Another Political Extrajudicial Execution In Jenin

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

From: Yehudith Harel ye_harel@netvision.net.il

9.11.2002

Another Political Extrajudicial Execution

Dear All,

Eyad Sawalha, a senior leader in the Palestinian Jihad, who was suspected by Israel to be responsible for the suicide bombings of at least two Israeli civilan busses at the Megido and Karkur junctions, killing many innocent Israelis - was cold bloodedly murdered by an Israeli Execution squads. ( see detailed report bellow).

This was another illegal extrajudicial execution - one in a long series - committed by the Israeli Army, an act which constitutes a major War Crime and is in stark contravention of the Iternational Law and of basic human values.

Being a suspect of whatever hineous crimes, does not give the right to execute one without a trial, moreover, when fortunately capital punishment does not exist in Israel.

Beyond the moral outrage - this execution came as many before it, at a very carefully calculated timing, when Palestinian leaders from various factions including the Hammas are convening in Cairo in an attempt to sign an agreement to put an end to the suicide bombings and maybe even to the armed struggle as the major venue for the Palestinian Resistance.

It is clear that the Sharon - Mofaz - Eitam government are doing their best to undermine another important Palestinian effort to put an end to the indiscriminate killing of civilians and channel the Palestinian Resistance to the Israeli occupation into non violent venues.

They simply cannot and won't allow this to happen as they have no answer to a Civil Palestinian Resistance. They cannot tolerate a non vilolent Palestinian Resistance movement that can re-envigorate not only the world wide solidarity and support of the Palestinian people, but it can also wake up the Israeli people and free them from the fascist Sharonian propaganda and brainwashing.

Sharon needs more bloodshed of innocent Israelis and Palestinians to be the scapegoats for his coming election campaign. He needs the escalation in order to allow him to continue to oppress the Palestinian people, destroy whatever is left of their infrastructure and carry out his more dangerous schemes, including a possible large scale transfer of Palestinians under the "Umbrella" of the American war against Iraq.

In these difficult times We - Israelis and Palestinians who belive that we have one common future in this country, need to reach out to each other and defy the Sharonian power politics and the philosophy and practice bloodshed.

We need to find ways to cooperate to stand up against all the above mentioned evil schemes and in order to convince both our peoples that we have an alternative and that we can live together in this country in Full Equality and Peace. Yehudith Harel

From: "Lawsociety" law@lawsociety.org

Extra-judicial killing in Jenin

November 10, 2002

Yesterday, Saturday November 9, Israeli forces extra-judicially assassinated Iyad Sawalha (27) by using heavy fire upon his home while he hid within.

According to information gathered by LAW, a large number of Israeli "Special Forces" surrounded a house in the al-Casaba area of Jenin's old city. They forcibly took Khalid Kamil (29) from a neighboring home as a human shield. He was forced to stand at the entrance of the surrounded home and use a megaphone to call Iyad Sawalha and his wife to leave the home. Sawalha's wife left the house with her hands raised.

Following her exist, Israeli troops opened heavy fire from all directions upon the house, targeting windows and doors. Sawalha, was hit with more than 15 bullets all over his body and died immediately, according to sources at Jenin local hospital, where he was taken. His right hand was completely shot off, and the house was destroyed.

During the extra-judicial killing, Khalid Kamil (29) was seriously injured with a gunshot to the head, while he was forced to stand at the door's entrance as the Special Forces opened fire.

Earlier, Israeli forces arrested on Friday November 8, Iyad Sawalha's mother, Najih (55) and her daughter, Arsline (26) from their house in Kufr Ra'i south of Jenin city. They were released on Saturday at around 7pm after being forced to tell Israeli troops where Iyad and his wife were hiding.

At least 173 Palestinians have so far been killed in extra-judicial executions committed by Israel, including 63 Palestinian bystanders. This is the third extra-judicial killing to take place over forty-eight hours.

LAW emphasizes that extra-judicial executions constitute willful killings, which are a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and as such constitute war crimes subject to universal jurisdiction.

Extra-judicial killings cannot be reconciled with the Fourth Geneva Convention, which seek to protect the lives of protected persons, and violate human rights norms that affirm the right to life and the prohibition on execution of civilians.

LAW strongly condemns Israel's assassination policy. Israel is legally responsible for the acts of its agents, and is under corresponding obligations to ensure that its agents adhere to the Convention and to prosecute those agents who commit grave breaches.

All state signatories to the Fourth Geneva Convention have also the right and are under a positive obligation to seek out and prosecute individuals responsible for committing or commissioning grave breaches, wherever the perpetrators are. Article 148 of the Fourth Geneva states that 'no High Contracting Party shall be allowed to absolve itself or any other High Contracting Party of any liability incurred by itself or by any other High Contracting Party...'

Israel's ongoing human rights violations further illustrates the need for the immediate deployment of an international protection presence to prevent violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention and to protect Palestinian protected persons within the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Transcript of the war crimes panel available on the Gush site For Hebrew http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum.html For English http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum_eng.html Also on the site http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (Hebrew) or: http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)

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