Al-Haq condemns the recent deaths of Ahmad Abd-el-Qadar Nazzal and Samer Jaser Arrar, which are further examples of Israel’s sustained practice of extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary killings of Palestinians.
These crimes are not isolated incidents.
In fact, they violate Palestinians’ most basic right to life and enable the ongoing violation of the most fundamental norms of international human rights and humanitarian law.
According to Al-Haq’s documentation, Samer Jaser Arrar, a 27-year-old father of three, and a “wanted” member of Hamas, was assassinated in Qarawa-Bani-Zeid, near Ramallah, on 12 February 2004.
Approximately 10 Special Forces from the Israeli occupying forces as well as an additional 10 soldiers came to his house, where he was unarmed.
They shouted “stop” in Hebrew, and immediately started shooting.
As Arrar tried to flee, he was shot twice in the upper part of the back and three times in the hips.
When a Palestinian ambulance arrived, it was prevented from giving him first aid.
Soon after, an Israeli ambulance arrived and took him away; he died on his way to the Halmish settlement.
Arrar is the 33rd “suspected militant” to be assassinated in the West Bank since January 2003.
Israel’s clear policy of “pre-emptive operations” targeting “suspected militants” is not only unjustifiable it is also illegal.
While an occupying power has the right to arrest and detain a protected person suspected of hostile activity deemed to be a security concern, it may not execute any alleged opponent.
The State of Israel commits a war crime when it willfully kills and deprives persons of the right of a fair and regular trial, and the right to appeal.
Article 3(1) of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War clearly stipulates that the “passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples” is illegal.
Further, Article 32 clearly prohibits High Contracting Parties from “…taking any measure of such a character as to cause the physical suffering or extermination of protected persons in their hands.
” In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, however, civilians are often victims of a “trigger-happy policy” by Israeli occupying forces resulting in arbitrary killings.
Nazzal, a 28-year-old farmer from Qabatia, was killed on 13 February 2004 while going to his land.
He died as approximately 50 M16 bullets pierced his body.
No warning was given to him to stop his vehicle nor was he armed or on Israel’s “wanted list” of suspected militants.
While civilian casualties can be defended under military necessity, any action endangering the life of civilian must be proportionate to the aim.
The immediacy of the threat must also be taken into consideration before acting.
Nazzal’s death was unnecessary, as he posed no immediate threat to Israeli soldiers or civilians; he died as a result of a disproportionate use of force by Israeli soldiers while other means, such as arrest, were available.
Al-Haq is also deeply disturbed by the ongoing impunity afforded to those responsible for the unlawful killings of Palestinians.
There was no attempt to arrest and detain, no credible evidence was furnished to the public domain for judicial scrutiny, those killed were not made aware of the charges against them, nor were they ever given the opportunity to refute the allegations that resulted in their deaths.
Article 146 states that, “each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches…” Israel has evidently been unwilling to enforce its obligations to protect Palestinian civilians and to investigate and try those responsible for grave breaches of the Convention.
Al-Haq urges the international community to undertake its obligation to investigate the willful killings of Ahmad Abd-el-Qadar Nazzal and Samer Jaser Arrar and bring those found responsible to justice.