Violation: forcing a closure on the street entrance
Location: Shuhada street/ Hebron
Perpetrators: the army of the Israeli Occupation
Victims: citizens of the Hebron
Details:
On Friday 22/08/2014, the citizens of Bab ez-Zauia and al-Shuhada street woke up on fire set to the so-called "Container" checkpoint located on the entrance of the street.
After the checkpoint was burned, the occupation forced a closure on the street, banning citizen from movement through it. shortly after, the occupation allowed women and officer with specific badges of "the Palestinian authority" in. At time of the school year beginning, students as well as teachers were denied access to the neighborhood, which made them demonstrate in front of the checkpoint. The demonstration was soon dispersed towards the area of Bab ez-Zauia. After a while, teachers and student were allowed in but after thorough inspection and harassments.
Photos1-2:a scene of the checkpoint before being burnt down
Photo 3: a scene of the checkpoint after forcing the closure by cement blocks
By the beginning of September 2014, the forces of the occupation replaced the "Container" checkpoint with road blocks and set up a watchtower , forcing a firm shut down on the entrance. As a result, residents' movement and goods transfer between the northern and southern part of the city became hard and tiring.
It should be mentioned the occupation closed the street in 1994 in the aftermath of the massacre of the Abraham mosque that was carried out by an extreme colonist. As a result, hundreds of shops and markets were totally shut down and cars movement was banned through the street, which doubled the distance people have to take every day to reach the city of Hebron.
It should be marked that the Hebron Protocol signed within Oslo Accord in15/01/1997 and according to the article no.8 stated the following:
a. Both sides reiterate their commitment to maintain normal life throughout the City of Hebron and to prevent any provocation or friction that may affect the normal life in the city.
2. The movement of vehicles on the Shuhada Road will be gradually returned, within 4 months, to the same situation which existed prior to February 1994.
Land Research Center sees the closure as a restriction to the right to movement and that it contradicts all international conventions of related such like :
The Universal Declaration of Human rights1948:
- Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
- Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
- Article 13:
- (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
- (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:
- Article 7 prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
- Article 9 recognizes the rights to liberty and security of the person. It prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, requires any deprivation of liberty to be according to law, and obliges parties to allow those deprived of their liberty to challenge their imprisonment through the courts
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
