Barghouthi: Israeli decision to exile female ex-detainee to Gaza is a war crime

[13/04/2009 - 10:02 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)--

Dr. Mustafa Al-Barghouthi, a Palestinian lawmaker and the secretary-general of the national initiative, deplored the Israeli occupation government for banishing ex-detainee Shireen Khalil to the Gaza Strip after she served a six-year sentence in Israeli jails, saying that international law condemns such measure as a war crime.

Dr. Barghouthi said that the policy of banishment that is pursued by Israel is a coercive and illegal measure and constitutes a flagrant violation of the fourth Geneva convention which classifies deportation or transfer as a war crime whether it happens individually or collectively and bans the transfer of protected persons to occupied or unoccupied lands.

The lawmaker added that Israel trampled on international law through its ongoing violations, noting that the policy of deportation is also a violation of the Rome statute of the international criminal court.

He called on international human rights organizations to work on imposing sanctions on Israel for its violations of international law and its war crimes against the Palestinians.

For his part, Mohamed Al-Ghoul, the minister of prisoners' affairs, said that the Israeli decision to exile ex-detainee Shireen to Gaza is an attempt to legitimize deportation.

Ghoul added that this policy is a new war crime against Palestinian prisoners and an infringement of international humanitarian law, stressing that Israel deserves, in light of such violations, to be tried in international courts.

On the anniversary of the Palestinian prisoner day which is marked on April 17, the Palestinian center for the defense of prisoners appealed to all mass media to allocate a space of time and some pages to shed light on the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and reveal their suffering and difficult conditions as well as the size of Israeli violations committed against them in detention.

The center pointed out that more than 11,600 Palestinian prisoners, males, females and children in Israeli jails need serious attention to their issue especially from the media that could turn the international public opinion against Israel which practices different kinds of inhuman acts against them.

Israel reverses decision to banish woman prisoner to Gaza

Date: 12 / 04 / 2009  Time:  10:58
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

 The Israeli occupation government agreed on Sunday to allow a Palestinian woman to return home to the West Bank after releasing her from prison and sending her to the Gaza Strip.

Shirin Al-Shaikh Khalil was released from an Israeli prison and sent to Gaza earlier on Sunday. The decision to banish her to Gaza was announced on Saturday.

Qaddura Faris, head of the Palestinian Prisoner Society, said Palestinian Minister of Civil affairs Hussain Al-Shaikh managed to obtain a permit from Israel to allow Al-Shaikh to travel to the West Bank on Monday.

Ash-Sheikh was born in Gaza in 1985 and moved with her family to Ramallah in 1998. She was apprehended in 2003 and was sentenced to six years in prison. Ash-Sheikh's mother still lives in Gaza.