Amnesty:Israel violates geneva conventions

Amnesty International said on Tuesday it is concerned about the violations of prisoner rights in both the case of Gilad Shalit and the Palestinian prisoners as well as problems concerning the prisoner swap itself between the Palestinians and Israel. Amnesty International has long worked for the humane treatment of Gilad Shalit while detained by Palestinian armed groups as well as for the rights of Palestinian prisoners detained by the Israeli authorities. Amnesty has also repeatedly called on both sides not to use prisoners as bargaining chips, said an Amnesty statement. Areas of concern regarding the swap itself include the fact that a good number of the Palestinian prisoners being released are from the West Bank, but are being sent to the Gaza Strip where they will be entirely cut off from their families with no possibility of visits. While under the Oslo Accords and international humanitarian law the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip are recognized as a single territorial unit, Israel maintains a highly restrictive closure regime on the strip that rarely, if ever, allows Palestinians living from Gaza access to the West Bank or vice versa. Also, 41 prisoners, including one woman, will be exiled abroad. And although it is unclear whether they are being exiled permanently or will be allowed to return to their homes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) at some point in the future – this act contravenes the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions prohibit an occupying power from forcibly transferring or deporting people from an occupied territory; in this case, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. In the event that those prisoners being exiled abroad or transferred to Gaza from the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have not given their consent, Israel would be violating its obligations under international humanitarian law, Amnesty said.