title:  Scathing New Amnesty International Report Calls For End To Israeli War Crimes (IMAGE/VIDEO)
text: On February 25, 1994, Israeli-Zionist terrorist Barch Goldstein walked into the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Palestinian city of Khalil (Hebron) and executed 29 kneeling Palestinian worshipers and wounded another 129. Soon after, protests broke out in the city and at least 20 more Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers guarding the illegal Jewish settlers Israel implanted in the city. Israel also imposed a permanent closure on Al-Shuhada Street, once a bustling strip of Palestinian businesses. The street is the main road leading to the Tomb of the Patriarchs and today, only Jewish Israelis are allowed access to the street, turning the area, which was once the heart of the city, into a virtual ghost town.As Palestinians mark 22 years since the massacre at the mosque and the closure of Al-Shuhada Street, Amnesty International is calling on Israel to lift their military restrictions and collective punishment of Palestinians, a war crime under international law: Since October 2015, as violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and Israel has surged, the Israeli authorities have drastically increased the arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on movement imposed on Palestinians in and around Hebron s Old City, declaring parts of it a  closed military zone.  This has further entrenched and exacerbated a pattern of long-standing violations of the rights to freedom of movement, work, health and education of Palestinians in Hebron, especially tens of thousands residing or working in or near the Old City. The arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions, which are not applied to the Israeli Jews living in the illegal settlements in and around the city, constitute collective punishment and violate international humanitarian law. Furthermore, Palestinian and international human rights defenders, including monitors, have been prevented from accessing the areas of al-Shuhada Street and el Rumeida, and are constantly harassed by Israeli forces and settlers. In typical fashion of tyrannical states, Israel has also attacked human rights activists who have protested Israel s brutal policies toward the Palestinians. Amnesty International states: International activists and human rights defenders, who have played a crucial role for many years in documenting Israeli violations against Palestinians living in Hebron, have also been harassed and attacked by Israeli forces and settlers, and prevented from entering the area designated a closed military zone. Activists from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) told Amnesty International in October that Israeli settlers had physically attacked them frequently, including in the presence of Israeli forces, who did not act to stop the attacks. The ISM also reported that the Israeli police arrested two international activists on 3 November 2015 at the request of Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint the two activists were observing. The two were released, ISM said, when they agreed to leave the city for a week despite the Israeli police telling them there was  no evidence  against them. The report ends by pointing to Israel s colonies or what are typically referred to as settlements, which are illegal under international law, as the main source of tension in the area. Israel has built colonies and an infrastructure exclusively for Jews, stealing Palestinian land and then killing them when they resist Israel s Orwellian experiment. Amnesty International states:  The presence of illegal settlements in and around Hebron is both the cause of the long-standing human rights crisis in the city, and the primary reason for the escalating violence seen there in recent months. The settlements were established in violation of international law, their presence has resulted in grave violations of Palestinians  human rights over many years, and Israel s settlement policy is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Instead of continuing the discriminatory measures and actions that compound an illegal situation and violate Palestinians  human rights, Israel must evacuate the Israeli civilians living in the illegal settlements in and around Hebron, as well as elsewhere in the OPT. To get an idea what Palestinians go through on a daily basis, see the video below:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygi Mnys24] Featured image via video screen capture.