Israel collectively punishes Palestinians for kidnapping
The Israelis have slapped travel bans on many Palestinians in the West Bank in response to the June 12 kidnapping of three teenagers.
Seif Abu Arqoub, 5, was born in Amman while his parents were students at the University of Jordan. Upon completion of their degrees, the Arqoub family returned to Nablus, the hometown of Abla, Seif's mother. Abla teaches at Al-Najah University in Nablus and Mohammed, Seif's father, is a lecturer at Birzeit University. Except for short visits to his grandparents’ home in the Hebron district town of Dura, the young Abu Arqoub only knows Amman and Nablus.
But this week, the Abu Arqoub family has been collectively punished. A planned summer vacation before the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan was abruptly canceled. Mohammed wrote on his Facebook page that because of his birth in the Hebron district, the family will not be allowed to leave via the Allenby Bridge to Jordan, the only border crossing that Palestinians in the West Bank are allowed to use. The collective punishment on all Hebronites comes as Israel takes revenge on the Palestinian population following the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers on June 12.
The travel ban on Hebronites is only one of many acts of collective punishment. Workers from Hebron with valid permits to work in Israel were banned entry into Israel and a huge dragnet took place throughout the occupied territories, arresting mostly known Hamas figures. Israel killed a 19-year-old Palestinian at the Jalazone refugee camp outside Ramallah during the arrest sweep. Abdel Aziz Dweik, speaker of the suspended Palestinian Legislative Council, is among those detained by Israel. Also among those arrested are former ministers, parliamentarians and former prisoners pardoned as part of a prisoner swap that included the exchange of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Article 33 of the Geneva Conventions prohibits occupying powers carrying out such acts of punishment. The 1949 convention states: “No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.”
