Portuguese Association of Disabled People calls on the UN and the Portuguese government: make Israel respect the rights of people with disabilities

Regarding the murder by the Israeli police of the youth Lyad Hallak, and recalling other attacks on the lives of Palestinians with disabilities, the Portuguese Association of Disabled People calls on the United Nations and the Government of Portugal to make Israel respect human rights and, in particular, the rights of people with disabilities.

This is the content of the letter:

Appeal to the United Nations and the Portuguese Government

On Saturday morning, March 30, in Jerusalem, the young Palestinian Lyad Hallak was fatally shot by Israeli border police officers. Lyad was autistic and was on his way to the Elwyn Center, specializing in the care of people with disabilities.

Lyad was hit by more than 10 bullets, making his murder an attack of ethnic hatred, with the aggravating factor that this is yet another case in the list of people with disabilities victims of the Israeli military forces. In recent years, as reported by B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, the following people have been murdered: Arif Jaradat, 23, with Down syndrome, who did not resist his bullet wounds, died on June 19, 2016; Abur Thuraya, 29, was shot dead in December 2017 in his wheelchair after losing his legs at the age of 20 during one of the many Israeli bombings of Gaza; Muhammad al-Já'bri, with intellectual disabilities, 24, was shot dead on March 9, 2018; Muhammad Hbali, 22, with intellectual disability, was shot dead in the head on December 4, 2018; in December 2018, Maher Yasin, 40, with physical disabilities stemming from a polio that struck him as a child, was also shot dead in the head.

APD, the Portuguese Association of Disabled People, strongly condemns these attacks on the lives and dignity of people with disabilities and publicly declares its solidarity with all people with disabilities and their families who are victims of the brutal repression of the Israeli security forces that operate in total violation of the Charter of Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

In 2009, 2015 and 2019 the UN Human Rights Council approved reports by independent Commissions of Inquiry into Israeli repression in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. All these reports accuse Israel of committing violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
Thus, the Portuguese Association of Disabled People

- calls on the President of the General Assembly and the Secretary General of the UN to act upon the Government of Israel to stop human rights violations and, in particular, to stop attacks on the lives and dignity of people with disabilities;

- calls on the Portuguese Government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other Entities it deems relevant, to use all the means at its disposal vis-à-vis the UN, the European Union and the Government of Israel to ensure that the Convention on the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities is respected.

Monday, July 27, 2020