The Human Rights and Democracy Media Center “SHAMS” strongly condemns the massacre of demolishing Jerusalemites’ houses, undertaken by the Israeli occupying forces on the morning of Monday 22/7/2019 in the neighborhood of Wadi Hummus in Sur Bahir town, south of the occupied Jerusalem. Affecting (16) buildings that combine around (100) homes for Palestinians which have the necessary permits to build by the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government and displacing hundreds of residents, after beating a part of them, in the largest demolition of houses since the occupation of the city in Jerusalem of 1967.
“SHAMS” Center underlined that such acts constitute a war crime, ethnic cleansing and a crime against humanity, and breach article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention Of 1949, which prohibits the individual or collective forced transfer of persons or deportation of them from their areas of residence to other territories. Such acts also violate Article 7-1 (d) of Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which considered it a crime against humanity, and articles 6-8 of the same Statute which considered that unlawful deportation and transfer as a war crime. Hence, the Government of the extreme right of the occupying Power “Israel” is fully responsible for the displacement of hundreds of civilians as well as violation of their right to housing, and violation of the International Law and human rights conventions & norms.
“SHAMS” Center emphasized that the endorsement of the Israeli High Court on the decision of the occupation army to demolish, and rejecting the appeal filed by the affected parties to freeze the order on 21/7/2019 represent a restatement that the Israeli judiciary is part of the tools of the occupation and its colonial regime, which is biased to colonialism and legitimize racism and violations of the rights of the indigenous Palestinian people. Whereas the prompt implementation of the demotion decision few hours after rejecting the appeal filed to the court, the violent attack on the civilian residents and not allowing them to remove any contents of their houses constitute other series of international prohibited racist, discriminatory and illegal practices and form part of the facts of the crime.
“SHAMS” Center calls upon the international community to shoulder its responsibilities, to immediately provide the protection necessary for the Palestinian people under occupation and to work to halt the policy of turning a blind eye to the occupation and its practices. The center stresses that the crime of demolishing a whole neighborhood in front of all cameras and international scenes and the silence of states and international foundations, represent a state of conspiracy or disability making the Palestinian civilians losing confidence in institutions and international law as effective tools to stop the violation of human rights. “SHAMS” Center considers the increasing rate of racist and oppressive acts against the Palestinians as the instantaneous outcome of the complete American support of the racist conduct of the occupation. Also, the center calls on the international community to condemn this act and its perpetrators and to put pressure on the occupation to stop its illegal and aggressive actions against Palestinian civilians.