Annual Report - Palestinian Center for Human Rights

2. Interventions at Non-UN Forum
Activity: Madrid Summit on Terrorism
• The Unit had planned to participate in this massive international
conference through the submission of an intervention. However this
proved to be impossible, due to time constraints and the fact that it
coincided with the “Committee on the Inalienable Rights”.
Outcome:
• Despite this failure the unit has used some of the Summit’s findings (in
support of democracy and human rights as the main methods of counting
terrorism) in its address to the High Contracting Parties and in oral
advocacy work.
Activity: EU-Israel Association Agreement
• See Section 3 on International Legal Work for primary details.
3. International Legal Work
Activity: Maintenance of Contacts with current International Legal Partners
• The unit continued to maintain contacts with current legal partners both in
the stages of establishing new cases and concluding previous cases. This
included phone calls with Swiss lawyers and an informal meeting with a
UK Lawyer (during a trip to London with Raji Sourani). Staff in the unit
have also had primary responsibility for maintenance of contacts with
regard to new cases opened by PCHR.
• UK Legal partners, Hickman and Rose, presented files to the police and to
the courts in a number of cases.
Outcome:
• The Swiss government changed the law on international jurisdiction in
their country in order to stop the progress of PCHR’s case. There is a
possibility of moving the case to Germany.
• The first arrest warrant was issued against Maj-Gen Doron Almog by a
British Judge, on the issue of the demolition of 59 homes in Rafah.
• Almog escaped because of the decision by the Israeli Ambassador and
Military Attaché at the London embassy to pervert the court of justice.
• Over 50 newspaper articles were written about the incident. It was frontpage
news in the UK’s Guardian for two days. It was also featured on
more then one occasion in the (London) Times, Newsweek, the BBC
website, the Scotsman. In terms of the Israeli press, it was featured on a
number of occasions in Haaretz, Yediot Aranoth, Jerusalem Post. The
PCHR website includes a sample selection of key articles.
• Amnesty International issued an excellent press release in support of the
action.
• FIDH wrote to senior British government officials calling for them to
support further action.
• Ariel Sharon told Tony Blair that he would not go to the UK because he
feared arrest and had “heard bad things about the British prison system.”
• Jack Straw apologised to Silvan Shalom for any “discomfort” caused to
Doron Almog – the British Foreign Secretary failed to apologise to the
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