opening which the international community must seize to encourage dialogue towards a political solution," Secretary Khan writes.
Tags: news | politics | EU | Israel | Palestine | human rights | Amnesty International
