Summary Report to the United Nations Human Rights Commission Emergency Session on Israel/Palestine, 17-18 October 2000

 

Submitted by Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel

16 October 2000


This summary report submitted by Adalah to the UN Human Rights Commission, Emergency Session on Israel/Palestine, focuses on human rights violations committed by the Israeli government against Palestinian citizens of Israel during the period of the current conflict, which began on 29 September 2000. Specifically, this report discusses the illegal actions taken by the Israeli police and the abuse of pre-trial due process rights of Palestinian citizens brought before the Israeli courts. Adalah obtained the information contained in this report during the course of its legal representation of Palestinian citizens of Israel arrested and/or detained during the current conflict, field reports from our staff, local journalists and hospitals, and the Government of Israel. 

I.  Main Points 
 


II.   Recommendations to the UN Human Rights Commission
 


(See also Appendix No. 4 - Failure of Israel to Honor its International Obligations, Report of an International NGO Mission, 12 October 2000)
 

III.  Illegal Actions by the Israeli Police

 

1) Excessive Use of Force against Palestinian Demonstrators in Israel

 

Internal guidelines govern the police's action at demonstration sites, authorities and means of operation, as well as procedures for opening fire. A translated copy of the relevant sections of these guidelines is attached to this submission.  (See Appendix No. 5 - Police Guidelines) 

In sum, the Israeli police violated these guidelines, and thus used excessive force against Palestinian citizens of Israel, in an attempt to disperse the crowds and end the protests. These brutal, forceful, heavy-handed police tactics, used against citizens of the State in the recent confrontations is unparalleled and unprecedented. 

 

Primarily: 

1) The police used live ammunition in shooting Palestinian demonstrators, citizens of Israel, although not permitted by the guidelines. Eyewitnesses also claim that the police deliberately used sniper-fire to target and shoot at Palestinian demonstrators as a means of dispersing protestors in Israel.

2) The police also shot rubber-coated steel bullets, often at close range and directed at the upper body of Palestinian individuals, in violation of the guidelines. 

3) The guidelines recommend methods of crowd dispersal (e.g., water cannons), less dangerous than firearms, which were not used by the police.  Police officials confirmed that these methods were not utilized due to lack of budgets.

 

Using these illegal methods, the Israeli police killed 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel, and injured approximately 1000 others during the recent clashes. 

 

The use of excessive force by the Israeli police against Palestinian citizens of Israel is not a new phenomenon.  In previous demonstrations staged by Palestinian citizens against land confiscation in Al Roha, near Umm El Fahem, and home demolitions in Umm Sahali and Lod, the police also used undue force to disperse crowds but at nowhere near the same level, as in the recent conflict. 

By contrast, the Israeli police act in a moderate and restrained manner in similar, large-scale demonstrations staged by non-Arab, Jewish groups in Israel.  Recent demonstrations staged by Jewish citizens, in which the police acted moderately and in the best interest of protecting the safety and welfare of the protestors, include Shas party supporters, students, and employees protesting against factory closures. Fatalities and injuries among demonstrators are uncommon, and the police never use live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, and "dum-dum" bullets against the Jewish public. 

 

2)  Police Assistance to Jewish Rioters Perpetrating Violent Attacks Against Palestinians in Israel 

 

Since October 7, Jewish Israeli citizens have attacked Palestinian citizens of Israel, their property and holy sites. Previously, violence occurred between the police forces and Palestinian demonstrators, however, now the violence has become communitarian.

 

A prime example of the type of violence perpetuated is that which occurred in Nazareth, the largest Arab town in Israel. On October 8, the evening of Yom Kippur during a total media blackout due to the holiday, hundreds of Jewish residents of Nazaret Illit entered the eastern quarter of Nazareth and attacked Palestinian residents and their property. They hurled stones at Palestinian homes, several of which they also attempted to burn down. They also shouted “Death to the Arabs,” and insults against Islam. 

 

Rather than assisting the Palestinian citizens of Israel who were under attack, police directed their force against them.  Eyewitnesses reported that the police stood by while Palestinian citizens were attacked, and only intervened when the Palestinian residents came out to defend themselves—and their intervention was to protect the Jewish citizens and thereby allow them to continue their attack.  Thus, the police demonstrated that they were unwilling to prevent attacks on Palestinian citizens despite their obligation to protect all citizens of Israel.

