Living with Israeli settler terrorism

Living with Israeli settler terrorism

Leslie Bravery | 6 August 2015 | Palestine Human Rights Campaign www.palestine.org.nz

A report submitted to the Arab League on 5 August 2015, that covers the period from 1 January to 31 July 2015 (inclusive), includes the recent burning to death of an 18-month-old Palestinian toddler. This arson attack on a Palestinian home is one of the more recent atrocities committed by Occupation settler terrorists against the people of Palestine, whose land they occupy with the support of the Israeli Army. On the morning of 31 July 2015, an estimated four settler terrorists attacked and set fire to two Palestinian homes in Duma village in the district of Nablus. The arson attack on the Ma’moon Dawabsheh family home occurred when the family was not present but the attack on the home of Ali Saed Dawabsheh was more tragic as it was perpetrated while the family was asleep inside the house. Baby Ali Dawabsheh lost his life in the arson attack and Ali’s mother and father, Riham and Saad, and his four-year-old brother, Ahmad, suffered severe burns and remain in a critical condition in hospital.

Racism

In July last year, Zionist fanatics kidnapped and burned alive Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian youth from Jerusalem Only a few hours before the attack on Duma, Israeli Channel 2 broadcast a report about a Jewish terrorist cell based in the occupied West Bank that had attacked the Church of Loaves in Tiberias. The TV report revealed information about a CD found in the possession of the attackers that provided instructions for an “easy way to burn Arabs alive”: “First, break the glass windows using stones. Then continuously start throwing molotov cocktails. Then set tyres on fire and place them on the exit points of the house, so no one escapes – so all are burnt alive". This report was broadcast at prime time on a major Israeli TV network. Meanwhile Israeli Army home invasions and settler attacks in the village of Duma have not ceased.

No Justice under Occupation

According to a recent report by Israeli human rights organisation, Yesh Din, 85.3% of investigative files are closed without arrest or prosecution due to the failure of Israeli police investigators to locate suspects or to discover sufficient evidence. Only 7.4% of such investigations have resulted in arrests and prosecution. This failure to bring settler terrorists to account means that they have a more than 92% certainty of avoiding facing justice for their crimes. Israel rules and exercises full control over the areas in which the settlers live and dominate, and the Zionist state must bear full responsiblity for the imposition and consequences of the Israeli Occupation. The Israeli legal and judicial system supports the Zionist ideology by failing to provide legal protection for victims of the Occupation's horrific crimes.

Humanitarian duty

The Palestinian people have called upon the international community to shoulder its responsibility to protect them from the violence of military occupation. But while the world has stood by and done nothing but oblige the Palestinian people to “negotiate” with the occupying power, hundreds of settler and Israeli Army attacks have killed, injured and arbitrarily imprisoned thousands of Palestinians. The New Zealand Prime Minister claims to be friends with both Israel and Palestine. By raising New Zealand's voice at the Security Council John Key could demonstrate his claim by speaking in defence of the captive Palestinian people and arguing strongly for urgent sanctions to hold the Israeli regime responsible. The alternative, continued inaction, would amount to complicity in Israel's violations of the relevant provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

ENDS

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