El 5 de febrero de 2021, NEHAWU presentó un Memorando de reivindicaciones a la Embajada de Israel en Pretoria, Sudáfrica, subrayando la reivindicación de liberación de los niños Palestinos presos en las cárceles israelíes, en el marco de la Campaña Internacional de la FSM.
MEMORANDUM OF DEMANDS TO THE EMBASSY OF ISRAEL
Submitted on
Thursday, 05 February 2021
Pretoria, SOUTH AFRICA
TO : EMBASSY OF ISRAEL
ATT : AMBASSADOR LIOR KEINAN
FROM : NEHAWU
On behalf of the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) a member of the World Federation of Trade Unions we submit this memorandum of demands to you as part of the WFTU international campaign to “release all Palestinian Child Prisoner now!”
We reiterate our position in support of the right of Palestinians to an independent, sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, the existence of this state within the borders of 1967, the return of all Palestinian refugees, the dismantling of the apartheid wall and the freedom for the Palestinian prisoners who struggle for their independent homeland from the Israeli jails.
We condemn the racist ideology of Zionism, which is essentially a counter-revolutionary movement of the big bourgeoisie enjoying all the support of imperialist financial moguls throughout the world.
We condemn the settlement expansion over Palestinian territory by your Zionist occupation forces that continue ad nauseam. The ongoing construction of these illegal settlements is in violation of international law.
We condemn the continued human rights’ violations of Palestine by the Israeli government. The unsolicited violent attacks on unarmed Palestinian people including women, children and youth: harassment, arrests, imprisonment of children, torture, killings\murders, restriction of fundamental rights such as freedom of movement, freedom of opinion and of expression including the right to self-determination and independence prevent children from leading happy and healthy lives even before birth.
At the end of September 2020, there were 4,184 Palestinian security detainees and prisoners being held in Israel Prison Service (IPS) facilities. At the end of 2020, Israeli security forces killed 27 Palestinians, seven of them minors: one in the Gaza Strip, 23 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three inside Israel. The Palestinians killed posed no threat to the lives of the forces or any other person at the time they were shot, if at all, and the forces fired at them with no justification.
The prisoners are being held in solitary confinement in inhumane conditions, while Israel has passed a law imposing stricter conditions.
No measures were taken during the pandemic to protect prisoners in Israeli jails. The reasons why the Palestinians are being arrested is because they oppose the Israeli occupation of their territories and the criminal policy of Israel, which daily subjects them to difficulties, dangers and restrictions.
As for the child prisoners, since 2000, an estimated 12 000 Palestinian children have been arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and held in Israeli military prisons, many of them as young as 12 years old. In some cases, even children aged 6 and 7 have been imprisoned by the army. Israel brings before the military courts 500-700 Palestinian children each year, while on average, 200-300 children are held in Israeli prisons per month.
Children are violently arrested, abused, interrogated for weeks, intimidated, locked up in solitary confinement, asked to sign documents in Hebrew that they do not understand, not allowed to see their parents, who sometimes lose their traces as they carry them from prison to prison.
The arrested children are also being interrogated, detained and tried by Israeli soldiers and military personnel. This violates international law, which stipulates that military courts may be used to prosecute civilians only temporarily. Despite signing both the 4th Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians in time of war and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides for specific protection measures for children in detention, Israel is the only country to put on trial children in military courts without proper guarantees. The children, even when released, have problems with their physical and mental health due to their imprisonment and detention conditions in Israeli prisons.
Your government continues with its diabolic military checkpoints, the killing fields of young Palestinians who are resisting the occupation. You are in gross violation of International humanitarian law, the fourth Geneva convention, the Hague convention and many other pieces in international laws.
In our submission of this memorandum, we demand from your fascistic government:
- Immediate release of Palestinian prisoners especially children
- The equal distribution of the COVID- 19 vaccination to Palestinians
- That Israel end the occupation and dismantle the apartheid wall, which contravenes international law
- A universal right of return for Palestinian refugees
- Full equality for Palestinians
- An end to the colonial settler expansionism of Israel
- Stop all forms of human rights violations including the killing of civilians on a daily basis which traumatises young children
The NEHAWU joins the international, class-oriented trade union movement WFTU in calling for the recognition of the independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and demanding the release of all Palestinian prisoners, especially children.
The spirit of internationalism seeking justice for all will forever guide our response to such injustices.
Forward with a free Palestine forward!
An injury to one is an injury to all!
Freedom for Palestinian prisoners and child prisoners!