 

Mr. Omar Mohammed Akawi (42) and Mr. Wasam Yizbek (25), two Palestinian residents of Nazareth, were killed in these attacks.  As of yet, it is unclear whether they were killed by police fire or by armed Jewish civilians.  Mr. Akawi was killed by live ammunition. 

 

In addition to the attack in Nazareth, other hate-crimes were also committed against Palestinian citizens throughout Israel. In Nazareth Illit, Jewish Israelis burned an Arab-owned bakery, and a mob of 300 Jewish rioters encircled and threw stones at the home of an Arab Member of Knesset (MK), Dr. Azmi Bishara. The rioters, equipped with torches, threatened to burn down the house.  On the road between Nazareth Illit and Nazareth, 200 Jewish civilians vandalized Palestinian cars and houses.  The police neither arrested nor used forceful means to end the riot.  A wave of similar attacks by Jewish citizens against Palestinians and their property also took place in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Tiberias, Hadera, Afula, Haifa, and Akka. 

 

Jewish citizens also attacked and destroyed Muslim holy sites in villages and towns throughout Israel.  They threw molotov cocktails at the Hassan Beiq mosque in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. In Tiberias, Jewish citizens burned another ancient mosque.  A third mosque was set ablaze and completely destroyed in Hadera. 

 

3) Arbitrary Acts of Violence by the Police against Palestinians in Israel

 

On October 1, Palestinian citizens staged a large demonstration in Jedaide, Israel against the recent events in Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories. Demonstrators  chanted slogans against the behavior of Northern Police District Commander, Alik Ron, who is widely believed to be responsible for the present confrontations and subsequent loss of life of Palestinians in his region of command. Violent clashes between the police and Palestinian demonstrators broke out and continued until late in the evening, when village elders came to the site and ordered the young demonstrators to return home. When the street emptied of protestors, eyewitnesses report that they saw 50 police officers, including special forces and border police, enter the village from the southeast corner. The police walked towards the center of the village, through residential areas, and began to randomly shoot both rubber bullets and live ammunition at homes and cars. They also used the butts of their guns to break the windows of cars parked on the main road. In one notable incident, seven police officers entered a home, pointed a gun at the homeowner, poured coffee on his wife, and kicked one of their guests. Some residents called the local police station for assistance and to report property damages, but the police refused to help them or end the rampage. 

 

On October 1, police officers violently beat Ms. Nisreen Khoury, a psychologist, and her sister Ms. Khawla Khoury, a gynecologist, while they were standing unarmed in solidarity with demonstrators in Nazareth. The police approached Nisreen while she was looking for her sister and ordered her to leave the scene. She responded by telling them that she was looking for her sister, but they refused to listen to her. At that point, they pushed her, threw her to the ground, and started beating her. She pleaded with them to stop hurting her and told them that she was not a threat since she was not throwing stones. They continued to beat her, despite her pleas, with a butt of a gun and a baton until she lost consciousness.  While Khawla was looking for Nisreen, a female police officer started beating her on her arm with a baton. When she tried to stand up, the officer started insulting and kicking her. When Khawla saw Nisreen sister in danger and tried to help her, the officer threatened to kill her.  Khawla grabbed hold of the officer’s baton, and a male police officer began to kick her in the lower abdominal region. Finally, they picked her up and threw her to the ground. 

 

On October 2, Dr. Amer Ramadan and his wife, Marlin, attempted to travel to a relative’s house in Nazareth when their car was shot at from all sides.  Mrs. Ramadan was shot numerous times, causing severe injuries to her arm and chest.  An eyewitness to the event saw a large number of police officers hiding behind a wall pointing their guns at various targets without firing. When Dr. Ramadan’s car approached, the police officers began shooting at the car, breaking all the windows. Dr. Ramadan exited his car and pleaded with the officers to stop shooting. They ordered him to lie face down, while he continuously pleaded with them to call an ambulance for his wife who remained in the car bleeding. The police left the scene without calling for assistance.  Mrs. Ramadan has undergone three operations, and remains in critical condition in Rambam Hospital in Haifa. 

 

4)  Police Prevention of Emergency Medical Services to Injured Palestinians

 

Police prevented the national ambulance service - Magen David Adom - from entering Palestinian villages in Israel during the clashes.  Local village ambulances were delayed, re-routed, and even attacked by Israeli police preventing the transport of injured individuals to hospitals and endangering the lives of medical personnel. 

