Palestine National Council (PNC) called on the High Contracting Parties to the Third Geneva Convention to take the necessary measures and impose effective penalties on the Israeli Minister of Internal Security, prosecute him and bring him to trial, after his refusal to provide vaccination of the Coronavirus to Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the Israeli occupation prisons.
In identical messages sent by PNC Speaker, Mr. Saleem Al-Za’anoon, to the presidents of selected national parliaments around the world, to the heads of Arab, Islamic, Asian, European, African and Latin parliamentary unions and assemblies, and to the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, tstated that the decision of the Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Amir Ohana, two weeks ago, not to provide the Coronavirus vaccine to Palestinian prisoners and detainees violates the two Articles. (13 and 15) of the Third Geneva Convention, which requires the Detaining Power to provide full medical care to the prisoners and prohibits it from committing any act or negligence that endangers the prisoners lives, and this is what happened with (226) Palestinian prisoners who were martyred inside the prisons of the Israeli occupation.
PNC called for activating Articles (129 and 130) of the Third Geneva Convention by calling on the High Contracting Parties to take the necessary actions to impose effective penalties on anyone who commits or orders the commission of any of the violations of this agreement, just as the occupying power "Israel" does against the Palestinian prisoners in its prisons.
In its messages, PNC added that the Israeli procedures against Palestinian prisoners, who are protected persons, is a flagrant violation of their rights, and that the detaining authorities evade from their duties to provide the prisoners with the necessary health care, and it contains racial discrimination towards them, as the vaccination will be limited only to Israeli Prison Authority employees.
PNC pointed to the escalating number of prisoners infected with the Coronavirus, as it reached (196) to date, and it is likely to rise with the continuing low level of protection and preventive measures in general and overcrowding in prisons, in addition to the poor medical services provided to those infected with the Coronavirus in particular, It is also a legal obligation to ensure the health and safety of all Palestinians under the Israeli occupation, including providing them with vaccines, without discrimination.
In its messages, PNC appealed to the heads of parliaments and federations, to take effective action and immediate intervention and pressure the occupying power, in order to provide means of prevention and take all measures of protection against the risk of contracting the Coronavirus.
The Speaker also called for ensuring that prisoners and detainees are given, without submission or exception, the Anti-Coronavirus vaccines, and that international control over the conduct of tests for prisoners and the nature of the vaccinations provided to them, especially we have no confidence in the Israeli prison administration acts.
PNC also called for the Israeli occupation to be obligated to immediately release more than (700) sick Palestinian prisoners, of whom about (340) suffer from chronic diseases, in compliance with what was stated in the first annex of the Third Geneva Convention, of direct repatriation to the homeland of prisoners with a disability, or patients whose condition becomes chronic and a cure is not expected despite treatment.