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Fact finding mission returnsDate: 28 May 2002
A Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA delegation including members of the union movement and a representative of the Greens Party has just returned from a fact finding mission to the Occupied Palestinan Territories. It is understood that this is the first Australian delegation to be allowed into Jenin since the military invasion, and witnessed first-hand the devastation. Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA has supported development projects with Palestinian refugees since 1984. The Ma'an Development Centre provides work skills and agricultural training, and their office, training facilities and permaculture site were destroyed by the Israeli military. Another project with the Patients Friends Society provides medical services for the needy, and one of their staff from Jenin, a midwife, was shot and killed while on duty on the first day of the Israeli invasion. Ms Cecily Michaels the tour leader said ,"the group was shocked and horrified at the continued confiscation of Palestinian land for Israeli settlements and the resulting fragmentation of Palestinian land and communities into detached zones. All Palestinians are living in a virtual prison due to the stringent travel restrictions imposed by the Israeli government, their network of road blocks and encirclement of whole areas with razor wire". Ms Michaels said that, "this policy of confinement denies medical care to hundreds of thousands of citizens and subjects Palestinians to a daily experience of humiliation, violence and misery. This fragmentation of Palestinian land into disconnected cantons is a form of apartheid being implemented by the Israeli government". The delegation observed that the invasion of Palestinian Territories by the Israeli army in these last two months has added to the economic hardship, frustration and misery of the Palestinians, as workers cannot reach their workplaces, students are prevented from getting to schools and universities and many families find themselves split with members unable to return home or visit each other. The delegation witnessed arbitrary beatings at checkpoints and needless terrorising of Palestinian children by Israeli soldiers. The Israeli army continues to occupy the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza, with reportedly an estimated 230 checkpoints and we saw many military vehicles patrolling the roads. During their week long fact finding mission the delegation met with non government development organisations, Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups, people's elected representatives, academics, village councils, workers representatives and members of the general public, many of whom had lost family members as a result of the military occupation. The delegation was informed by various sources of the Israeli military firing upon medical personnel who went to the assistance of injured civilians, of the more than 1,200 Palestinians killed and tens of thousands wounded, among them over 200 school children killed and 2550 injured since September 2000. Hundreds of children have been arrested and many subject to some form of torture, according to a meeting with Defence for Children International. The delegation condemns all acts of violence against civilians and urges the Australian Government to support the United Nation's calls for the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli occupying army from all Palestinian Territories in accordance with UN Resolutions 242, 338 and 1402, and the immediate deployment of an international force to protect the Palestinian people. For further information, please contact:-
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