Amnesty Accuses Israel of War Crimes, Urges US-EU to Stop Arms Transfer

Local Editor

Amnesty International called on the international community to suspend transferring arms to ‘Israel’ over Israeli occupation soldiers’ unlawful killing and injuring of Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank which amounts to war crime.

“The report presents a body of evidence that shows a harrowing pattern of unlawful killings and unwarranted injuries of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces in the West Bank,” Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Amnesty International, said in a report on Thursday.

“Suspend transfers to Israel of munitions, weapons, and related equipment including crowd control weapons and devices, training and techniques,” Amnesty said in a 74-page report titled “Trigger- Happy: Israel’s use of excessive force in the West Bank” that it issued on Thursday.

Tel Aviv is allowing its “trigger happy soldiers” to kill Palestinians with virtual immunity, it said.

Arms transfers by the United States, the European Union and other countries should only be resumed once ‘Israel’ can ensure that they will not be used to violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law, Amnesty said.

“Without pressure from the international community, the situation is unlikely to change any time soon,” said Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International.

“Too much civilian blood has been spilled. This long-standing pattern of abuse must be broken. If the Israeli authorities wish to prove to the world they are committed to democratic principles and international human rights standards, unlawful killings and unnecessary use of force must stop now,” Luther said.

The group stated that in the cases it reviewed, Palestinians were not posing any imminent or direct threat to Israeli troops.

The Zionist government, however, rejected the report as biased.

Source: Al Manar