 

Many Palestinian villages in Israel do not have an ambulance, and no Palestinian village possesses more than one such vehicle.  Moreover, other than Nazareth, no Palestinian towns have hospitals. Thus, the villages rely on the national ambulance service, Magen David Adom, when there are medical emergencies.  However, during the clashes, Magen David Adom ambulance service did not enter any Palestinian Arab village.  When the Il Hayat clinic in Umm El Fahem, for example, requested ambulance service for those seriously injured, local clinic personnel were told that the police would not let its ambulances enter the town. 

 

The Il Hayat clinic in Umm El Fahem was forced to use private cars to transport its most seriously injured to hospitals outside the town.  Because police prevented ambulances from reaching the clinic, the clinic’s doctors were forced to treat many individuals who were seriously injured, although it lacks adequate medical supplies and equipment. Three Umm El Fahem residents died of their injuries.

 

Witnesses also report attacks on ambulances. Mr. Nader Abu Nicola, an ambulance driver and the manager of the Hatzala ambulance station in Nazareth, attempted to transport an injured man from Nazareth’s Italian hospital to Haifa's Rambam hospital on October 3 at 5 p.m.  Three medical assistants accompanied Mr. Nicola in the ambulance.  About 500 meter from the Italian hospital, a police officer stopped them, and asked where they were going.  Mr. Nicola told the officer that they were going to the Italian hospital to transport a patient to Rambam. The officer told Mr. Nicola that the road was closed, and that they must go back.  While Mr. Nicola tried to explain the necessity of his travel, the officer punched him forcefully in the face, and five other officers pointed their guns at him and at the other passengers.  The officers told Mr. Nicola, “Go back now.”  As Mr. Nicola drove in reverse, he tried to inform the station by walkie-talkie that he had been delayed.  The five police officers then attacked the ambulance and broke the mirror.  Mr. Nicola drove quickly away, and took a longer, more dangerous route to the hospital.

 

Another incident took place in the El Akbat neighborhood in Nazareth on October 9.  Mr. Francis Abu Khaloosh, an ambulance driver, was driving to pick up Mr. Tarek Kobti, who had been shot with rubber-coated steel bullets. The police stopped Mr. Khaloosh and forbid him from entering the neighborhood to transport the injured man.  Mr. Khaloosh was delayed until MK Ahmad Tibi, who was in the area and witnessed what happened, intervened.  When Mr. Khaloosh finally got through, he found that a private car had already taken the injured man to the hospital.

 

5)  Police Mistreatment of Palestinian Citizens of Israel in Custody 

 

a)  Beatings, Abuse, and the Denial of Medical Attention 

 

While in police custody, numerous Palestinian citizens were mistreated, abused, and/or denied any medical detention. The following cases are notable: 

 

 

D.C. Nazareth, Appeal 33/00, The State of Israel v. Tawfiq Darawshe, et. al. (decision delivered on 10 October 2000). The District Court of Nazareth granted the State’s appeal to extend the detention of Mr. Tawfiq Darawshe (19) and three other detainees until the end of their his trial, overruling the decision of the Magistrate Court to release him. While in police custody, Mr. Darawshe was repeatedly beaten, and made to lie on the floor while a dog was brought into the detention room to scare him into confessing that he was among the protestors throwing stones at the police. The District Court summarily considered Mr. Darawshe's injuries, and doubted his claims. Mr. Darawshe is a first year medical student at Hebrew University. 

 

D.C. Nazareth, Appeal 34/00, The State of Israel v. Wissam Ghazali, et. al. (decision delivered on 10 October 2000). The District Court of Nazareth granted the State’s appeal to extend the detention of Mr. Ghazali (22) from Jaffa/Nazareth and the other two detainees until the end of their trials, overruling the decision by the Magistrate Court to release him.  Mr. Ghazali appeared at his court hearing with a bruised skull, a fractured shoulder, and a black eye. His shirt was also covered with bloodstains. The doctor at the police station only asked Mr. Ghazali how he was injured without examining his injuries. The Court refused to allow an external physician to check him, stating that it does not have the authority to do so and that it was not necessary in this case. 


 b) Prohibition on Access to Counsel

 

In about seven recent cases represented by and/or known to Adalah, the General Security Services (GSS) or the police issued orders, in accordance with their authority under Section 35 of the Law of Arrests (1996), prohibiting detained Palestinian citizens of Israel from meeting with their lawyers.  In general, this authority is exercised only in national security cases, and not in criminal cases involving demonstrators. Where this prohibition was ordered, the police and the GSS also asked the court to ban the publication of all information regarding the arrest, including the names of the detainees. These methods are currently being used as a means of pressure, replacing torture, which was banned by the Supreme Court of Israel one-year ago. 

