By Rachel Borrell, Amnesty International’s research and campaigns assistant for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Gaza
July 05, 2017
During his official visit to Israel, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi must ask Israel to immediately lift the illegal 10 year blockade of Gaza and raise the issue of 50 years of illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land, Amnesty International India said today.
This is the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister since establishment of diplomatic relations 25 years ago.
“Prime Minister Modi must tell his Israeli counterparts that the illegal settlements are a violation of international humanitarian law and cause of mass violations of human rights. He must also press them to lift the 10 year blockade of Gaza that has unlawfully deprived Palestinians in Gaza of their most basic rights and necessities,” said Aakar Patel, Executive Director at Amnesty International India.
“Merely condemning Israel’s settlement expansion cannot suffice. India should ban products from these illegal settlements as helping them flourish economically blatantly undermines its own international obligations.”
This is the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister since establishment of diplomatic relations 25 years ago.
“Prime Minister Modi must tell his Israeli counterparts that the illegal settlements are a violation of international humanitarian law and cause of mass violations of human rights. He must also press them to lift the 10 year blockade of Gaza that has unlawfully deprived Palestinians in Gaza of their most basic rights and necessities,” said Aakar Patel, Executive Director at Amnesty International India.
“Merely condemning Israel’s settlement expansion cannot suffice. India should ban products from these illegal settlements as helping them flourish economically blatantly undermines its own international obligations.”
July 28, 2016
by Jim Joyce
Two years ago Israel’s military forces for fifty days wreaked destruction on the Gaza Strip, killing close to 1,500 civilians, more than a third of them children (6 Israeli civilians were killed by rockets fired by the Palestinians.)
Two years later no independent (of those ordering, implementing or advising on the war) investigations of these war crimes have been undertaken by the government of Israel. Some of these attacks clearly targeted civilians, a violation of international humanitarian law. No credible investigations have been done by the Palestinians of their rocket attacks, with some dozen of them having ranges beyond the arc of territory just north of Gaza.
This was the third such war in the past ten years. Each has been more devastating than the previous to the lives and infrastructure of the Palestinians in Gaza. No one has been held accountable for the death of civilians those times either.
Amnesty International, connecting the dots — reports of war crimes and no investigations — fears that the Israeli government has granted its soldiers impunity to continue killing Palestinian civilians.
