Israel’s “excessive force” kills two more children
Mourners carry the body of Haitham Saada, shot and killed by Israeli soldiers, during the boy’s funeral in Hebron on 6 February.APA images
Maureen Clare Murphy-12 February 2016
Two Palestinian children were shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank this past week as a United Nations human rights investigator called on Israel to investigate its excessive use of force against Palestinians.
The special rapporteur Makarim Wibisono “also told Israeli authorities to charge or release all Palestinian prisoners being held under lengthy administrative detention, including children,” Reuters reported, referring to Israel’s widespread practice of holding Palestinians without charge or trial under military court orders.
Wibisono made his remarks during his final report to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday. The Indonesian diplomat resigned from his post last month because he said Israel would not give him access to the areas he was assigned to monitor.
Israel’s foreign ministry accused the investigator of “flagrant anti-Israel bias” and rejected the findings of his report.
Quartet’s “serious concern”
The Quartet, the ad hoc group of representatives of the UN, EU, the United States and Russia that purports to manage the “peace process,” also expressed its “serious concern” on Friday.
Condemning “all acts for terror,” the group “called upon all parties to reject incitement and actively take steps to de-escalate the current tensions” and declared its intent to prepare a report with recommendations towards “the best way to advance the two-state solution.”
The anodyne Quartet statement echoed the one it issued, on the eve of the current phase of escalated direct confrontation beginning last October, during which nearly 30 Israelis and more than 160 Palestinians have been killed.
Most of those Palestinians killed, including 25 children, were shot dead during what Israel says were attacks – usually incidents of car-ramming or stabbing at West Bank settlements and checkpoints.
Dozens of others were killed while participating in demonstrations or being in the vicinity of protests in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Human rights groups have criticized Israel for using unwarranted lethal force against alleged attackers, saying that many such incidents amount to extrajudicial executions.
In other cases, Palestinians may not have been attempting any attack when they were slain.
