MARKING 34 years since the 1982 massacre of Palestinian civilians in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon last Friday, Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), said the victims are still awaiting justice.
‘Thirty-four years ago an Israeli general, Ariel Sharon, violated an Israeli obligation not to enter West Beirut and facilitated the barbaric massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees that were under his control,’ said Erekat.
‘Instead of being held accountable, Sharon was even promoted to become Israel’s Prime Minister. He passed away two years ago without ever facing justice for his heinous crimes.’ Erekat stressed that the massacre of Sabra and Shatila ‘is a symbol of the Palestinian exile.’
He said: ‘Over the past few years, Palestinian refugees have also been persecuted and killed in Iraq and Syria. Resolving the plight of Palestinian refugees, in accordance with international law and UN resolution 194, is of vital importance for our region.’
Erekat said that Israel was accepted as a United Nations member under the commitment to honour partition of Palestine resolution 181 and right of return of refugees resolution 194 as well as the UN Charter. However, ‘to date, the international community has failed to honour Palestinian rights, let alone to hold Israel accountable for its violations and crimes against the land and people of Palestine,’ he said.
‘Sabra and Shatila is a reminder of the importance to make justice prevail over impunity,’ concluded the PLO official. Israeli army on Sunday detained at least nine Palestinians during predawn raids across the West Bank districts, according to security sources.
Israeli forces reportedly detained three Palestinians in Hebron, two from Nablus, and four others from the districts of Tulkarm, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Ramallah. Army also broke into the town of Ya’bad, west of Jenin in northern West Bank, where they raided a local house and transferred it into a military outpost for several hours. There were no reports of arrests in the town.
Overnight on Saturday night, forces detained six Palestinians during military raids in Nablus district. Israeli troops on Sunday morning opened live fire and injured a Palestinian man outside Efrat settlement, south of Bethlehem in the West Bank, according to witnesses.
The witnesses said that after shooting the man, identified as 20-year-old Bahaa Odeh, the soldiers left him to bleed on the ground helplessly without providing him with first aid. Israeli media claimed that Odeh had stabbed an Israeli army officer and moderately injured him, before other fellow soldiers attacked him with gunfire.
Shortly after the shooting incidents, Israeli army closed the entrance of the nearby village of Wad Rahhal, denying the entry and exit of local Palestinians into and from the village. At least three Palestinians and a Jordanian national were on Friday shot dead by Israeli forces during separate security incidents across the West Bank district of Hebron and Jerusalem.
Israeli army closed the main entrance of the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron in the West Bank on Sunday, according to local sources. Mohammad Awad, a local activist, said that Israeli army closed the main entrance of the town, banning the entry and exit of passengers and drivers into and from the town.
The Israeli military said the closure was due to the maintenance of a neighbouring military watchtower. It said the closure will continue until Thursday September 22. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro discussed bilateral relations and means to promote them.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) condemned on Saturday Israel’s extra-judicial killings of Palestinians and a Jordanian citizen. Israel is flagrantly employing a systematic and willful policy of summary executions against the Palestinian people,’ said PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi in a statement.
‘Such provocative acts are in direct violation of international law and conventions,’ she said. Ashrawi accused Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and ‘his right-wing extremist government’ of ‘creating a culture of violence, intimidation and lawlessness that is destroying the chances for peace.’
She warned that ‘their volatile actions threaten to plunge the entire region into further instability, extremism and chaos.’ The PLO official called on the international community ‘to engage rapidly and effectively and to hold Israel accountable with punitive measures before it is too late.’
The health condition of three Palestinian hunger striking detainees held in Israeli hospitals has become severally critical, the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission said on Saturday. Two of the commission’s lawyers, Iyad Misk and Tareq Barghouth, appealed for immediate intervention to put a stop to Israel’s policy of slow death practiced against Palestinian hungers strikers.
The three detainees; Malek Qadi and the brothers Mohammed and Mahmoud Balboul, have been on a hunger strike for over 60 days to protest their administrative detention without charge or trial. The lawyers noted that the health of the three detainees has reached a very critical stage.
They suffer from frequent heart attacks, difficulty in breathing, spasms, hearing loss and severe pain throughout their bodies, said the lawyers after visiting the three detains at their hospital beds. They have also lost the ability to speak. The lawyers warned that the Israeli government’s refusal to end the administrative detention of the three hunger strikers is a plot to kill them.
They said that a petition was submitted at the Israeli High court to demand ending the administrative detention of the three detainees, rather than just a freeze on their detention, and to allow them to be moved to Palestinian hospitals for treatment. The lawyers noted that putting a freeze on the administrative detention of detainees is merely a legal elusion aimed at keeping the administrative detention or renewing it after they end their strike.
President Mahmoud Abbas met on Friday with his Venezuelan counterpart, President Nicolas Maduro. Abbas is in Venezuela to attend the summit of Non-Aligned Movement.
Abbas briefed Maduro on the latest developments regarding the Palestinian issue and the difficult situation in the occupied Palestinian territories due to the escalating situation on the ground, ongoing settlement construction and attacks against Palestinian civilians and holy sites.