GENEVA (OHCHR) – The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Tuesday that Israel’s refusal to allow UN expert Professor Richard Falk to transit Israel in order to carry out his officially mandated functions in the occupied Palestinian territories — along with his detention at, and subsequent expulsion from, the country’s main airport — was “unprecedented and deeply regrettable.”

Falk, who was travelling in his official capacity as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, was stopped at immigration shortly after arriving at Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday.

Following standard practice, Professor Falk travelled to Israel on his US passport and his United Nations Certificate (a document used by independent UN human rights experts during the course of their official missions). His mission was in response to an invitation to visit the occupied Palestinian territories – the official trigger required for such a mission – from the Palestinian Authority.

Professor Falk was denied entry to Israel and was subsequently separated from the two UN staff accompanying him. His UN mobile phone was confiscated, making further contact between the UN and Professor Falk impossible until after his subsequent deportation to the United States on Monday. He was kept in a detention facility at the airport, where he spent the night in a small room with several other people who were being denied entry into Israel. In all, he spent more than 20 hours in the airport, before being deposited on a plane to Los Angeles.

Special Rapporteurs do not require a formal invitation by the Israeli authorities in order to carry out official missions to the occupied Palestinian territories. In the past, the Israeli Government has not prevented Falk’s predecessors or other Special Rapporteurs from transiting Israel on their way to the occupied Palestinian territories, which cannot be reached directly from overseas.

The Government of Israel was informed in writing on two occasions (14 October and 3 December) that the Special Rapporteur was intending to make his first official visit to the occupied Palestinian territories.

No written reply was received from the Israeli authorities indicating that they would break with their previous practice of permitting Special Rapporteurs to transit Israel on their way to the occupied Palestinian territories, until an email that was sent at 23:09 hrs on Saturday to an OHCHR staff member in Geneva. She was not in a position to read this email before leaving with Professor Falk for the airport at 6:00 a.m. the following morning.

Pillay said she was taking the matter up directly with the Israeli authorities, including possible breaches of UN privileges and immunities in the treatment and detention of Professor Falk at Ben Gurion airport.

“It is the responsibility of states to cooperate with the independent UN experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council,” Pillay said. “That is an important principle.”

ENDS

“Israel IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW”

The European Parliament suspends the vote on the upgrade of EU – Israel relations
Brussels, 4th December

The European Parliament (EP) today postponed the vote on the proposal by the EU Commission and Council for the draft recommendation to conclude a Protocol to the EU-Israel Association Agreement and on the general principles governing the State of Israel’s participation in Community programmes . The vote was originally scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, December 4, in the EP in Brussels.

This vote would have been an important step in the process of upgrading EU-Israel relations, which was requested by the Israeli Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tzipi Livni, during her hearing in the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs, within the framework of the Protocol for the Association Agreement between EU and Israel. However, the European Parliament voted differently : the majority of parliamentarians called for a postponement of the vote to another date yet to be determined, as requested by the GUE/NGL and Greens groups, with agreement from the Socialist Party, some of the Liberals (ALDE) and some MEPs from the Popular Party.

“It’s time for the Israeli Government to stop considering itself above the law and start respecting it, beginning by freezing all settlement -building activities and ending its siege on the Gaza Strip. Until the Israeli Government signals its willingness to abide by international law and especially human rights and humanitarian law, the European Parliament is not disposed to vote,” declared Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament.

“Today’s vote is an important political message, directed not against Israel, but at pushing the Israeli leadership to respect their obligations in order to achieve tangible results from the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, so that they can reach a peaceful solution and the security of the two peoples. It is also a signal to the EU Council and Commission, that they must put pressure on Israel to stop its colonization of the 1967 Occupied Palestinian Territory.

But this vote is also a sign of hope for the Palestinians, telling them that the European Parliament is not deaf to the suffering of people in Gaza and the West Bank, and that the EP is not only determined to verbally criticize the situation but to take concrete action for the respect of human rights and international law.

It is also an answer to PM Salam Fayyad, who launched an appeal to the EU to not upgrade its relations with Israel since after Annapolis there have not been improvements, neither in lifting the closures on Palestinian areas nor freezing settlements; it is also an answer to Palestinian civil society and to the NGOs that have sent many letters to European Parliamentarians.

Finally this vote is positive for us Europeans, who are showing to ourselves and to the entire world that respect for human rights and the achievement of justice are not an abstract declaration of principles,” concluded Luisa Morgantini.

INFO : Luisa Morgantini, 0039 348 39 21 465 or 0039 06 69 95 02 17; luisa.morgantini@europarl.europa.eu; http://www.luisamorgantini.net

EU Parliament vote on EU-Israel Association Agreement POSTPONED until January 2009

Dear members and supporters

Thank you very much for the overwhelming response to the action alert about the vote scheduled for tomorrow in the European Parliament, now postponed until January 2009.

Please see below the notice from the European Coordination Committee for Palestine (ECCP) to this effect.

We would like to urge you to continue asking your MEPs not to support further ties with Israel.

We will circulate further information in due course.

Best wishes.

PSC

***************************

Dear Friends,

The vote scheduled tomorrow, December 4, in the European Parliament has been postponed until January 2009.

The request for the postponent was tabled by the Socialist Group in the EP, on the ground of the extreme situation in Gaza.

Thanks to all for the mobilization, which needs to be maintained to protest agaisnt the vote which is now scheduled at the beginning of 2009.

Warm regards,

Pierre Galand,
President ECCP

Please can you advise if you have any part time job opportunities open at the moment.

Please can you contact me on my email address, as above for further details.

Thank you for your time, i look forward to your response.

Kindest Regards,

Saima Nadeem

It’s a sick joke.