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 Palestinians respond to Amnesty human rights report
RAMALLAH, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian officials in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Thursday expressed divergent opinions over the Amnesty International report, which criticized the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories during the year 2009.
The newly unveiled annual report of global human rights issued by London-based Amnesty International on Thursday accused Israel of committing "war crimes and violating the international laws during the Cast Lead offensive in the Gaza Strip from Dec. 27, 2008 until Jan. 18, 2009.
The report also slammed the Palestinians, mainly the Hamas movement, for firing rockets at civilian communities in Israel, kidnapping and killing 30 Palestinians accused for being collaborators with Israel and holding in Gaza captivity the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit since June 2006.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) reiterated that the PNA has been committed to the general criteria of human rights in the West Bank.
Ghassan al-Khatib, spokesman of the PNA in the West Bank, told Xinhua in a comment to the Amnesty International report "The PNA is doing its best to be committed to the human rights general criteria."
However, he said that "if there is exception to the criteria, the PNA will study, debate and reconsider it. The PNA has always been concerned about the human rights issue."
Meanwhile, the Gaza-ruling Hamas authorities said that the criticism directed to the movement in the report is "unfair."
Ismail Radwan, spokesman of Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, told Xinhua the Amnesty International report on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, mainly in the Gaza Strip, "makes false charges and lacks accuracy."
The real criminal is the one behind the Cast Lead military aggression, which was carried out by the Israeli occupation against the Gaza Strip last year, during which children and women were killed and houses were destroyed," said Radwan.
He called on the international human rights institutions "to be more objective in evaluating the crimes committed by Israel," adding "they should avoid decorating their reports by directing false accusations against the Hamas movement."
Asked about the accusations of the report, which were directed at Israel, Radwan said "Hamas supports this part of the report because it shows the real nature of Israel which is built based on terrorism and carrying out war crimes against humanity."
"Israel is very dangerous to humanity and world's peace," said Radwan, calling on the international community "to accuse and sue the criminals of war, the Israelis who committed awful war crimes against the defenseless Palestinian people," said Radwan.
In December 2008, Netanyahu's predecessor Ehud Olmert launched a devastating 22-day attack on the Palestinian territory in a bid to halt persistent rocket fire into Israeli towns, during which around 1,440 people were killed, most of them civilians, and thousands of houses were destroyed.
(2010-05-27/Xinhua )
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