UN rights experts slam Israel’s disproportionate use of force

Gaza bloodshed an abhorrent violation of human rights: Amnesty

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/GAZA CITY — Israeli forces massacred at least 41 Palestinians on Gaza border as the world condemned the controversial inauguration of the US embassy in occupied Jerusalem on Monday.

The 41, including a 14-year-old, were shot dead by Israeli forces as clashes broke out at five points along the Gaza border hours before the opening of the embassy.

More than 900 Palestinians were wounded in the clashes, the health ministry in Gaza said, with the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate saying eight journalists were among them.

“Many may get martyred today, so many, but the world will hear our message. Occupation must end,” said Gaza science teacher Ali.

Palestinian government spokesman Yusuf Al-Mahmoud demanded in a statement “an immediate international intervention to stop the terrible massacre in Gaza committed by the forces of the Israeli occupation against our heroic people.”

In Geneva, UN rights experts urged Israel to halt all excessive force against Palestinians and called for an “impartial, independent investigation” into troop violence.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said it was “alarmed by the disproportionate use of force displayed by the Israeli security forces against Palestinian demonstrators.”

The bloodshed along Gaza’s border with Israel is an “abhorrent violation” of human rights, Amnesty International said on Monday.

“We are witnessing an abhorrent violation of international law and human rights in Gaza.... This must end immediately,” the London-based human rights group said on Twitter.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians had gathered near the border in protest while smaller numbers of stone-throwing Palestinians approached the fence and sought to break through, with Israeli snipers positioned on the other side.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan led the Washington delegation at the inauguration that also included Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, both White House aides, as well as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The ceremony moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem began with the US national anthem.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman then spoke and President Donald Trump was given a standing ovation when he mentioned him.

Friedman referred to the embassy’s location as “Jerusalem, Israel”.

“Today we open the United States embassy in Jerusalem, Israel,” US David Friedman said at the beginning of the inaugural ceremony, attended by a US delegation from Washington and Israeli leaders.

Jerusalem’s status is perhaps the thorniest issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah accused the United States of “blatant violations of international law.”

Egypt’s most senior Muslim leaders denounced Washington’s move to shift the US embassy to occupied Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, saying it amounted to a provocation for the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.

The timing the US embassy move shows a preference “towards the logic of arrogance and power at the expense of the value of justice, which makes our world far from stability and peace,” Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar mosque, Egypt’s highest religious authority and one of the world’s most eminent seats of Sunni Muslim learning, said in a statement.

He said the move was “defying the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims around the world.”

In London, the British government said it had no plans to move its Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and said it disagreed with the US decision to do so.

The Russian government said it feared the embassy move would increase tensions across the Middle East.

US President Donald Trump, in a recorded message at the opening ceremony, said he remained committed to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Our greatest hope is for peace,” said Trump, whose recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocation of the embassy to the holy city from Tel Aviv, has outraged Palestinians and drawn international concern.

“The United States remains fully committed to facilitating a lasting peace agreement,” Trump said.

“The United States will always be a great friend of Israel and a partner in the cause of freedom and peace,” he said. — Agencies