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Israel Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes
(1) Resources:
(2) Articles (latest first)
(3) Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes (latest first)
¶ OCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Occupied Palestinian territory: click here! Millions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank struggle to live with dignity under Israeli occupation, facing movement restrictions, Palestinian political divisions and recurrent escalations of hostilities.
¶ Submission by Human Rights Watch to the UN Human Rights Committee in Advance of its review of Israel (January 3, 2022): click here!January 2022: This memorandum provides an overview of several of Human Rights Watch’s central concerns with respect to the Israeli government’s human rights practices in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in advance of its review of Israel in March 2022. This submission, which draws on years of research and documentation by Human Rights Watch, covers freedom of movement, the right to due process and humane treatment, freedom of peaceful assembly, association and expression, residency rights, and right to equality before law. We hope it will inform the Human Rights Committee’s assessment of the Israeli government’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
¶ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Approved and proposed for signature and ratification or accession by General Assembly resolution 260 A (III) of 9 December 1948. Entry into force: 12 January 1951, in accordance with article XIII. click here! Having considered the declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 96 (I) dated 11 December 1946 that genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world, Recognizing that at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity, and Being convinced that, in order to liberate mankind from such an odious scourge, international co-operation is required, Hereby agree as hereinafter provided...
¶ ROME STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (17-7-1998): click here!
PART 2. Jurisdiction, Admissibility and Applicable Law, ...Article 5. Crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court... Article 8. War crimes:
1. The Court shall have jurisdiction in respect of war crimes in particular when committed as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes. 2. For the purpose of this Statute, “war crimes” means:
(a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:...
(i) Wilful killing; (ii) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments; (iii) Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health; (iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
(b) Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict, within the established framework of international law, namely, any of the following acts:
(i) Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities; (ii) Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives; (iii) Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, as long as they are entitled to the protection given to civilians or civilian objects under the international law of armed conflict; (iv) Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated; (v) Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives; (vi) Killing or wounding a combatant who, having laid down his arms or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion; (vii) Making improper use of a flag of truce, of the flag or of the military insignia and uniform of the enemy or of the United Nations, as well as of the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions, resulting in death or serious personal injury; (viii) The transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory...
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- Yasmin ABUSAYMA: « Israel blocks families from burying dead prisoners » (The Electronic Intifada, 5 Oct, 2023): click here.
After Palestinians die in jail, Israel often worsens the pain of their families. Hundreds of Palestinian bodies are being held by Israel. These are the bodies of Palestinians killed directly by Israel or who died in prison. They are either kept in refrigerators or in the so-called “cemeteries of the numbers.”
- Gideon LEVY: « All of a Sudden, Israeli Soldiers and Officers Are War Criminals » (Haaretz, 10 Sept, 2023): click here.
Anxiety, genuine or false, has seized the heads of the military and the judiciary: The judicial revolution puts Israel Defense Forces soldiers at and their commanders by realistically putting them at concrete risk of prosecution abroad.
- Sebastian BEN-DANIEL (John Brown): « Jewish terrorism: Like father, like son » (+982, August 22, 2023): click here.
Israel's terrorists of the '80s faced no real consequences. Now, their children can be found in gov't and media — and committing their own acts of terror."
- ( Chris HEDGES): « Expert reveals Israel’s abuse of Palestinians was premedItated » ( ScheerPost, August 13, 2023, reposted in: Israel-Palestine News, 20 August, 2023): click here.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first installment of an important article by respected journalist Chris Hedges, discussing Israel’s egregious human rights abuses toward the people of Palestine. The original article is so rich with information and insight that we have divided it into 3 parts to avoid reader fatigue. The next installment takes a look at Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s ingratiating pro-Israel position.
- Gideon LEVY: « We even destroy their water wells » (Haaretz, 30 July, 2023, via: Jewish Voice for Labour): click here.
JVL Introduction: "Gideon Levy cannot contain his contempt for those who have just cemented in three water wells near the Fawwar refugee camp in the South Hebron hills. He calls it “the work of the devil” and we would be hard-pressed to dissent. “Arab-hatred, apartheid, brutality and evil” he writes, “now cover the spring and groundwater and the false love for the Land of Israel. If not the most horrific crime of the occupation, he asserts, it is one of the ugliest." We agree.
- “IIsraeli soldiers seal Palestinian well with concrete” (MEMo, July 27, 2023): click here!
Israeli forces raided Palestinian farmland in occupied Hebron with bulldozers and poured concrete into the water sources to stop agricultural irrigation in an area that serves 25 families.
- Michel PLITTNICK: "Israel does not have a right to self-defense for its occupation" (Mondoweiss, July 6, 2023): click here!
Israel's "right to defend itself" is invoked constantly by its supporters, but international law says Israel cannot simultaneously occupy Palestinian land and attack it as a “foreign” threat, or treat those resisting as enemy combatants.
- "Palestinians Displaced by Israeli Attacks Face Unknown Fate" (teleSUR, July 6, 2023): click here!
The violence unleashed by the Israeli occupation forces in Jenin caused the forced displacement of at least 3,000 Palestinians who fled their homes to safer places.
- Richard SILVERSTEIN: "Israel’s Creeping Genocide" (Tikun Olam, June 26, 2023): click here!
Pogroms in 20 Palestinian villages targeted by masses of settler-thugs protected by the IDF.
- Chen MAANIT & Yaniv KUBOVICH: "Israel's Assassination Policy Seeks to Minimize Civilian Casualties. Reality Is Different" (Haaretz, May 30, 2023): click here!
The killing of three senior Islamic Jihad figures and ten civilians in the opening strike on Gaza earlier this month may have been known by Israel in advance. Rights orgs and jurists are calling for an independent investigation into Israel's targeted assassinations.
- Nathaniel BERMAN: "This Is How Israel Really Silences Palestinian Human Rights Advocates" (Haaretz, May 21, 2023): click here!
Ever since 1967, Israeli governments have effectively admitted that violating international law is essential to maintaining the occupation and violating Palestinians' human rights. And they try and silence criticism by using a kind of very effective intellectual blackmail.
- Noa SHPIGEL: "Knesset Passes New Bill to Deport Arab Citizens of Israel Charged With Terrorism" (Haaretz, Feb 15, 2023): click here!
Israel's Interior Ministry already has the power to revoke the citizenship of anyone charged with terrorism, which it has done in the past, but the High Court has ruled that anyone whose citizenship is revoked must still retain residency status if they do not hold another passport. The new law now grants the Interior Ministry the unprecedented ability to revoke the residency status and deport citizens of Israeli.
- Bar PELEG: "Israel May Revoke Residency Status of Jerusalem Attacker's Fathers" (Haaretz, Feb 14, 2023): click here!
According to Israeli law, family members of attackers can also have their residency status revoked based on what courts have termed concrete risk posed by family members, but not as a punitive or deterrence measure.
- Human Rights Watch: "Israel: Collective Punishment against Palestinians" (February 2, 2023): click here!
Israeli authorities’ actions to seal the family homes in the occupied West Bank of two Palestinians suspected of attacks against Israelis amount to collective punishment, a war crime, Human Rights Watch said today.
- Haaretz Editorial: "Conditional Citizenship for Palestinians in Israel" (Haaretz, February 1, 2023): click here!
A bill to strip Israelis of their citizenship if they committed an act of terrorism and then received money from the Palestinian Authority passed its first of three Knesset votes on Monday by an enormous margin of 89-8. This is another step in the process of dismantling the already shaky civic status of Palestinians citizens of Israel.
- Hagai EL-AD: "Liberal Israel’s Masquerade Ball: A More Cultured Apartheid" (Haaretz, Jan 30, 2023): click here!
Since the election on November 1, Israel has been rapidly “removing its masks,” a process revealed in the coalition agreements before Benjamin Netanyahu's new government took over on December 29. In these agreements, the 2018 Basic Law on Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People is evident in extensive displays of Jewish supremacy wherever Israel rules between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
- « On Flimsy Grounds: » Israel’s Pervasive Night Arrests of Palestinian Children (HAMOKED, January 2023, pdf, 11p.): click here!
In just the first few days of the new year, Israel killed four Palestinians, including three children.
- Al Mezan Center for Human Rights: "Israeli District Court rejects Al Mezan’s petition against the use of plastic ties on Palestinian detainees " (press release, January 15, 2023): click here!
In just the first few days of the new year, Israel killed four Palestinians, including three children.
- “Adalah: New Israeli Government’s Policy Guidelines Indicate Officials’ Intent to Commit Crimes under Intl. Law” (Adalah, January 10, 2023): click here!
In a new position paper, Adalah lays out how the guiding principles and coalition agreements of the new Israeli government intend to deepen Jewish supremacy and racial segregation as the underlying principles of the Israeli regime. The govt. initiatives and policies necessitate urgent intervention by international bodies, including by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the reconstitution of the UN Special Committee against Apartheid.
- Dan OWEN: "The odds of a violent Israeli soldier facing charges? Under 1 percent" (+972, Dec 29, 2022): click here!
New data shows how the Israeli army's complaints mechanism serves as a facade of accountability when it comes to soldiers who harm Palestinians.
- Ameer MAKHOUL: "Private militia and remote policing: Israel is ramping up repression of the Palestinians" (MEE, Oct 4, 2022): click here!
Recent steps by Israeli authorities on both sides of the Green Line point to a coordinated divide-and-conquer strategy.
- Avigdor FELDMAN, "I Thought I Put a Stop to Shin Bet Torture. I Was Wrong’" (Haaretz, Sept 16, 2022) : click here!
For years, I was proud that my legal colleagues and I had succeeded in eliminating the possibility of extracting a confession by the use of torture. But it turns out that we were were mistaken.
- Antony LOEWENSTEIN, "Kafka in Gaza: How Israel turned a Palestinian aid worker into a ‘terrorist’" (+972, Sept 8, 2022) : click here!
All of the evidence in Mohammed Halabi’s six-year trial was either 'secret' or implausible. That didn’t stop Israel sentencing him to 12 years in prison.
- Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR): "New Victim of Medical Negligence… Palestinian Detainee Dies in Israeli Jails" (PCHR, Sept 3, 2022) : click here!
According to PCHR’s follow-up, at around 06:00 on Saturday, 03 September 2022, the Israeli occupation authorities announced the death of Mousa Haron Abu Mehamid (40), from Beit Ta’mor village, eastern Bethlehem, noting he was a Palestinian detainee in al-Ramlah Prison. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said in a statement that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested Mehamid after he entered occupied Jerusalem without a permit. His health condition had recently deteriorated after he got a microbe, without explaining what type or how he got it. Afterwards, he was referred to “Assaf Harofeh” hospital in Tel Aviv at the beginning of the month.
- Zvi BAR'EL, "The Puppet Theater of Detentions" (Haaretz, August 24, 2022) : click here!
Israel is currently holding 723 detainees without trial. All of them are Arabs; 11 are Israeli citizens. This number, reported by Haaretz’s Hagar Shezaf on Monday, should shock every law-abiding citizen, judge and attorney – and anyone who still believes in human rights.
- "Over 150 Organizations Demand International Community Stand Against Raids and Closures of 7 Palestinian Organizations" (CIHRS, August 22, 2022) : click here!
Amid Israel’s escalating attacks targeting their work, a group of more than 150 Palestinian, regional, and international organizations express our full solidarity with the designated seven leading Palestinian civil society organizations.
- "53 Israeli civil society organizations in solidarity with the Palestinian organizations designated by Israel as “terrorist groups” | B'Tselem (August 21, 2022): click here!
Defense of human rights is not terrorism. Israel is persisting in its declaration of prominent Palestinian civil society organizations as terrorist groups. Recently, the military put words into action by raiding their offices and shutting them down...
- Hagar SHEZAF, "Directors of Palestinian NGOs Say Shin Bet Threatened Them" (Haaretz, August 21, 2022): click here!
Directors of two Palestinian organizations that were raided by Israel this week say they were told by the Israeli security service to stop working for these groups: 'I asked him if this is a threat, and he said yes'.
- Al Mezan Center For Human Rights, "Press Release: Israel escalates crackdown on Palestinian rights groups in the West Bank, posing an existential threat to Palestinian civil society" (August 21, 2022): click here!
In the early hours of Thursday, 18 August 2022, Israeli forces raided the offices of seven Palestinian civil society organizations in Ramallah, occupied West Bank. The seven raided organizations—Addameer Prisoners Support & Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, Defense for Children-Palestine (DCI-P), Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC), Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC)—are all prominent and highly respected Palestinian human rights and development organizations active both internationally and locally. During the raids, Israeli forces damaged office equipment, confiscated property and materials, welded iron slabs over entrance doors, and left behind military orders at the doors of each organization ordering their immediate closure.
- "Israël sluit kantoren van zeven Palestijnse maatschappelijke organisaties" (The Rights Forum, August 18, 2022): click here!
De zeven ngo’s werden eerder door Israël tot terroristische organisaties bestempeld. Iedere onderbouwing daarvoor ontbreekt, de maatregel was louter bedoeld om de organisaties te kunnen oprollen. Dat gebeurt nu.
- "Qui va payer pour ces 16 enfants assassinés et toutes les familles palestiniennes décimées ?" (EuroPalestine, 9 août, 2022): click here!
La petite Haneen Abu Qaida, âgée de 10 ans, est morte lundi des graves blessures provoquées par l’un des bombardements israéliens sur Gaza.
- Zvi BAR'EL: "Who Cares About a Child Killed in Gaza" (Haaretz, Aug 8, 2022): click here!
Shireen and Jenin, month-old babies from Gaza, were lightly wounded in the attacks there. Both were photographed swaddled in white baby clothes, large pacifiers in their mouths, their birth certificates on the pillow next to each, and their chests covered with an oversized shirt, bearing the image of slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
- Maha HUSSAINI: "Israeli attack: Gaza health sector facing imminent disaster" (Middle East Eye, Aug 7, 2022): click here!
With acute medicine, fuel shortages, hospitals in besieged enclave not equipped to save casualties as Israel continues bombardment.
- Basil FARRAJ: "The Prison Intifada: Supporting Palestinian Administrative Detainees" (Al-Shabaka, Aug 2, 2022): click here!
Administrative detention is central to the Israeli regime’s attempts to suppress Palestinian mobilization. Al-Shabaka policy analyst Basil Farraj shows how Palestinian administrative detainees have continuously resisted this policy and demanded an end to its widespread and arbitrary use. He offers recommendations to Palestinian civil society organizations, national stakeholders, and solidarity groups for how to support the ongoing Palestinian prison intifada.
- "Hoogste rechter: Palestijnen in Israël mag staatsburgerschap worden ontnomen" (The Rights Forum, 1 augustus, 2022): click here!
Het Israëlisch Hooggerechtshof staat toe dat Palestijnse inwoners van Israël het staatsburgerschap mag worden ontnomen als sprake is van een ‘schending van loyaliteit aan de staat’. Het besluit vormt een middel voor de staat om zich van Palestijnse inwoners te kunnen ontdoen.
- Lana TATOUR: "Israël peut désormais déchoir les Palestiniens de 1948 de leur nationalité" (Middle East Eye, 28 juillet 2022): click here!
« Un manquement au devoir de loyauté » envers l’État est un motif de déchéance de nationalité. Cette décision de la justice israélienne va grandement faciliter son projet de longue date consistant à expulser les citoyens palestiniens d’Israël.
- "UN experts urge Israel to free Ahmad Manasra" (WAFA, July 14, 2022): click here!
GENEVA, July 14, 2022 – UN human rights experts today urged the Israeli occupation authorities to immediately release Ahmad Manasra, a 20-year-old Palestinian detained in Israeli prisons since he was 14 years old, while suffering serious mental health conditions. The experts are Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967; Fionnuala Ni Aolain, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; Tendayi Achiume, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; and Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right to health.
- Press Release: "Palestinian Territories: Escalation of extrajudicial executions, carried out under official Israeli cover" (EuroMed Human Rights Monitor, July 12, 2022): click here!
Geneva - The official instructions received by the Israeli army in dealing with Palestinian civilians led to systematic use of lethal force, which caused a noticeable increase in incidents amounting to extrajudicial killings in the Palestinian territories, Euro-Med Monitor said in a statement. According to Euro-Med Monitor’s documentation, between 1 January and 10 July 2022, the Israeli army, following a policy of excessive use of force against Palestinians, killed nearly 53 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In a letter addressed to Morris Tidball-Binz, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions, Euro-Med Monitor indicated that its field investigations and collected testimonies regarding the killing of a young Palestinian man earlier this month showed that members of the Israeli army deliberately used lethal force against him.
- Press Release: "Palestinian CSOs at the HRC50 Stress that Israeli Settler-Colonialism, Apartheid and Occupation are the Root Causes Impeding Palestinian Development" (International Middle East Media Center, July 8, 2022): click here!
