UN members ‘hold primary responsibility’ for violence: Rights groups
The “UN Member States hold primary responsibility for the violence in Palestine through their inaction and complicity in Israel’s systematic and widespread violations,” three Palestinian human rights organisations have said in an open letter to members of the UN Security Council (UNSC).
The Palestine-based organisations – Al-Haq, Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights – called on UN member states to address the “root causes and protect the Palestinian people from Israeli attacks”.
The groups sent the letter as the 15 members of the UNSC held emergency consultations in New York on Sunday afternoon.
“The past two years have been marked as the bloodiest of Israeli violence since the second Intifada,” the letter said.
It described the land, air and maritime closures imposed on Palestinians in Gaza as “measures of collective punishment, in violation of international law”.
“Israel has carried out at least seven massive military offensives since 2008, which have rendered the Gaza Strip uninhabitable,” the letter added.
The Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights are civil organisations based in the Gaza Strip while Al-Haq has its headquarters in Ramallah in the West Bank.
And that includes us.
