Human rights situation in the OT – Letter from Palestine

QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE

OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE

QUESTION OF VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS,

INCLUDING POLICIES OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND SEGREGATION

AND OF APARTHEID, IN ALL COUNTRIES, WITH PARTICULAR

REFERENCE TO COLONIAL AND OTHER DEPENDENT COUNTRIES AND

TERRITORIES:  REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMISSION UNDER COMMISSION

ON HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTION 8 (XXIII)

Letter dated 4 July 1994 from the Permanent Observer for Palestine

to the United Nations Office at Geneva addressed to the

Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights

In spite of the progress of the peace process between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Government of Israel, the Israeli occupation authorities continue their practices against human rights and against the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

This was obvious when on 2 July 1994 at 5 p.m. about 100 Israeli soldiers and officers attacked the Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem.  They were wearing the military uniform of the Special Units.  They entered all the rooms, breaking the doors with their feet and shoulders and frightening the patients.  They broke into operating theatres where doctors, who were changing clothes, were ordered to lie on the floor.  Then they penetrated into a room where a woman had just given birth to her baby, and they ill-treated her husband.  The doctors asked them what they were looking for.  They did not answer.  They finally left the hospital around 5.45 p.m.

This is a new violation of human rights which does not show the good will of the Israeli authorities towards the peace process, as well as being a dangerous threat to this peace process as a whole.

The international community, the United Nations and all its bodies and specialized agencies should continue to carry out their responsibilities in all the areas still under Israeli occupation.

We kindly request you to circulate this memorandum as an official document of the forty-sixth session of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, as well as of the Commission on Human Rights.

(Signed)  Nabil RAMLAWI

Ambassador

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