Date : 14 Feb 2021
Press release
Following the escalation of settlers’ crimes
The International Commission (ICSPR) demands international protection for the Palestinian people under occupation.
The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) renews its condemnation of the escalation of the Israeli occupation crimes against Palestinian civilians, their property and their sanctities, where the most recent of which, was the martyrdom of the citizen “Bilal Bawatna” (50 yr), Friday -12 February 2021, and the injury of two other citizens as a result of being run over by a settler near the town of Ain al-Bayda in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, in a new crime of racial discrimination and an additional violation of the minimum human rights and international humanitarian law charters.
ICSPR once again expresses its condemnation of the escalation of the settlers’ crimes against unarmed Palestinian civilians, which killed 3 citizens over the past few days, and once again it confirms that these crimes would not have occurred if it wasn’t for the silence of the international community with all its institutions, including the modesty of the international criminal accountability system. Therefore, ICSPR demands the following:
- ICSPR calls on the international community to take immediate action to secure legal protection for Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories, in a way that restores the victims’ confidence in the international law system and its effectiveness.
- ICSPR calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations contained in Article I of the Convention, according to which they undertake to respect the Convention and to ensure its respect in all cases.
- ICSPR calls on the Palestinian Authority to intensify work with the International Criminal Court, the Human Rights Council, and all international actors, to urge them to take serious action to force the occupation authorities to comply with the rules of international law, including strengthening paths of exposing the perpetrators and holding them accountable.
- ICSPR urges the new elected Prosecutor at ICC “Karim Khan” to triumph for the Palestinian victims, by initiating immediate investigations into crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in a manner that enhances the professionalism, independence and effectiveness of ICC, which is considered as a last resort for victims.