Al-Haq Human Rights Organization: During the 50th session of the Human Rights Council taking place from 13 June – 8 July 2022, Al-Haq, along with Palestinian Civil Society Organizations (‘CSOs’), engaged in the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance held on 5 July 2022 under item 9 of the HRC agenda.
- Press Release: "Al Mezan holds Israel responsible for the death of Gaza patient Jihad al-Qedra after being denied nine appointments at West Bank hospitals" (Al Mezan, July 5, 2022): click here!
Al Mezan strongly condemns the discriminatory movement restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities on Palestinian patients from the Gaza Strip. Israel’s arbitrary and draconian permit system delays or denies patients access to hospitals outside Gaza in around 30 percent of urgent cases. The most recent case of delay lead to the death of Jihad al-Qedra, a 55-years-old cancer patient from Gaza, who died after he was denied access to medical care at a hospital outside Gaza by Israeli authorities at the Erez Crossing.
- "Palestine PM: Israel uses withheld Palestinian dead bodies in experimental labs in violation of human rights" (PressTV, July 4, 2022): click here!
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh says Israel continues to withhold the bodies of Palestinians killed by the regime's forces to use them in laboratories of medical schools in flagrant violation of human rights.
- Human Rights Watch, "Palestine: Impunity for Arbitrary Arrests, Torture" HRW, June 30, 2022): click here!
PA, Hamas Abuse Still Systemic a Year After Prominent Critic Beaten to Death.
- "Israeli anti-torture body refers Israel to International Criminal Court" (Middle East Eye, June 10, 2022): click here!
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) says after 30 years it has concluded Israeli authorities not interested and unable to stop abuse of Palestinians.
- Shira KADARI-OVADIA: "Israel Cites Nation-State Law to Block Educators From Refuting Its Jewish Nature" (Haaretz, June 6, 2022): click here!
Outside school program operators in Israel will have to sign 12 conditions in the bidding process, including vowing to not treat Independence Day as a 'day of mourning'.
- Tamara NASSAR: "May: Deadly month for Palestinian boys" (EI, June 2, 2022): click here!.
May was a deadly month for Palestinian children living under Israeli occupation. Five Palestinian boys were killed by Israeli fire, bringing the number of children killed by Israeli forces this year to 13. Israeli soldiers fired at Zaid Muhammad Said Ghunaim at a distance of 15-20 meters as he fled the area in the Palestinian town of al-Khader on 27 May, according to a field investigation carried out by Defense for Children International-Palestine...
- "A Scarred Childhood: Israeli Attacks against Palestinian Children in the Occupied West Bank in 2022" (State of Palestine, PLO, Negotiations Affairs Dpt, Media Briefs, April 12, 2022): click here!
- "UN Human Rights Committee calls on Israel to end practices of collective punishment against Palestinians in Gaza and ensure accountability for persistent human rights violations" (Al Mezan Center for Human Rights , April 1, 2022): click here!
- Michael LYNK, "Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in OPT: Israel Has Imposed Upon Palestine an Apartheid Reality in a Post-apartheid World" (Press Release, United Nations, The Question of Palestine, 25 March 2022): click here!
"Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 " (18 p.), Human Rights Council, Forty ninth session, 28 February–1 April 2022, Agenda item 7: click here!"(The Rapporteur) concluded that the political system of entrenched rule in the occupied Palestinian territory satisfied the prevailing evidentiary standard for the existence of apartheid. First, an institutionalised regime of systematic racial oppression and discrimination has been established. Second, this system of alien rule had been established with the intent to maintain the domination of one racial-national-ethnic group over another. And third, the imposition of this system of institutionalised discrimination with the intent of permanent domination had been built upon the regular practice of inhuman(e) acts. This was apartheid. With the eyes of the international community wide open, Israel had imposed upon Palestine an apartheid reality in a post-apartheid world."
- “OCCUPIED LIVES. ISRAEL’S VIOLATIONS OF PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS” (State of Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization - Negotiations Affairs Department, Sept 23, 2021, 61p., pdf): click here!
- B'TSELEM: "A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid" (January 12, 2021): click here!
- YESH DIN: "The Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and the Crime of Apartheid: Legal Opinion by Adv. Michael Sfard". YESH DIN Position paper (June 2020, pdf, 58p.): click here!
- European Council on Foreign Relations: "Mapping Palestinian Politics" (Update 29 maart 2020, pdf, 76p.): click here!
'Mapping Palestinian Politics' provides an interactive overview of the main Palestinian political institutions and players in Palestine, Israel, and the diaspora. Its goal is to provide an easy-to-use, scene-setting resource for researchers, journalists, and policymakers ahead of significant transformations to the Palestinian political order centred around the anticipated departure of Mahmoud Abbas in the near term.
- HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: "Born Without Civil Rights. Israel’s Use of Draconian Military Orders to Repress Palestinians in the West Bank" (Nov 2019, ISBN: 978-1-6231-37816, pdf, 97p.): click here!
- Amira HASS: "Breaking Up West Bank Families: An Unseen Israeli Policy" (Haaretz, Oct 17, 2017): click here!
What happened that caused the Israeli apparatus of control to once again make use of their license to abuse mixed couples?
- Samidoun: "Israeli occupation raids target Palestinian media offices for forcible closure" (Samidoun, Oct 17, 2017): click here!
Israeli occupation forces attacked and shut down at least eight Palestinian media offices in pre-dawn raids on Wednesday, 18 October, as well as seizing 23 Palestinians in a series of home raids.
- "Mohammed Khalaf released after 12 years, urges attention to veteran prisoners’ struggle for freedom" (Samidoun, Sept 28, 2017): click here!
Mohammed Khalaf (Abu Tahrir), from the village of Jatt in the northern Triangle area in occupied Palestine ’48, was released after 12 years in Israeli prisons on Sunday, 24 September. Upon his release, he brought a message from the veteran prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons urging that their issue be taken up as a priority as part of the process of reconciliation and national unity.
- Giselle NATH: "Richard Falk: ‘Israël hanteert apartheidsregime’" (De Standaard, 16 sept 2017): click here!
Hij zou een ‘zelfhatende jood’ zijn en zijn VN-rapport kon niet officieel verschijnen. Maar de Amerikaan Richard Falk houdt voet bij stuk: Israël lijkt op het Zuid-Afrika van de apartheid.
- B'Tselem Press release: "Israel demolishes school serving 80 children in Jub a-Dib on eve of new school year" (Aug 23, 2017): click here!
The demolition of a school building the night before the start of the year epitomizes the administrative cruelty and systematic harassment by authorities designed to drive Palestinians from their land.
- Defense of Children International - Palestine: "Israeli forces shoot and attempt to recruit Palestinian child" (Aug 14, 2017): click here!
Israeli forces shot and injured Mahmoud Qaddumi, 13, on July 23 near the Israeli separation barrier by the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, before detaining, interrogating, and attempting to recruit him as an informant.
- Zena TAHHAN: "Why does Israel keep the bodies of Palestinians?" (Al-Jazeera, Aug 10, 2017): click here!
A recent report has found that Israel is keeping hundreds of bodies in its infamous cemeteries of numbers.
- Charlotte SILVER: "Mahmoud Abbas decrees sweeping internet speech restrictions" (EI, Aug 9, 2017): click here!
Palestinian media and human rights groups are calling on the Palestinian Authority to suspend the new “Electronic Crimes” law that critics say is a sweeping attack on the right to free expression and privacy. Meanwhile, an Israeli minister is facing difficulties in his effort to shut down Al Jazeera.
- "Number of sick prisoners in Israeli jails rising" (MEMo, Aug 2, 2017): click here!
More than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails are sick as a result of the continuous Israeli policy of mistreatment, Shehab News Agency reported yesterday.
- Amira HASS: "Israel's Cloned Security Guards" (Haaretz, July 26, 2017): click here!
The four elements you can find in every Israeli soldier, policeman and guard which allow them to shoot Palestinian children, teenagers and women bearing knives, when they don’t pose any threat.
- Addameer Fact Sheet: "Detained Palestinian Legislative Council Members" (Addameer, July 25, 2017): click here!
According to international law and Israeli courts no one can be detained for their political opinions. This is affirmed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 2, which states that states parties are to ensure “to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966). However, Palestinian political leaders are routinely arrested and detained as part of an ongoing Israeli effort to suppress Palestinian political processes – and, as a necessary result, political sovereignty and self-determination.
- "Israel sentences Palestinian leader Khalida Jarrar to six months without charge or trial” (Ma'an, July 12, 2017): click here!
Israeli forces detained Jarrar, a long-serving PLC member from the leftist faction the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), on July 2 after raiding her home in Ramallah in the central West Bank, 13 months after Jarrar was released from Israeli prison on June 3, 2016 after serving more than a year, one month of which was under administrative detention.
- Hagai EL-AD: "The Cover-up Theater of the Occupation ” (Haaretz, July 1, 2017): click here!
After 50 years, one of the occupation's new innovations is doing things out in the open.
- Nir HASSON: "In Israel, Attacks on Palestinians by Far-right Jews Are Frequent - and the Police Do Nothing” (Haaretz, July 1, 2017): click here!
A recent attack on three Palestinians, allegedly by members of the far-right Lehava group, is just the latest in a series of such incidents in Jerusalem.
- Ahmad MELHEM: "Israel's controversial citizenship law persists” (Al-Monitor, June 29, 2017): click here!
With the extension of the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law for the 14th year in a row, Palestinians in the West Bank will continue to be blocked from reunifying with family members in Israel.
- "Palestinian women prisoners under harsh attack in Damon prison" (Samidoun, June 29, 2017): click here!
Palestinian women prisoners in Damon prison are being subject to harsh sanctions, deprived of family visits and thrown in solitary confinement, reported prisoners and advocates. They are also being denied access to the “canteen” (prison store) and subjected to financial fines.
- "Les Palestiniens «privés de la possibilité» de se faire soigner en Israël" (Sputnik, June 28, 2017): click here!
Les résidents de la bande de Gaza se heurtent à de graves problèmes lorsqu'ils tentent de se rendre en Israël pour bénéficier de soins médicaux.
- "Former long-term hunger striker Muhammad Allan among 11 Palestinians seized by Israeli occupation forces" (Samidoun, June 8, 2017): click here!
Former long-term hunger striker Muhammad Allan among 11 Palestinians seized by Israeli occupation forces.
- "Imprisoned Sanabel Radio journalists call for support against “incitement” charges targeting Palestinian media" (Samidoun, June 8, 2017): click here!
The five imprisoned Palestinian journalists of Sanabel Radio – Ahmad Daraweesh, Montasser Nassar, Mohammed Imran Sous, Nidal Amro and Hamed Nammoura – released a letter from Ofer prison in which they state that the Israeli occupation military prosecution is seeking to imprison them for three years on allegations of “incitement” for their public repoting of news and information about Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
- "Palestinian women prisoners continue struggle, achieve concessions to their demands, lawyer reports" (Samidoun, June 8, 2017): click here!
Palestinian women prisoners said that the Israel Prison Service conceded to their demands following their protests, said lawyer Taghreed Jahshan after meeting with Palestinian women prisoners in HaSharon prison on Thursday, 8 June.
- Orr HIRSCHAUGE & Hagar SHEZAF, “The Facebook arrests : How Israel detains Palestinians before even they know they’re terrorists” (AURDIP, 28 mai, 2017): click here!
Israel has arrested hundreds of Palestinians since the lone-wolf intifada began in September 2015, partly by analyzing social media posts. Authorities say these arrests are legitimate, but others see it as a grave violation of human rights.
- Stéphanie LATTE : « Israël a tissé une toile carcérale sur les territoires palestiniens » (AURDIP, 26 mai 2017): click here!
Stéphanie Latte est politiste et historienne, chercheuse au CNRS, au Centre de recherches internationales de Sciences-Po. Elle voit dans le système carcéral israélien un dispositif central de renseignement et de gestion de l’occupation.
- "International legal organizations’ open letter to UN Secretary-General on Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike" (Samidoun, May 23, 2017): click here!
The Center for Constitutional Rights, National Lawyers Guild, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, International Federation for Human Rights and Palestine Legal came together to write an open letter to the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, on the 37th day of a hunger strike by Palestinians in Israeli prison. The letter urged the UN to call on Israel to respect the human rights of the hunger strikers.
- "Timeline: Israel’s anti-Palestinian laws since 1948" (MEMo May 15, 2017): click here!
2006-Present: 2017: Israel announces plans to limit the travel of those arriving in Ben-Gurion airport to the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
- "Addameer visits hunger-striking political leader Ahmad Sa'adat" (Addameer, May 14, 2017): click here!
Addameer's attorney Farah Bayadsi visited hunger-striking political leader and Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Ahmad Sa'adat today, 14 May 2017, in Ohli Kedar prison. Addameer's attorney was previously denied visitation, but received approval following a High Court petition submitted on 10 May 2017.
- Sawsan ZAHER: "Israel's Message to Its Palestinian Citizens: Jewish Rights Are Superior" (Haaretz, May 11, 2017): click here!
The nation-state bill means, for the first time in its history, Israel's unwritten constitution will explicitly exclude Palestinian citizens from the right to equality and collective rights.
- Gideon LEVY: "Doctors From India, Guards From Chechnya" (Haaretz, May 7, 2017): click here!
Evil is the only inclination guiding the Israeli response to the hunger strike of the Palestinian prisoners. All the rest is pretense about security.
- "Press release: Patient care affected by teargas, stun grenades used near Palestinian medical complex" (MAP, May 5, 2017): click here!
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) is deeply concerned about the firing of tear gas canisters, stun grenades and bullets by Israeli forces close to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, the West Bank, in the early hours of Thursday morning. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the incident spread fear and panic among children and elderly patients, and staff were forced to move patients away from areas affected by tear gas.
- Ramzy BAROUD: "Les raisons profondes de la révolte des prisonniers" (Investig'Action, 4 mai 2017): click here!
Gaza est la plus grande prison à ciel ouvert au monde. La Cisjordanie est également une prison, segmentée en différentes zones, connues sous le nom de zones A, B et C. En fait, tous les Palestiniens sont soumis à des degrés divers de restrictions militaires. À un certain niveau, ils sont tous prisonniers.
- Gideon LEVY & Alex LEVAC: "The Longest-serving Palestinian Inmate in Israeli Prison" (Haaretz, April 28, 2017): click here!
He was released in a prisoner swap after serving 33 years for the murder of an Israeli officer, then sent back in on a technicality.
- "L’armée d’occupation détruit les conduites d’eau alimentant des localités palestiniennes pour forcer les habitants à partir" (Pour la Palestine, 27 avril, 2017): click here!
Des bulldozers, escortés par l’armée d’occupation, ont détruit jeudi matin toutes les conduites d’eau permettant l’approvisionnement de la localité de Bardala, au bord de la Cisjordanie occupée, dans le district de Tubas.
- Miko PELED: "Choking the Families of Prisoners" (Ma'an, April 24, 2017): click here!
As thousands of Palestinian prisoners are engaged in the painful self-sacrifice of a hunger strike, the recent draconian move by Israel’s Defense Minister declaring the Palestinian National Fund a terrorist organization deserves attention. This fund is the conduit by which financial support is provided to thousands of Palestinian families who had or have loved ones in Israeli jails.
- "Barghouthi's health deteriorates on 8th day of Palestinian prisoner hunger strike" (Ma'an, April 24, 2017): click here!
Imprisoned Palestinian parliamentarian and Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi, who has been leading a large-scale hunger strike in Israeli prisons, suffered from a serious deterioration of his health on Monday after forgoing food for eight days.
- Willem DE MAESENEER: "Een Palestijnse generatie geboren in de ondervragingsruimtes" (MO*, April 24, 2017): click here!
Sinds 2015 is het aantal Palestijnse kinderen in Israëlische gevangenissen bijna verdubbeld. De gewelddadige arrestatieprocedures, de willekeur en het feit dat vijftig procent van de Palestijnse bevolking minderjarig is doet academici, internationale waarnemers en de Palestijnse Autoriteit vermoeden dat het om een bewuste tactiek gaat. Een tactiek om een generatie van Palestijnen te bekomen die psychologisch gebroken is.
- "Interview with Ahmad Sa'adat: Prisoners' struggle is critically important for the Palestinian liberation movement" (Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat, April 19, 2017): click here!
Marking Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, and as over 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners enter an open hunger strike for a series of demands, HadfNews published an interview with imprisoned Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa’adat, his answers received from Ramon prison, where Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is confined by the Zionist occupation.
- Sheren KHALEL: "Israel cracks down on thousands of hunger strikers, as Palestinians take to the streets in mass solidarity" (Mondoweiss, April 18, 2017): click here!
Palestinian prisoners declared a mass open-ended hunger strike entitled “Freedom and Dignity” on Monday — Palestinian Prisoners day — eliciting an immediate crackdown from Israeli authorities.
