UN: mutual fear will lead to catastrophe
A Palestinian protester tries to hammer a hole through the Israeli barrier that separates the West Bank town of Abu Dis from Jerusalem, during clashes with Israeli troops October 28, 2015. Photo by Ammar Awad/ Reuters
UN warns of Israel-Palestinian catastrophe as attacks persist
By Daily Star [Lebanon], agencies
October 29, 2015
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: The United Nations warned Wednesday that a deadly surge in violence between Israelis and Palestinians is leading them toward “catastrophe” as new knife attacks struck the volatile West Bank.
Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian who tried to stab a soldier in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron while an Israeli woman was wounded in a separate knife attack near an Israeli settlement, the Israeli military said.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said the latest flare-up in the six-decade-old conflict was “dangerous in the extreme.”
“The violence between Palestinians and the Israelis will draw us ever closer to a catastrophe if not stopped immediately,” he said.
In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry said the bloodshed “is yet another indication of the folly of believing that efforts at permanent peace and reconciliation are somehow not worth pursuing.”
“The current situation is simply not sustainable over time.”
World leaders desperately want to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that collapsed in April 2014.
But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said “it is no longer useful to waste time on negotiations” and warned a continuation of the violence could “kill the last shred of hope for the two-state-solution-based peace.”
He urged the U.N. “to set up a special regime for international protection for the Palestinian people.”
Abbas accused Israel of “extrajudicial killings of defenceless Palestinian civilians, [and having] detained their corpses, including children.”
Withholding the bodies of assailants is one of a series of Israeli measures to try to dissuade attacks on Israelis, which began in early October as result of tensions over the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Hebron also is a hotbed of unrest, with near-daily clashes with Israeli police where protesters often suffer bullet wounds or are killed.
Palestinian organizations say the bodies of 25 attackers and a 1948 Palestinian have not been returned to families. They are among 61 killed since Oct. 1. Palestinian medics say some 2,000 Palestinians have been wounded. “The terrorist’s family makes his funeral a show of support for terrorism and incitement to murder and we cannot allow it,” Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan said in mid-October when the measure was announced.
The bodies would be buried in plots reserved for attackers, “as has been done in the past.”
Border police shoot dead 17-year-old Dania Ersheid, a school student in Hebron, October 25, 2015. ‘A witness at the scene, standing behind Ersheid in line at the checkpoint adjacent to the Ibrahimi Mosque, said the teen raised her arms and stated “I don’t have a knife” before she was shot with “eight to 10 bullets”.’ Mondoweiss.
The Israelis “want to put pressure on us … they know that it is more than a red line for us: They execute them and then they try to crush our dignity,” said Jihad Irshaid, the father of 17-year-old Dania who was shot dead on Sunday while allegedly trying to stab soldiers.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at a 1948 Palestinian lawmaker Wednesday for flouting a directive and visiting Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The visit by legislator Basel Ghattas, a Christian Palestinian, to the hilltop compound defied instructions by Netanyahu that all ministers and lawmakers – regardless of religion – avoid visiting the holy site during the tense time.
Netanyahu issued a special televised statement to condemn Ghattas’ move.
“I assure you [Ghattas] did not do it in order to pray, he did it solely for the purpose of provocation, only to inflame the situation,” Netanyahu said, adding that police removed him from the site.
Ghattas said he does not recognize Netanyahu’s authority.
The ban on lawmakers was part of a slew of measures Israel has used to try to lower tensions and halt near-daily, seemingly spontaneous attacks. Palestinians have long feared Israelis seek to change the rules governing the holy site.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied seeking to allow Israelis to pray at the compound. However, Israeli activists are now pledging to step up their attempts to change the decades-old status quo by expanding their presence at the spot where the ancient Jewish Temple once stood.
Jittery Border Police officers, above at Tapuah junction, Hebron, man the blocks and checkpoints which stud Hebron. Photo from Israel police.
UN: Israeli-Palestinian violence nears ‘catastrophe’
UN official says surge in violence in Israel and occupied Palestinian territories is “dangerous and extreme”.
The United Nations has warned that a deadly surge in violence between Israelis and Palestinians is leading them towards a “catastrophe”.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday that the latest flare-up in the six-decade-old conflict was “dangerous in the extreme”.
“The violence between Palestinians and the Israelis will draw us ever closer to a catastrophe if not stopped immediately,” he said.
In Washington, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the bloodshed “is yet another indication of the folly of believing that efforts at permanent peace and reconciliation are somehow not worth pursuing”.
“The current situation is simply not sustainable over time.”
In the latest violence, two Palestinians were shot and killed during alleged stabbing attacks on Israeli soldiers in the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday.
Israeli troops shot dead 19-year-old Farouk Abdel Qader Omar Sidr on Thursday afternoon, just hours after fatally shooting 23-year-old Mahdi Mohammad Ramadan al-Muhtasib in front of the nearby Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City.
Speaking to the local Ma’an News Agency, Palestinian eyewitnesses said that neither of the killed men had tried to stab soldiers.
Clashes between protesters and Israeli forces broke out after the incident in Hebron, where tension between Palestinians and Israeli settlers is high. About 20 Palestinians have been killed in the city this month after allegedly attacking Israelis – a narrative that in many incidents has been disputed by Palestinians.
World leaders want to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that collapsed in April 2014, to avoid a deeper slide into violence that many fear could lead to a third Palestinian Intifada.
