Adalah Hosts an International Delegation to Investigate the Conflict
October 6th, Adalah hosted an international delegation on a fact finding mission to investigate the widespread violence that erupted in the country in the past week. Adalah’s staff provided background information on the clashes within Arab towns in Israel and the State’s treatment of the Palestinian Arab minority during this turbulent period. The group had the opportunity to gather first-hand accounts from witnesses, injured parties, and families of victims in the villages of Nazareth, Arrabe, and Umm El Fahem.
In the morning, they were briefed on the situation by Hassan Jabareen (Director, Adalah), Mohammed Zeidan (Director, HRA), and Orna Cohn (Staff Attorney, Adalah). The delegation then visited the home of two women in Nazareth who were beaten by the police during a protest. Next, the delegation met with the family of Aseel Atilli (17), one of the victims of the conflict who was brutally beaten, and then shot by the police. Aseel’s sister, on behalf of her mother, recounted the events leading up to his death and the known facts about his murder. To end the tour, the delegation spoke to the head of the El Haya clinic in Umm El Fahem about the injuries received during clashes with the police, the shortage of medical supplies to treat them, and the difficulties the clinic faced in transporting severe cases because the police prevented ambulances from reaching the injured.
The international delegation consisted of: Iain Byrne, Researcher at the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK; Stefan August Lutgenau, Coordinator, Bruno Kreisky Foundation, Austria; Hubèrt Prévot, President de la Coordination Sud, France, on behalf of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) and the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and Per Erik Nilsson, former judge and Ombudsman on behalf of the International Committee of Jurists, Sweden.
Related:
Report on the Findings of the International Delegation -12 October 2000
