Israel/Palestine

one should justify or attempt to refer to what Israel is using here, a chemical
as part of their security measure. No more than Israel should be allowed to detain
children with no legal recourse for throwing stones and there are many
more examples that define collective punishment.

27 August 2008
Trapped – collective punishment in Gaza

"The Israeli siege has turned Gaza into a big prison. We cannot leave, not even for medical care or to study abroad, and most of what we need is not available in Gaza. We are not living really; we are barely surviving and the outlook for the future is bleak." – Fathi, a Gaza resident.

With Gaza locked down and cut off from the outside world by a stifling Israeli blockade, 46 peace activists from the world over set sail for Gaza on 22 August to, in their words, “break the siege that Israel has imposed on the civilian population of Gaza…, to express our solidarity with the suffering people of Gaza, and to create a free and regular channel between Gaza and the outside world”.

An Israeli peace activist on board the Free Gaza boats, Professor Jeff Halper, said: “The mission is to break the Israeli siege, an absolutely illegal siege which has plunged a million and a half Palestinians into wretched conditions: imprisoned in their own homes, exposed to extreme military violence, deprived of the basic necessities of life, stripped of their most fundamental human rights and dignity. The siege violates the most fundamental principle of international law: the inadmissibility of harming civilian populations… I cannot stand idly aside… To do so would violate my commitment to human rights”.

The blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip over a year ago has left the entire population of 1.5 million Palestinians trapped with dwindling resources and an economy in ruins. Some 80 per cent of the population now depend on the trickle of international aid that the Israeli army allows in. This humanitarian crisis is man-made and entirely avoidable.

Even patients in dire need of medical treatment not available in Gaza are often prevented from leaving and scores of them have died. Students who have scholarships in universities abroad are likewise trapped in Gaza, denied the opportunity to build a future.

The Israeli authorities argue that the blockade on Gaza is in response to Palestinian attacks, especially the indiscriminate rockets fired from Gaza at the nearby Israeli town of Sderot. These and other Palestinian attacks killed 25 Israelis in the first half of this year; in the same period Israeli forces killed 400 Palestinians.

However, the Israeli blockade does not target the Palestinian armed groups responsible for attacks – it collectively punishes the entire population of Gaza.

In April 2008, Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the UN Secretary General, called on Israel to restore fuel supplies to Gaza and allow the passage of humanitarian assistance and commercial supplies.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/feature-stories/trapped-collective-punishment-gaza-20080827


Demolition for Alleged Military Purposes - Collective Punishment

Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention forbids collective punishment and states that a person shall not be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. This article explicitly relates to administrative punishment imposed on persons or groups because of acts that they did not personally commit. Article 50 of the Hague Regulations states a comparable prohibition.

The IDF Spokesperson contended that, "The purpose of these exposing acts is not to punish the Palestinian populations, but rather to provide a solution for a specific and defined security need." In light of the extensive use of the policy and its horrendous consequences for the civilian population, this argument cannot be accepted.

The houses and the orchards destroyed by the soldiers belonged to Palestinians whom even Israel does not contend were involved in any way in attacks on Israeli civilians or security forces. Despite this, these Palestinians lost, as a result of the IDF acts, their homes and livelihood. Furthermore, they were not even given the opportunity to be heard by any official and were not compensated at all for their losses (on this issue, see below). The IDF is likely very aware of these consequences of its policy. Therefore, its argument that it does not seek to punish the Palestinian population is meaningless.

http://www.btselem.org/razing/collective_punishment