- Zena TAHHAN & Konstantinos ANTONOPOULOS: "What it means to be a Palestinian prisoner in Israel" (Al-Jazeera, April 17, 2017): click here!
As hundreds of prisoners go on a mass hunger strike, here is a fact sheet about their plight in Israeli jails.
- "Israeli forces shut down 2 bookstores in Hebron over 'incitement'" (AMa'an, April 17, 2017): click here!
Israeli forces raided Hebron city in the southern occupied West Bank before dawn Monday, shutting down and sealing off two bookstores after confiscating materials.
- Jack KHOURY & Yaniv KUBOVICH: "Israel Places Palestinian Leader Marwan Barghouti in Solitary Over Prisoners' Hunger Strike" (Haaretz, April 17, 2017): click here!
Tens on thousands of Palestinians from throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip marched and attended rallies to show their support for hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. Marwan Barghouti, who is leading the strike, was palced in solitary confinement.
- Marwan BARGHOUTI: "Why We Are on Hunger Strike in Israel’s Prisons" (The New York Times, April 16, 2017): click here!
HADARIM PRISON, Israel — Having spent the last 15 years in an Israeli prison, I have been both a witness to and a victim of Israel’s illegal system of mass arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners. After exhausting all other options, I decided there was no choice but to resist these abuses by going on a hunger strike.
- "Report: About 1,000,000 Palestinians arrested since 1948" (Palestinian Information Center, April 15, 2017): click here!
- "Amnesty International : Israel must end ‘unlawful and cruel’ policies towards Palestinian prisoners" (AURDIP, April 14, 2017): click here!
Israel’s decades-long policy of detaining Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza in prisons inside Israel and depriving them of regular family visits is not only cruel but also a blatant violation of international law, said Amnesty International, ahead of a mass prisoner’s hunger strike beginning next week to mark Palestinian Prisoner’s Day on 17 April.
- "New MAP briefing exposes how the occupation undermines Palestinian mental health" (Medical Aid for Palestine, April 12, 2017): click here!
This third chapter exposes how the political and social conditions endured by Palestinians – including breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law – undermine their psychological wellbeing and cause unnecessary trauma and suffering.
- "Stop Administrative Detention" (Addameer): click here!
Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. Although administrative detention is used almost exclusively to detain Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT)...
- "Human Rights Defenders" (Addameer): click here!
According to the United Nations, a Human rights defender is an individual, “who, individually or with others, act[s] to promote or protect human rights.”
- "March 2017 Report: 509 Palestinians arrested in March by Israeli occupation forces" (Samidoun, April 10, 2017): click here!
Four Palestinian institutions concerned with prisoners and human rights, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission, issued their monthly report on Sunday, 9 April covering the situation in March 2017.
- Amira HASS: "When the Rapist Is Also the Judge" (Haaretz, April 9, 2017): click here!
The entire Israeli military legal system that operates in the West Bank is corrupt.
- Ali ABUNIMAH: "Palestinian rights groups condemn Gaza executions" (EI, April 7, 2017): click here!
Palestinian human rights groups have condemned the execution by authorities in the Gaza Strip of three civilians accused of collaborating with Israel.
- "PNGO calls upon the international community: Don’t use aid to undermine legitimate Palestinian resistance" (Addameer, April 5, 2017): click here!
Palestinians, like any other people, have the right to resist foreign domination, exploitation, oppression and occupation by the means permitted under international law and the UN general assembly resolution that “Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means including armed struggle”.
- Amira HASS: "Most Palestinian Minors Arrested by Israel Claim Physical Violence During Detention" (Haaretz, April 2, 2017): click here!
60 percent say experienced violence, only 10 percent met with a lawyer | In 2013, a UNICEF report said Israel was systematically abusing young detainees, new data shows little has changed.
- Report: "Unwilling or Unable: Israeli Restrictions on Access to and from Gaza for Human Rights Workers" (Human Rights Watch, April 2, 2017): click here!
For the last 25 years, Israel has imposed increasingly strict restrictions on travel to and from the Gaza Strip. Those restrictions affect nearly every aspect of life in Gaza, including the ability of human rights workers to document violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) and to advocate for their remediation.
- "Four Palestinian human rights defenders back in military court on Monday #alKhalil4" (Samidoun, April 2, 2017): click here!
The four activists will be brought back before a military court today, Monday 3 April, with additional charges against them for organizing a peaceful demonstration.
- Meredith McBRIDE: "Separate and Unequal: Inside Israel's Military Courts, Where the Only Defendants Are Palestinians" (Haaretz, March 28 2017): click here!
The UN says Israel's West Bank justice system, which tries Palestinians exclusively and has reported an almost 100% conviction rate, violates international law. This is what I saw.
- Mark LEVINE: "What did the UN apartheid report expose in reality?" (Al-Jazeera, March 19 2017): click here!
...the authors have used the scalpel of international law and the seemingly moribund International Covenant on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid to create a new matrix of analysis of the occupation, its generative dynamics, and likely future path that will prove extremely hard for even Israel's most ardent defenders to refute in the coming years.
- "New UN Report Confirms Israel is an “Apartheid” State, Calls for BDS " (AURDIP, March 17 2017): click here!
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian society, has warmly welcomed as a “historic breakthrough” a report released today by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) that proves beyond doubt that Israel has imposed a system of apartheid on the entire Palestinian people.
- Anat MATAR: "The eternal jail: Palestinians bring trauma of Israeli prisons to the screen" (+972, March 17 2017): click here!
A new documentary shows how the degradation and physical abuse suffered by Palestinians in Israeli jails means that even after their release, they haven’t escaped prison.
- Amira HASS: "In Precedent-setting Ruling, Israel's Top Court Recognizes East Jerusalem Arabs as 'Native-born Residents'" (Haaretz, March 16 2017): click here!
Over 14,000 Arabs have had their residency rights revoked since 1967 because they were absent from Jerusalem for more than 7 years. Court ruling challenges practice that treated them like immigrants in their own city.
- "Six days of unjustified detention, with full backing by the military and the courts: As usual, no one will have to answer for it" (B'Tselem, March 14 2017): click here!
On Friday, 10 February 2017, at about 4:00 P.M., some twenty to thirty young people and families with children, all residents of the village of Madama, which is located south of Nablus, went on an outing to spot a few hundred meters south of the village. At around 4:15-4:30 P.M., five or six soldiers approached from the area of the settlement of Yitzhar.
- "Palestine and the Israeli Occupation: Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid, Executive Summary" (Unescwa.org, 2017): click here!
This report concludes that Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole. Aware of the seriousness of this allegation, the authors of the report conclude that available evidence establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Israel is guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid as legally defined in instruments of international law".
- Ali ABUNIMAH: "Landmark UN report backs Israel boycott" (EI, March 15, 2017): click here!
The landmark report’s endorsement of boycotts, economic sanctions and other grassroots initiatives comes at a moment when Israel is desperately attempting to criminalize and suppress international support for Palestinian rights.
- Yael MAROM: "Number of Palestinian prisoners hits five-year high" (+972, March 12, 2017): click here!
Over 6,000 Palestinian “security prisoners” were being held in Israeli prisons as of the beginning of February, according to statistics published by the Israel Prison Services (IPS). This is the highest number of Palestinian prisoners since July 2010.
- Amira HASS: "A Worthy Sacrifice for a Judeo-Samarian" (Haaretz, March 9, 2017): click here!
The demolitions of Palestinian structures are easy prey. The horns of the altar shout: More. Harder. Bigger. It is not enough to destroy, people must be evicted, driven out, uprooted.
- Charlotte SILVER: "Dozens of Palestinian women and girls remain in Israel’s prisons" (The Electronic Intifada, March 8, 2017): click here!
There are currently 55 Palestinian females held in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, including 12 girls and 16 mothers, according to a statement from prisoners’ rights group Addameer and antiwar group CodePink. Testimonies by Palestinian women and girls highlight the brutality of the arrest process as well as conditions inside Israeli interrogation, detention and prison centers and even hospitals while in custody...
- "Report: Crimes against Humanity: Israel kills 26 Palestinian students, arrests 198 in 2016" (MEMo, Feb 28, 2017): click here!
Official Palestinian statistics indicated that Israeli occupation forces committed violations and attacks on 89,799 students and 5,528 teachers and employees during 2016.
- Nir HASSON: "15 ans après l’adoption d’une “loi temporaire”, plus de 12.000 Palestiniens vivent dans les limbes" (Haaretz, Pour la Palestine, 3 mars, 2017): click here!
Un “ordre d’urgence” vieux de 15 ans interdit à des Palestiniens mariés à des citoyen.ne.s israélien.ne.s ou à des résident.e.s permanent.e.s d’obtenir un permis pour entrer en Israël, alors même que le Shin Bet estime que la levée de ces restrictions ne représenterait qu’un risque minimal.
- Amira HASS: "In First, Israeli Military Court Throws Out Palestinian Boy’s Interrogation" (Haaretz, Feb 28, 2017): click here!
An Israeli military court has made a precedent-setting ruling by refusing to admit a Palestinian minor’s statements to police because the police investigator denied him access to an attorney.
- "Palestinian teens detail their torture at the hands of Israeli authorities" (Ma'an, Feb 14, 2017): click here!
Two Palestinian teenagers held in Israel’s Ofer detention center have been shot, abused, and tortured during their detention and interrogation by Israeli authorities, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Palestinian Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs.
- Ben WHITE: "Israeli torture of Palestinian children 'institutional'" (Al-Jazeera, 7 Feb, 2017): click here!
Confessions by Palestinians who have been tortured are regularly accepted by Israeli judges, rights groups say.
- "Israel clears Palestinians and homes so its military can practice" (Defense for Children International - Palestine, Feb 6, 2017): click here!
Evictions, demolitions, and UXO (unexploded ordnance) are constant risks for Palestinian children living in areas of the Jordan Valley that Israel has declared as “firing zones,” where Israeli battalions regularly assemble to hone their combat skills. Before tanks can shoot off missile rounds and soldiers can carry out practice missions, goats are removed, animal pens and tents dismantled.
- Sheren KHALEL: "‘We have nowhere else to go’: Bedouins say they will continue to rebuild as Israel carries out home demolitions at a record pace” (Mondoweiss, Jan 31, 2017): click here!
A white tent is the only structure left standing among the scattered piles of twisted metal and tarp that was a Jahalin Tribe Bedouin encampment West of Jericho city in the Wadi Qilt valley. On the morning of Wednesday, January 25th, Israeli forces escorted two bulldozers down from the main road up to the small Bedouin community.
- "Israeli court approves demolition of Palestinian villages in occupied West Bank” (MEMo, Jan 26, 2017): click here!
Israel’s High Court of Justice has decided to allow the Civil Administration in the occupied West Bank to demolish eight Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills because the land is “needed” for military training purposes, Haaretz reported on Thursday. Around 1,500 Palestinians will be affected by the destruction of their homes.
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: "These are the Palestinian children killed by Israel in 2016” (The Internet Intifada, Jan 25, 2017): click here!
For Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, 2016 was the deadliest year in the past decade. Thirty-five Palestinian children were killed by Israeli soldiers, police and armed civilians during the year, all but four of the deadly incidents taking place in the West Bank. Children account for a third of the 105 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during 2016.
- Amira HASS: "Israel's Judges Paved the Way for What Happened in Bedouin Village” (Haaretz, Jan 25, 2017): click here!
The life of the Palestinian is cheap in our eyes, because our eyes are coveting his land. For his land’s real-estate value to rise in our hands, his life must be made miserable, and then his death too.
- Chaim LEVINSON: "Torture, Israeli-style - as Described by the Interrogators Themselves” (Haaretz, Jan 24, 2017): click here!
For years, the Israeli establishment has tried to conceal what happens in interrogation rooms. When interrogators use torture – or “special means,” to use the establishment’s term – the concealment efforts are redoubled.
- Robert FANTINA: "International law, the United Nations and Palestine” (Mondoweiss, Jan 19, 2017): click here!
The United Nations Security Council recently passed Resolution 2334, which condemns the construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, declares them again to be illegal, and demands a stop to any future such construction. Israel, as expected, has denounced this resolution.
- Amira HASS: "First Week of 2017: Israel Demolishes Homes of 151 Palestinians, Almost Four Times Last Year's Average” (Haaretz, Jan 7, 2017): click here!
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promise to settlers from the unauthorized outpost of Amona to enforce the law "equally" by demolishing the homes of Arabs is being strictly fulfilled.
- "Year-in-review: Worst abuses against Palestinian children in 2016” (DCI-P, Jan 1, 2017): click here!
West Bank children suffered the highest losses of the past decade with 32 child fatalities at the hands of Israeli forces and security guards in 2016. In Gaza, children slipped deeper into poverty, as the blockade began its ninth year, with some still living in protracted displacement.
- Adam HAMZE: "10 Things Palestinians Can’t Do Because Of The Israeli Occupation” (The Huffington Post, Dec 29, 2016): click here!
The Israeli government and some U.S. politicians are attacking the Obama administration for permitting a recent U.N. Security Council resolution that condemns Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Secretary of State John Kerry faced further ire on Wednesday after saying the settlements threaten prospects for peace in the region.
- Gideon LEVY: "Security Prisoners Are Human Beings” (Haaretz, Dec 29, 2016): click here!
Israel's inhumane treatment of security prisoners is often overlooked. Don't they deserve at least the same treatment as convicted murderers? | Opinion
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Teen slain during home demolition raid” (The Electronic Intifada, Dec 23, 2016): click here!
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teen during confrontations in a Jerusalem-area village before dawn on Thursday. Ahmad Nashat Uthman al-Kharroubi, 19, was hit in the neck with live ammunition and pronounced dead on arrival to a Ramallah hospital.
- "Palestinian prisoner ordered to administrative detention after end of 10-month sentence” (Samidoun, Dec 22, 2016): click here!
Palestinian prisoner Saddam al-Saadah was ordered to an additional four months in administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – immediately following his scheduled release from Israeli prison on 17 December 2016.
- "600 Israeli press violations since the beginning of 2016” (The Palestinian Information Center, Dec 19, 2016): click here!
The reported 600 press violations include the killing of 53 Palestinian journalists and the arrest of 137 others, 24 of them are still held behind Israeli bars.
- "Palestiniens d’Israël, des détenus à part” (Plateforme Palestine, déc 14, 2016): click here!
Mahmoud al Weesi, palestinien d’Israël, journaliste et aujourd’hui coordinateur de la communication du comité des libertés « Lajnat al horiya » à Nazareth, a été arrêté à l’âge de 18 ans et a passé 7 années en prison. Il dénonce les conditions d’arrestation et de détention des Palestiniens incarcérés dans les prisons israéliennes.
- David LLOYD: "Strangled Education: Reporting on higher education in Palestine and Israel” (Mondoweiss, Dec 9, 2016): click here!
This January, after several years of often-heated discussion and review, the Modern Language Association’s representative body, the Delegate Assembly, will consider a resolution to endorse the Palestinian call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
- "Adalah spotlights top five 2016 human rights concerns for Palestinian citizens of Israel" (Adalah, Dec 6, 2016): click here!
2016's top five human rights concerns: forced displacement, discriminatory laws, 'shoot to kill' policy, education and employment gaps, shrinking civil society space.
- "Palestinian student re-arrested one week after release; 50 Palestinians ordered to administrative detention in November" (Samidoun, Nov 11, 2016): click here!
Palestinian student and former prisoner, Bahaa al-Najjar, 21, was re-arrested by Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday, 9 November, only one week after his release from Israeli jails, where he had been held without charge or trial under administrative detention.
- "2017 – The Year of Prisoners’ Freedom: Challenges and Ideas for Action by Wael Jaghoub" (IMEMC, Nov 1, 2016): click here!
The Palestinian prisoners’ movement in 2012 conducted a battle through the open hunger strike, one of the most important moments of the struggle in recent years. This strike came in order to confront the mounting onslaught of the prison administration, the growing number of prisoners transferred to solitary confinement, the frequent and continuous transfer of the leaders of the prisoners’ movement, and the ongoing denial of family visits to the prisoners from the Gaza Strip over many years.
- "Israeli torture" (MEMo, Oct 21, 2016): click here!
Recent reports continue to confirm Israel’s rampant use of torture when dealing with Palestinians, including minors. While not particularly revealing – after all, a lot of footage and photography depicting the Israeli military’s violence against Palestinian children has been widely shared on social media – it is even more disturbing when considering such brutal tactics within the confines of prisons.
- "Israeli forces detain 20-year-old Palestinian woman after 12 hours of interrogation" (Ma'an, Oct 7, 2016): click here!
Israeli forces Friday detained a 20-year-old Palestinian woman from the village of Artas near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank after the young woman underwent 12 hours of interrogation at the Etzion detention center in southern Bethlehem late Thursday.
- Haaretz Editorial: "Israel Must End Its Shameful Policy of Collective Punishment " (Haaretz, Sept 21, 2016): click here!
