A legal delegation from Madden & Finucane leave today for Israel and the Occupied Territories on a legal fact finding exercise. The devastating loss of life in the region over the last few years calls out for a political solution. The team will investigate the incursions by the Israeli military into civilian areas and the attacks on the Israeli civilian population by suicide bombers, and will spend up to six weeks in the area.

The delegation will be consulting with Adalah, www.adalah.org, the well known Arab human rights organisation and other NGOs.

They will assist local lawyers in the setting up of procedures and structures required to protect human rights. They will also observe the current Commission of Inquiry hearings in Jerusalem into the killings in Israel in 2000 and will attend hearings of human rights Petitions in the Israeli Supreme Court .