Israeli Attorney General Opposes Expulsion, France Warns Israel
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Israeli practices against the Palestinians violate Genva Conventions |
JERUSALEM,
July 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Israeli government's
legal adviser Friday opposed a plan to expel to the Gaza Strip the
families of West Bank Palestinian resistance activists linked to
anti-Israeli attacks. Meanwhile, France warned that if Israel went
ahead with the forced expulsion, it would be violating the Geneva
Conventions.
Elyakim
Rubinstein, Israel’s Attorney General, said the expulsion of family
members was only possible in cases of "tangible evidence of their
direct involvement in terrorist activity", Israel’s Radio said,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He
voiced his opposition to the controversial proposal during a meeting
with the army's chief military prosecutor and security officials.
The
officials of Israel's Shin Beth internal security services, who took
part in the meeting, were in favor of expelling the families of
suspected militants as a deterrent for future "human bombs",
the radio added.
Rubinstein
said that he would be holding emergency consultations with senior
figures in the Israeli Defense
Ministry 'in the very near future,' to discuss the legality of the
planned expulsions, according to Israeli
daily newspaper Ha’aretz.
Early
Friday in the West Bank, the Israeli army seized 21 male relatives of
resistance activists linked to the anti-Israeli attacks during the
past week and threatened to deport them to the Gaza Strip.
Rubinstein,
however, gave his green light to the destruction of homes belonging to
relatives of bombers or other Palestinian activists suspected of
planning attacks, AFP reported.
Marking
the seriousness of the Israeli illegal practices against the
Palestinians, France Friday warned that expelling relatives of
Palestinian freedom fighters would be a violation of the Geneva
Conventions.
"The
4th Geneva Convention applies in this case," French Foreign
Ministry spokesman Francois Riveasseau told a media conference,
according to AFP.
Article
147 of that convention, which protects civilians during conflicts,
states that the "unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful
confinement of a protected person" would constitute a grave
breach.
Rivasseau
stressed, however, that Israel had not yet taken that action and that
"as of right now, there is nothing to say about it".
A
senior Israeli security official said Friday that his country was
examining the possibility of expelling the detainees to the Gaza Strip
but admitted there may be "legal problems".
Israeli
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, for his part, said the authorities were
awaiting the green light for the move from a government legal adviser.
"We
have no choice, and terrorism is pushing us to take measures that we
would prefer to avoid," Peres said on public radio.
Perez
and other Israeli officials ignore the fact that any people under
occupation are entitled to resist that occupation until the liberation
of their homeland.
In
another development, the Israeli forced expulsion announcement sparked
Palestinian anger and threats of bloody retaliation from the
resistance Hamas group.
"This
dangerous measure is against the Geneva Convention, and transferring
Palestinian citizens is a war crime," chief Palestinian
negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
Nabil
Abu Rudeina, a top aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, also
warned the Israeli government not to deport the detained families,
saying it would lead to further explosions of violence.
"This
policy of transferring Palestinians will not help international
efforts to protect the peace process, but will lead to more violence
and an explosion in this area. We ask the Israeli government to stop
this policy," he said.
Hamas,
which carried out the bulk of bombings against Israel during the
Intifada, was swift to vow revenge.
"Our
answer to the Zionists will be strong and bloody, we will send
explosive messages to the Zionists everywhere we can get to,"
said the Ezzedine al-Qassem Brigades, the group's armed wing, in a
statement to AFP in Gaza City.
The
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) already warned last
month that such expulsions would be a form of "collective
punishment" banned under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Those
arrested are relatives of activists linked to Wednesday's twin Tel
Aviv bombing that killed three people, and bus ambushes in December
and last Tuesday that left 20 Israelis dead outside the Emmanuel
settlement.
The
attacks shattered four weeks of relative calm and shocked Israelis who
hoped the army's reoccupation and closures of the West Bank, launched
June 19, would grant them security.
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