Thursday, March 8, 2007

Hold Israel Accountable

Remember Qana Take Action!

Urge Congress & State Dept to Hold Israel Accountable for US Weapons Violations
http://capwiz.com/adc/issues/alert/?alertid=9474696&queueid
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The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) joins the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation in its Israel Accountability Campaign highlighting the death and destruction that occurred in Qana, Lebanon in 1996 and 2006.

As all of you know, and too many of you experienced, last summer Lebanon was thrown back twenty-years into a foreign invasion and war. During the conflict, in the southern town of Qana, Israeli Air Forces struck a building sheltering 59 people inside. This was not the first time Israel had targeted Lebanese civilians in Qana. On April 18, 1996, Israel shelled a UN compound providing shelter to approximately 800 civilians. The shelling killed 106 civilians, injured hundreds of others and caused severe destruction in the area.

During last summer’s conflict, Israeli Defense Forces dropped more than 130,000 cluster bombs containing 1.2 million cluster bomblets in 498 locations in villages throughout southern Lebanon. The majority of the unexploded ordinances were dropped during the last 72 hours of the conflict before an impending cease fire deadline. Israel could not have committed, what some leading international human rights groups label as potential war crimes, without US military, economic, and diplomatic support.

ADC asks its members to urge Congress and the State Department to uphold US law by ensuring that Israel, as a recipient of one-third of the US foreign assistance budget, has not violated the terms of the US Arms Export Control Act or any bilateral weapons agreement between our countries. Further, ADC encourages you to support Senator Feinstein’s efforts to limit the use of American-made cluster bombs in all conflicts.
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PCHR
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
http://www.pchrgaza.org

Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 09/2007

01 - 07 March 2007

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)

22 Palestinian civilians, including 8 children and a woman, were wounded by IOF gunfire.

15 of these civilians were wounded in Bal’ein village, west of Ramallah.

IOF conducted 35 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

IOF arrested 107 Palestinians, including 70 ones arrested from the headquarters of the Palestinian Military Intelligence in Ramallah.

IOF closed offices of the Almsgiving Committee in Beit Fajjar village, offices of the Qura’an Association in al-Khader village and two subordinate kindergartens near Bethlehem.

IOF stormed offices of the Israeli Charitable Association in al-Shyoukh village near Hebron.

IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT.

IOF have operated Erez crossing as an international crossing point.

IOF positioned at various checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 13 Palestinian civilians, including 12 children.

The Gaza Strip has suffered from shortages in fuels and basic goods.

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Full Report (PDF)

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