Every time a police officer closes a store with no legal justification, it just makes it all the more clear to the local residents and the rest of the world that East Jerusalem is occupied territory by any law.
- Ali ABUNIMAH: "Video: Israeli sniper shoots youth during assault on refugee camp" (The Electronic Intifada, Sept 16, 2016): click here!
More than 220 Palestinians have been killed since a new phase of violence began last October, many shot dead in what Israel says were attacks or alleged attacks which have killed more than 30 soldiers and civilians.
Human rights groups have condemned Israel’s reflexive use of deadly force in such incidents, saying it amounts to an unofficial shoot-to-kill policy encouraged by Israel’s top leadership.
- C.J. POLYCHRONIOU & Lily SAGE: "'A Continuous War Mentality': Richard Falk on Israel's Human Rights Abuses" (truthout, Sept 10, 2016): click here!
Israel's treatment of Palestinians mirrors the abominable system of apartheid in South Africa, but many members of the "international community" who fueled the gradual delegitimization and eventual collapse of South Africa's apartheid regime are failing to apply similar pressure against Israel. In fact, many nations are even strengthening their ties with the Israeli government.
- Ben WHITE: "Are Israeli soldiers shooting to maim?" (The Arab Weekly, Sept 4, 2016): click here!
Large-scale assaults on Gaza Strip have played significant role in damaging Israel’s reputation in West and, for many, have made Israeli military synonymous with brutality.
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Israeli soldiers routinely shoot heads of injured Palestinians, court told" (The Electronic Intifada, Aug 30, 2016): click here!
Shooting at the heads of incapacitated alleged Palestinian attackers is a common practice by Israeli occupation forces, a settler security chief told a military court hearing on Sunday.
- "School-children tear-gassed on 2nd day of school” (International Solidarity Movement, Aug 29, 2016): click here!
On 29th August 2016 Israeli forces at Salaymeh checkpoint in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), fired rounds of tear gas as school-children attempted to make their way home through the highly militarised checkpoint.
- Eitan KALINSKI: "The stark difference between Israeli and Arab schools on the same side of the separation barrier" (+972, Aug 28, 2016): click here!
Just five minutes from Kfar Saba, under full Israeli control, children from the village Arab a-Ramadin will attend a school made of clay, without electricity, and most certainly without computers. All my years as a teacher and administrator couldn’t have prepared me for this place.
- "Addameer Condemns Beating to Death of Palestinian in PA Custody" (Addameer, Aug 23, 2016): click here!
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association strongly condemns the beating to death of Palestinian Ahmad Izz Halaweh by Palestinian Security Forces early Tuesday morning, 23 August 2016. Mr. Halaweh was arrested by PA Security Forces and was taken to a Nablus’ Juneid Security Compound, where he was beaten to death inside custody.
- "Lawyer: Israeli authorities torture Palestinian minors during detention, interrogation" (Ma'an, Aug 21, 2016): click here!
Teenage Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention centers say they have been tortured, verbally abused, kicked, and slapped by Israeli interrogators during detention and interrogation, according to a lawyer from the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners' Affairs, who recently conducted a series of visits with Palestinian teens in Israeli custody.
- "Palestinians in Jerusalem protest ICRC cuts to family visits" (Samidoun, Aug 20, 2016): click here!
Family visits for Palestinian prisoners continue to come under attack by the Israeli occupation as well as under cutbacks by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). On Wednesday, 17 August, the families of Palestinian prisoners from Jerusalem protested outside ICRC headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah to demand the restoration of family visits to twice monthly.
- "Israeli forces use electric shock on 16-year-old Palestinian prisoner, assault others" (Ma'an, Aug 19, 2016): click here!
Palestinians being held in Etzion prison were subjected to assaults, while Israeli soldiers reportedly used electric shock on a 16-year-old Palestinian prisoner, according to a statement released Thursday by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
- "Palestinian school under threat of demolition" (MAP, Aug 19, 2016): click here!
A report this week said that the school in the Bedouin community of Khan al Ahmar is reportedly facing demolition by the Israeli Government. A petition by a settler group to the Israeli High Court of Justice seeking to compel the Israeli Government to execute the demolition order on the school is under review. The State has requested for and has been granted an extension until the 23 August 2016.
- Gergana MILEVA: "Rabbis For Human Rights Tell Israeli Government To Stop Demolitions Now" (+972, Aug 18, 2016): click here!
Over 500 rabbis call for the demolition of Palestinian homes to be stopped through an open letter addressed to the Israeli Prime Minister. Members of the Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) say that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions blatantly go against both Jewish traditions and international law.
- Amjad IRAQI: "Who’s sending death threats to Palestinian advocates in The Hague?" (+972, Aug 17, 2016): click here!
In an interview with +972, the representative in The Hague of Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group, talks about the slew of threats she and her organization have received for months, and why she believes the Israeli government is behind them.
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Teenager killed during massive raid on refugee camp" (The Electronic Intifada, Aug 16, 2016): click here!
A 17-year-old Palestinian died on Tuesday after Israeli soldiers shot him in the chest with live ammunition during an ongoing raid on al-Fawwar refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. The slain youth, Muhammad Abu Hashhash, is the 27th Palestinian child to be killed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip so far this year, according to data from Defense for Children International-Palestine.
- "Dreaming of Freedom: Palestinian child prisoners speak" (MEMo, Aug 15, 2016): click here!
Ayman Abbasi was beaten so badly when he was arrested his parents could barely recognise their son at the court hearing. He was held at Almaskoubia interrogation centre, released under house arrest, and then imprisoned again. In his cell Abbasi enjoyed listening to the radio to “escape” what was happening to him, but Israeli guards confiscated his headphones. Abbasi was released but on 29 November 2015 Israeli soldiers shot and killed him...
- Talal JABARI: "Administrative detention: 'Because I said so' ruling" (+972, 14 August, 2016): click here!
Administrative detention does not allow the accused to learn the charges against him, and therefore cannot defend himself against it. It’s a sort of parallel universe where due process doesn’t exist, and you go to jail simply because someone said so.
- Tali MAYER: "After Being Shot, This Israeli Photographer Refused to Turn a Blind Eye to Victims" (Haaretz, Aug 12, 2016): click here!
Tali Mayer was hit with sponge bullet, prompting her to begin to investigate the wounds caused by police use of this ammunition – tens of thousands of which have been fired at Palestinians in Jerusalem in the last two years. She photographed victims and now tells their stories.
- Charlotte SILVER: "Israeli “counterterrorism” means abuse and torture of children" (The Electronic Intifada, Aug 11, 2016): click here!
Israel joins Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Nigeria and Syria as governments Human Rights Watch describes as “trampling on children’s rights in a misguided and counterproductive response to conflict-related violence.”
- Leonie VAN NIEROP: "Ze dacht dat Nederland veilig was" (nrc.nl, Aug 10, 2016): click here!
Intimidatie. Deze juriste helpt het Strafhof bij een onderzoek naar vermeende Israëlische oorlogsmisdaden in Palestina. Nu wordt zij met de dood bedreigd.
- Daoud KUTTAB: "UN report: West Bank house demolitions up 25%" (Al Monitor, Aug 9, 2016): click here!
A recent report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories was jarring. In addition to the usual listing of casualties and injuries among Palestinians, it reported a huge spike this year in the demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures by Israel.
- "Israel Pushing Palestinian Workers Out of Court, No Labor Rights for Workers" (The Nakba Files, Aug 8, 2016): click here!
Last week, Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked promulgated a new regulation that could effectively close the country’s labor courts to Palestinian workers from the West Bank. Some 60,000 Palestinians with West Bank residency work for Israeli businesses on both sides of the Green Line, often in construction, agriculture, and service jobs.
- Ben WHITE: "Analysis: Israel's double standard on the use of human shields" (Ma'an, Aug 8, 2016): click here!
Despite the fact that Israeli officials repeatedly alleged that Palestinian factions used human shields as a matter of policy in summer 2014, there is little to no evidence that the crime of human shields, as defined under international law, was committed by Hamas or other groups. Even if human shields were used, this would not have absolved Israel from responsibility for obeying the law.
- "PLO slams Netanyahu video on Palestinian children as 'cheap and disingenuous' propaganda" (Ma'an, Aug 4, 2016): click here!
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Saeb Erekat slammed on Thursday recent comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Palestinian children, calling it another example of Israel’s “propaganda machine” to justify its “racist narrative” against Palestinians.
- Jack KHOURY: "Israeli Arab Lawmakers Irate Over Limits on Prison Visits" (Haaretz, Aug 4, 2016): click here!
New Prison Service rules restricts the access of attorneys, parliamentarians and other visitors who represent or can help Palestinian security prisoners in any way.
- Ruti FEUCHWANGER: "Who notices when a Palestinian construction worker falls to his death?" (+972, Aug 4, 2016): click here!
Abed al-Harush is the 22nd construction worker killed in a work accident this year. That’s a number you won’t hear in the mainstream Israeli press.
- Sawsan KHALIFE: "Conditional rights, conditional citizenship" (+972, Aug 1, 2016): click here!
Palestinian citizens of Israel have never known what it means to be welcome citizens in the country of their birth.
- Human Rights Watch: "Israel: Rules Curtail Gaza Family Visits to Prisoners" (Human Rights Watch, July 31, 2016): click here!
While Israel has a responsibility to ensure that prison visits are carried out safely and securely, the authorities have imposed general limitations on Gaza families’ entry into Israel that unnecessarily hinder visits to incarcerated loved ones.
- Amira HASS: "Number of Palestinians Detained by Israel Without Trial Triples Since 2013" (Haaretz, July 26, 2016): click here!
Today 651 Palestinians who have not been given due process are in Israeli jails. One of them, Bilal Kayed, received a detention order last month just moments after finishing a long prison term.
- John BROWN & Noam ROTEM: "License to Kill: Forgery, evidence tampering and two dead teens" (+972, July 22, 2016): click here!
Usaid and Muhammed Qadus are shot to death in their own village by a major in the Israeli army who claims he only fired rubber bullets. But the bullets were real, and he admitted to lying and committing forgery to cover up his crime. Instead of being charged with a crime, he is promoted.
- "50,000 Administrative Detentions Orders since 1967” (International Middle East Media Center, July 18, 2017): click here!
- "PCHR Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the oPt (30 June – 13 July 2016)" (IMEMC, July 14, 2016): click here!
Israeli forces have continued to commit crimes, inflicting civilian casualties. They have also continued to use excessive force against Palestinian civilians participating in peaceful protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the majority of whom were youngsters. During the reporting period, Israeli forces killed 4 Palestinian civilians, including a woman and child, in the West Bank while another one succumbed to his wounds.
- Amira HASS: "Why Humiliation Became a Routine Tactic in Israeli Prisons" (Haaretz, July 13, 2016): click here!
Is there an order to Israelis stipulating the wasting of the Palestinians’ time? Is there some supreme order: Be cruel, be heartless, humiliate?
- "Israeli forces stole 21 boats and sank two more just in the last 3 months" (International Solidarity Movement, July 5, 2016): click here!
Each small boat sustains at least 20 people on average and each one of the big ones at least 100 people. That means that just in the last 3 months around 550 people lost their source of income and were left in a situation of severe food insecurity.
- "Palestinian Bedouins" (Journal of Palestine Studies, Special Focus, July, 2016): click here!
On June 9th, 2016, Israeli bulldozers accompanied by a squad of police officers stormed the Palestinian Bedouin village of al-Araqeeb in the Negev desert in southern Israel. For the residents, it was a familiar sight.
- Jack KHOURY: "New Regulations Allow Israel Police to Respond to Stone-throwing, Firecrackers With Live Fire " (Haaretz, July 5, 2016): click here!
Israel Police are now permitted to fire live bullets as a first resort against people throwing stones or incendiary devices, including fire crackers, according to open-fire regulations that were loosened last December in light of an upsurge of violence in East Jerusalem.
- "June 2016 report on Palestinian prisoners: 3412 arrested in the first half of 2016" (Samidoun, July 4, 2016): click here!
The following is a report issued by several Palestinian prisoner organizations (Prisoners Affairs Commission; Palestinian Prisoners’ Society; Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association; Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights.)
- Lisa GOLDMAN: "[VIDEO] Not an occupation? Whatever it is, it's disgusting" (+972, July 1, 2016): click here!
Black-clad mounted Border Police galloping into and nearly trampling a crowd of unarmed civilians, old men and women lucky enough to meet the army’s criteria to pray in Jerusalem mutely line up to pass through what look like cattle lanes. Notes on one scene of ugliness and occupation.
- David SHULMAN: "Al-Hadidiya, Jordan Valley" (Touching Photographs, June 30, 2016): click here!
Four months away provide just enough distance to see the madness and the cruelty for what they are. Who has set up this crazy system and kept it running for half a century? Is it not mad to deliberately deprive human beings—families, children, the elderly– of water at the height of summer in a scorching desert? It was at least 37 or 38 degrees Centigrade, almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit, today in Al-Hadidiya. No running water, of course, and almost no water at all. You can’t survive there without water.
- "Les statistiques officielles le disent : « Tous les prisonniers détenus par Israël ont été torturés. » " (Pour la Palestine, June 29, 2016): click here!
La Commission de l’OLP sur les prisonniers et les prisonniers libérés a déclaré hier que « tous les prisonniers détenus par Israël ont été torturés », y compris les femmes, les personnes âgées et les enfants, rapporte Quds Press.
- "Displaced, occupied, and displaced again: Bedouin refugees in the West Bank" (MAP, June 23, 2016): click here!
For the Bedouin communities in the Jordan Valley that are regularly visited by MAP’s mobile clinic, displacement and dispossession have been part of life for more than sixty years. Nearly all of these communities are refugees originating from the Jahalin tribe in the Negev desert, who were expelled from their lands following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
- Gideon LEVY: "Sorry, Mahmoud Rafat Badran, 15, Was Killed by 'Mistake'" (Haaretz, June 23, 2016): click here!
The Israeli soldiers fired fiercely, with full intent, at the moving car, and they had no idea who was inside except for the fateful fact that they were Palestinians.
- Allison DEGER: "Number of Palestinian refugees in occupied territories has increased by 1 million in the past decade" (Mondoweiss, June 22, 2016): click here!
In the last decade the number of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza has increased by one million, according to a survey conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) in advance of World Refugee Day.
- "If they had any human decency, they’d let us hook up to the water pipes that run a meter from our tents" (B'Tselem, June 22, 2016): click here!
Palestinians living in the West Bank suffer from a water shortage due to Israeli policy that limits water supply throughout the year, and more so during the summer months. The shortage is particularly acute in communities that live in Area C and are unrecognized by Israel, and therefore, are not able to connect to the water supply system.
- Amira HASS: "Israel Incapable of Telling Truth About Water It Steals From Palestinians" (Haaretz, June 22, 2016): click here!
Water is the only issue in which Israel (still) finds it difficult to defend its discriminatory, oppressive and destructive policy with pretexts of security and God.
- Bradley BURSTON: "Israel's Plague of Darkness for Gazans Is an Act of Terrorism” (Haaretz, June 21, 2017): click here!
It's the worst thing Israel's done all year. It's a punishment which targets huge numbers of people who have committed no crime.
- "Les soldats israéliens torturent des enfants palestiniens, dit l'ONU" (RTBF.be, 20 juin, 2016): click here!
Les enfants palestiniens de la Bande de Gaza et de Cisjordanie sont capturés par les soldats israéliens pour ensuite être torturés, humiliés, utilisés pour passer au peigne fin des bâtiments potentiellement dangereux ou comme boucliers. C'est ce qu'indique un rapport du comité des Nations Unies pour les Droits de l'enfant, rapporte jeudi le quotidien israélien Ha'aretz.
- "Israel's cabinet paves way for widespread demolition of Palestinian homes in Israel" (Ma'an, June 20, 2016): click here!
As a result, the proposed legislation puts more than 10,000 Palestinian residents in a number of communities in Israel at risk of having their homes demolished.
- Uri SAVIR: "Can Palestinian right of return issue be solved?" (Al Monitor, June 20, 2016): click here!
Palestinians are elaborating creative ideas to solve the complex issue of the right of return so that a two-state solution can be reached.
- Amira HASS: "What a Palestinian Parliament Member Learned in an Israeli Prison" (Haaretz, June 19, 2016): click here!
Khalida Jarrar knew a lot about prisoner issues, but her 14 months behind bars offered plenty of surprises.
- "Israel's new Anti-Terror Law violates Arab citizens' human rights" (Adalah, June 19, 2016): click here!
Reclassifies political activities of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel as acts of terror. Adalah: "New law marks Arab citizens as suspects simply because they are Arab."
- David PALUMBO-LIU: "The UN’s damning report on Israel and torture : The desperate case of Palestinian youth in the occupied territory" (AURDIP, June 17, 2016): click here!