In these cases, lawyers asked the court to reduce the number of days of detention so that the judge, who is the only individual permitted to hear and see the detainee, can watch over or supervise the progress of the investigation of the detainee.  Adalah argued in these cases that the measures used by the GSS and the police are unconstitutional, and violate the limitation clause of the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom (1992).  Few cases involving the prohibition on access to counsel reach the Supreme Court, as prosecutors tend to agree to withdraw the ban, upon the filing of an this appeal.

 

IV.  Abuse of Pre-Trial Due Process Rights of Defendants by the Courts

 

One) Pre-Indictment Detention Without Bond

 

Under Israeli law, in nearly all cases, a person arrested must be brought before a judge within 24 hours. At this initial hearing, a judge must determine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that the accused in fact committed the crime charged,  and whether there are legitimate grounds to keep the suspect in detention to ensure the integrity and efficiency of the criminal investigation, the scope, nature and severity of the criminal offense, and the special public interest in detention of the suspect. In addition, the court will consider the personal circumstances of the accused.  Based on these factors, the court may decide to extend the detention, or release the individual outright or with conditions. Detention may be initially ordered for up to 15 days, in this pre-indictment period, and extended periodically by request of the police and order of the Court. The longer the detention, the more weighty the evidence must be that the accused actually committed the crime to justify extending the remand.

 

Adalah found in its representation of Palestinian citizens of Israel and learned from other lawyers that the police, in requesting that defendants be initially detained or that their detention be extended, filed incomplete, inadequate reports, which were accepted by most judges as the basis for issuing detention orders. In numerous cases, the police reports contained vague accusations, lacking any direct or supporting evidence linking the detainee to the alleged crime. That is to say, the police simply filled in the name of the accused, ID number, vague accusation such as "stone-throwing," and suggested period of detention.  The judges, in turn, immediately accepted these allegations and extended the period of detention. 

 

On October 2, the Magistrate Court in Haifa ordered the extension of detention of Mr. Motasim Taha, Mr. Ahmad Yassin, and Mr. Mohammad Abou-Elheja, although the police reports filed in these cases lack sufficient evidence and provided incomplete, vague information. The District Court in Haifa rejected Adalah's subsequent appeal to release the accused on 4 October. 

 

Two) Post-Indictment Detention Without Bond

 

Under Israeli law, numerous pre-conditions exist for ordering the post-indictment detention of a defendant until the end of trial, in view of the severe restriction placed on an individual’s liberty by remand. These include:

 

However, even if the Court is satisfied that all of these pre-conditions are met, it may not order a defendant’s remand unless it is convinced that the purpose of the detention cannot be achieved by release on bail or by imposing any other conditions of release. 

 

In two cases decided last week, the Supreme Court ordered the detention until the end of trial of two Palestinian citizens of Israel – one an adult and one a minor - without considering any alternative, less restrictive conditions to remand. After these decisions, no District Court, in any other cases represented by or known to Adalah, permitted the release of any Palestinian citizens of Israel.  (See e.g., D.C. Haifa, Appeal 3893/00, The State of Israel v. Yasser Ben Faiz Ismail (decision delivered 12 October 2000), in which the District Court ordered that the defendant, charged with throwing stones, be held without bond until the end of his trial, reversing the decision of the lower court to release him from custody). In sharp contrast, following the Supreme Court decisions, three Jewish minors, allegedly involved in crimes against Palestinian citizens of Israel, were released from detention and placed under home arrest until the end of trial by the District Court in Nazareth. 

 

H.C. 7171/00 – The State of Israel v. Mohammed Mahmoud Hamid (decision delivered 8 October 2000). The Supreme Court, by Justice Heshin, accepted the appeal by the State and ordered the defendant held without bond until the end of trial, reversing the decisions of both the Magistrate and the District Courts in Nazareth. Justice Heshin ruled that the charges of rioting, and the allegations that the defendant participated in a crowd, which was throwing stones at the police, is sufficient justification for remand. 

