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UNHRC: Palestinian Resistance Of Israeli Occupation Legitimate
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| Palestinians
walk through what used to be their homes in the Jenin refugee
camp
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GENEVA,
April 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The United Nations
Human Rights Commission approved on Monday, April 15, resolutions
criticizing Israeli activities in the occupied Arab territories,
including Palestine, affirming the "legitimate right of the
Palestinian people to resist the Israeli occupation".
The
resolution expressed "grave concern" at the deterioration of
human rights and the humanitarian situation in the occupied
Palestinian territories, particularly "at acts of mass killings
perpetrated by the Israeli occupying authorities against the
Palestinian people".
The
Commission strongly condemned violations by Israeli occupation
authorities of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It
also strongly criticized the war launched by the Israeli army against
Palestinian towns and camps, which had so far resulted in the deaths
of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including women and children,
said the UNHRC on its website.
The
resolution also condemned, the establishment of Israeli settlements,
and the practice of "liquidation" or extra-judicial
executions carried out by the Israeli army against Palestinians, and
called upon Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
In
a resolution adopted by a vote of 30 in favor and 15 opposed, with 8
abstentions, the Commission among other things expressed deep concern
at negative stereotyping of religions; expressed deep concern that
Islam was frequently and wrongly associated with human rights
violations and with terrorism.
It
also expressed concern at any role in which the print, audio-visual or
electronic media were used to incite acts of violence, intolerance and
discrimination towards Islam and any other religion; and requested the
Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief to examine the
situation of Muslim and Arab peoples in the aftermath of the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001 and to submit a preliminary study on his
findings to the fifty-ninth session of the Commission.
The
United States, Israel's traditional ally in the 53-member commission,
was not able to vote, having lost its seat on the body last year,
reported the BBC’s online news service.
While
the EU has presented a united front on other resolutions concerning
the Middle East at the UN Human Rights Commission, the EU members of
the forum found themselves divided over the latest text, presented by
Arab and Islamic countries, Cuba and China, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
Austria,
Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain and Sweden all backed the resolution
in order to "send a strong signal" to Israel, a diplomatic
source said.
Although
Britain and Germany voted against the resolution, it was adopted with
the support of 40 of the Commission's 53 members. Five voted against,
and seven members, including Italy, abstained. One country did not
vote.
The
vote came as monitors of the International Committee of the Red Cross
were the first international aid workers to be allowed to enter the
refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin.
The
U.N. resolution also affirms the "legitimate right of the
Palestinian people to resist the Israeli occupation". The words
"by all available means" were removed from the original
draft after discussions between the European Union and Organization of
the Islamic Conference.
Israel's
ambassador to the U.N., Yaakov Levy, denounced the resolution as
"one-sided and inflammatory" and "full of wild
inaccurate exaggerations".
"No
blame is placed on the Palestinian Authority that initiated the
violence", he said, adding that it also failed to condemn
“suicide” bombers.
Meanwhile
on Monday, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson was
ready to leave on a Middle East fact-finding mission late Monday but
was still waiting for Israeli approval, her spokeswoman said.
"As
soon as we have the green light from Israel, we'll leave, there is a
flight this evening, we have reservations," spokeswoman Veronique
Taveau told journalists.
"But we still do not have it. That doesn't mean it's a no,"
she added.
Robinson,
and the other members of the mission, former Spanish prime minister
Felipe Gonzalez, and the former secretary general of South Africa's
ruling African National Congress party (ANC), Cyril Ramaphosa, are
meant to report back to the U.N. Human Rights Commission before its
annual session closes here on April 26.
The
High Commissioner later said she had received written Israeli
assurances that the visit to Israel state and the Palestinian
territories was "still under active review", and noted a new
impetus to peacemaking efforts.
"A
process must be instituted to account for the death and destruction
that has taken place," she told the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
"Our
mission can play a preliminary role in that regard," Robinson
said, adding that it would be "essential for the peace process to
be based on human rights foundations".
Taveau
said the U.N. mission would also like to visit the Jenin refugee camp.
On
Friday, April 12, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed for the
urgent deployment of a force to the Middle East, saying escalating
violence was "an affront to the conscience of mankind."
The
UN chief offered little detail however on the shape, mandate or
circumstances of deployment of a foreign force, which has been
repeatedly demanded by the Palestinians but consistently opposed by
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Annan
said: "My own view is that the situation is so dangerous and the
humanitarian and human rights situation so appalling ... that I think
the proposition that a force should be sent in there ... can no longer
be deferred."
"That
capacity exists in the world today, we must now muster the will,"
he added, without offering details on the nature, makeup or mission of
the force.
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