UN committee calls on Israel to implement Geneva Convention on Palestinians

Members of a U.N. General Assembly committee on the rights of the Palestinian people called upon Israel on Monday to accept that the 1949 fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of people living under occupation applies to Palestinians.

Participants in the two-day meeting of the U.N. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People also called for implementing a General Assembly resolution requesting a conference to be held in Switzerland to enforce the Geneva convention in the Occupied Palestinian territory, including Al-Quds (Jerusalem).

The Fourth Geneva Convention, which was signed in 1949, bans any measures that aim at changing the demographic or geographic nature of the areas falling under occupation by the occupying power. It also bans the mistreatment, torture and collective punishment measures against people under occupation.

The Palestinian Authority official in charge of planning and international cooperation, Nabil Shaath, who addressed the committee, said the proposed Geneva Conference would not only benefit Palestinians, but also other people who have been facing a similar situation or would face it in the future.