The report alleges torture, excessive use of force, coerced evidence, settler violence, house demolition and more.
- "Fragmented Lives: Humanitarian Overview 2015" (OCHA, June 13, 2016): click here!
The purpose of the report is to provide a comprehensive overview of the underlying causes or drivers of the humanitarian vulnerabilities in the occupied Palestinian territory. In 2015, the situation continued to be characterized by violations of international humanitarian law by all parties, the systematic denial of Palestinian rights and continuing conflict, punctuated by frequent outbreaks of violence...
- Megan 0'TOOL: "How many Palestinians are imprisoned by Israel?" (Al Jazeera, June 11, 2016): click here!
Each year, on April 17, Palestinians mark "Prisoners' Day', highlighting de plight of thousands of Palestinians being held in Israeli jails.
- Karama FADEL: "No Time To Be Children" (We Are Not Numbers, June 11, 2016): click here!
It’s the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sun-up to sun-down, and in the sultry 80s heat, many Palestinians in Gaza sleep off the hunger until they can eat again, with the late-evening iftar meal. But 15-year-old Raouf Abdel Hameed is still toiling, selling hair ties and small toys for children on the streets of Gaza City. He’s been doing that since he was 5 years old, earning just 10 shekels (US$2.60) a day. Raouf’s parents are divorced, and without his father, they have no other source of income.
- "Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (02 – 08 June 2016)" (Palestinian Center for Human Rights, June 9, 2016): click here!
2 Palestinian civilians, including a woman, were killed, north of the West Bank. 5 civilians, including a child, were wounded in the West Bank and a 6th was wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- "The Occupation's Fig Leaf: Israel's Military Law Enforcement System as a Whitewash Mechanism" (B'Tselem, Report summary, May 2016): click here!
The military law enforcement system is supposed to handle complaints filed against soldiers for harm caused to Palestinians in the West Bank, including cases of violence and gunfire that resulted in injury or death. Such harm is endemic to the occupation, which has been in place for nearly fifty years.
- "Israel's Military Justice System Seems to Have Gone Too Far" (Haaretz Editorial, June 6, 2016): click here!
The increasingly violent resistance to the occupation does not give Israel and its security apparatuses a license to deny liberty to innocent people. Palestinian parliament member Khalida Jarrar was released on Friday after 14 months in an Israeli prison. Jarrar was a political detainee, and her detention was a political detention.
- "Committee against Torture: Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Israel". The Committee against Torture considered the fifth periodic report of Israel (CAT/C/ISR/5) at its 1416th and 1419th meetings (CAT/C/SR.1416 and 1419), held on 3 and 4 May 2016, and adopted the present concluding observations at its 1428th and 1429th meetings, held on 12 May 2016" (UN, June 3, 2016): click here!
- "UN adopts resolution to support Palestinian women" (Ma'an, June 3, 2016): click here!
In a massive effort to tackle issues surrounding the advancement of women, social development, and non-communicable diseases, the UN Economic and Social Council adopted seven resolutions on Friday, one of which entitled “Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women.”
- "Report: IOF arrested 471 Palestinians last month" (The Palestinian Information Center, June 3, 2016): click here!
A group of local foundations catering for prisoners released on Thursday their monthly report on the continuous arbitrary detention of Palestinians by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and the continuous violations committed against the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
- "Trauma and anxiety reign over Palestinian children" (MAP - Medical Aid for Palestine, June 3, 2016): click here!
2015 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since 2006. Between October 2015 and March 2016, more than 200 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military and Israeli settler violence, 44 of them children. UNRWA released a report this week highlighting the impact of this violent context on the mental health of Palestinian children living in refugee camps often on the frontlines.
- Nafeez AHMED: "UN ‘buries’ resolution on Gaza’s environmental health crisis under US, Israeli pressure" Middle East Eye, June 1, 2016): click here!
The UNRWA blames the “blockade on Gaza and repeated cycles of armed conflict, including the unparalleled devastation caused by the last conflict in 2014”, for the destruction of “a large part of the enclave’s infrastructure, including water and sewage networks”.
- "UN: High time world spoke up for rights of Palestinian refugees" (The Palestinian Information Center, May 27, 2016): click here!
The rights and dignity of Palestinians will only be realized when the world wakes up to the need for a lasting political solution for the problem of the Palestinian refugees, Commissioner General of the UN Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, Pierre Krähenbühl said.
- Lies CORNEILLIE: "Palestijnse kinderen voor militaire rechtbank: 'Hoe Israël aan georganiseerde kindermishandeling doet'" (Knack.be, 25 mei 2016): click here!
'Elke gezonde mens weet dat opsluiting niet kan voor een kind', schrijft Lies Corneillie (Groen) na het bijwonen van een lezing van psychiater Peter Adriaenssens. Ze vraagt aandacht voor de situatie van de honderden Palestijnse kinderen die uit hun bed gelicht worden omdat ze voor een Israëlische militaire rechtbank moeten verschijnen.
- Daoud KUTTAB: "Magnetic card system restricts Palestinian visits to Jerusalem" (Al-Monitor, May 17, 2016): click here!
One of the leading sources of anger among Palestinians under occupation is restriction on their movement. Palestinians living in the West Bank cannot travel to the Gaza Strip, and Palestinians in Gaza are normally not allowed to leave Gaza. Travel from the occupied territories to neighboring Jordan and Egypt also involves various kinds of restrictions.
- "UN Committee Against Torture recommends 50+ measures to Israel to end its use of torture" (Adalah, May 17, 2016): click here!
The Committee calls on Israel to end administrative detention, repeal the Unlawful Combatants Law, and prohibit the solitary confinement of children; emphasizes that forced feeding of hunger strikers may be torture or ill-treatment.
- "Israeli water company cuts supply to Salfit" (The Palestinian Information Center, May 17, 2016): click here!
Israeli water company Mekorot on Tuesday cut off supplies to the central West Bank city of Salfit for unknown reasons, the city municipality said Monday morning.
- "UNICEF says 25 Palestinian children killed in three months" (Middle East Eye, May 14, 2016): click here!
Twenty-five Palestinian children were killed in the last three months of 2015 during a wave of anti-Israeli attacks and the number detained was the highest in seven years, the UN children's agency said on Saturday.
- Almog BEN ZIKRI: "Over 5,000 Israeli Bedouin Children Lack Access to Compulsory Preschool" (Haaretz, May 8, 2016): click here!
Lack of transportation funding and state's refusal to grant building permits to unrecognized Bedouin communities bar kids' access to preschool.
- "April 2016 Report: 567 Palestinians arrested by Israeli occupation, including 123 children" (Samidoun, May 3, 2016): click here!
567 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli occupation forces during April 2016, bringing the number of those arrested since the beginning of the popular uprising in October 2015 to 5334 Palestinians.
- Mairav ZONSZEIN: "For most Israelis, Palestinian lives don't matter" (+972, April 30, 2016): click here!
A 24-year-old Palestinian and her teenage brother were shot and killed by Israeli troops after allegedly trying to stab Border Police officers. The police’s version of the events doesn’t add up, but nobody in Israel, including the media, feels the need to ask questions.
- "US accuses Israel of 'excessive use of force' in human rights report" (Ma'an, 15 April 2016): click here!
The US has accused Israel of an "excessive use of force" against Palestinians, amounting to a violation of human rights, in its annual report of global human rights abuses.
- Danièle KRIEGEL: "Cisjordanie : les bulldozers israéliens ne chôment pas" (Le Point, 15 avril 2016): click here!
Les autorités israéliennes ont entrepris de démolir toutes les constructions palestiniennes en zone C de Cisjordanie, pourtant financées par les Européens. ...Depuis le début de l'année, les enfants de Za'atar, au sud de Naplouse, étaient heureux. Au centre du village, ils avaient enfin une aire de jeux rien qu'à eux : balançoires, tourniquet, jeu à bascule, bac à sable, et pour les mamans, des bancs, une table ronde avec des chaises et une belle pelouse...
- Report: "No Way to Treat a Child, Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system" (Defense for Children International Palestine, April 14, 2016): click here!
No Way to Treat a Child, detailing the widespread and systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system. From meals prepared in a makeshift kitchen to adult prisoner "caregivers," the report also gives a rare glimpse into Palestinian children's daily living conditions in Israeli prisons.
- "Palestine: Israeli Police Abusing Detained Children. With Arrests Spiking, Growing Concern" (Human Rights Watch, 11 April 2016): click here!
(Jerusalem) – Israeli security forces are abusing Palestinian children detained in the West Bank. The number of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli forces has more than doubled since October 2015.
- "UN: 75,000 Palestinians remain homeless in Gaza" (Ma'an, 12 April 2016): click here!
The Gaza Strip has seen three wars with Israel since 2008, with Israel's 2014 offensive destroying 12,600 homes, and leaving another 6,500 severely damaged and 150,000 housing units uninhabitable.
- Dror ETKES: "What's so threatening about human rights?" (+972, 10 April 2016): click here!
The Right doesn’t reject the concept of universal human rights because it threatens the Zionist project, they do so because it would mean seeing Palestinians as equals.
- "Overview March 2016 [violation of the human right to water]" (Staat van Beleg, 6 april 2016): click here!
Spring has just begun and temperatures are already rising in Palestine. A long warm summer lays ahead for the Palestinian people. If we think about dealing with long and hot summers the first thing comes to mind is water which is a very important basic human right.
- "241 Palestinian children held in Israel’s Ofer Prison" (MEMo, April 4, 2016): click here!
In its report, the committee reiterated that all 400 child prisoners held in different Israeli prisons had been subjected to more than one form of harassment and torture when they were arrested, during investigations or while they were in prison.
- Michael Schaeffer OMER-MAN: "The only way to ensure Palestinian lives matter" (+972, March 31, 2016: click here!
The IDF’s decision not to charge Abed Fatah al-Sharif’s killer with murder should not surprise anybody — it is entirely consistent with the impunity Israeli security personnel have enjoyed for decades when it comes to killing Palestinians.
- Gideon LEVY: "Hebron Murder Was No Exception, but the Inevitable Result" (Haaretz, March 27, 2016: click here!
It’s the present and the future. It’s impossible to maintain the occupation without such murders, their number will only mount.
- "UN passes 4 Palestinian-backed resolutions in landmark victory" (Ma'an, March 24, 2016): click here!
"As the belligerent occupying power, Israel continues to systematically violate the inalienable rights of the Palestinians while enjoying impunity from the international community, despite numerous UN resolutions demanding an equitable and just end to the occupation," Khreisheh said.
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Israel’s well-documented crimes met with silence" (The Electronic Intifada, March 23, 2016): click here!
"Six months of violence that have claimed approximately 200 Palestinian and 30 Israeli lives have arisen in a “pre-existing context” of a “decades-long occupation.” So stated Makarim Wibisono, the United Nation’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday."
- "Israel demolishes structures across West Bank, East Jerusalem" (Ma'an, March 16, 2016): click here!
"These demolition operations impose an intolerable reality on the residents of the communities," B'Tselem said. "This governmental policy, implemented systematically for years, constitutes the forced transfer of protected Palestinian residents within the occupied area."
- "Israël veut "museler la presse palestinienne", dénonce la FIJ (Fédération internationale des journalistes)" (tv5monde, 12 mars 2016): click here!
La Fédération internationale des journalistes (FIJ) a dénoncé samedi les "attaques continues" d'Israël contre les médias palestiniens, appelant à une enquête de l'ONU, après la descente de l'armée israélienne dans les locaux d'une télévision palestinienne à Ramallah.
- "Palestinian television channel raided and closed by Israeli occupation, three journalists arrested" (Samidoun, March 11, 2016): click here!
In an indication of an escalating attack on Palestinian journalists and media outlets, Israeli occupation forces invaded, attacked and shut down the Palestinian satellite channel Palestine Today (Filasteen al-Yom) as well as its broadcasting company, Trans Media, and arrested three Palestinian journalists.
- "February 2015 report: 616 Palestinians arrested by occupation forces" (Samidoun, March 5, 2016): click here!
"In a joint report, three Palestinian institutions: the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the Prisoners’ Affairs Committee – said that the Israeli occupation authorities arrested 616 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza in February 2016. This number includes 140 children and 18 women and girls. The number of arrests since the beginning of the popular uprising in October 2015 has exceeded 4,120.
- "Israeli authorities demolished 183 Palestinian buildings in February" (MEMo, March 4, 2016): click here!
"The occupation has used the demolition policy as a way to put pressure on the Palestinians so to empty the region classified as Area C in the West Bank," adding that the demolitions are part of a policy of “collective punishment”. [File photo]
- "PLO seeks international pressure over Israel's withholding of bodies" (Ma'an, March 4, 2016): click here!
They said: "The withholding of the bodies also greatly adds to the grief, anxiety and trauma of the families who are dealing with the loss of a loved one, and who are also being denied their cultural and religious rights to mourn and to bury them in accordance with their faith."
- Yesh Din, written by Yossi GURVITZ: "The right to own property — for Jews alone" (+972, March 4, 2016): click here!
The government never authorized the wholesale annexation of the West Bank. That’s why it’s doing it behind everyone’s backs.
- "Israeli Occupation forces continue to withhold the bodies of deceased Palestinians, and renege on conditions of release" (Addameer, March 1, 2016): click here!
Addameer and Adalah view the continued withholding of the bodies of nine deceased Palestinians, the longest of which has been held by Israel for over four months, as a severe violation of international humanitarian law as well as international human rights law including violations of the right to dignity, freedom of religion, and the right to practice culture.
- "VIDEO: Israeli Military Uses Stun Grenades on Young Palestinian School Kids" (IMEMC, Feb 24, 2016): click here!
It has become a regular occurrence for Palestinian school children to endure physical violence, harassment, body searches and other demoralizing acts at the hands of the Israeli military.
- Engelbert LUITSZ: "Hoe sloop je een volk?" (Alexandrina, 23 feb, 2016): click here!
Afgelopen zondag vernietigde het Israëlische leger het enige schooltje van een bedoeïenengemeenschap die ten oosten van bezet Jeruzalem woont. De zes klaslokalen werden met de grond gelijk gemaakt en alle bezittingen werden in beslag genomen. Zeker dertig legervoertuigen met tientallen soldaten werden ingezet om deze weerloze mensen te beroven van het beetje dat ze nog hadden.
- "Over 40 Palestinian homes, structures demolished in Jordan Valley" (Ma'an News Agency, Feb 11, 2016): click here!
Israeli forces on Thursday destroyed over 40 Palestinian homes and structures in the Tubas district of the occupied West Bank as ongoing Israeli policies in the Jordan Valley continue to drive Palestinians out of their homes.
- "Imprisonment of children" (Addameer, February 2016) : click here!
Approximately 700 Palestinian children under the age of 18 from the occupied West Bank are prosecuted every year through Israeli military courts after being arrested, interrogated and detained by the Israeli army. The most common charge levied against children is throwing stones, a crime that is punishable under military law by up to 20 years in prison. Since 2000, more than 12,000 Palestinian children have been detained.
- "Zorgen van de Nederlandse Coalitie voor Palestijnse Kinderen in Israëlische Gevangenschap over de Recente Kinderrechtenschendingen" (Een Ander Joods Geluid, 16 februari 2016): click here!
Het Israëlische parlement kent een commissie voor de Rechten van het Kind. Aangezien de Palestijnse kinderen onder Israëlische bezetting leven, is de commissie Buitenlandse Zaken en Veiligheid van het Israëlische parlement verantwoordelijk voor de bescherming van hun rechten.
- Ariyana LOVE: "85 Percent of Palestinians Killed by Israel were Extrajudicially Executed" (Middle East Rising, Jan 24, 2016) : click here!
The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Committee, said in a report published on Sunday, that 85 percent of Palestinians who were killed by Israel since the beginning of 2015 (179 Palestinians), were killed in extrajudicial field executions.
- Human Rights Watch: "Occupation, Inc.: How Settlement Businesses Contribute to Israel’s Violations of Palestinian Rights" (Jan 19, 2016): click here!
More than half a million Israeli settlers live in 237 settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Successive Israeli governments have facilitated this process, even though settlements are unlawful under international humanitarian law and are part and parcel of Israeli policies that dispossess, discriminate against, and abuse the human rights of Palestinians.
- Lien SANTERMANS: "Palestijnse clown achter de tralies" (MO*, jan 18, 2016): click here!
Zes maanden in de cel zonder aanklacht of proces. Dat is de uitspraak die Mohammed Abu Sakha, circustrainer en artiest bij de Palestijnse Circusschool, op 22 december te horen kreeg van de Israëlische militaire rechtbank. Mohammed is geen uitzondering. Momenteel worden honderden Palestijnen vastgehouden in administratieve detentiecentra zonder op de hoogte te zijn van de reden voor hun aanhouding.
- "Israel Arresting Palestinian Children and Keeping Them In Outdoor Cages During The Winter" (CounterCurrent News, Jan 16, 2016): click here!
