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US Senator Barack Obama should put respect for human rights at the center of his forthcoming tour of the Middle East, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to him released today. Obama will visit the region on Monday after traveling to Afghanistan this weekend.

Human Rights Watch urged Obama, the Illinois senator and US presidential candidate, to support a new approach to Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Jordan by conditioning relevant portions of US financial aid on each government's compliance with international human rights law. Each has committed serious abuses of human rights that US government policies have insufficiently addressed.

"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," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

Those abuses include the continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank and illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel, indiscriminate rocket fire at Israeli civilian areas by Gaza-based Palestinian groups, numerous instances of torture of prisoners by both Palestinian and Jordanian security forces, and significant new legal restrictions on independent nongovernmental organizations in Jordan.

While the current US administration has criticized many of these abuses, it has stopped short of taking significant measures to ensure they cease, said Human Rights Watch. The United States is the largest financial donor to all three parties.

In Israel, the US government has failed to deter the Israeli government from continuing and even accelerating construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are widely recognized as illegal under international humanitarian law. Work has also continued on the "separation barrier" or wall deep inside the West Bank, endangering the basic rights of the Palestinian population, including access to their lands, services, medical care, water, and livelihoods.

In Gaza, Israel's near total blockade continues to have severe impact on the civilian population, reducing the availability of basic goods to a trickle and severely affecting the provision of essential services.

"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. "Both should end."

Human Rights Watch also called on Obama to urge Palestinian leaders to bring an end to indiscriminate and illegal rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups. "We urge you as a presidential candidate to use your prestige and stature publicly to press for an end to such attacks," he wrote.

Israeli attacks on Palestinian militants in Gaza have incurred high numbers of civilian casualties this year. Human Rights Watch called on Obama to support "independent investigations to determine whether Israel has taken all feasible precautions to avoid harming civilians, as required by the laws of war."

The letter also referred to recent Human Rights Watch investigations that have found that forces under the control of Palestinian Authority have committed serious abuses against criminal suspects and convicted prisoners, including hanging individuals by their feet and putting them in "stress" positions for hours at a time.

"There is currently insufficient legal and judicial oversight of these structures," wrote Roth.

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.

In Jordan, Roth referred to Human Rights Watch investigations of Jordanian prisons over the last year that found the widespread use of torture. Researchers received credible reports of torture from 66 of 110 prisoners interviewed.

The United States has been directly implicated in serious human rights abuses in the country by secretly rendering terrorism suspects to Jordan's intelligence service for interrogation and likely torture between 2001 and 2004.

The Jordanian government has also not abided by promises to promote democracy and free civil society in the country. This month, the parliament approved laws severely restricting the rights to peaceful public assembly and to freedom of association and expression of nongovernmental organizations.

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