Call for protection
But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said: “It is no longer useful to waste time in negotiations” and warned a continuation of the violence could “kill the last shred of hope for the two-state-solution-based peace”.
Abbas called for “international protection” for the Palestinian people as the death toll in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories continues to rise.
Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians were triggered last month by Israeli incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site for Muslims.
The human rights situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories is “the worst and most critical since 1948”, Abbas said, referring to the establishment of Israel and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Israeli forces have responded harshly to the growing unrest, using live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas and sound grenades.
Since October 1, Israeli forces or settlers have killed 66 Palestinians – including unarmed protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers – across Israel, the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
Nine Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in stabbing or shooting incidents.
“It is no longer useful to waste time in negotiations for the sake of negotiations. What is required is the end of the occupation in accordance with international legitimacy,” Abbas said.
Accusing Israel of “extrajudicial killings” and calling for an end to its ongoing occupation, Abbas told the UN council: “Protect us. Protect us. We need you.”
‘Extreme and unlawful measures’
As tensions continue to rise, rights groups have slammed Israel for its harsh measures as it continues to crack down on Palestinians.
On Wednesday, Amnesty International’s Philip Luther said that Israeli forces “have ripped up the rule book” and implemented “extreme and unlawful measures”.
“Intentional lethal force should only be used when absolutely necessary to protect life,” Luther said.
“Instead, we are increasingly seeing Israeli forces recklessly flouting international standards by shooting-to-kill in situations where it is completely unjustified.”
From the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights
October 28, 2015
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein [L] has been the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights since September 2014
“Mr. President,
Please allow me to welcome H.E President Mahmoud Abbas to the Human Rights Council. I wish the circumstances and the context of his visit were more positive, but I have confidence in the ability of Palestine leadership to continue to seek peace, and to realise the aspirations of the Palestinian people in an independent State”.
Mr President,
Distinguished Members of the Council,
Excellencies,
The violence between Palestinians and the Israelis will draw us ever closer to a catastrophe if not stopped immediately.
The latest wave of violence has resulted in 58 Palestinian deaths, with 2100 wounded; and 11 Israeli deaths, with 127 wounded. Some of these people were stabbed, shot, and even beaten to death by members of the public, both Israeli and Palestinian. In the context of suspected attacks, several Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces, sometimes allegedly acting with disproportionate force, to the extent that extra-judicial killings are strongly suspected. In other incidents, Palestinians involved in demonstrations in the West Bank and along the Gaza fence have been reportedly shot by security forces using live ammunition – raising strong concerns again about excessive use of force. The stabbing and shooting and car attacks that have targeted Israelis are also totally unjustifiable. No matter what the grievances on both sides, violence cannot be the answer.
This crisis is dangerous in the extreme because it is a confrontation drawn in part from that most combustible of human emotional mechanisms: fear. It is a confrontation between peoples who fear each other, who fear the corresponding motives of each other, and so fear the future. Fears that, unless checked quickly, become in time so raw, so stark — for many considerations of humanity will become secondary the longer this crisis continues. There will be no mutual accommodation, no mutual acceptance, no warmth, no peace, only hate and bloodshed, and fear mixing, constantly, both into a poison for all. And the fears of one people are deepened by the actions and words of the other, also carved from fear, and heightened on both sides by visceral rage.
A catastrophe becomes more likely because of the supremely sensitive issue of the status quo with respect to occupied East Jerusalem, and specifically the site that is known to Muslims as the Al Aqsa compound or the Haram Al Sharif, and to Jews as the Temple Mount. For Palestinians, and the Arab and Muslim worlds generally, their fear has centred on the perceived increasing aggressiveness of Israeli attitudes toward this compound, strongly suggesting a desire to alter the status quo. The Israeli government says this fear is misplaced, and believes that rumours have inflamed passions; repeated assurances have been given by the Prime Minister that there is no threat to the al Aqsa compound. Instead, the government fears the Palestinians are stoking resentment and anger to incite violence against Israel and Israelis – and that the Palestinians are ultimately responsible for this violence.
Fear, as the late Sergio Vieira de Mello, used to say, “is a bad advisor”.
The spate of stabbings and shootings, car attacks and deadly beatings – which are all fuelled by incitement from people on both sides – now simmers. But tensions are very high. There is a growing possibility if this violence continues to sharpen, along religious lines, we will draw closer to the makings of a broader, and much more terrible, confrontation. The region, already imperilled, does not need this.
Fear must be eclipsed by wisdom.
The knifings must stop. The incitement and car attacks must stop; the shootings and beatings must cease. Impunity for human rights violations, and violations of international humanitarian law should end, and there must be justice for the victims. The actions by the settler movement throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, but particularly in and around occupied East Jerusalem, must be halted. The excessive use of force by Israeli military and police, house demolitions and other collective punishments also cannot be permitted to continue. The blockade of Gaza must be ended.
In other words, the Middle East peace process must now be reactivated with an unprecedented sense of purpose. A lasting peace must now be obtained. Israel has to be assured its security for good, and not remain the object of any threat to it or its people. And the occupation, which has caused the Palestinian people such intense suffering for almost fifty years, generating rage and resentment – the occupation must end too. The people of Palestine, Mr. President, deserve to live free, and in dignity, enjoying their full human rights, in their own liberated state of Palestine.