Syria’s Foreign and Expatriates Ministry protested to the United Nations over Israel’s arrest of Sudki al-Makt, a former Syrian prisoner held captive in Israel.
Makt remained imprisoned in Israeli jails for 27 years without legal or ethical grounds, before he was released in August 2012.
In two identical letters addressed to the United Nations Secretary-General and head of the UN Security Council, the ministry recounted the details that surrounded Makt’s re-arrest in the early hours of Wednesday February 25.
“Under the cloak of darkness, the Israeli authorities barged into the house of Makt’s family in Majdal Shams village in the occupied Syrian Golan, rigorously searching the house, tampering with its rooms, vandalizing its furniture and confiscating the inhabitant’s cell phones.”
The ministry said the crime adds to a long list of Israeli transgressions against the Syrian people under the Israeli occupation of Golan. “Israel has a disgraceful track record of human rights violations throughout 47 years of their occupation [of Golan].”
Slamming the arrest as a gross violation of the Geneva conventions, the ministry said that Israel continues to flout international legitimacy resolutions that call for an end to an occupation, taking advantage of cover provided by Security Council members.
The ministry called on the United Nations and human rights organizations to compel Israel to release Makt and fellow Syrian prisoners in Israeli jails, demanding that they bring pressure to bear on Israel’s de facto occupation authorities to ensure more humane conditions for Syrians there.
The letters concluded by stating that the ministry urges the UN Security Council to enforce its resolutions pertaining to Israel’s full withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Golan.
