Fosna Press Release: FOSNA Issues Declaration Regarding Israel’s Disrespectful Treatment of Deceased Palestinians
UNITED STATES. January 26, 2022 – Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) recently issued a “Declaration Regarding Respect for the Bodies of the Deceased.” Having gathered endorsements via petition from hundreds of religious leaders across the country, FOSNA aims to bring attention to what it considers Israel’s unethical and immoral treatment of deceased Palestinians. FOSNA also insists that Israel’s practice is in breach of international law and a violation of basic human rights. They delivered this signed petition to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC, alongside Nonviolence International, and religious leaders from Jewish, Islamic, and Christian backgrounds, to demand the proper treatment and burial for detained Palestinian bodies. However, they could not call a meeting with the Irsaeli Ambassador.
According to the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights, “Israel currently holds the bodies of 335 Palestinians killed while allegedly being involved in attacking Israeli soldiers or settlers. Some are buried in a secret army cemetery, but 81 are kept in freezers at a morgue, while their families beg and plead for the bodies to be released to them for decent burial. The Israeli High Court recently approved this practice."
The petition outlines the position of the three primary monotheistic religions native to the Holy Land as it relates to this practice. Leaders from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam stress the need for humans to be treated with dignity and respect and point out that the act of refusing to return bodies to their families for proper burial displays not only disrespect but a deriliction of religious and moral duty.
FOSNA is quite vocal about the inhumanity and illegality of this Israeli practice, which became standard after a cabinet decision in 2015. Withholding the bodies of deceased Palestinians is purportedly meant to act as a deterrent against resisting Israel. FOSNA is adamant, however, that its intended purpose is “the racist attempt to rob Palestinians of their humanity. At its root, this practice treats Palestinians as less than human, devoid of the most basic traits we associate with families and relatives of those who die, regardless of the circumstances of their death, and unworthy of basic sympathy and humanity.”
Further information in support of the petition is available on the FOSNA website here; the legal framework that Israel uses to support the practice is outlined in this article. A link to the petition can be found here. Links for further information on Israel’s practice of detaining corpses:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/14/israel-release-body-slain-palestinian
https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/6261.html
https://www.btselem.org/sites/default/files2/publication/199903_captive_corpses_eng.pdf