According to a report published by Human rights Center (AL-Mizan) stated the Israeli occupation had been holding 249 Palestinian martyrs’ bodies since the 60s. The report further stated that the occupation refuses to hand over the martyrs’ bodies to their families and refrain from giving them necessary death certificates. In addition, the occupation refuses to announce the names of the martyrs whose bodies it holds, the place at which they are being held, and reason for holding the bodies.
The report highlights that the Israeli occupation systematically holds the bodies of Palestinian martyrs as part of mass punitive measures. The report also refers to keeping Palestinian martyrs’ bodies in morgue refrigerators or military cemeteries called “cemeteries of numbers,” in which the Israeli occupation buries the body of the martyr and gives each grave a number with no name. All relevant information is kept in special file with the responsible security body.
The Jerusalem Centre for legal aid petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court earlier this year, demanding the Israeli military disclose the number of secret cemeteries it has, where they are, the condition they are in, and the names and the total number of bodies held with them. It also demanded that a DNA bank be set up, so that bodies can still be identified in the future if close relative die.
The Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer) and the legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah) condemned Israel’s practices of withholding bodies as “ a severe violation of international humanitarian law as well as international human rights law, including violations of the right to dignity, law including violations of the right to dignity, freedom of religion, and the right to practice culture.
The Palestine National council calls upon regional and international parliamentary unions, first and foremost, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) to suspend Israel’s Knesset membership holding it accountable for passing these discriminatory laws which violate all international laws and conventions, international legitimacy resolutions and a gross violation to the charter of the United Nations.