 

H.C. 7103/00 – Anonymous (Palestinian Citizen of Israel, Minor Under the Age of 18) v. The State of Israel (decision delivered 10 October 2000).  The Supreme Court, by Justice Heshin, upheld the decision of the District Court of Haifa ordering the post-indictment remand of a 15-year old minor, until the end of trial. Justice Heshin ruled that the serious nature of the charges alone justify remand. The Court  rejected all arguments of counsel including the lack of evidence that the stone thrown by this minor broke a car window, the age and health problems of the defendant, which required daily medical treatment, and lack of any criminal record. 

 

D.C. Nazareth, Appeal 2752/00, The State of Israel v. Morad Shoham Ben Gidon, Lezme Yisrael Ben Shimon, Ben Ami David Ben Yaacov (decision delivered 13 October 2000).  The District Court of Nazareth dismissed the State’s appeal, and upheld the decision of the Magistrate Court, Juvenile Division, Afula ordering the release of the defendants – three Jewish minors - with the conditions of house arrest,  the deposit of 2,000 NIS in cash, and the posting of a 7,000 NIS bond.  Defendants, charged with Article 151 – Forbidding Crowding, Article 152 – Rioting, and Article 452 – Intentional Destruction of Property, alleged to have participated with hundreds of others at Afula junction, threw stones at Arab-owned restaurants, set fire to tires, and screamed “Death to Arabs.” The State did not ask the District Court to stay its decision pending appeal to the Supreme Court. 

 

 

 

 


Oral Statement of the World Federation of Democratic Youth*

Delivered Before the United Nations Human Rights Commission
Emergency Session on Israel/Palestine, 17-18 October 2000

As Presented by Mr. Muhammed Dahleh, Advocate
 Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
18 October 2000

Members of the UN Human Rights Commission – I thank you for this opportunity to speak before you today, given the crowded agenda and the limited time in which this Special Session is taking place.  I submit these remarks to you as a common statement of the World Federation of Democratic Youth and of Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, the sole Palestinian-run legal center in Israel. As a deeply concerned member of the Palestinian community and as a citizen of Israel, I will focus my comments on the human rights violations committed by the Israeli government against Palestinian citizens of Israel, during the period of the current conflict, which began on 28 September, 2000.

I am aware of the fact that an oral agreement was reached yesterday between the Palestinian leadership and the Israeli Government.  Nonetheless, I do not think that such an agreement renders your work irrelevant or unnecessary. On the contrary, I think that this special commission has a very important role to play for the following reasons:

First:

 

The Summit in Sharm El Sheikh is the eighth summit to have resulted in agreements between Israel and the PLO. Yet all of these agreements did not prevent acts of violence and violations of basic rights of the Palestinians by Israel. Therefore, and in light of the recurrent events of violence and abuse of human rights committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, including the Palestinian minority inside Israel, the Commission should not be discouraged by the fact that an agreement has been reached.  Rather, the Commission should move forward in its current mission and establish an Investigation Committee for the recent violence by Israel against the Palestinian people. Such a measure might prevent future violence by Israel, something that the political agreements have not yet successfully achieved.

Second:

The Palestinian minority composes 20% of Israel’s population or close to 1 million people; however, their core issues, including the recent violence against them, have not been represented in Sharm El Sheikh. The summit did not deal with the Palestinians in Israel, and the agreements reached will not stem the tide of Israeli violence—both by the police and Jewish citizens of Israel—perpetrated against us. It will not stop the interference of the Israeli Shin Beit, the General Security Service in our life and will not guarantee that the vulnerable Palestinian minority not be harassed on a daily basis. The events of the last three weeks—particularly the illegal police actions against Palestinian citizens of Israel, including the killing of 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the abuse of their due process rights—show that the Palestinian minority is an extremely vulnerable group. As in the past, their core issues and concerns—political prisoners, land confiscation and dispossession, blatant racism, and discrimination in all aspects of life—have been neglected and forgotten. We have never been represented by any official body or leader in any of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, and the Sharm El Sheik Summit was no different. We call upon this Commission not to continue the trend of neglecting one million people, but rather pay special attention to their vulnerable status.

Third:

This Commission should not give free hand to the attempts to substitute the UN by the US. We all know that a fact-finding Committee led by the US is not enough; it is not and should not be a substitute to an Investigation Committee established by this distinguished UN body.

I.  Main Points 
 


Mr. Chairman, be sure that these acts of the Israeli police and of the harassment of the Israeli Shin Beit will not stop because of the agreement reached at Sharm El Sheikh. The one million Palestinians inside Israel will continue to suffer with no international attention paid to them.

