Amnesty report urges end to West Bank separation fence

Source: Haaretz, 04-06-2007
Vice Premier Shimon Peres Monday rejected a special Amnesty International report which urged "Israel" to dismantle the West Bank fence, declaring that suicide bombings had been curtailed almost entirely since the barrier was erected.
In a report timed to coincide with this week`s 40th anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War, Amnesty on Monday also called for "Israel" to dismantle West Bank settlements and roadblocks, for the Palestinians to end attacks (retaliations) on "Israeli" settlers and for the international community to monitor both sides.
The Amnesty report also urged "Israel" to rescind other measures in the West Bank, including "Israeli" Military and police checkpoints. Apart from the fence, "The movement of Palestinians is constrained by a host of other restrictions, including over 500 checkpoints and blockades, and a network of roads for `Israeli` settlers to use (which are) off-limits to Palestinians, the 45-page Amnesty report said.
It called on "Israel" to lift the "regime of blockades and restrictions, halt the construction of the fence/wall inside the West Bank, and remove the sections already built there, and to cease the construction or expansion of `Israeli` settlements ... as a first step toward removing `Israeli` settlements and outposts."
The report also appealed to Palestinian militants to end immediately attacks on civilians and on the Palestinian Authority to take effective action to stop and prevent such attacks and bring to justice those responsible.
Report entitled `Enduring Occupation`
"For 40 years, the international community has failed adequately to address the `Israeli`-Palestinian problem; it cannot, must not, wait another 40 years to do so," Amnesty regional director Malcolm Smart said in a statement accompanying the special report, which was entitled "Enduring Occupation."
"Amnesty International is calling for the urgent deployment of an effective international human rights monitoring mechanism to monitor compliance by both parties ... with their obligations under international law," it said.
"This must be backed up with a commitment to investigate and prosecute, through the exercise of universal jurisdiction, those who commit by both sides highlighted the need for an international watchdog. war crimes or other crimes under international law.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said "Israel" already had sufficient oversight built into its own systems
Raji Sourani, head of the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said what was needed was a peacekeeping force, rather than monitors with no mandate to intervene, citing a six-nation monitoring group deployed in 1994 in the West Bank town of Hebron as an example of passive observers.
"We are calling for international protection forces," he said. "We have experienced monitoring in Hebron (al-khalil) and elsewhere. It is not effective at all. It`s shown to be impractical."