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MADRID,
April 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – A Nobel Peace Prize
nominee Thursday accused Israel of committing crimes against humanity,
while a Knesset Member called for International Court of Justice (ICJ)
to investigate Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinians.
The
Spanish judge who led international efforts to prosecute former Chilean
dictator Augusto Pinochet for war crimes issued a statement accusing
Israel of committing "crimes against humanity" against the
Palestinians, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Certain
attacks and measures ordered and sponsored by (Israeli Prime Minister)
Ariel Sharon, which extend reprisals and violence to Palestinian
civilians ... are crimes against humanity," Judge Baltazar Garzon
said in a statement to mark his nomination as a candidate for the 2002
Nobel Peace Prize.
Everyone
wants to see an end to attacks against Israel by Palestinian activists,
he said, but such attacks "in no way authorize any state to engage
in illegal responses."
Garzon,
however, stopped short of calling on Israel to end the bloodshed in the
Middle East by withdrawing from the Palestinian areas and giving them
their rights endorsed by the international legitimacy.
The
statement marked Garzon's nomination for the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for
his efforts "to protect human rights and end impunity",
according to the group sponsoring his candidacy, including former UNESCO
Director General Federico Mayor Zaragoza.
Commenting
on a separately related matter, Garzon welcomed the ratification
Thursday at the United Nations of a plan to create an International
Criminal Court to try cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against
humanity, saying it was "a key peace initiative".
"This
tribunal is an efficient instrument for trying cases of genocide, war
crimes, impunity and crimes against humanity," he said.
Meanwhile,
Israeli Arab deputy Mohammad Barakeh urged the ICJ to open an enquiry
into the "war crimes" perpetrated by Israel in reoccupied
Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
In
a letter to the ICJ, the communist MP accused the Israeli forces,
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben
Eliezer of carrying out "war crimes" in the West Bank,
according to AFP.
The
Israeli army launched on March 29 its largest military aggression inside
the occupied Palestinian territories since the 1967 Middle East war,
invading six West Bank cities, killing at least 200 Palestinians.
Accusing
Israel of "serious violations of human rights and humanitarian
conventions," Barakeh called for the "sending of an ICJ
investigation mission to the Palestinian territories."
"The
Israeli army has indiscriminately shelled refugee camps, using
helicopters, warplanes, tanks and heavy artillery, killing hundreds of
people. Medical assistance has been denied, hospitals have been
shelled," said Barakeh's letter.
"The
population is starving because of the curfew, while water pipes and
electricity networks have been destroyed," the MP went on.
Two
days ago, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud called for the Israeli
leadership to appear in front of the ICJ for the "massacres"
committed by the army in the Palestinian territories.
Barakeh,
from the Hadash party, which counts both Israeli Arab and Jewish
members, is a vocal critic against Israel's hard line premier. He
recently lost an appeal with the Supreme Court to rule as illegal
Israel's policy of assassinating Palestinian resistance activists.
