From: Bill Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 04:02:37 +0100 To: Undisclosed-Recipient: ; Subject: WFTU,Press release/35 Palestine [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- [Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] WFTU press release/35 Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 14:45:07 +0200 From: "WFTU" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.solidnet.org WFTU APPEALS TO TRADE UNIONS AND DEMOCRATIC FORCES IN ALL COUNTRIES TO DEMAND IMMEDIATE END TO GENOCIDAL ATTACKS BY ISRAEL ON PALESTINE PEOPLE AND TO DEMAND IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL OF ISRAELI TROOPS FROM ALL OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) strongly condemns the intensified military attacks by Israel on the Palestinian people, which have caused huge loss of civilian lives and immense destruction of civilian property. These attacks amount to genocide and attempt at total extermination of the population. It is clear that Israel is deliberately intensifying its military actions as world attention is focussed on the US and British air attacks on Afghanistan. There have been large-scale Israeli military incursions into the Palestine territory and the ferocious assaults upon civilian populations in many Palestinian urban centres such as Ramallah, Bethlehem/Beit Jala, Nablus, Jenin, Qalqilya, Tulkarem, etc. -- during the past week. As the Palestine Trade Union Federation (PTUF) and other NGOs have pointed out, civilians have been killed trying to buy groceries for their families and in or near their homes, schools, churches and mosques. Tanks have blocked seriously injured people from being transported to hospital. Severe food shortages are resulting, especially in refugee camps (which are legally protected spaces, under international law). Israeli snipers are positioned in these areas and randomly shoot without warning at anything that moves. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, 26 Palestinians have been killed and 160 injured in the current Israeli assault between 18 - 21 October. The WFTU condemns the deliberate targeting of civilians by Israeli military forces as "wilful killings" and "wilfully causing serious injury," which are defined by Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention as "grave breaches" of that Convention. These are, indeed, "war crimes" under the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court. In addition, Israel's indiscriminate, excessive and disproportionate use of force also violates international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention. The WFTU therefore calls for urgent action by trade unions and all democratic forces in all continents to forcefully demand that the United Nations take immediate, effective measures to bring about: An immediate end to the Israeli military attacks on the Palestinian people and complete Israeli withdrawal from all occupied territories in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and immediate action to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their legitimate right to return and to self-determination and to establish their national and independent state with Jerusalem as capital. The deployment of an international protection force to protect the lives of the Palestinian people living in the occupied territories and to provide international financial and technical assistance to the Palestine Authority to help resolve the humanitarian crisis caused by the Israeli aggression. *end*
