Ramallah, 30-01-08: Today‘s ruling by Israel‘s High Court sanctioning the Israeli government‘s October 2007 decision to cut fuel and electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip "is nothing less than the legitimisation of collective punishment - in direct violation of international law - by the very entity that is charged with protecting civil and human rights," said PNI Secretary General Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi today.
Dr. Barghouthi underlined that Israel‘s High Court has a history of defying international law, and of supporting policies that violate the rights of Palestinians. He explained that this latest decision has come from the same High Court that legalised Israel‘s construction of the Wall, in opposition to the July 2004 advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which termed the Wall illegal and called for its dismantlement.
He added that it is also the same judicial body that legalised some Israeli settlements, and that sanctioned the Israeli military‘s practice of the extrajudicial killing of Palestinians in certain circumstances, both of which violate international law.
"The Israeli High Court of Justice‘s legalisation of collective punishment is lending Israel‘s occupation judicial backing that violates international humanitarian and human rights law. Contrary to its function, it is also stripping Palestinians of their civil and human rights and giving them no avenue for redress," said Dr. Barghouthi.
Background: Two Years of Collective Punishment
The ruling came in response to petitions filed by several Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations seeking to reverse the Israeli government‘s fuel and electricity embargo on Gaza, which has provoked a severe humanitarian crisis in the Strip. This punitive measure further increases the intensity of the siege on Gaza, which began in June 2007. But earlier measures of collective punishment against the Gaza Strip were taken immediately after Hamas‘ electoral victory in January 2006.
Now, the current reality in the Gaza Strip is one where there is an electricity deficit of 24% and where rolling blackouts across Gaza last as long as 12 hours per day in some areas. This shortage of electricity has increased the dependence on diesel-powered generators, just as Israel has cut diesel supplies.
A statement from the Israeli human rights organization GISHA reports that "without electricity and without diesel for back-up generators, Gaza‘s sewage treatment pumps and treatment plants are pumping as much as 40 million litres of untreated sewage into the sea each day, and the supply of clean water has fallen by 30%", factors which will have serious consequences for pubic health.
Furthermore, all hospitals are now fully reliant on inadequate fuel reserves, and have reduced services and denied care to non-urgent cases as the power outages continue, and as fuel supplies run dangerously low.
Moreover, patients continue to die because Israel prevents them from accessing life-saving treatment outside of the Gaza Strip. 87 people have already died in this way since last June, including 16 children.