On Sunday, 27 January 2008, the Israeli High Court held a hearing session to consider a request to issue an injunction, which would prevent the Israeli government's halt or reduction of fuel and electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip.
The request was filed by ten human rights organizations, including Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.
The applicants held that the Israeli government's measures represented illegal collective punishment on the entire population.
Such actions sparked a severe humanitarian crisis, threatening the lives and well-being of civilians and must, therefore, be prevented.
Two hours before the hearing started, a representative of the Israeli government made a statement in which he declared the government's intention to resume fuel and electricity supplies.
However, such amounts fail to meet the needs of the Gazan population.
The government's statement declared the amounts of fuel and electricity Israel intends to supply the Strip in the near future.
Al Mezan observes that these amounts fall short of meeting the minimum needs of the population, which reflects the government's insistence on collective punishment (See http://www.
haaretz.
com/hasen/spages/947120.
html, for a statement by Israel's Prime Minister on the nature and scope of these measures).
It states that the amount of electricity will be reduced by 7.
5%.
It also indicates that Israel intends to supply 800,000 liters of ordinary diesel weekly, compared with the 1.
4 million liters that Gaza needs.
This represents a forty-three percent reduction.
It also states that Israel will allow 2.
2 million liters of industrial diesel (used only for electricity generation) weekly, which represents only 37.
2% of the power station's requirements for operation.
Additionally, the government statement ignored a request to supply the station with 2 million liters of industrial diesel to compensate reserves it consumed over the past months.
Other reductions included gasoline (by 78%) and cooking gas.
The government's statement failed to respond to the basic questions raised in the organization's request, which argued that any measures that do not observe the basic humanitarian needs of Gaza's population are illegal under international law.
Instead, the statement focused on the security threats emanating from the Gaza Strip against Israel, and stressed the right of the government to confront them.
While it focused on the threats and the right to avert them, it did not address three questions that constitute the essence of the protection that International Humanitarian Law (IHL) provides for civilians that suffer under alien occupation.
Those are: the means for confronting the threats, in which Israel's occupation forces (IOF) impose collective punishment directly on the entire population, rather than on specific targets; the consequences of the IOF's procedures, that caused a severe humanitarian crisis and threatens the lives and welfare of civilians without discrimination; and, the establishment of linkages between punitive measures and real security threats, and the way in which punishment of civilians and children would reduce such threats.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights strongly condemns Israel's insistence on employing indiscriminate collective punishment against Gaza's population.
The IOF's measures have infringed on civilians humanitarian needs and created several crises in the past.
They represent a flagrant disregard of civilian life and well-being, as well as a breach of Israel's obligations as an occupying power under binding rules of IHL.
Al Mezan reiterates its calls upon the international community to intervene urgently and effectively to stop IOF's collective punishment on the Gaza Strip.
The international community should act upon its legal and moral obligations and ensure the lifting of Israel's restrictions on the movement of people and goods to and from the Strip, and to protect its civilians.
The Center appeals to the international community to invest political capital in order to prevent the gross human rights violations in the OPT and not to restrict its role in providing humanitarian aid.
In the words of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in her address to the sixth Special Session of the Human Rights Council on 23 January 2008, "[T]he denial of basic and fundamental rights can not be compensated for by permitting a trickle of charity".
END