Urgent Appeal
Destruction of Life, Property and Infrastructure Continues on a Massive Scale
Offices of Palestinian Institutions Occupied, Possibly Ransacked and Destroyed
Fear of destruction and confiscation of research, information and equipment
Jerusalem, March 31, 10 kilometers south of Ramallah and north of Bethlehem:
The past number of days has seen an intensification of Israeli occupation, killing and destruction, most notably in Ramallah and Bethlehem. The Israeli military has committed a number of executions and shot dead civilians not withstanding the policy of door to door searches and arrests which have affected the majority of people in the neighborhoods of these cities. No doubt, the incursion into Yasser Arafat's compound is but one part of a massive operation that should more appropriately be called war crimes than the sterile name of "military offensive."
Among the buildings that have been occupied and taken over in Ramallah is the PARC building which houses a number of Palestinian NGOs active for years in the Palestinian civil society, two of which are PENGON members. These organizations include the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) and Palestinian Hydrology Groups (PHG), the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO), and the Farmers Union. It was in this same building that the national television station, Watan, was also taken over, and where the Israeli military played pornographic film and put out false news reports, all to be broadcast in Palestinian homes in the entire West Bank.
As with the house to house searches, in which reports of people's belongings and valuables being stolen and pillaged by the Israeli soldiers as they enter homes, as well as with the military's past record of vandalizing and steeling information and research from various institutions, the NGOs in Ramallah and Bethlehem that have been occupied are gravely concerned that their offices and years of work are being torn to pieces, destroyed, as well as confiscated for "informational" purposes by the Israeli military and government. As they are unable to approach these buildings, people watch their offices on TV and see the faces of Israeli soldiers looking out from their office windows, imagining and fearing the worst.
This appeal calls upon all those concerned to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people in the continuation of Israel's brutality against them. Denunciation of Israel's policy and an expression of a watchful eye on Israel's continued crimes through its violations of international law may be helpful at a time when Israeli strikes continue with few or no restrictions.
Please send letters of condemnation in opposition to Israel's latest assault as well as condemnation of the destruction and rampage of Palestinian private property and institutional and intellectual property, denouncing the targeted destruction of Palestinian infrastructure, to the following:
- Ariel Sharon, Israeli Prime Minister:
rohm@pmo.gov.il or webmaster@pmo.gov.il
Fax: +972 2 651 2631
- Benjamin Ben Eliezer, Israeli Minister of Defense:
Email: sgansar@mod.gov.il
- Shimon Peres, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs:
Fax: +972-2-5303367
Email: sar@mfa.gov.il
- Colin Powell, US Secretary of State
E-mail: secretary@state.gov
Fax: +1-202-261-8577
- European Parliament
Email: civis@europarl.eu.int
Fax: +32-2-2846974 or +32-2-2306933
- Kofi Anan, UN Secretary-General:
Fax: +1-212-963-4879
Email: sg@un.org or ecu@un.org
- Amr Mousa, General-Secretary, Arab League:
Fax: +202-779546-740331-775626
Please also write to your own governments, and your government representatives in Israel, as well as to the Israeli embassy in your country.
If possible, please send copies to PENGON at info@pengon.org or fax: +972-2-5857688
