Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) and Human Rights Association (İHD) condemn the Israeli police’s cruelty wounding hundreds of individuals and wish the wounded a speedy recovery. HRFT and İHD invite the Israeli state to end violence and its occupation policies, and respect human rights.
Violence by the law enforcement is alarmingly escalating all over the world from the United States to Colombia, from Turkey to the occupied Palestinian territories. Particularly the recent murder, torture, enforced disappearance, and sexual violence crimes committed by the law enforcement in Colombia that are reported by international human rights organizations point to a gross crisis of humanity.
Another facet of this crisis is the systematic violence and attacks by the Israeli state against Palestinian lands and people. Palestinians are forcibly displaced from the lands they have been living in for thousands of years and replaced by Israeli settlers in violation of universal human rights values and international law. The latest instance of this was the judgement delivered to evict Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem last week.
Such wave of harassment and attacks against the Palestinians have gained a new dimension when the Israeli police using tear-gas chemical agents, rubber bullets and stun grenades intervened in the Palestinians standing guard in Al-Aqsa Mosque on the anniversary of the occupation of East Jerusalem by Israel. İHD and HRFT condemn such cruelty by the Israeli police wounding hundreds of people and wish the wounded a speedy recovery.
All the bitter experiences of the past have clearly shown that policies of occupation and aggression undertaken by the Israeli state have served neither peace nor the Middle Eastern peoples in any way. İHD and HRFT, therefore, invite the Israeli state to end violence against and displacement of Palestinians, to respect human rights ending all sorts of discrimination, and to take a step forward for the two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders. Within this scope, the first step should be to immediately stop attacks against the Gazza Strip, which have recently been relaunched, and end full blockade practices.
İHD and HRFT also call on the international community, most notably the United Nations, to take an effective and sincere stand to end cruelty against the Palestinian people and to establish peace and justice.
Human Rights Foundation of Turkey Human Rights Association