Al Haq: Royal Court to be held on 25th of February

This is an appeal to all those supporters of humanity, justice, equal rights and freedom.

On 25th, February 2010, at the Court of Appeal, Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand, London, a hearing is going to take place of Al Haq vs The Secretary of state for foreign & Commonwealth affairs.

The Al Haq case is lead by Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), a UK based lawyer specializing in international and national issues concerning environmental and human rights law.

Al Haq is an independent Palestinian human rights organisation founded in 1979. It monitors and documents human rights violations by all parties in the Israeli Palestinian conflict, issuing reports on it’s findings and producing detailed legal studies.

The Al Haq case consists of a claim for judicial review before the high court of England & Wales challenging the government of the UK over it’s failure to fulfil it’s obligations under international law with respect to Israel’s activities in the Occupied Palestinian territories.

The Legal Basis for the Claim

Over the past 42 years, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, has aggressively targeted both the land and the people of the OPT. That the Palestinians are a people with the right to self-determination is undisputable under international law. Israel‘s denial of the Palestinian right to self-determination is comprehensive. Through its prolonged military occupation and violation of the territorial integrity of the OPT.

It’s illegal settlement policy and denial of the Palestinians‘ permanent sovereignty over their natural resources, Israel has prevented the population of the OPT from freely determining its political status and freely pursuing its economic, social and cultural development. The right to self-determination is established in international law as giving rise to obligations erga omnes, whereby all states, including the UK, are bound to ensure its realisation. The UK has breached this obligation by failing to take meaningful action towards the cessation of Israel‘s policies in violation of the Palestinian right to self-determination.

Similarly, the UK has failed to fulfill the duty, confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its 2004 advisory opinion, not to recognize or assist the illegal situation created by Israel‘s purported annexation of occupied East Jerusalem and construction of the Wall in the West Bank, a measure described by the ICJ as potentially “Tantamount to de facto annexation.”

The prohibition on the acquisition of territory through the threat or use of force is one of the pillars upon which contemporary public international law is built, and is established as a peremptory norm of international law which is universally binding on states and from which no derogation is permitted.

Al-Haq‘s claim is further based on the UK‘s failure to prevent Israel‘s persistent violations of fundamental principles of international law. The recent “Operation Cast Lead” in the Gaza Strip resulted in the death of more than 1,440 Palestinians, majority of whom were civilians, including more than 310 children, and the further wounding of over 4,000 more. Documentation gathered to date by Al-Haq‘s fieldworkers in the Gaza Strip includes prima facie evidence of war crimes amounting to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Conventions.

The organizers asked the members of public to come and show their support for the Palestinian people by attending the hearing. When violations of international law are committed those people who have been violated need to know that cases on their behalf are being supported in the wider world.

The British citizens will attend the hearing, information as follows, Al Haq vs The Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth affairs, on the 25th of February 2010, 9.45 am at the Court of Appeal, Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand, London.

The Court of Appeal sits in the Eastern bloc of the Royal Courts of Justice. Further information will be available at the Royal Courts of Justice Help Desk.