Following a November 2015 report by the Independent, in which it quoted NGO rights organization the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) that at least 600 Palestinian children have been arrested in Jerusalem alone in the first half of 2015 and that roughly 40% were sexually abused, a new January 2016 report was also issued by the Independent, this time saying that the Israeli government is torturing and keeping them in outdoor cages during winter time.
- Jonathan COOK: "Welcome to Israel's Version of Apartheid" (CounterPunch, Jan 12, 2016): click here!
- Jonathan COOK: "Behind the Ban on the Islamic Movement in Israel" (MERIP, Jan 11, 2016): click here!
The decision to outlaw the northern wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel was announced by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on Nov 17, 2015, days after attacks claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (or ISIS) left 130 dead in Paris. Although the ban had been long in the making, the timing was patently opportunistic, with Netanyahu even comparing Israel’s Islamic Movement to ISIS."
- Ali ABUNIMAH: "Killings of Palestinians in West Bank hit 10-year high" (The Electronic Intifada, Jan 8, 2016): click here!
The first days of 2016 offered no let up in the surge of violence that began in early October, provoked by Israel’s assaults and incursions in occupied East Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound.
- Human Rights group: "Erez crossing a trap for Palestinians" (MEMo, Jan 7, 2016): click here!
Israel uses the Erez crossing as a trap for Palestinian passengers, the Human Rights and Democracy Media Centre (SHAMS) reported yesterday. SHAMS noted that this undermines the rights of movement and travel for Palestinians who have been under a strict siege for a decade.
- "UK MPs speak out about Israeli detention of Palestinian children" (MEMo, Jan 7, 2016): click here!
British parliament held a debate on the issue of child prisoners and detainees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the second time yesterday, following a debate on the issue in 2010. The debate was procured by Sarah Champion MP, who began by addressing the ill-treatment meted out to Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military as documented by two damning reports showing that Israel was in breach of its legal obligations under the UN convention on the rights of the child and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
- Vijay PRASHAD: "The endless occupation. For Palestinian children, a world of fear, humiliation, frustration and mistrust" (gazettenet.com, Jan 6, 2016): click here!
- "Bande de Gaza : L’impact à long terme des hostilités de 2014 sur les femmes et les filles" (OCHA - Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, transl. AURDIP, 5 janvier 2016): click here!
299 femmes, dont au moins 26 étaient enceintes, et 197 filles ont été tuées lors des hostilités de l’été 2014 dans la bande de Gaza, et plus de 2.000 femmes et des centaines de filles ont été blessées (Global Protection Cluster – Ministère de la Santé).
- Sherna BERGER GLUCK (ed.): "Impediments to Education in the Occupied Palestinian Territories". Introduction by
Sa'ed Atshan. A publication of the Palestine-Israel Working Group of Historians Against the War (HAW), September 2016 (pdf, 34 p.): click here!
- Dr. Samah JABR: "Arrested Adolescence: On the Interrupted Development of Palestinian Minors in Prison " (The Palestine Chronicle, Dec 30, 2015): click here!
The Israeli parliament has recently approved a law that allows the sentencing of up to 20 years in prison for Palestinians who throw stones, individuals who are usually minors. This development was followed by a law that would allow for the imprisonment of Palestinian children as young as 12, if they are found guilty of “nationalistically-motivated” violent offences.
- Alex SHAMS: "Killing of Mentally Ill Palestinian Swimming Off Gaza Coast Highlights Maddening Effects of Israel's Siege" (Huffington Post, Dec 28, 2015): click here!
The swimmer's name was Ishaq Khalil Hassan, and he is a 28-year-old from Gaza who had reportedly spent the last few months trying to get permission to leave the tiny Palestinian coastal enclave in order to seek medical treatment abroad.
- Ghassan & Oday ABU JAMAL: "Palestinian Female Political Prisoners and Detainees: Ongoing Resistance Behind Zionist Bars" (My Palestine, Dec 28, 2015): click here!
Since 1967, more than 800,000 Palestinians were detained by Israeli occupation forces, including over 15,000 women.
- Jeff HALPER: "Revenge devoid of purpose: punitive demolitions of Palestinian homes" (Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, Dec 27, 2015): click here!
“Punitive” demolitions, which have become a trademark of Israel’s latest round of repression against the Palestinians of the Occupied Territory, are not only a pointless lashing out against defenseless families, but are downright counterproductive, even by Israel’s own standards.
- David PALUMBO-LIU: "Justice denied: Rachel Corrie died protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes by Israeli forces. Her parents carry on the fight" (Salon, Dec 20, 2015): click here!
The Corries won't give up, continuing to draw attention to the occupation, and the barbaric practice of demolition. - In 2003, a 23-year-old American from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death by a bulldozer operated by two members of the Israeli Defense Forces.
- Gerard HORTON: "The forced transfer of Palestinian detainees — why it matters" (+972, Dec 19, 2015): click here!
International law is clear that prisoners should not be transferred outside of an occupied territory — both to allow their families access to them and to prevent forced population transfer. But that’s not all that’s at stake.
- "UN: 177 countries vote in support of the right of Palestinians to self-determination" (Palestine News Network, Dec 18, 2015): click here!
Seven countries had opposed the decision: Israel, United States, Canada, Palau, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru. And four countries abstained the voting: Cameroon, Tonga, South Sudan, Honduras.
- "UN experts urge end to harassment of human rights defenders in Occupied Palestinian Territory" (UN News Centre, Dec 18, 2015): click here!
Gravely concerning at continued reports that human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in Hebron, are being subjected to physical attacks and death threats, United Nations independent experts today denounced such harassment as “unacceptable” and called for it to end immediately.
- Gideon LEVY: "Demolished, Rebuilt and Razed Again: A Bedouin Community Left Without Shelter". Israeli officials visit the tiny Jordan Valley village of Al Hadidya almost daily to destroy anything that can be used as protection against the cold - including tents donated by relief organizations (Haaretz, Dec 11, 2015): click here!
The sheer inhumanity of it is breathtaking. ...This is the province of Israeli demolition and expulsion, the district of ethnic cleansing. As in the South Hebron Hills, here, too, in the occupied rift valley, Israel is trying to expel everyone it can in order to facilitate future annexation. And what could be an easier target for expulsion and abuse than the lowest denizens on the food chain of Palestinian helplessness – these communities of Bedouin shepherds?
- Hatem BAZIAN: "The Palestinian cause and international law". As Israel's right wing tries to Judaise Jerusalem, Palestinians are looking to international law (Al Jazeera, Nov 9, 2015): click here!
The Palestinian quest for international recognition took another major step forward when 107 nations voted to admit Palestine as a full member to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
- "Israel’s decades-long policy of holding Palestinian bodies". (Ma'an News Agency, Nov 4, 2015): click here!
Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian dead, and its impact on the living, is being questioned once again as the government continues to withhold the bodies of 22 Palestinians killed following attacks on Israelis during the month of October.
- "Les femmes palestiniennes de Jérusalem-Est occupé appellent à la protection contre la violence israélienne" (Jeruselamite Women's Coalition, trad. Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine, 24 octobre, 2015): cliquez-ici!
"Nous les femmes de Jérusalem-Est occupé appelons à une protection immédiate alors que nous sommes témoins et que nous souffrons de violations répandues et sérieuses des droits humains palestiniens, incluant des attaques physiques et des blessures, des menaces psychologiques graves et une persécution par l’état colonialiste israélien et par des entités de colons."
- Michael THOMAS: "Operation Protective Edge. The War Crimes Case Against Israel’s Leaders" (MERIP, October 26, 2015): click here!
...The possible crimes most important to investigate, from both legal and moral perspectives, do not involve decisions by gunship pilots or squad leaders to attack particular targets. They involve decisions by the political and military leadership of Israel, setting the strategic goals of the conflict and choosing the means and methods by which those goals would be sought. If, as available evidence suggests, those political and strategic choices, based on long-standing doctrine and declared policy, authorized and validated grave violations of the law, responsibility for the resulting violations should start with the leaders.
- Fadi SHAFEI: "Stateless in Gaza" (Al-Monitor, October 23, 2015): klik hier!
There are Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip without legal status; their identification cards are not recognized by Israel for various reasons, nor do they have official status in any other country. In fact, those Palestinians bear the “Blue ID,” which is nothing more than a personal identification card that classifies its holder as “stateless.”
- "Israeli police acting above the law, taking brutal measures to suppress legitimate protest of Palestinian citizens of Israel" (Adalah, 11 October, 2015): click here!
Repressive police acts include arbitrary arrests of minors; 'preventive arrests' of activists; arrests of activists' family members; and severe physical violence against protestors.
- "A Deafening Silence: EU must address escalation of violence against Palestinians" (Al-Haq, 6 October, 2015): click here!
On 5 October 2015, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) shot dead 13-year old Palestinian boy Abdel Rahman Abdallah near Bethlehem. Abdel’s death came in the wake of Israel’s killing of Hutheifa Suleiman (18 years) and Fadi Alloun (19 years) on 4 October. During the same time period, approximately 450 Palestinians were injured across the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
- Ben NORTON: "Amnesty: Killing of Hadeel al-Hashlamoun was ‘extrajudicial execution’" (Mondoweiss, September 25, 2015): click here!
"“This killing is the latest in a long line of unlawful killings carried out by the Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank with near total impunity,” Amnesty said."
- "The EU Must Address the Palestinian Right of Return" (ECCP, 20 September, 2015): click here!
European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine: To the attention of Mr Jean Asselborn – Minister of Foreign and European Affairs. "As Luxembourg holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union during the second semester of 2015 and presides over the work of the Council of the EU, it holds a unique opportunity to play a key role in the EU’s approach towards the situation in the Middle East, in particular with regard to Palestinian refugees. This is crucial now because of the context of the refugee crisis gaining ever-increasing attention".
- Natasha ROTH: "Addressing the root of the Palestinian refugee problem" (+972, September 24, 2015): click here!
"Cash shortages at UNRWA distract from the wider issue: it is the lack of a diplomatic solution, not funding, that leaves Palestinian refugees vulnerable".
- Natasha ROTH: "Israel is pulling the West Bank out from under Palestinian feet" (+972, September 11, 2015): click here!
"With over 14,000 demolition orders issued against Palestinian structures in Area C since 1988, Israel is maintaining a vast system of control-by-threat that at once dispossesses and undermines social stability".
- Hassan SHAALAN: "Arab schools call for 'educational intifada'" (YNetNews.com, September 7, 2015): click here!
"Half a million Arab students go on strike in solidarity with 33,000 Christian students protesting budget cuts to education institutions in their sector".
- "Israel’s Civil Administration steps up efforts to expel Area C Palestinian communities" (B'Tselem, Sept 3, 2015): click here!
"In August Israel demolished the homes of 228 people, 124 of them minors, leaving them with no shelter. In August, the Civil Administration and the military went on a demolition rampage in 29 villages and communities throughout Area C".
- Ghada KARMI: "The right of return; a forgotten issue" (Middle East Monitor, Sept 1, 2015): click here!
"No issue has been so much at the heart of the Palestine cause, or so resistant to resolution, as the right of return. Palestinians world wide see it as the basis of their case. Enshrined in international law and historical precedent, it has acquired an almost sacred quality for Palestinians, an untouchable right that no one can dispute. Generations of refugees have been reared on the expectation of return to their homeland. Their position derives not only from natural justice, but is also underpinned legally by UN Resolution 194, passed by the General Assembly in December 1948".
- Salwa DUAIBIS: "The devastating effects of night raids on Palestinian families" IDF night raids, an everyday occurrence in the occupied territories, ensure that Palestinians cannot feels safe in the one place where safety should be assured. (+972, 31 August 2015): click here!
"Perhaps the most devastating impact these raids have is on the children. Mothers report that their children have problems sleeping after experiencing a night raid. Some children become aggressive, others wet their beds. No one feels safe in the one place where safety should be assured. According to a recent report by WCLAC, it is estimated that the military conducts nearly 1,400 night raids each year, with over 65,000 since military law was imposed on the West Bank in 1967".
- Christof LEHMANN: "Dangerous Trends In Palestinian Health Caused by Occupation: UNRWA" (International Middle East Media Center, 18 August 2015): click here!
"A United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) report on Palestine’s Gaza Strip concludes that infant mortality has risen for the first time in decades. A significant marker for a dangerous trend says UNRWA Director of Health Dr. Akihiro Seita. Infant mortality is but one of numerous health and mental health indicators, suggesting that the tragic state of health in Palestine is an artifact of the blockade on Gaza, the occupation of the West Bank, and the lack of possibilities for Palestine to develop a sound economy".
- Abaher EL SAKKA: "La cérémonie de l’humiliation". Jours ordinaires en Cisjordanie (Le Monde Diplomatique, septembre, 2015): click here!
"Sommé en 2004 par la Cour internationale de justice de cesser immédiatement ses travaux, Israël continue à ériger un mur de séparation qui devient chaque jour plus aliénant pour les Palestiniens. Plaçant les frontières où bon lui semble, l’occupant impose sa domination aux points de passage et par le biais d’innombrables barrages qui morcellent le territoire de la Cisjordanie".
- "Les bulldozers israéliens écrasent une école palestinienne" (CAPJPO, EuroPalestine, 22 août, 2015): click here!
A la veille de la rentrée scolaire, l’armée israélienne écrase aux bulldozers une école prête à ouvrir ses portes aux enfants palestiniens de la Vallée du Jourdain. "Le mois d’août, dans la Vallée du Jourdain, est loin d’être une période estivale pour les Palestiniens. À quatre reprises (le 2, le 12, le 18 et le 20 août), les forces d’occupation de l’armée israélienne ont débarqué aux aurores avec jeeps et bulldozers dans plusieurs localités pour démolir et raser des maisons d’habitation, des bergeries, couper l’alimentation électrique et défoncer des citernes d’eau.
- "UN calls for immediate freeze to West Bank home demolitions" (Ma'an News Agency, August 19, 2015): click here!
JERUSALEM (Ma'an): UN officials on Tuesday slammed a recent spate of Israeli home demolitions east of Jerusalem and called for an immediate freeze on demolitions across the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces on Monday demolished 22 structures belonging to the Jahalin Bedouin community in eastern Jerusalem, leaving 78 Palestinians homeless, including 49 children, the UN Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said in a joint statement.
- Bradley BURSTON: "It’s time to admit it. Israeli policy is what it is: Apartheid." "I used to be one of those people who took issue with the label of apartheid as applied to Israel. Not anymore" (Medium.com: Haaretz, August 17, 2015): click here!
- "Palestinian hunger strike tests Israel force-feeding law" (Ma'an News Agency, August 16, 2015): click here!
"A two-month hunger strike by a Palestinian detainee now in a coma may test a controversial new Israeli law on force-feeding, with Israeli doctors vowing to refuse to carry it out".
- Elodi FARGE: "Le droit à l’éducation des Palestiniens à nouveau sacrifié" (AURDIP, 14 août 2015): click here!
"Alors que l’extrémisme augmente dans la région, se nourrissant de la marginalisation socio-économique, de l’ignorance, de l’absence de raisonnement critique et du manque de repères identitaires, nier le droit à l’éducation est une bombe à retardement".
- David PALUMBO-LIO: "Les enfants souffrent d’une façon disproportionnée de l’occupation israélienne" (AURDIP, 2 août 2015): click here!
"Les organisations pour la défense des droits humains font état de violences systématiques pratiquées sur les enfants par les forces d’occupation israéliennes. État des lieux".
- Doug BOLTON: "Controversial citizenship law that bans Palestinians married to Israelis from living in Israel extended by the Knesset" (The Independent, June 17, 2015): click here!
- "Restriction of Movement: Checkpoints, Physical Obstructions, and Forbidden Roads" (B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, update 20 May 2015): click here!
"Israel's restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement in the West Bank are enforced by a system of fixed checkpoints, surprise flying checkpoints, physical obstructions, roads on which Palestinians are forbidden to travel, and gates along the Separation Barrier. The restrictions enable Israel to control Palestinian movement throughout the West Bank as suits its interests, in a sweeping breach of Palestinians' rights. [...] Israel's policy is based on the premise that every Palestinian is a security threat, thus justifying restrictions on the person's freedom of movement. This racist assumption brings with it the sweeping violation of human rights of an entire population based on national origin. As such, the policy flagrantly breaches international law."
- Amira HASS: "Israeli colonialism, plain and simple" (Haaretz, 11 May, 2015): click here!.
