Kanaan highlights Israel’s ‘extreme, arbitrary’ violations against Palestinians

AMMAN — Secretary-General of the Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs Abdullah Kanaan, on Sunday, remarked that he considers the International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members a “wake-up call to the world” regarding Israeli violations and crimes against Palestine and Jerusalem. 

Observed annually on March 25, the UN's International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members was created to rally efforts, call for justice and strengthen the UN's determination and will to protect its staff members, peacekeepers and all those working in nongovernmental organisations — including journalists, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

Kanaan highlighted the Israeli authorities' “extreme, arbitrary measures”, including the closure of UN agencies operating in Palestine and the persecution of UN staff members, most notable of which is the denial of entry visas to employees of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a practice that has been in place since 2020.

Kanaan also pointed out that Israel has been targeting Palestinian human rights organisations that are ostensibly under UN protection, noting that activist Salah Hammouri, who works for the Prisoners of Conscience for the Care and Protection of Human Rights, was arrested and deported to France.

He also said that Palestinian teachers working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) have been subjected to killings, arrests and detention, as Israel disregards the immunity of UN organisations in violation of the Hague Convention, the Geneva Convention and related UN resolutions.

Such actions prompted more than 550 legal and human rights organisations to issue a joint statement in 2021 rejecting the policy of solely condemnation, rather than material action, of Israeli violations against the Palestinian people, he added.

Kanaan emphasised that in the absence of a practical international resolve to end apartheid, extremism and save thousands of prisoners and detainees in the occupation's jails and detention centres, more than 55 journalists have been killed in Palestine since 2000, including journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

The bodies of around 373 Palestinian martyrs, including 13 children, are still being held in a number of Israeli secret cemeteries and hospital refrigerators, he added.