Today, Thursday, 2 February 2012, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon arrived in the Gaza Strip, as part of his visit to Israel and occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).
 The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights welcomes the UN Secretary-General’s visit to the oPt and to the Gaza Strip in particular.
 Al Mezan emphasizes the importance of this visit and others by UN officials.
 Al Mezan takes this occasion to emphasize the following points:   ·         Palestinians in the oPt suffer from continuous violations of international humanitarian law and human rights principles.
 Israeli settlement activities continue as the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) forcibly evict and displace thousands of Palestinians, while Jewish families are simultaneously encouraged to take up residence in emptied Palestinian homes and Jewish-only settlements.
 These acts continue despite the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice confirming that the Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, is under military occupation.
 The international community must uphold its obligations and end these Israeli violations, rather than accepting the imposition of facts on the ground.
·         The IOF continues to carry out attacks on Palestinians, sowing death and injury.
 The IOF has also entrenched its abuse of Palestinian detainees.
 It continues to practice ethnically discriminatory policies and to domestically “legalize” violations of human rights and IHL.
 Under the Israeli justice system, Palestinians are arrested without charge (“administrative detention”), in flagrant violation of IHL and international human rights law.
 In addition, the IOF continues to destroy infrastructure and business and industrial facilities.
·         Despite all the efforts undertaken, the position of the UN Special Rapporteurs and particularly of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in the oPt, as well as the position of independent international experts, the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip continues.
  The siege deprives Palestinians of their ability to enjoy their rights and prevents a real start to the rebuilding of Gaza.
 This contributes to the deterioration and undermining of the human rights situation in the Gaza Strip.
·         Conditions for wide sectors of Palestinian society have deteriorated in recent years, particularly in the Gaza Strip and especially for refugees, whose suffering has continued since 1948.
 The international community has failed to put an end to this suffering.
 Today, the situation of farmers, fishermen, students, and patients has deteriorated.
 Israel’s discriminatory policies split apart Palestinian families and increase the collective punishments imposed on the population in the Gaza Strip.
  Despite the deteriorated situation and the failure of the international community to achieve justice, Palestinians have not lost their hope in the UN and the role it plays.
 Palestinians look to the UN Charter and international conventions relating to human rights and IHL and hold on to the hope that the day will come when the world stands up for them by applying principles of international justice, guaranteeing respect for human rights, and bringing to justice violators of IHL and IHRL.
  The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights asserts the right of Palestinians to express their opinions and to criticize the UN, its affiliated bodies, and its employees.
 Al Mezan knows that the angry reactions of some are due to frustration with the continuous Israeli crimes and the failure of the international community to end them.
 Palestinian victims and their families feel disregarded as UN officials ignore them when they visit the Gaza Strip.
  Therefore, Al Mezan again welcomes the visit of the UN Secretary-General and rejects the attack on his convoy by angry people.
 Al Mezan calls on all Palestinians to encourage visits by UN officials and to send invitations to them, as this guarantees that UN officials will have a real awareness of the situation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and encourage them to achieve justice.
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