Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
27 February
AND STILL THEY RESIST
On this day in 2008, in response to the tightening Israeli blockade that had escalated to Palestinians “most of them young...slowly being poisoned by the water they drink”, rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel, causing no injuries. Israel then launched air strikes and a ground invasion of Gaza that killed 112 Palestinians, mainly civilians. Palestinian fighters killed two Israeli soldiers in retaliation and more rockets were fired across the Gaza perimeter, killing one Israeli civilian.
ما زالوا يقاومون
27 فبراير
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 2008 ، رداً على تشديد الحصار الإسرائيلي الذي تصاعد على الفلسطينيين "معظمهم من الشباب .. وتسمموا ببطء بسبب الماء الذي يشربونه" ، أُطلقت الصواريخ من غزة على إسرائيل ، ولم تتسبب في وقوع إصابات. شنت إسرائيل بعد ذلك غارات جوية وغزو بري على غزة أسفر عن مقتل 112 فلسطينيا معظمهم من المدنيين. وقتل مقاتلون فلسطينيون جنديين إسرائيليين. وردا على الهجوم الاسرائلي ، تم إطلاق المزيد من الصواريخ عبر حدود غزة ، مما أسفر عن مقتل مدني إسرائيلي.
Collective punishment is a war crime
Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, collective punishment is a war crime. By collective punishment, the drafters of the Geneva Conventions had in mind the reprisal killings of World War I and World War II. In the First World War, the Germans executed Belgian villagers in mass retribution for resistance activity during the Rape of Belgium. In World War II, both the Germans and the Japanese carried out a form of collective punishment to suppress resistance. Entire villages or towns or districts were held responsible for any resistance activity that occurred at those places. The conventions, to counter this, reiterated the principle of individual responsibility. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Commentary to the conventions states that parties to a conflict often would resort to "intimidatory measures to terrorize the population" in hopes of preventing hostile acts, but such practices "strike at guilty and innocent alike. They are opposed to all principles based on humanity and justice."
The siege of Gaza is a war crime
The UN Human Rights Council as well as many non-governmental organizations and notable figures, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have accused Israel of imposing collective punishment on the population of Gaza by the blockade, invasion and bombardment of Gaza.
UN investigators call for arrests over Gaza war crimes“. Israeli security forces committed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. These violations clearly warrant criminal investigation and prosecution,” said Santiago Canton, the head of a United Nations independent commission of inquiry.
Sara Hossain, investigator appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, reported