Amnesty wants Israel, Palestinians watchdog

Amnesty International called for the international monitoring of Israel and the Palestinians to measure compliance with human rights standards. In a statement accompanying the release Monday of “Enduring Occupation,” a report timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War, Amnesty regional director Malcolm Stuart called for “the urgent deployment of an effective international human rights monitoring mechanism to monitor compliance by both parties … with their obligations under international law,” The Associated Press reported. The report also called for Israel to end its restrictions on Palestinian movement, including the barrier it has constructed in the West Bank, and for Palestinians to end attacks on civilians.Israel and the Palestinians brushed off the call for monitoring, with Israel saying such mechanisms were already built into its own democratic systems and Palestinians saying that peacekeepers – not monitors – with a mandate to intervene were necessary.