Obama called on to tackle Mideast rights abuse

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RIGHTS VIOLATIONS: Obama (pictured) has been urged to put human rights at the centre of his Middle East tour. (Getty Images)

Human Rights Watch has called on Democratic White House contender Barack Obama to put human rights at the centre of his Middle East tour, which starts on Monday.

The US-based group urged the US to overhaul the way it allocates financial aid to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan so the amount of money countries receive is directly related to their compliance with international human rights law.

“Senator Obama should signal to all parties in the region that, to avoid complicity, the US government will cut aid that is funding continuing breaches of international human rights law,” Executive Director Kenneth Roth said in a letter to Obama released on Sunday.

The group said all three have committed “serious abuses of human rights”, including the continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank and illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel and numerous instances of torture of prisoners by both Palestinian and Jordanian security forces.

“Indiscriminate Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilians are a serious breach of the laws of war, but so is Israel’s collective punishment of the civilian population in Gaza,” Roth said.

The letter also referred to recent Human Rights Watch investigations that revealed serious abuses by forces under the control of the Palestinian Authority against criminal suspects and convicted prisoners.

Human Rights Watch said that while the US has criticised the three governments for their human rights violations, it has stopped short of taking significant measures and remains the largest financial donor to all three.

The United States is the lead donor in a $220 million training program of Palestinian judicial and security systems in which these abuses are taking place, the group added.

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