Therefore we recommend to the UN Human Rights Commission the following:

 

II.   Recommendations to the UN Human Rights Commission
 

*Thank you to World Federation of Democratic Youth for assisting Adalah to obtain consultative status before UN HRC.

 



 

 Grave and Massive Violations of the Human Rights of the Palestinian People by Israel

Resolution S-5/1 of the Fifth Special Session of the Commission on Human Rights
27 October 2000

 

Distr.
GENERAL

E/CN.4/RES/S-5/1
27 October 2000

Original: ENGLISH 

The Commission on Human Rights, 
Meeting in special session, 

Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the various provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 

Recalling Security Council resolutions 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of 20 August 1980, 672 (1990) of 12 October 1990, 1073 (1996) of 28 September 1996 and 1322 (2000) of 7 October 2000, 

Recalling also its previous resolutions on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, the most recent of which was resolution 2000/6 of 17 April 2000, 

Taking note of the report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Giorgio Giacomelli (E/CN.4/S-5/3), presented to the special session on 17 October 2000, regarding his mission undertaken in accordance with Commission resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993, 

Condemning the provocative visit to Al-Haram Al-Sharif on 28 September 2000 by Ariel Sharon, the Likud party leader, which triggered the tragic events that followed in occupied East Jerusalem and the other occupied Palestinian territories, resulting in a high number of deaths and injuries among Palestinian civilians, 

Gravely concerned at the widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights perpetrated by the Israeli occupying Power, in particular mass killings and collective punishments, such as demolition of houses and closure of the Palestinian territories, measures which constitute war crimes, flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity, 

Taking into account the principles of international law and international humanitarian law, particularly the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949 and the First Additional Protocol thereto of 1977, and the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials of 1990, which prescribe that such officials should, inter alia, "minimize damage and injury, and respect and preserve human life" and "ensure that firearms are used only in appropriate circumstances in a manner likely to decrease the risk of unnecessary harm", 

Bearing in mind the outcome of the Sharm El Sheikh Summit of 17 October 2000, 

1. Strongly condemns the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force in violation of international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupying Power against innocent and unarmed Palestinian civilians, causing the death of one hundred and twenty civilians, including many children, in the occupied territories, which constitutes a flagrant and grave violation of the right to life and also constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity; 

2. Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to put an immediate end to any use of force against unarmed civilians and to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949; 

3. Calls upon the international community to take immediate effective measures to secure the cessation of violence by the Israeli occupying Power and to put an end to the ongoing violations of human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories; 

4. Affirms that the Israeli military occupation in itself constitutes a grave violation of the human rights of the Palestinian people; 

5. Also affirms that the deliberate and systematic killing of civilians and children by the Israeli occupying authorities constitutes a flagrant and grave violation of the right to life and also constitutes a crime against humanity; 

6. Decides: 

(a) To establish, on an urgent basis, a human rights inquiry commission, whose membership should be based on the principles of independence and objectivity, to gather and compile information on violations of human rights and acts which constitute grave breaches of international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupying Power in the occupied Palestinian territories and to provide the Commission with its conclusions and recommendations, with the aim of preventing the repetition of the recent human rights violations; 

(b) To request the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to undertake an urgent visit to the occupied Palestinian territories to take stock of the violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupying Power, to facilitate the activities of the mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights in implementation of the present resolution, to keep the Commission on Human Rights informed of developments and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-seventh session and, on an interim basis, to the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session; 

(c) To request the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Representative of the Secretary-General for internally displaced persons, the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance, the Special Rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, the Special Rapporteur on the right to housing and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary 

Disappearances to carry out immediate missions to the occupied Palestinian territories and report the findings to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-seventh session and, on an interim basis, to the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session; 

(d) To request the High Commissioner to bring the present resolution to the attention of the Government of Israel and all other Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations, to ensure the widest possible dissemination of the text of the resolution and to report on its implementation by the Government of Israel to the Commission at its next session; 

7. Decides to consider this question at its fifty-seventh session under item 8 of its provisional agenda, as a matter of high priority; 

8. Requests the Economic and Social Council to meet on an urgent basis in order to act on the proposals contained in the present resolution. 
 

6th meeting
19 October 2000
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 19 votes to 16,
with 17 abstentions.]