Palestine: International Justice and Accountability Urged at United Nations for Wilful Killing of Ahmad Erekat, victim of Israel’s Shoot-to-Kill Policy

On Monday, 13 July 2020, 83 Palestinian, regional, and international civil society organisations from across 16 countries submitted a joint urgent appeal to the United Nations (UN) Special Procedures on the extrajudicial execution and wilful killing of Ahmad Mustafa Erekat, 26, by the Israeli occupying forces. The appeal, sent in cooperation with the Erekat family, urged international justice and accountability for Israel’s shoot-to-kill policy targeting Palestinians.

On Tuesday, 23 June 2020, Israeli occupying forces killed Ahmad Erekat, a resident of Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem, at the Container checkpoint in the occupied West Bank. Ahmad was shot with lethal force by Israeli soldiers in the absence of necessity and without posing a threat to life or serious injury. He was then left to bleed to death for an hour and a half, while the Israeli occupying forces denied him access to medical care, despite the presence of an Israeli ambulance at the scene. They also prevented a Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulance from reaching Ahmad.

Ahmad was one of five children and had a t-shirt business. His sister’s wedding, for which he was running errands as well as tending to other last minute preparations, was set to take place that same day. Ahmad’s sister, Iman, was already wearing her wedding dress when she learned that her brother had been killed. Ahmad himself was due to be married in September. His wedding had been postponed from May due to COVID-19.

The day after Ahmad’s killing, on Wednesday 24 June 2020, the Israeli military released video footage allegedly showing Ahmad ramming his car into the checkpoint before being shot by Israeli soldiers. In the initial footage released, Ahmad is blurred when he steps out of his car. In blurring Ahmad, the Israeli occupying forces seemingly sought to cast doubt as to the circumstances in which he was shot and killed. This follows a pattern of Israeli military and media attempts to obscure the truth about the Israeli occupying forces’ widespread and systematic use of lethal force against Palestinians, including through inaccurate video footage seeking to justify killings.^[1]Following demands by Ahmad’s family, the Israeli army released the footage in which Ahmad is not blurred. The second video clearly shows that Ahmad was unarmed, and that he was raising his hands in the air, posing no threat to fully-armed Israeli soldiers or anyone else in the area.

Under international law, the killing of Ahmad Erekat amounts to an extrajudicial execution and a wilful killing, giving rise to individual criminal responsibility as a war crime at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Ahmad is the 21^st Palestinian killed by the Israeli occupying forces throughout the occupied Palestinian territory during the first half of 2020.^[2] Less than a month before Ahmad’s killing, Israeli occupying forces killed Iyad Al-Hallaq in occupied East Jerusalem while he was on his way to a day centre for persons with disabilities in the Old City, in what amounts to an extrajudicial execution, a wilful killing, and war crime.

The killings of Ahmad Erekat and Iyad Al-Hallaq, as well as countless Palestinians, must be understood within the context of Israel’s widespread and systematic shoot-to-kill policy targeting Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line.Overall, Al-Haq has documented an escalation in Israel’s use of lethal force against Palestinians over the past five years, resulting in the killing of 754 Palestinians by the Israeli occupying forces in the occupied Palestinian territory since October 2015.^[3] Israel’s pervasive impunity must be seen as part and parcel of its institutionalised regime of systematic racial oppression and domination over the Palestinian people, which constitutes the crime of apartheid.

Since the killing, Ahmad’s body has been punitively withheld by the Israeli occupying authorities, as unlawful collective punishment, thereby prolonging his family’s suffering and denying him a dignified burial. The Israeli occupying forces continue to withhold the bodies of 63 Palestinians, under the pretext of using them as “bargaining chips.” In addition, the bodies of at least 253 Palestinians have been languishing, yet to be identified, in Israel’s “cemeteries of numbers.” In 2016, the UN Committee against Torture considered that the practice of withholding Palestinians’ bodies amounts to prohibited ill-treatment, and called on Israel, the Occupying Power, to “take the measures necessary to return the bodies of the Palestinians that have not yet been returned to their relatives as soon as possible so they can be buried in accordance with their traditions and religious customs, and to avoid that similar situations are repeated in the future.”^[4]

Accordingly, the organisations urgently called for international justice and accountability to put an end to Israeli impunity and urged the UN human rights experts to publicly condemn the killing of Ahmad Erekat, tocall for the unconditional release of Ahmad’s body as well as the bodies of all Palestinians punitively withheld by the Israeli occupying authorities, and to call on Israel, the Occupying Power, to revise its rules of engagement for the use of live fire.