"In two court decisions involving shoving Palestinians off their land, Supreme Court justices have confirmed what Israel’s critics are saying: that Israel has been a colonialist entity since 1948... The justices dismissed the petition challenging the application of the Absentee Property Law in their case, thus continuing the tradition from the 1950s. That is when we coined the oxymoron “present absentees” in order to facilitate the demolition of villages and robbery of land of Palestinians that remained, those that we failed to expel. In the justices’ consent to the demolition of Sussia and Umm al-Hiran, they have drawn a direct line linking 1948 to today. They have confirmed what Israel’s most virulent critics say about the country – that it is a colonialist, dispossessing entity. The justices have parroted what the state has been screaming all along: It’s my right to dispossess, my right to expel, my right to demolish and crowd people into pens. I have demolished and will continue to do so. I have expelled and will continue to expel. I have crowded people in and will continue to do so. I never gave a damn and never will do."
- Yas MAHMOUDI: "“The dismal lives of students locked in Israeli prison”" (Mondoweiss, March 17, 2015): click here!
Throughout Palestine, prisons are a major site in which the struggle for education, among other basic human rights, is tirelessly waged. Roughly 20% of Palestinians have been incarcerated, constituting as much as 40% of the male population. Many are students whose right to an education suffer enormously once imprisoned.
- Nahla ABDO: "From Captive Revolution to Grand Gaza Prison" (Pluto Press Blog, Aug 21, 2014): click here!
In her new book "Captive Revolution", Nahla Abdo talks to Palestinian women imprisoned within the Israeli prison system and analyses the apparent gendered forms of oppression and resistance in such extreme conditions. For this article in time for the book’s publication, she discusses the concept of the entire Gaza Strip as a prison colony, and reveals the attitude of the Palestinian people who resist within it.
- Eva ILLOUZ: "47 Years a Slave: A New Perspective on the Occupation" (Haaretz, Feb 7, 2014): click here!
Very few struggles in history have centered on how a nation should treat a third group of people, but there are strong parallels between black slavery and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
- Noura ERAKAT: "Setting New Precedents: Israel Boycotts Human Rights Session" (Jadalyyah, Jan 31, 2013): click here!
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique mechanism that intends to review the behavior of states without distinction. The UN General Assembly established it in 2006 as part of the functions of the Human Rights Council. It is a state-driven process to comprehensively assess a state`s compliance with human rights law. The Human Rights Council is to hold three two-week sessions each year during which time they review the files of sixteen member states. Accordingly each state will undergo the review every three years. As of 2011, all 193 UN member states had undergone a review..
- "Israel/West Bank: Separate and Unequal. Under Discriminatory Policies, Settlers Flourish, Palestinians Suffer" (Human Rights Watch, 19 Dec 2010): click here!
Israeli policies in the West Bank harshly discriminate against Palestinian residents, depriving them of basic necessities while providing lavish amenities for Jewish settlements, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The report identifies discriminatory practices that have no legitimate security or other justification and calls on Israel, in addition to abiding by its international legal obligation to withdraw the settlements, to end these violations of Palestinians' rights.
- "Israeli Artists Condemn Settlements" (Jewish Voice for Peace, Sept 6, 2010): click here!
When some 60 leading Israeli actors and playwrights signed a letter stating they would refuse to play in the new theatre in Ariel, one of Israel’s largest settlements, the attacks from Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sport and many others were swift and intense. Over 150 leading Israeli academics and writers- including Amos Oz and David Grossman- came to their defense.
- "The Status of Palestinian Citizens in Israel". Pax Christi International 16 February 2004. Written statement for the UN Human Rights Commission (The Electronic Intifada, 16 Feb, 2004): click here!
Pax Christi International wishes to draw attention to the situation of Palestinian citizens inside Israel within the borders of 1948. The focus of the Arab- Israeli conflict is mostly on Palestinians of the Occupied Territories and to a lesser degree on those Palestinians who live inside Israel. In essence, their situation has many similarities with the situation of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
- Human Rights Watch, “SECOND CLASS. Discrimination Against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel's Schools” (Sept 30, 2001): click here!
Nearly one in four of Israel's 1.6 million schoolchildren are educated in a public school system wholly separate from the majority. The children in this parallel school system are Israeli citizens of Palestinian Arab origin. Their schools are a world apart in quality from the public schools serving Israel's majority Jewish population.
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Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes (latest first):
- Richard SILVERSTEIN: « Former IDF Commander Calls for Gaza Genocide » (R.S., Nov 20, 2023): click here!
Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland argues inflicting disease and starvation will hasten Gaza's surrender.
he Middle East? ...I am a scholar of genocide studies. As the Israel-Hamas conflict grinds on amid continuing genocide allegations, it’s crucial to understand what genocide actually is and how this term has been used for political purposes in the past.
- Virginia PIETROMARCHI: « Jenin raid is over. Palestinians are left to cope with the trauma » (Al Jazeera, July 10, 2023): click here!
Palestinians sift through the wreckage of their destroyed homes and of their damaged psyches... “The Israelis make sure that each generation has its own direct trauma – it’s a manufactured trauma,” said Nasser Mattat, a psychologist with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees who led the mental health response for children in 2002. Many of the fighters in the Jenin camp today are the same children who were traumatised two decades ago, he said.
- « Israel May Have Committed War Crimes in Jenin Operation, UN Palestinian Rights Official Says » (Haaretz, July 6, 2023): click here!
GENEVA (5 July 2023) – Israeli air strikes and ground operations in the occupied West Bank targeting the Jenin Refugee camp and killing at least 12 Palestinians may prima facie constitute a war crime, UN experts said today... “...Israeli forces’ operations in the occupied West Bank, killing and seriously injuring the occupied population, destroying their homes and infrastructure, and arbitrarily displacing thousands, amount to egregious violations of international law and standards on the use of force and may constitute a war crime,” said Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories. “The attacks were the fiercest in the West Bank since the destruction of the Jenin camp in 2002,” Albanese said, referring to a military incursion during the height of the second intifada.
- UN Human Rights Office of the Hight Commissioner: « Israeli air strikes and ground operations in Jenin may constitute war crime: UN experts » (OHCHR, July 5, 2023): click here!
GENEVA (5 July 2023) – Israeli air strikes and ground operations in the occupied West Bank targeting the Jenin Refugee camp and killing at least 12 Palestinians may prima facie constitute a war crime, UN experts said today.
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: « Salah Hammouri expulsion a “war crime,” UN commission says » (The Electronic Intifada, 13 June, 2023): click here!
Independent UN investigators have drafted a list of individuals who may bear responsibility for war crimes regarding Israel’s expulsion of a Palestinian human rights lawyer last year. A new report by the high-level commission of inquiry finds that Israel’s forcible deportation of Salah Hammouri was a grave violation of international law. “We have no doubt” that the expulsion of Hammouri “constitutes a war crime,” Chris Sidoti, one of the investigators, stated.
- Michael SFARD: « Israel Is Officially Annexing the West Bank » (Foreign Policy, 8 June, 2023): click here!
A quiet bureaucratic maneuver by Netanyahu’s government has begun transferring control over the occupied territory from military to civilian leadership—violating international law.
- Ramzy BAROUD: « Is China trying to supplant Washington as Peacemaker between Israel and Palestine? » (Informed Comment, June 7, 2023): click here!
Remarks on 24 May by China’s Ambassador to the UN on the situation in Occupied Palestine were impeccable in terms of their consistency with international law. Compared with the position of the US, which perceives the UN and the Security Council in particular as a vehicle to defend Israeli interests, the Chinese political discourse reflects a legal stance based on a deep understanding of the realities on the ground."
- Romana RUBEO & Ramzy BAROUD: « Why Karim Khan froze the Palestine file: The ICC and Israeli war crimes in Gaza » (Middle East Monitor, May 24, 2023): click here!
Israel's latest war on Gaza, starting on 9 May , killed 33 Palestinians, including six children, and wounded hundreds more. Most of those killed and wounded were civilians. On the first day of the war, Maurice Hirsh, former head of IDF Military Prosecution, made a 'legal' case for the Israeli war. He wrote the following passage on Twitter: "Considering the military advantage gained by eliminating these senior terrorists, it is irrelevant to ask how many children were incidentally killed..."
- Juan COLE: « United Nations for First Time Recognizes 1948 Israeli Ethnic Cleansing (Nakbah) of Palestinians » (Informed Comment, May 19, 2023): click here!
Today, May 15, for the first time a commemoration will be held at the United Nations HQ in New York City of the 1948 ethnic cleansing of about half of all the Palestinians, the bulk of which was carried out by Jewish military forces, as Israeli intelligence admitted at the time. (See below, all the way down) The commemoration comes from a resolution of the UN General Assembly last fall.
- Ramona WADI: « The Symbolic Nakba Commemoration at the UN Showed Discomfort with the Truth that Israel Expelled the Palestinians » (Informed Comment, May 19, 2023): click here!
“The thought that an international organisation could mark the establishment of one of its member states as a catastrophe or disaster is both appalling and repulsive,” wrote Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan when asking UN diplomats to refrain from attending the unprecedented UN General Assembly’s commemoration of the 1948 Nakba.
- CEIRPP: BUREAU CONDEMS ISRAEL FORCES INTRUSION AND VIOLENCE AGAINST PALESTINIAN WORSHIPERS IN HOLY SITES IN JERUSALEM (CEIRPP, April 5, 2023): click here!
STATEMENT OF THE BUREAU OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S COMMITTEE ON THE EXERCISE OF THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. The Bureau of the United Nations General Assembly’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People condemns the raid by Israeli Forces inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound/Al-Haram Al-Sharif on 4 April 2023, which resulted in hundreds of Palestinian worshippers beaten, injured and detained while also causing damage to the building of the al-Qibli mosque. This violence is particularly egregious during a time of heightened religious sensitivity with the observance of Ramadan, Passover, and Easter.
- UN: Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the OPT Albanese: « Member States Must Abide by UN Charter and Provide Protection in the OPT. » Press Release, UN The Question of Palestine, Geneva, March 30, 2023: click here!
At a moment of increased violence in the occupied Palestinian territory, with the new Israeli government threatening even further annexation, the international community must take firm and principled action to protect the human rights and dignity of Palestinians, a UN expert said today. “The wave of deadly violence sweeping through the occupied West Bank since the beginning of this year is the inexorable consequence of an acquisitive and repressive occupation with no end in sight, and the culture of lawlessness and impunity Israel has nurtured and enjoyed,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
- « UN Rapporteur Calls for Investigation into Israeli crimes in Palestine » (Days of Palestine, March 4, 2023): click here!
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, called Saturday, March 4, for an investigation on Israeli occupation crimes against the Palestinian people.
- Volker TÜRK (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights): « Occupation ‘eating away’ at Israeli, Palestinian societies: Türk » (UN, March 3, 2023): click here!
The current spate of deadly violence is distancing the prospect of a two-State solution to end the Israel-Palestine conflict, as the occupation is “eating away” at both societies, the UN rights chief told the Human Rights Council on Friday.
- Ben SAMUELS, « UN Security Council Condemns Israel's Legalizing of West Bank Outposts » (Haaretz, Feb 20, 2023): click here!
The statement comes in lieu of a resolution on the matter, which Palestinian officials had been urging but U.S. officials managed to successfully avert via mediation.
- Jack KHOURY & Jonathan LIS, « Over 90 UN Member States Condemn Israel’s Sanctions Against Palestinian Authority» (Haaretz, Jan 17, 2023): click here!
Israel's new government kicked off the year by slapping a series of sanctions on the PA in response to its request for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Israel’s occupation.
- Ari ANZOLA, « A historic decision regarding Palestine » (MEMo, Jan 6, 2023): click here!
The Palestinian resistance, that many normalisers in the Arab world have underestimated, is reaping its fruit with time. After more than 50 years of occupying Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem by force, the prevailing Israeli military regime can no longer be considered an occupation only. Many international human rights organisations have begun to use the term apartheid to describe it. This is not only about a change in concepts and terminology, but also a change in the legal consequences that will follow, which the ICJ will take into account when issuing its awaited advisory opinion. No matter how long they last, occupation and settlement have a high political and moral price and the fact that the allies of this occupation gave in to it and some Arab countries normalised with it is not enough to save it from punishment. The rights of the struggling nations do not die with the passage of time, and as the old saying goes, "A right is never lost, as long as someone strives to claim it."
- Alex KANE, « The International Court of Last Resort » (Jewish Currents, Jan 4, 2023): click here!
Human rights groups are pressuring the International Criminal Court to prosecute war crimes in Israel/Palestine.
- « UN seeks ICJ opinion on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine » (Al Jazeera, Dec 31, 2022): click here!
The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to give an opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories. The General Assembly voted 87 to 26 with 53 abstentions on the resolution, with Western nations split but with virtually unanimous support in the Islamic world – including among Arab states that have normalised relations with Israel. Russia and China voted in favour of the resolution.
- Jamie Stern-Weiner, "In Defence of Francesca Albanese” (blog, Dec 15, 2022): click here!
Dredging up an eight-year-old letter now has one purpose and one purpose only: to smear Albanese’s name and her work to secure human rights for the Palestinian people.
- "UN approves resolution to commemorate 75th Nakba anniversary” (Middle East Eye, Dec 1, 2022): click here!
Israeli ambassador condemns the UN move, while Palestinian representative tells UN the world is facing 'end of the road' for two-state solution.
- Daoud KUTTAB: "Palestine UN mission waited 10 years for this moment, says envoy” (Arab News, Nov 14, 2022): click here!
Amman: It is now clear that Israel cannot keep pushing its narrative of doing no wrong while at the same time pursuing annexationist policies and denying “our people’s right to self-determination,” said Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s representative at the UN.
- "'A breakthrough': UN committee votes to request ICJ opinion on Israeli occupation'” (Middle East Eye, Nov 12, 2022): click here!
Palestinians welcome the vote as a prelude to 'opening a new era for holding Israel accountable for its war crimes.'
- Jonathan LIS: "UN Votes to Ask International Court's Opinion on 'Legal Status of Israel Occupation'” (Haaretz, Nov 11, 2022): click here!
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has for years warned Israel that if Palestinian statehood is not on the horizon, it would press charges at The Hague.
- Richard FALK: "New anti-colonial UN report gives Palestinians welcome boost in legitimacy wars'” (MEE, Oct 27, 2022): click here!
The most fundamental violations of the basic rights of the Palestinian people are laid bare in Francesca Albanese's report.
- Ben SAMUELS: "U.S. Decries UN Commission of Inquiry's 'One-sided' Report on Israel-Palestine" (Haaretz, Oct 22, 2022): click here!
- Jonathan LIS & Ben SAMUELS: "UN Commission of Inquiry: Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Territory Is Illegal” (Haaretz, Oct 21, 2022): click here!
Back when the committee was established during Israel's operation in Gaza in 2021, Israel refused to cooperate with it on the grounds that it was biased against it. The commission's new 28-page report focuses mainly on the advancement of settlements and the ramifications of 'Israeli occupation policies' on Palestinians.
- Jonathan LIS: "UN Envoy in West Bank Calls for Updated List of Companies Doing Business With Settlements” (Haaretz, Oct 20, 2022): click here!
The UN’s original 2020 database listed 112 companies, including Airbnb, Booking, and Bezeq. The UN Rapporteur on the situation of Palestinian human right, Francesca Albenese, also proposes to consider the deployment of an international 'protective presence' in the West Bank.
- UN-OHCHR: "Commission of Inquiry finds that the Israeli occupation is unlawful under international law” (UN OHCHR, Oct 20, 2022): click here!
New York (20 October 2022) -- There are reasonable grounds to conclude that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is now unlawful under international law due to its permanence and the Israeli Government’s de-facto annexation policies, according to the first report to the General Assembly issued today by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.
- "Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory illegal: UN Rights Commission" (UN News, 20 Oct, 2022), click here!
Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful under international law due to its permanence and the Israeli government’s de facto annexation policies, a UN-appointed Commission of Inquiry said in its first report, published on Thursday.
- « UN experts condemn Israel’s ‘sadistic’ punitive measures against French-Palestinian rights defender Salah Hammouri » ( Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, Oct 19, 2022): click here!
...The experts have called on Israel to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Hammouri and other detainees under administrative detention, and to maintain Mr. Hammouri’s permanent residency in his hometown, Jerusalem, where he has the right to live freely with his family. The experts note with concern that according to the latest official figures of the Israeli Prison Service, Israel is holding 798 persons in administrative detention without charges - the highest number in over a decade.
- Thabi MYENI: "South Africa calls for Israel to be declared an ‘apartheid state’” (AlJazeera, July 26, 2021, Naledi Pandor, minister for international relations and cooperation of South Africa, addresses the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, September 28, 2019): click here!
The South African government has remained a strong ally of Palestine, providing both material and public support for its liberation cause.
- UN: "Israel: UN rights chief calls for end to ‘culture of impunity’” (UN News, May 14, 2021): click here!
Investigations must be held into the actions of the Israeli security forces, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Saturday, calling for accountability and an end to impunity.
- UN: "Israeli Settlements Amount to War Crime, UN Rights Official Says” (Haaretz, July 9, 2021): click here!
'Israel's defiance of international law and international opinion can and will no longer be cost-free,' UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories says.
