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Middle East civil rights urged at Geneva meet

An international conference in Geneva on Wednesday called on both Israelis and Palestinians to respect humanitarian rights laws in the occupied territories, but was condemned by Israel as a "political exercise".

Middle East civil rights urged at Geneva meet
Photo: The Local

Switzerland gathered diplomats from 126 of the 196 signatories of the Geneva Conventions to discuss protections for civilians, fulfilling a five-year-old request for such a conference from the UN General Assembly.

But the United States and Israel shunned the talks, held amid mounting tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, warning that the event threatened Switzerland's role as neutral arbiter.

The conference ended in a ten-point declaration condemning Israel's actions in the occupied territories and also reminding both sides of the protracted conflict of their obligations to protect civilians.

Paul Fivat, Switzerland's special ambassador for the Geneva Conventions, said the intention was "not to accuse, it was not a tribunal.. it was a place simply for the parties to reiterate what is international law".

"This declaration is a signal that is being sent to conflicting parties, especially the civilian populations, that there is a law which is protecting their interests," he told reporters.

But the Israeli foreign ministry said the talks undermined international law and "confers legitimacy on terrorist organizations and dictatorial regimes wherever they are".

"The conference convened today in Geneva was a political exercise, lacking any basis in the Geneva Conventions," the ministry said in a statement.

It added: "It won't stop Israel from implementing its primary obligation to its citizens — to provide them with security and protect them from merciless and fanatic terrorists (who) do not hide their desire to see Israel wiped off the map of the Middle East."

The US also boycotted the conference, saying that it "risks politicizing the Geneva Conventions".

Fivat took pains to stress that the conference was held in response to a 2009 recommendation from the UN General Assembly at the request of Palestinian authorities, and that all signatories of the Conventions were invited.

Initial consultations on a conference were suspended in 2011 before being re-launched in July.

The Palestinian envoy to the UN Human Rights Council, Ibrahim Khraishi, said before the conference that he hoped it would "be helpful to remind the Israelis of their obligations to respect the Geneva Conventions".

The conference, attended by permanent representatives to the UN, focused on the Fourth Convention, which defines humanitarian protections for civilians in a war zone.

The final declaration reiterated the prohibition on all parties from conducting indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, attacking protected targets such as schools and hospitals, and using civilians as human shields.

It also condemned Israel's towering concrete separation barrier that runs deep inside the West Bank, as well as Jewish settlements and the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

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ISRAEL

Former Israeli soldier attacked on Berlin street

A former Israeli soldier was attacked in the German capital Berlin, police said Saturday, with one or several unknown assailants spraying him with an irritant and throwing him to the ground.

Former Israeli soldier attacked on Berlin street
Israeli soldiers on operation near the Gaza Strip. Photo: dpa | Ilia Yefimovich

The 29-year-old was wearing a top with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) logo when the attackers started harassing him on Friday about his religion, the police added, calling it “an anti-Semitic attack”.

Officers are seeking the assailants, who fled immediately after the attack, on suspicion of a politically-motivated crime.

Saturday is the second anniversary of an attack by a far-right gunman on a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle, who killed two in a rampage when he failed to break into the house of worship.

It was one of a string of incidents that led authorities to declare the far right and neo-Nazis Germany’s top security threat.

Also this week, a musician claimed he was turned away from a hotel in eastern city Leipzig for wearing a Star-of-David pendant.

While the allegations prompted a fierce response from a Jewish community unsettled by increasing anti-Semitic crimes, several investigations have been mounted into contradictory accounts of the incident.

In 2019, police recorded 2,032 anti-Semitic crimes, an increase of 13 percent year-on-year.

“The threat is complex and comes from different directions” from jihadists to the far right, the federal government’s commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism Felix Klein said recently.

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