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At 3.50
this afternoon, eyewitnesses from Jenin refugee camp report that all
homes and
shelters
of al-Somran and Jorid a-Dhahib quarters of Jenin refugee camp, are
being
systematically demolished by Israeli bulldozers. Israeli bulldozers
and tanks have already
completely destroyed the quarters of Tahbash, Abu Zeid, and al-Damesh.
All surviving men of the refugee camp are now outside the refugee
camp. A great number
of them
are detained or considered missing. Only an estimated 3,000 women
and children
are
still in Jenin refugee camp. They have been trying to leave the
refugee camp, in order
to save
their lives. In order to save the lives of these families and to
prevent further Israeli
attempts
to hide the truth. LAW believes that it is imperative that
humanitarian agencies,
journalists and independent monitors are allowed inside the refugee
camp to record what
has
happened in the refugee camp.
The Israeli government continues its attempts to avoid
accountability for its abuses by
offering
unconvincing justifications for its conduct unsupported by the
findings of
independent investigations. This is even more imperative since
Israeli army officers have
said:
"When the world sees the pictures of what we have done there, it
will do us immense
damage" (Ha'aretz, 9 April, 2002).
Last night, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the Israeli army not
to remove bodies of
Palestinians killed in fighting in the Jenin refugee camp until a
hearing is held on the matter.
LAW
together with Adalah filed a motion for an injunction and a petition
demanding the
immediate cessation of the burial of Palestinians in mass graves in
the camp. The petition
also
requested that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
and the
Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PCRS) be permitted to enter the
camp and to evacuate
the dead
bodies and bring them to hospital. In addition, they sought to allow
burials to be
conducted in a respectful manner by family members of the deceased.
Tomorrow, Sunday, 14 April 2002, the Israeli Supreme Court will hear
petitions calling for
the
cessation of the burial of bodies of Palestinian fighters and
civilians in mass graves in
the
Jenin refugee camp. The petitions will be heard at 11:30 am by a
three-judge panel of
Justices Matza, Englard and Rivlin.
At 10:10 pm last night, Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak
upheld the petitioners'
request
for an injunction calling on the Israeli army to immediately stop
any evacuation or
burial
of bodies until the hearing has taken place.
Immediately after the filings, Justice Englard ordered the State to
respond to the motion for
the
injunction and the petition without delay.
At approximately 9 pm yesterday, the representative of the Attorney
General's office
responded, stating that Israeli forces will not distinguish between
the bodies of fighters and
civilians in regards to their burial, but that the Israeli army has
not yet buried any bodies and
will not do so until Sunday.
This contradicts evidence received by eyewitnesses from the Jenin
refugee camp, who
reported
that the Israeli army was currently conducting such burials. It also
contradicts
previous
statements by the Israeli army, who said that Palestinian fighters
killed in Jenin
would be
buried in a separate cemetery.
The State added that the Israeli army cannot permit humanitarian
organizations to enter the
area
because some of the bodies may be booby-trapped with bombs. While
humanitarian
organizations will be permitted to evacuate the bodies and transfer
them to the families of
the
deceased in the near future, they conditioned that the bodies must
be buried at once.
If this is not done in the first such evacuation, no further
evacuations will be permitted.
Professor Derrick Pounder, MD, expert forensic pathologist from
University of Dundee
(Scotland) and part of Amnesty International's current delegation to
Israel/Palestine, will be
accompanying LAW and Adalah to the Court. He will also be available
for comment to the
media
following the hearing.
LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and
the Environment is
a
non-governmental organisation dedicated to preserving human rights
through legal
advocacy. LAW is affiliate to the International Commission of
Jurists (ICJ), the Federation
Internationale des Ligues de Droits de l'Homme (FIDH) and the World
Organisation
Organisation Against Torture (OMCT).
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:
www.lawsociety.org
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