(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - Arye Mekel, Israel's outgoing deputy ambassador at the UN, sent a letter to the president of the UN Security Council describing last week's attack at a roadblock north of Jerusalem that killed two Palestinian bystanders and wounded six Border Policemen as an example of why the roadblocks are so important. Mekel wrote, "The continued Palestinian use of terrorism, with the support and toleration of the Palestinian leadership, is not just an ongoing and egregious violation of basic international norms, signed commitments, and the explicit terms of the road map. It is the enemy of peace in the region, and endangers the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians." He also wrote, "The firing of rockets from civilian areas in Beit Hanoun [in Gaza] is a grave violation of international humanitarian law not only because it targets innocent Israeli civilians. Palestinian residents' lives are also put at risk, and held hostage, by the continued and despicable tactics adopted by Palestinian terrorists by which innocent Palestinians are used as human shields and civilian areas are used as staging ground for terrorist atrocities in direct violation of the most basic human rights and humanitarian norms."
2004-08-19 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive