2) Notes on the Report of the Secretary-General of the UN Pursuant to General Assembly Resolution ES-10/10 on the Illegal Israeli Actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories  

The local and international political circles were stunned by the report presented by Mr. Kofi Anan, the Secretary-General of the UN, to the General Assembly on 1/8/2002, regarding the events that took place in Jenin Refugee Camp and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories during the period starting early March 2002 and ending 7^th May 2002. The report came out deficient, without any direct condemnation of the Israeli government. We wish to make the following comments on the report:

1) The Secretary-General chose to write his report in a narrative style without any evaluative remarks. In addition, there was not much confidence and assurance in the recital of information. Evidence of this is clear from the expressions that were used (reports claimed, some sources mentioned, it is impossible to determine, it was estimated).

The Secretary-General confessed in his report that:

A)   The fact-finding team that was formed by Mr. Anan was not able to visit the area concerned (the West Bank and Jenin Camp) because of the “concerns” of the Israeli government.

B)   As to the date of submission of the report, the Israeli government has not responded to Mr. Anan’s information request.

Therefore, it was more appropriate of the Secretary-General of the UN to announce clearly that he was unable to produce a detailed comprehensive report on the events that took place in Jenin Camp because the Israeli government did not show any cooperation in this issue. He could have recommended that the Security Council, who have unanimously adopted resolution 1405 (2002) to develop “accurate” information regarding recent events in Jenin Camp, take the necessary measures against Israel.

2) Mr. Kofi Anan mentioned in his report a passage of text from the Geneva Convention relative to the protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, to which Israel is High Contracting Party. The Convention provides that the civilian population may not be willfully killed, tortured, taken as hostages or suffer humiliating or degrading treatment. What Mr. Anan seems to have forgotten is that the actions of the Israeli Army in the Occupied Territories blatantly violate this Convention and represent serious breaches to international humanitarian law. The UN, which Mr. Anan represents as Secretary-General, must stand firm and take action to stop those Israeli violations.

3) Not only did Mr. Anan adopt the Israeli and American position against the Palestinians, but he also used the language used by Israeli and American politicians. For example, he used the term “terror/terrorist” 17 times in his report to describe the Palestinians and/or their actions. He also used phrases and expressions that are often used by the Israeli spokesmen, such as: the Israeli Defense Forces, Operation Defensive Shield, the Palestinian terror infrastructure, Palestinian terror attacks which have plagued Israel. This was unexpected, as the writer of the report is the Secretary-General of the UN, whose words and writings must be objective, balanced and wisely selected.

4) Mr. Kofi Anan spoke in his report about the practices of the Israeli Army in the Occupied Territories, such as: killing civilians, demolition of homes and schools, destruction of public and private property, round-the-clock curfews, severe internal and external closures, paralysis of vital supplies and first aid. But Mr. Anan did not mention that Jenin District represents “the rich food basket” for the Palestinian economy, with 300,000 acres of fertile agricultural land, and its population consisting mostly of farmers. The constant Israeli incursions into the region with heavy military tanks and bulldozers has completely destroyed this food basket.

5) Mr. Anan has mentioned some of the violations carried out by the Israeli authorities, which had devastating effects on the Palestinian people (in items 37-41 in the report) followed by a description of the situation in Jenin Camp, saying the camp contained arms caches and explosive laboratories (item 46 in the report). This sequence of narration gives the reader an impression that the Israeli practices in Jenin Camp were justified and acceptable.

6) Although Mr. Anan said in the summary of the report that he has prepared his report with complete reliance on the available resources and information, including submissions from the five United Nations Member States and Observer Missions, documents in the public domain and papers submitted by non-governmental organizations, he did not give an exact number of Palestinian victims who were killed in Jenin Camp, which was the core objective of the whole matter. He wrote (in item 43) “at least 52 Palestinians, of whom up to half may have been civilians … were dead”. It would appear that Mr. Anan believed the Israeli story, since he said that, “Israeli officials informed UN personnel they believed 52 Palestinians were dead.” (This was written in item 57 of the report.) Notice the use of the word “dead” instead of “killed.”

7) In item 60 of the report, Mr. Anan described the Israeli military operation inside Jenin Camp by saying, “helicopter gun ships to fire TOW missiles against such densely populated area .. anti-aircraft guns, able to fire 3000 rounds a minute .. scores of tanks and armored vehicles equipped with machine guns .. and bulldozers to raze homes and to burrow wide lanes.” We ask the Secretary-General of the UN: When Israel uses all these weapons against a refugee camp that is supposed to be protected by UNRWA, doesn’t that represent a war crime? Shouldn’t the International community prosecute Israeli officials who carried out that crime?

8) Mr. Anan wrote in his report (item 51) “Using loudspeakers, IDF urged civilians in Arabic to evacuate the camp.” However, what Mr. Anan probably doesn’t know is that when civilians heard those calls, they believed them and went out, to be killed in cold blood by the Israeli forces. For example, Ahmad Basheer Hamdouni, 70, went out on 4/4/2002 to try search for some food for his grandchild, but the Israeli soldiers saw him and shot him immediately. Two other neighbors from the camp, Abdel-Karim al-Sa’adi, 27, and Waddah Fathi al-Shalabi, 36, were murdered as they went out from their homes, each carrying a child in his hands. The Israeli soldiers stopped them, snatched the two children from the arms of their fathers and gave them to the women. Then the soldiers took the two men into a deserted home and killed them in cold blood.

9) The Secretary-General realizes that since June 1967 Israel has imposed a military occupation on the Palestinian West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip. Therefore, the fundamental problem is the Israeli occupation, not the Palestinian resistance. Resisting occupation by a vivid population is a natural legitimate right. Clearly, it is not terrorism. Therefore, the Palestinian armed men who fought the Israeli Army in Jenin Camp, cannot, and must not, be described as “terrorists.” On the contrary, they were decent fervently patriotic men who refused to accept humiliation and wanted to live in dignity, after the UN failed to provide them with the essential protection. Those Palestinian refugees have already suffered deportation twice, in 1948 and 1967, thus it only was natural for them to try to defend their homes, even though they must have understood they will at the end be terminated by the Israeli mighty Army.

10) The Secretary-General did not mention in his report that the Israeli government showed complete ignorance to, and did not implement, the two resolutions approved by the Security Council; # 1402 issued on 30/3/2002 and # 1403 issued on 4/4/2002, which demanded the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the Palestinian cities. It was advisable for Mr. Anan to recommend that the Security Council take punitive measures against the Israeli government.