Human rights situation in the OT – CHR – Letter from Palestine

QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE

OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE

Letter dated 15 March 1998 from the Permanent Observer for Palestine to the

United Nations Office at Geneva addressed to the High Commissioner for Human Rights

For the fifth day running, the Israeli occupation authorities continue firing at Palestinian civilians in the various Palestinian cities and villages.  As a result, on this fifth day alone, 16 Palestinian civilians have sustained injuries from live and rubber bullets, including a child under 16 years of age whose injury was fatal.  Five journalists and cameramen were also injured, some sustaining head injuries.

This continued recourse to arbitrary killings and injury against the unarmed Palestinians confirms the Israeli insistence on trampling human rights for the Palestinian people, in particular the right to life.  These acts further confirm the systematic policy adopted by the Government of Israel to inflict grave bodily harm upon the Palestinians, through repeated injury as a result of the use of live and rubber bullets, in contravention to the international conventions which prohibit such acts and which consider them crimes of war and crimes against humanity.

I request you to kindly circulate this letter as an official document to the members of the Commission on Human Rights during its fifty-fourth session, under item 4 of its agenda.

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