Red Cross: Israel violating law

A confidential Red Cross report claims Israel is violating international humanitarian law in eastern Jerusalem, especially the law of occupation. The International Committee of the Red Cross report was released in February to Israel and a few foreign governments who “we believe would be in the best position to help support our efforts for the implementation of humanitarian law,” committee spokesman Bernard Barrett told The New York Times. The report’s contents were leaked to the paper by an unidentified source just days before Jerusalem Day, which celebrates the city’s unification in the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel annexed the eastern part of the city after the war, though the move is not recognized by most of the world.The Red Cross committee especially criticized Israel’s security barrier, suggesting that Israel is trying “to further its own interests or those of its own population to the detriment of the population of the occupied territory.” The barrier has drastically reduced suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks in Israel.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said eastern Jerusalem is not occupied but is a part of Israel, and noted that all Arabs there were offered full Israeli citizenship, although most declined.