The organisations also called on the Special Procedures to “Recognise Israel’s systematic shoot-to-kill policy as contributing to the maintenance of Israel’s apartheid regime of systematic racial oppression and domination over the Palestinian people as a whole, which, embedded in a system of impunity, prevents Palestinians from effectively challenging Israel’s apartheid policies and practices.”As stressed by the Erekat family, “These killings are taking place in a broader context of apartheid and settler-colonial expansion.”^[5]

Overall, the organisations endorsed calls by the Erekat family for international justice and accountability, including for Israel’s shoot-to-kill policy. They requested that the UN Special Procedures urge third States to activate universal jurisdiction mechanisms to try suspected perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity in their own jurisdictions, and to call for “the immediate opening, without any further delay, of a full, thorough, and comprehensive ICC investigation into the Situation in the State of Palestine.”

Finally, the groups urged “Member States and the UN at large to address the root causes prolonging Palestinian oppression, including by bringing an end to Israel’s prolonged occupation and illegal annexation of Jerusalem, lifting the Gaza closure with immediate effect, and dismantling Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole, in order to uphold the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to return to their homes, lands, and property, as mandated by international law.”

The organisations addressed their appeal to five UN Special Rapporteurs, including the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism.

Read the joint urgent appeal here.

Joining organisations:

Palestinian coalitions

Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC), comprising:

1. Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
2. Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
3. Al-Haq – Law in the Service of Man
4. Aldameer Association for Human Rights
5. Defense for Children International (DCI) – Palestine
6. Hurryyat – Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights
7. Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC)
8. Muwatin Institute for Democracy and Human Rights – Observer
9. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
10. Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies (RCHRS)
11. The Independent Commission for Human Rights (Ombudsman Office) – Observer

Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO), including:

12. Al-Montada Cultural Forum Center
13. Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society
14. An-Najda Society for the Development of Palestinian Women
15. Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ)
16. Arab Agronomists Association (AAA)
17. Arab Center for Agricultural Development (ACAD)
18. Early Childhood Resource Center (ECRC)
19. General Union of Palestinian Engineers
20. Human Rights and Democracy Center – SHAMS
21. MA’AN Development Center
22. MUSAWA – The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession
23. Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms – MADA
24. Palestinian Counseling Center (PCC)
25. Women’s Studies Centre (WSC)
26. Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC)
27. Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) – Palestine

Further Palestinian organisations

28. Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCPRJ)
29. Filastiniyat
30. Palestine Land Society
31. Palestine News Network (PNN)
32. Palestinian Culture Center
33. Palestinian Federation of Women’s Action Committees
34. Tasamuh Arab Network
35. The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD)

Regional organisations

36. BDS Kuwait
37. BDS Maroc
38. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
39. Kuwaiti Society for Human Rights
40. Tunisian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (TACBI)

International organisations

41. Adalah Justice Project
42. Alternative Refugee Center
43. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
44. Americans and Palestinians for Peace (AMPAL)
45. Association « Pour Jérusalem »
46. Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine
47. Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS)
48. Australians for Palestine
49. Canada Boat to Gaza
50. Canadian BDS Coalition
51. Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
52. Canadians for Peace and Justice in Kashmir
53. Center for Constitutional Rights
54. Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine
55. Cooperazione Per Lo Sviluppo Dei Paesi Emergenti (COSPE)
56. Dream Defenders
57. Educators for Justice
58. European Legal Support Center (ELSC)
59. Eyewitness Palestine
60. Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
61. Housing and Land Rights Network – Habitat International Coalition
62. Institute for Policy Studies, New Internationalism Project
63. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
64. Jewish Voice for Peace
65. Just Peace Advocates
66. Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR)
67. Le Mouvement de la Paix
68. Ligue des droits de l’Homme – LDH France
69. Middle East Center for Justice and Peace of South Central Pennsylvania
70. MPower Change
71. Oakville Palestinian Rights Association (OPRA)
72. Palestine Solidarity Network – Edmonton
73. Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU)
74. Palestinian Youth Movement – North America
75. Peace Alliance Winnipeg
76. Plateforme des ONG françaises pour la Palestine (comprising over 40 members)
77. Researching the American-Israeli Alliance (RAIA)
78. The Rights Forum
79. US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
80. US Palestinian Council
81. Venezuelan Workers Solidarity
82. War Resisters League
83. Women for Palestine

^[1]See, for example, Al-Haq, Al-Haq Refutes Israeli Army and Media Claims on the Killing of Volunteer First Responder Sajed Mizher in Dheisheh Refugee Camp (8 April 2019), available at: http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/6070.html.

^[2] Figures provided by Al-Haq’s Monitoring and Documentation Department, covering the period from 1 January 2020 until 1 July 2020.

^[3] Figures provided by Al-Haq’s Monitoring and Documentation Department, covering the period from 1 October 2015 until 1 July 2020.

^[4] UN Committee against Torture, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Israel (3 June 2016) UN Doc CAT/C/ISR/CO/5, para. 43.

^[5]Jadaliyya, ‘Press Release: Erekat Family Statement on the Extrajudicial Killing of Its Son, Ahmad Erekat’ (29 June 2020), available at: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/41352.