Tuesday, July 31, 2012


EU Critical of Israel’s Human Rights Violations While Strengthening Economic Cooperation

Friday, 27 July 2012, in a statement issued by the EU-Israel Association Council, the EU-Israel Association Council (EU) sharply criticized Israel for a wide range of human rights violations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT).
Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I) and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) welcome language in the statement calling for rectification of human rights violations in Israel and the OPT. Among other issues, the statement refers to Israel’s obligation to protect the rights of the Arab-Palestinian minority, stressing the “importance to address it as a core problem in its own right,” and to seek equitable and sustainable solutions with regard to the unrecognized Arab Bedouin villages in close consultation with the communities affected.
Additionally, the statement reiterates EU support for human rights defenders as a “long-established element of the European Union’s human rights external relations policy;” condemns the “excessive recourse by Israel to administrative detention;” and urges Israel “to refrain from actions which may…curtail the freedom of association and freedom of speech [of civil society].” With these statements, as well as its condemnation of Israeli practices in the OPT, the EU has made clear its concern for ongoing human rights violations by the Israeli government.
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Israeli Intelligence Escalates Blackmail and Detention of Palestinian Patients

Physicians for Human Rights – Israel – The Israeli intelligence are continuing their policy of blackmailing patients and using the Gaza Strip’s border crossings, over which they exercise absolute control, to arrest Palestinians compelled by humanitarian needs to travel through them. Hence on Sunday, 15 July 2012, the Israeli forces arrested a patient at Erez crossing, after they had called him on a previous occasion for an interview.
According to the information available to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, on Sunday 15 July 2012, the IOF arrested Rawhi Fouad Qazaz, 43, after he left his house heading for the crossing in the morning hours on Sunday to attend an interview with the Israeli intelligence apparatus, with the aim of obtaining medical treatment at Makassed Charitable Hospital in East Jerusalem. Qazaz suffers from a disorder in the cartilage (meniscus) of his knees). He is married with three children.
According to field investigations, he received a referral from the Palestinian Directorate of Medical Services on 31 May 2012, and obtained an appointment for 6 June 2012 at Al Makassed Charitable Hospital in Jerusalem. He submitted an application to the Office of Health Coordination, which is responsible for arranging Gazan patients’ passage through Erez crossing, on 31 May 2012. He did not receive a reply.

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