Sunday 27 March 2011

European campaign welcomes UNHRC decision to open Gaza crossings

[ 26/03/2011 - 04:49 PM ]

BRUSSELS, (PIC)-- The European campaign to end the siege on Gaza has said a recently passed decision by the UN Human Rights Council to open Gaza's crossings will ”lose importance” if left unenforced.

”Although it has come late, it came in the right direction, and it requires active pursuit of its implementation,” the campaign said.

It said the region falls at risk of disaster as Israel has launched several airstrikes killing civilians while maintaining an economic blockade that is responsible for a dangerous depletion of needed medical supplies in the Strip.

The UNHRC has passed a resolution that orders the opening of the Karni crossing on Gaza's border with Israel and the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border in order to ensure the flow of food, basic supplies, and UN agencies deployed to the occupied Palestinian territories.

The UNHRC has also voted on four resolutions regarding the Israel-Palestinian conflict, including a decision asking the UN Security Council to review the Goldstone report, which includes holding several Israeli military leaders at the International Criminal Court to be tried for war crimes committed in the 2008-2009 attack on Gaza.

The Palestinian foreign ministry under PM Haneyya's cabinet condemned the US over bias towards Israel during the voting process.

The ministry said the slight measures the UNHRC took concerning West Bank settlement construction were not proportionate to the scale of property confiscated daily by the Israeli occupation authorities.

According to the fourth Geneva convention, it is classified a war crime to transfer Israeli residents to occupied territories.

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