Israel: FIDH denounces US support to rogue state policies

20/04/2004
Report

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) strongly condemns the extra-judicial killing of Abdelaziz El Rantissi, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, by the Israeli Defence Forces. This assassination was perpetrated less than one month after the killing, under the same circumstances, of Sheikh Yassin.

The FIDH reaffirms that the use of extra-judicial execution indeed constitutes a blatant and repeated breach of international law and of the obligations binding the State of Israel under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, as stated by the United Nations Human Rights Committee in its concluding Observations in 2003.

The FIDH recalls that any person presumably responsible in the perpetration of terrorist acts should be prosecuted according to universal norms and principles related to human rights and should be brought before an independent and impartial tribunal.

The assassination of the Hamas leader occurred after the President of the United States gave his support to further annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank by the Israeli Government and to the denial of the right of return to the Palestinian refugees.

The FIDH asserts that no one shall impose a « solution » to one of the parties involved in the conflict especially when this solution is planned in violation of the relevant UN resolutions; it deplores that once again the governement of the United States stands above the basic principles of international law and thus hinders any further, real and serious negotiations between the parties.

The FIDH recalls that a sustainable solution negotiated by the parties shall rely on the relevant UN resolutions prohibiting the annexation of territories and recognizing the right of return to Palestinian refugees.

Read more