B’tselem ; 20 ans, 8 881 morts

Gilles Paris, lundi 23 novembre 2009

L’organisation de défense des droits de l’homme non-​​gouvernementale israé­lienne B’tselem a vingt ans [1].

Fondée pendant la pre­mière intifada, à une époque où le camp de la paix israélien était encore puissant, elle tient depuis cette date la chro­nique de la vio­lence qui ensan­glante régu­liè­rement l’ancienne Palestine mandataire.

Dans un com­mu­niqué publié dimanche 22 novembre à l’occasion de son anni­ver­saire [2], B’tselem fait état de 8 881 morts recensés en deux décennies , parmi d’autres bilans d’étape, avec les détails qui suivent :

7 398 Palestiniens, dont 1 537 mineurs.

1 483 Israéliens, dont 139 mineurs.

L’année la plus meur­trière pour Israël a été 2002 (420). Pour les Pales­ti­niens, c’est en 2009 que le nombre le plus important de morts a été enre­gistré (1033), du fait de l’offensive contre Gaza concentrée en trois semaines [3].

En 1999, il y a dix ans, seulement 12 per­sonnes (8 Pales­ti­niens et 4 Israé­liens) avaient été tuées en douze mois. Une autre époque.

Seul progrès enre­gistré par l’ONG, l’arrêt de la torture, qui relevait de la routine dans les centres d’internement israé­liens au moment de la création de B’tselem, qui contribua à sa manière à une prise de conscience.

[1] http://​www​.btselem​.org/​E​n​g​lish/

[2]

C’est le coeur lourd que B’tselem marque ses 20 ans

en anglais :

B’Tselem marks twen­tieth anni­versary with a heavy heart : almost 8900 Israelis and Pales­ti­nians killed in the conflict

Today (Sunday, Nov 22nd), Israeli human rights group B’Tselem com­me­mo­rates 20 years since its founding with release of data col­lected by the orga­ni­zation from 1989-​​2009. This period includes many of the main events of the first Pales­tinian Intifada, the Oslo period and the Second Intifada, as well as the recent military ope­ration in the Gaza Strip (Cast Lead). B’Tselem’s Exe­cutive Director, Jessica Montell, said that “a twenty-​​​​year pers­pective leaves one with a heavy heart, espe­cially due to the ongoing vio­lation of the right to life of Pales­ti­nians and Israelis resulting from the conflict. However, we can also note several human rights achie­ve­ments : for ins­tance, twenty years ago, thou­sands of Pales­ti­nians were sys­te­ma­ti­cally and rou­tinely tor­tured during inves­ti­ga­tions. Thanks to the efforts of the human rights com­munity, including B’Tselem, this torture has stopped”.

Casualties

Israeli security forces killed 7,398 Pales­ti­nians in Israel and the Occupied Ter­ri­tories in the last 20 years, among them at least 1,537 minors. The year with the highest number of Pales­tinian casualties was 2009 : 1033 persons were killed, of them 315 minors. Most of those were killed in Gaza during ope­ration Cast Lead. 1999 saw the lowest level of Pales­tinian casualties (8 people killed). B’Tselem’s website pro­vides the breakdown of casualties since Sep­tember 2000, according to par­ti­ci­pation in the hos­ti­lities and other cate­gories. During the past twenty years, Pales­ti­nians killed 1483 Israelis, of them 139 minors. Of this number, 488 were members of the security forces, and 995 were civi­lians, killed in Pales­tinian attacks in Israel and the Occupied Ter­ri­tories. The year with the highest number of Israeli casualties was 2002 ; 420 persons were killed, of them 269 were civi­lians, including 47 minors, and 151 members of the security forces. 1999 was also the year with the lowest level of Israeli casualties, which num­bered 4.

House demolition

Israel demo­lished at least 4300 homes in the Occupied Ter­ri­tories in the years 1989-​​2009, either for being built without a permit, or as punishment. This figure does not include the des­truction of pro­perty during military ope­ra­tions. This type of demo­lition include 3540 houses demo­lished during ope­ration Cast Lead alone, and an esti­mated 2700 homes demo­lished during pre­vious military incur­sions into Gaza.

Administrative detention

In November 1989, 1,794 Pales­ti­nians were held by Israel in admi­nis­trative detention, a detention without trial. Today the number of admi­nis­trative detainees is 335. The lowest number of admi­nis­trative detainees, 12, was regis­tered in December 2000. The highest number of those held without trial during the second intifada was 1,007, in January 2003.

Settlements

The last two decades saw a sub­stantial increase in the number of Israelis living over the Green Line (the 1949 armistice line). In 1989, the set­tlement popu­lation was 69,800 in the West Bank (excluding East Jeru­salem), and 118,100 in East Jeru­salem. Today, over 300,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, as well as about 190,000 in East Jeru­salem. http://​www​.btselem​.org/​e​n​g​l​i​s​h​/pres…

[3] com­mencée le 27 décembre 2008, cette attaque contre la popu­lation de la bande de Gaza a fait plus de 1400 morts et quelque 6000 blessés. Les des­truc­tions des infra­struc­tures, des habi­ta­tions et des terres sont énormes.