Human Rights and Democracy “SHAMS” condemned in the strongest and terms the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces by killing in cold blood and without the slightest threat against it, two Palestinian civilians, namely Fadi Adnan Qaad (37) years old, from Abu Qash village, northwest of Ramallah, while he was on his way to take his family home on Friday 5/29/2020 and the citizen Iyad Khairy Al-Hallaq (32), a disabled young man from the city of Jerusalem, on Saturday 5/30/2020. The occupation forces fired (8) bullets at the citizen Al-Hallaq while he was driving his car to the (Elon Bakria Industrial School) designated for people with disabilities over the age of (18) years in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, which caused his death on the spot, while he suffers from an intellectual disability and problems with hearing and vision. As for the Qaad, he was targeted by the occupation soldiers stationed on a settler street between the villages of Deir Nizam and Al- Nabi Saleh, west of Ramallah, by firing a heavy barrage of bullets at his car and then leaving him to bleed for about (3) hours without providing him with any form of aid, while he was heading to accompany his five children and his wife from the home of her parents returning them to their home in Abu Qish village.
“SHAMS” Center stresses that the two crimes of murder by the occupation forces, are two full-fledged field executions outside the law and the judiciary. It reiterates its call on the international community to provide international protection for Palestinian civilians from the continued attacks of the Israeli occupation soldiers and the terror practiced by its settlers, and break the silence that suggests to Israel, the occupying authority, that its crimes are acceptable and that it will remain above international law and human rights charters and over accountability.
“SHAMS” Center places the international community in front of its responsibilities, by stressing the necessity of using all available tools to stop the systematic crimes committed by the occupation system and its tools against the defenseless Palestinian people, including the investigation of war crimes of occupation before the International Criminal Court based on the Rome Statute, and bringing occupation leaders for justice.
“SHAMS” Center calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949 regarding the protection of civilian persons to implement their obligations under the first common article, which stipulates: “The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect this agreement and ensure its respect in all cases” and to convert the duty to ensure respect into serious behavior and organized practice, in concerted efforts with civil and international organizations, particularly those working in the field of persons with disabilities.
“SHAMS” Center calls upon the UN special rapporteurs, especially the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, to play their role in exposing the crimes of the occupation and highlighting them internationally, and for Palestinian diplomacy to play a greater role in exposing the occupation’s violations and crimes in a way that leads to its international isolation and to provide international protection for the Palestinian People.