AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

Following the visit of the Israeli right wing Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon on 28 September 2000 to the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif, violence erupted in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Both Israelis and Palestinians consider the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif a holy site. Palestinians viewed the Sharon visit as an inflammatory gesture by the conservative Israeli.

In the two weeks that followed Sharon's visit, violence has continued from both the Palestinians and the Israelis, and homes, religious sites, and other buildings have been destroyed. Almost 100 people are dead, including 77 Palestinians, 10 Israeli-Arabs and seven other Israelis, including three soldiers. Hundreds more are wounded.

Many independent sources report that Israeli forces have blocked the path of ambulances and hindered the work of paramedics by refusing to allow the injured to reach medical assistance. The International Committee of the Red Cross reports that "dozens of ambulances from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the Magen David Adom in Israel (MDA) have been attacked." Three medical professionals have been killed and several others wounded. Other health and human rights organizations report that the Israelis forces have blocked the Augusta Victoria and the Makassid Hospitals in Jerusalem.

Relevant Human Rights Treaties:

Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II). Israel is a state party.

• Article 9(1) Protection of medical and religious personnel Medical and religious personnel shall be respected and protected and shall be granted all available help for the performance of their duties. They shall not be compelled to carry out tasks which are not compatible with their humanitarian mission.
• Article 11 Protection of medical units and transports
  1. Medical units and transports shall be respected and protected at all times and shall not be the object of attack. 2. The protection to which medical units and transports are entitled shall not cease unless they are used to commit hostile acts, outside their humanitarian function. Protection may, however, cease only after a warning has been given setting, whenever appropriate, a reasonable time-limit, and after such warning has remained unheeded.

(Sources of Information for this case include: The International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organizations, Physicians for Human Rights, Amnesty International, International Committee of the Red Cross, the Washington Post, and the New York Times)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telegrams, faxes, airmail letters or emails:

• Condemning the attacks on medical personnel.
• Remind all those involved in the violence that medical personnel, hospitals and other medical establishments, as well as medical transports and supplies, must be respected and protected in all circumstances and that the wounded must be assisted and all medical personnel must be allowed to carry out their life-saving tasks.
• Urging the Israelis security forces to respect the rights of medical neutrality at all times.
• Calling for an independent international investigation into reports that Israeli soldiers fired on medical personnel.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

His Excellency Ehud Barak
Prime Minster of Israel
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
3 Kaplan St, P.O. Box 187
91919 Jerusalem
Israel
Tel: 972-2-670-5555
Fax: 972-2-513950 or 00972 2 566 4838


The Honorable Shlomo Ben-Ami
Minister of Public Security
Ministry of Public Security
Kiryat Hamemshala
P.O.B. 18182
Jerusalem 91181
Tel: 972-2-5309999
Fax: 972-2-5847872


The Honorable Yossi Beilin
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice
29 Salah A-din St.
Jerusalem 91010
Tel: 972-2-6708511
Fax: 972-2-6288618

COPIES SENT TO:

His Excellency Yasser Arafat
President
Palestinian National Authority
Abu Khadra Building
Omar al-Mukhtar Street
Gaza, via Israel
Tel: 972-7-866-888
Fax 972-7-821-672


His Excellency David Ivry
Ambassador of Israel
3514 International Drive NW
Washington D.C. 20008
Tel: 202-364 5500
Fax: 202-364 5423

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