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The Israeli Supreme Court accused Kfiah (L) and Intisar (C) of assisting their brother in a carrying out a bomb attack
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, Aug 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel expelled
Wednesday to the Gaza Strip, the brother and sister of a slain West Bank
resistance fighter after a landmark Israeli court ruling, news agencies
reported.
The
army took Kifah and Intissar Adjuri, brother and sister of Ali Adjuri, a
slain West Bank chief of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, from their
Israeli prison at around 11:00 am (0800 GMT). The trip to Gaza was to
take about two hours, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Their
brother Ali, killed by Israeli forces in August, was accused of
organizing a double bomb attack that killed five people, plus the
bombers, in Tel Aviv on July 17. Their expulsion, condemned by
international rights groups as well as by the Palestinian leadership, is
the first of its kind since the start of the intifada, or Palestinian
uprising, in September 2000, AFP said.
The
army hopes the move will serve as a deterrent to future attackers. It
suffered a blow when the Israeli Supreme Court forbade it from banishing
a third man, saying there was no proof he had actually helped his
brother prepare an attack.
The
court said the Adjuris had knowingly aided their brother prepare for his
deadly strike. Military sources said police would give the
Adjuris 1,000 shekels (200 dollars) and several bottles of water and
then dump them at the Erez crossing into the northern Gaza Strip, sealed
off by a security fence from the outside world, reported AFP.
Israeli
daily Yediot Aharonot said that following the court decision Tuesday,
authorities are planning to "relocate" a dozen other relatives
accused of complicity in attacks to Gaza.
There
was some confusion among the Palestinian leadership, with one official
saying they would refuse entry to the deportees, while another senior
official said there were no grounds for such a move.
Chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat described the court decision to allow
the army to go ahead with the threatened banishment of two out of three
militants' relatives as "collective punishment" and a
"black day for human rights," said AFP. He said the
Palestinian Authority would take the case to the UN Security Council.
The
Israeli court said Intissar Adjuri "directly helped her brother by
sewing the belt containing the explosives which he used in the
attack," although Intissar had earlier pleaded in a military court
that she did not know how to sew.
It
said Kifah provided his sibling with a hide-out and acted as a look-out
while the explosives were being transported.
Meanwhile,
Human Rights group Amnesty International blasted the Supreme
Court's decision as a "war crime" as did the Gaza-based
Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
“The
Israeli government claims that it cannot try them because this would
expose the source of the evidence against them.
"Today's ruling effectively allows for a grave violation of one of
the most basic principles of international human rights law - notably
the right of any accused to a fair trial and to challenge any evidence
used against them," Amnesty International said on their website.
"Anyone suspected of a recognizably criminal offence should
be promptly charged and brought to trial. Otherwise, they should be
released," the organization added.
Amnesty added that the ruling also allows for a grave breach of
international humanitarian law. According to the Fourth
Geneva Convention, Palestinians living in the territories which have
been under Israeli military occupation since 1967 are protected persons
the organization said.
"The unlawful forcible transfer of protected persons constitutes a
war crime under both the Fourth
Geneva Convention and the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court. Under the Rome Statute
such violations may also constitute crimes against humanity," said
Amnesty International.
”Amnesty International believes that such unlawful forcible transfer
of relatives of people allegedly responsible for attacks against
Israelis is being used by the Israeli government and army as a form of
collective punishment. Such measure is forbidden by Article 33 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention, which states that: ‘No protected person may be
punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed’, said
the organization.
