Israeli Occupation Forces raid the office of MA’AN Development Center

PRESS RELEASE FROM MA'AN DEVELOPMENT CENTRE, WEST BANK, 3 APRIL 2008: Israeli Occupation Forces raided the Ramallah Chamber of Commerce Building in the early hours of morning today causing major damage to various offices. This attack was part of a larger assault on the city of Ramallah, targeting many public, private, and NGO institutions including the Municipality of El-Bireh.

At the Chamber of Commerce Building, an Israeli military unit attacked among others the office of MA'AN Development Center, an independent non-partisan Palestinian development and training institution established in 1989. Israeli soldiers raided the Center at around two o'clock in the morning, setting explosives to the external locked door, ravaging through the office and breaking another glass door.

This raid comes a few days after the release of statements by high Israeli officials, promising to ease restrictions on Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories. It is difficult to take these statements seriously, especially when such raids are taking place on a regular basis in various cities of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. While Israeli officials continue to announce their commitment to the "Peace Process", Palestinians continue to endure daily Israeli violations and abuses manifested through land confiscations, movement restrictions, arbitrary arrests, damage to and destruction of property, not to mention shooting and killing of civilians.

We hereby call upon the international community to exercise pressure on Israel in order to ensure respect of international law, compliance with Geneva conventions regarding the population under occupation, and protection of civilians' rights and property.

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MA'AN Development Center
Ramallah, West Bank
3 April 2008

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