LAW and Adalah submit pre-petition on behalf of detained Palestinians
Lawsociety, 3 April 2002
From: "Lawsociety" <law@lawsociety.org>
LAW and Adalah submit pre-petition on behalf of detained Palestinians
3 April 2002
Yesterday, April 2, 2002, LAW and Adalah submitted a pre-petition to
the Attorney General's office against the detention of sixty Palestinian
civilians in an appartment building in Ramallah.
Soon after Israeli forces entered Ramallah, Israeli
soldiers occupied a building located near the office of the Palestinian
Preventive Security Service. Israeli soldiers forced the residents, including
ten women, fourteen children and six infants, into two small rooms on the
first floor.
The residents are being held in inhumane conditions.
They have no access to food, medicine or other basic supplies, and water
and electricity have been cut off. The residents are unable to move within
or leave the building. Israeli forces have denied residents access to medical
care and are preventing medical personnel from reaching the building.
The holding of civilians in such conditions is a
breach of international humanitarian law. The Fourth Geneva Convention
states that "the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and
medical supplies of the population."
LAW and Adalah call for immediate intervention to
allow the detained civilian residents access to basic supplies such as
water, food, and medicines, and freedom of movement within their building.
Any further delay in granting access to such necessities will almost certainly
endanger human lives.
____________________________
Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Tel: +972 4 950 1610, Fax: +972 4 950 3140, Email: adalahorg@hotmail.com, http://www.adalah.org/
LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, PO Box 20873, Jerusalem, tel. +972-2-5833530, fax. +972-2- 5833317, email: law@lawsociety.org, web: http://www.lawsociety.org1