Palestinian Boy Kidnapped and Burned Alive by Israelies

Memo
To the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
Requesting an Investigation in the Incident of Kidnapping and Murdering the Palestinian Boy, Mohammed Abu Khdeir

On the dawn of Wednesday 2/7/2014, Israeli settlers kidnapped and murdered the Palestinian boy Mohammed Abu Khdeir (17 years old), then burned his corpse in the Sha’fat neighborhood, east of Occupied Jerusalem. News was received with rage among Palestinian youth in Occupied Jerusalem, which led to clashes with the Israeli Occupation army, leaving tens of causalities among Palestinians.

The Israeli Occupation Authorities had at many times effaced evidence related to crimes committed by settlers and/or soldiers in killing Palestinian civilians, in a clear violation to the principles of international criminal justice. According to international and Israeli reports, nearly 90% of official investigations in cases related to settlers’ infringements were closed without charging or suing anyone.

The Israeli Occupation Authorities has long been arming settlers in the settlements of the West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem, in addition to providing settlers with military training on carrying and using arms, as part of a systematic approach to expel Palestinian civilians and confiscate their lands. Settlers are armed with no exception, including their children, women and various family members. The Israeli Occupation’s border police enlist male and female school students in settlements, i.e. those aged 16 to 18 years old, and arm them with automatic M-16 rifles, deferring to them the tasks of harassing and expelling Palestinian workers and inspecting Palestinian civilians and civilian cars at military checkpoints.

The criminal incident of killing Mohammed Abu Khdeir is not the first of its kind to happen, neither the first where the evidence is effaced, because such an incident is in essence part of a systematic approach adopted by Israeli decision makers and official at the highest levels.

Since Israeli investigations were proven to lack the needed credibility in many previous criminal cases, the Palestinian Association for Human Rights requests the following:
1. Requests that the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) urgently opens an investigation in the death of the Palestinian boy, Mohammed Abu Khdeir. The demonstration of a serious international will to investigate such cases and hold the Israeli Occupation responsible for its various violations and crimes shall contribute largely to limiting such violations and crimes.

2. Requests that the Palestinian Liberation Organization reacts immediately towards achieving the above mentioned goal and pushes towards more serious responses on behalf of international bodies in the cases of such violations and crimes. The Palestinian leadership should consider how it can use the international agreements and conventions it had signed recently, and what other conventions it should join, to better protect and safeguard the rights of the Palestinian people from the Occupation’s continuous violations.

Beirut, July 4th 2014

The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness)