Om eerlijk te zijn was ik aangenaam verrast toen ik een paar dagen geleden de oproep van Amnesty International las voor een betere behandeling van Shalit, compleet met voorbeeldbrief zoals ze ook doen voor politieke gevangenen in akelige dictaturen. Maar bij herlezing is het inderdaad opvallend dat men niet zijn vrijlating eist zoals bij de politi e ke gevangenen in dictaturen, maar slechts vragen om een betere behandeling, alsof het om een krijgsgevangene gaat. En bij de Engelse tekst stond er ook nog een nogal gekleurde toevoeging over de Gaza oorlog, die in de Nederlandse tekst ontbrak.
De verklaring van diverse Israelische mensenrechtenorganisaties over de behandeling van Shalit, heeft dezelfde dubbele boodschap: ja, het is goed dat men eindelijk ook eens aandacht besteedt aan een misdaad van Hamas, maar waarom niet zijn vrijlating geëist? Hij heeft immers niks misdaan, en is geen krijgsgevangene maar op een relatief rustig moment en niet tijdens gevechten uit Israel ontvoerd. Onder het commentaar de verklaring van de mensenrechtenorganisaties.
RP
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"Human Rights Community" Agrees: Gilad Shalit Should Remain in Captivity
06.24.2011 - 5:40 PM
Tomorrow marks the five-year anniversary of the Hamas raid into Israel in which Gilad Shalit was wounded and then dragged through a tunnel into the Gaza Strip, where he remains in captivity to this day. To mark the occasion, 12 prominent "human rights" organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B'Tselem, have issued a joint statement.
If a better example of the utter moral collapse of the human rights community exists, it would be hard to find. The statement is one of passionless brevity — just a few sentences long — and expresses no opinion on the standing of Hamas, or on its 2006 raid into Israel, or on the legitimacy of its goals and methods. Remarkably, it doesn't even demand the release of Gilad Shalit. The most that this allegedly courageous and principled human rights community could bring itself to say to the terrorists of Hamas is that they should improve the conditions of Shalit's imprisonment. You can read the statement on Human Rights Watch's website.
Even the Goldstone Report demanded Shalit's release. Human rights groups, especially when it comes to condemning Israel, invoke what they believe to be the inflexible requirements of international law as a guide to matters of war and peace. Their only source of credibility is their adherence to principle. Yet here these same champions of international law have lost their voices, and their outrage, when it comes to making what should be the easiest of judgments: That it is against international law to raid a sovereign state for the purpose of abducting its citizens, that Shalit's imprisonment is barbaric and utterly without legitimacy, and that Hamas must release him immediately.
Yet the human rights groups stand together in refusing to say these words, preferring to pick and choose their principles depending on political circumstances. If these groups actually cared about international law, they would be far less brazen in ignoring it when it doesn't suit the politics of the moment.
Hamas: Human Beings are not Bargaining Chips
JUNE 24, 2011
Hamas authorities in Gaza must immediately end the cruel and inhuman treatment of Gilad Shalit. Until he is released, they must enable him to communicate with his family and should grant him access to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Marking five years since the capture of Gilad Shalit, Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights organizations state:
Hamas must immediately end inhumane and illegal treatment of Gilad Shalit.
Staff Sergeant Gilad Shalit has been in captivity for five years. Those holding him have refused to allow him to communicate with his family, nor have they provided information on his well-being and the conditions in which he is being held. The organizations stress that this conduct is inhumane and a violation of international humanitarian law.
Hamas authorities in Gaza must immediately end the cruel and inhuman treatment of Gilad Shalit. Until he is released, they must enable him to communicate with his family and should grant him access to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Amnesty International
B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
Bimkom: Planners for Planning Rights
Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement
Human Rights Watch
International Federation for Human Rights
Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Gaza
Israel blokkeert de gazastrook. Dat betekent dus oorlog. Shalit is een Israelische soldaat en is dus weldegelijk een krijgsgevangene.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenEn zelfs als hij dat niet was toen hij werd ontvoerd, dan is hij dat wel geworden bij het begin van de laatste oorlog in Gaza.