- Michael THOMAS: "Operation Protective Edge. The War Crimes Case Against Israel’s Leaders" (MERIP, October 26, 2015): click here!
...The possible crimes most important to investigate, from both legal and moral perspectives, do not involve decisions by gunship pilots or squad leaders to attack particular targets. They involve decisions by the political and military leadership of Israel, setting the strategic goals of the conflict and choosing the means and methods by which those goals would be sought. If, as available evidence suggests, those political and strategic choices, based on long-standing doctrine and declared policy, authorized and validated grave violations of the law, responsibility for the resulting violations should start with the leaders.
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Current Affairs
- * "Why Do Children in Gaza Write Their Names on Their Hands?" (The Palestine Chronicle, Oct 19, 2023).
- DCI-P: "Israeli airstrikes kill at least 140 Palestinian children in Gaza" (DCI-P, Oct 12, 2023).
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Israel kills six Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza" (EI, 20 Sept, 2023).
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Israeli forces kill two in Aqbat Jabr camp" (EI, 15 August, 2023).
- DCI-P: "Israeli forces kill, withhold body of 15-year-old Palestinian boy" (DCI-P, August 2, 2023).
- "Israeli Forces Kill Two Palestinian Teenagers" (teleSUR, 21 July 2023).
- DCI-P: "Israeli forces blind 3 Palestinian children with live ammunition, stun grenade" (DCI-P, 20 July, 2023).
Ali ABUNIMAH: "Israel seeks revenge with Jenin invasion" (EI, 3 July, 2023). Amira HASS: "Adam, Fuad, Abdullah, Omar: The 28 Palestinian Kids Killed by Israeli Forces This Year" (Haaretz, 12 June 2023). Tamara NASSAR: "Israel kills municipal worker, resistance fighters in Balata refugee camp" (EI, 22 May 2023). "Israeli Soldiers Kill A Palestinian Child, Injure Two Young Men, In Refugee Camp In Jericho" (IMEMC, April 10, 2023). Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Israeli death squad kills four in Jenin" (EI, 16 March, 2023). "Teen among four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in West Bank raids" (Middle East Eye, 9 March, 2023)."2023 Huwara rampage" (Wikipedia, 3 March, 2023). Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Israel kills 11 in daytime raid on Nablus" (The Electronic Intifada, 22 Feb 2023).Tamara NASSAR: "Israel kills another child in the West Bank" (The Electronic Intifada, 9 Feb 2023). "Un assassinat par jour : c’est ça le colonialisme israélien que nous devons combattre !" (CAPJPO-Europalestine, 17 janvier, 2023). Tamara NASSAR: "Israel kills three children as 2023 dawns" (The Electronic Intifada, 5 January, 2023). Mariam BARGHOUTI: "Invading Israeli forces assassinate 5 more Palestinians in two days, including 16-yr-old" (Israel-Palestine News, Dec 8, 2022). "Israel soldier executes Palestinian youth in cold blood " (MEMo, Dec 2, 2022). Gideon LEVY & Alex LEVAC: "A Palestinian Boy Went Out With Friends. An Israeli Soldier Shot Him in the Head" (Haaretz, Oct 15, 2022). Yumna PATEL & Mariam BARGHOUTI: "Israeli forces kill four Palestinians in occupied West Bank, including two brothers" (Mondoweiss, Nov 29, 2022). Motasem A DALLOUL: "Who's going to stop the madness of extremist ministers of next Israeli government? " (Haaretz, Nov 11, 2022). Jack KHOURY & Hagar SHEZAF: "14-year-old Among Two Palestinian Teens Killed Within Hours of Each Other by IDF Fire in West Bank" (Haaretz, Nov 11, 2022). Gideon LEVY & Alex LEVAC: "This Palestinian Teen Was Shot Twice, Cuffed and Detained by Israeli Troops – Then Released" (Haaretz, Sept 2, 2022). "Invading Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian photographing them, Injure 17 in Jenin" (Israel-Palestine News, Sept 6, 2022). Defense for Children International-Palestine: "Israeli settler, soldier shoot and kill Palestinian boy" (DCIP, August 1, 2022). Tamara NASSAR: "Israeli forces kill fleeing Palestinian child" (EI, 6 July, 2022). Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Israel executes three Palestinians in Jenin" (The Electronic Intifada, June 18, 2022). "Thirteen Palestinian children killed in the West Bank since January 2022" (UNICEF, May 29, 2022). "Israeli forces use Palestinian girl as a human shield in Jenin" (Defense for Children International-Palestine, May 19, 2022). Shatha HAMMAD: "Israeli forces fatally shoot two young Palestinians in occupied West Bank" (Middle East Eye, April 13, 2022). "Israel kills Palestinian boy in Jenin raid" (MEMo, March 31, 2022).Staat van Beleg: " Israëlische Schendingen februari 2022 " (7 maart 2022). Jesse Rosenfeld, Oren Ziv & Ahmad Al-Bazz : "Triple West Bank assassination recalls darkest days of the Intifada" (+972, Feb 15, 2022).Jack Khoury & Yaniv Kubovich: "Man Killed by Israeli Fire Near Ramallah, Palestinian Health Ministry Says" (Haaretz, Feb 15, 2022). "Israel’ Issues 1595 Administrative Detention Orders Against Palestinians In 2021" PalestineOnline, Jan 2, 2022)."Israel a tué 357 Palestiniens, dont 79 enfants et 69 femmes en 2021 " EuroPalestine, 2 janvier 2022).Gideon LEVY: "A Brief History of Killing Children " Haaretz, Nov 20, 2021). Allison WEIR: "Israeli forces have killed 39 Palestinian men, women, & children since May" (Israel-Palestine News, Oct 19, 2021). "Israel settlers open fire on Palestine homes in West Bank" (Middle East Monitor, September 11, 2021). Gideon LEVY: "Yes, the Palestinian Prison Escapees Are Freedom Fighters” (Haaretz, Sept 9, 2021; archive.today). "Developing news: Six Palestinian political prisoners liberate themselves from colonial Israeli prison” (Samidoun, Sept 5, 2021). "Israeli troops kill Palestinian teen in West Bank clash” (Middle East Eye, July 24, 2021). Tamara NASSAR: "Israeli gunfire takes lives of two more Palestinian teens” (+972, July 15, 2021). Yuval ABRAHAM: "Joint militias: How settlers and soldiers teamed up to kill four Palestinians” (+972, July 15, 2021)."Palestinian boy loses eye after Israel soldiers shoot him” (Middle East Monitor, April 12, 2021).Gideon LEVY & Alex LEVAC: "Palestinians Protested the Theft of Their Land. An Israeli Army Officer Shot One of Them in the Head” (Haaretz, March 26, 2021). "Israel to displace 1,550 Palestinians to build park in Jerusalem” (MEMo, March 18, 2021)."Reconstitution de l’exécution d’un Palestinien qui ne constituait aucune menace” (EuroPalestine, 27 février, 2021).Mairav ZONSZEIN: "Vaccination Under Occupation” (Jewish Currents, 12 Jan, 2021).Orly NOY: "Why B’Tselem is calling Israel an apartheid regime, from the river to the sea” (Mondoweiss, 12 Jan, 2021)."Deaf Palestinian man shot by Israeli soldiers dies of his wounds” (Israel Palestine News, Dec 11, 2020)."New Israeli ambassador in Britain describes Nakba as 'Arab lie'” (Middle East Monitor, Dec 8, 2020)."Israeli settlers flood Palestinian farmland with sewage” (Middle East Monitor, Oct 19, 2020).Ahmad MELHEM: "Family of Palestinian boy disfigured in 2015 firebomb attack still seeking justice” (Al-Monitor, Sept 20, 2020).Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Palestinian child shot by Israel dies in detention.” (The Electronic Intifada, August 21, 2020).Yumna PATEL: "Young Palestinian woman killed by Israeli forces in Jenin.” 23-year-old Dalia Samoudi is the 24th Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territories this year (Mondoweiss, August 7, 2020)."Israeli Soldiers Demolish Under-Construction Covid-19 Testing Center in Hebron” (IMEMC, July 21 2020). "Mother of Slain Palestinian: “My Son Was A Child In A Man’s Body”" (IMEMC, June 31 2020).Sondos SALEH: "Mustafa Went to Tel Aviv for Hospital Tests. He Was Shot Dead" (Haaretz, May 19, 2020).Jonathan OFIR: "Slapping Israeli Apartheid — the sentencing of Yifat Doron" (Mondoweiss, May 15, 2020)."Israëlische politieman schiet Palestijnse jongen kogel in het gezicht" (The Rights Forum, 18 feb, 2020).Jonathan OFIR: "Getting away with murder: Why Israeli police left Bedouin teacher to bleed to death in 2017." Some murder cases are so full of lies, that every attempt to hide them from public view only brings more attention to the crime. Such is the case of the extrajudicial execution three years ago of Israeli Bedouin citizen Yaqub Mousa Abu al-Qia’an. (Mondoweiss, March 1, 2020).Amira HASS: "The Trump Plan’s Vision for the Palestinians: Israel’s Security Slave." Direct lines can be seen between the ‘deal of the century,’ the Oslo Accords and their fraudulent implementation, which led to the creation of separate Palestinian enclaves. (Haaretz, Jan 31, 2020)."B’Tselem: Israel soldiers ‘wantonly’ shoot Palestinian children" (Palestine Post24, Dec 18, 2019)."Lost count? Israel killed 43 Palestinians in November" (If Americans Knew, Dec 5, 2019).Jonathan COOK: "Israel prepares to turn Bedouin citizens into refugees in their own country" (Mondoweiss, Oct 16, 2019).A. Daniel ROTH: "Each morning brings the fear of losing everything" (+972, Aug 25, 2019).Gideon LEVY & Alex LEVAC: "The Protest Dispersed. Then an Israeli Sniper Shot a 9-year-old Boy in the Head" (Haaretz, July 20, 2019, via IAK).Entsar ABU JAHAL: "Plenty of fish in Gaza sea, but not for Palestinians" (Al-Monitor, June 14, 2019).Myriam DEPREZ: "Susiya: The build-and-destroy dance of Israel’s demolitions" (Middle East Monitor, May 10, 2019).OCHA (oPt), Child labour increasing in Gaza" (OCHA - Monthly Humanitarian Bulletin, April 2019, May 14, 2019).Netta AHITUV, "Endless trip to hell': Israel jails hundreds of Palestinian boys a year. These are their testimonies" (Breaking the Silence via Haaretz, March 16, 2019).Tamara NASSAR: "Israel’s war on its Palestinian citizens" (The Internet Intifada, 26 Feb, 2019).Gideon LEVY: "In Land of Illegal Outposts and Hate Crimes, Another Palestinian Life Claimed" (Haaretz, Jan 27, 2019)."Report: Crimes against Humanity: Israel killed at least 45 Palestinian children in Gaza" (Ma'an News Agency, Jan 19, 2019).Yumna PATEL: "‘Waging War on Shufat’: Jerusalem municipality demolishes 21 businesses in East Jerusalem refugee camp" (Mondoweiss, Nov 22, 2018). Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Israeli soldier executed Gaza teen at close range: witness" (The Electronic Intifada, Oct 13, 2018)."September 2018 report: 378 Palestinians arrested as Khader Adnan, Omran al-Khatib continue hunger strikes"(Samidoun, Oct 11, 2018)."Palestinians Protest Planned Demolition of Khan al-Ahmar" (Telesur, July 28, 2018).Yumna PATEL: "Israeli forces kill 15-year-old Palestinian in refugee camp raid" (Mondoweiss, July 23, 2018).Amira HASS: "Night raids and attack dogs: For West Bank Palestinians, their homes are not their castles" (Haaretz, June 17, 2018).Neve GORDON: "Gaza's Passover massacre" (Al-Jazeera, April 1, 2018)"Israel killed 3 Palestinian civilians, injured 500, in first half of March" ( ( East Monitor, March 16)Omar KARMI: “Gaza in a vice” (The Electronic Intifada, Feb 13, 2018).Gideon LEVY & Alex LEVAC: “Like a Safari: Israeli Troops in Jeeps Hunt a Palestinian Teen and Shoot Him in the Head” (Haaretz, Feb 9, 2018, now freely available via: If Americans Knew).Amira HASS: "On the Margins of the Murder”, (Haaretz, Nov 12, 2017): click here! "Israeli forces detain 11 Palestinians, including 4 minors, in overnight raids" (Ma'an, March 29, 2017).Amira HASS: "Israeli Settlers Kill a Sheep in Latest Escalation in Jordan Valley, Palestinians Say" (Haaretz, Feb 18, 2017). (eastmonitor.com/20170113-israel-aims-to-judaize-historical-bethlehem-village/">"Israel aims to ‘Judaize’ historical Bethlehem village" ( ( East Monitor, Jan 13, 2017).Nasouh NAZZAL: "Israel’s pesticide war on Gazan farmers" (Gulf News Palestine, Dec 26, 2016).Emily MULDER: "Israeli guard: 'Go from this land or I will kill you'" (Al Jazeera, Dec 26, 2016)."A six-year-old Palestinian girl killed after being run over by Israeli settler" ( ( East Children Alliance, 2016).Gideon LEVY & Alex LEVAC: "In Some of the Israeli Army's Raids, Leaving Empty-handed Is Not an Option" (Haaretz, Aug 27, 2016)."Israeli settlers attack Palestinian girl in Ramallah, stab and kill her sheep" (Ma'an, Aug 5, 2016)."Un enfant palestinien [de 12 ans] tué par des soldats israéliens" (Libération, 19 juillet 2016).Kit O'CONNELL: "Israel Cutting Palestinians Off From Their Own Water Supply" (MintPress News, June 30, 2016)."Israeli Soldiers Kill A Palestinian Child Near Ramallah" (IMEMC, June 21, 2016).Edo KONRAD: "Tel Aviv mayor says the occupation is a cause of Palestinian terror" (+972, June 9, 2016)."After being shot three days ago by IOF, Palestinian youth dies from injuries" (Palestinian Information Center, June 6, 2016).Palestine PMO: Israel’s destruction of Palestinian water infrastructure is atrocious (Palestine News Network, May 26, 2016).Again, settlers burn Palestinian farms in West Bank (Days of Palestine, May 16, 2016).Michal ZAK: (easteye.net/columns/israeli-security-agency-and-mau-mau-443206787">"Third intifada, terror wave, the 'situation': Just don't mention the 'O' word to Israelis" ( ( East Eye, March 13, 2016).Jon QUEALLY: "Brother and Sister, Children Aged 10 and 6, Killed by Israeli Bombing in Gaza" (Common Dreams, March 13, 2016).Jonathan COOK: "Aid subversion report makes for shocking reading" (The National, March 7, 2016)."Palestijns meisje van 13 geëxecuteerd" (alexandrina.nl, 23 jan, 2016)."UN decries Abu Nuwar demolitions, calls for immediate end to planned transfers" (Medical Aid for Palestinians, MAP, Jan 20, 2016).Julie PUTSEYS: "Palestijnse empowerment op Israëlische scholen." Geen gelijke kansen zonder evenwaardig onderwijs. Zo denkt de Arabisch-Israëlische professor Dalia Fadila er alleszins over. (MO*, 10 Jan 2016).
Uri SAVIR: "Why solving Israel-Palestine conflict is still key for regional stability" (Al-Monitor, Jan 3, 2016).C.J.WERLEMAN: (easteye.net/columns/road-hell-paved-national-security-2029632742">"The road to hell is paved with 'national security'". Israel is turning the West’s fixation on the Islamic State group into an opportunity to expand its apartheid laws and militarisation of the West Bank ( ( East Eye, Jan 1, 2016).Mazal MUALEM: "'Hate wedding' video offers glimpse at Jewish terror" (Al-Monitor, Dec 28, 2015).Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Catastrophe for Syrians and Palestinians alike in war-ravaged country" (The Electronic Intifada, Dec 23, 2015).Shlomi ELDAR: "Why the US is part of ( East problem, not the solution". Interview with Ayman Odeh (Al-Monitor, Dec 14, 2015).Philip WEISS: "Obama’s ISIS czar says we can’t defeat extremism without resolving Palestinian issue" (Mondoweiss, Dec 14, 2015).Uri SAVIR: "How the Islamic State hurts Palestinian cause" (Al-Monitor, Dec 6, 2015).Al Jazeera: "Gaza's crumbling healthcare system" (Yahoo.com, Dec 8, 2015).Nurit CANETTI: "The radicalization of Israel" (Al-Monitor, Dec 2, 2015).Kate: "Prominent Israeli settler runs over 16-year-old girl, then shoots her dead" (Mondoweiss, Nov 23, 2015).Gideon LEVY: "So These Are Israel's New Heroes?" Israel's recent military operations in Palestinian hospitals are a blatant violation of the Geneva Convention, and make you wonder how low the country can sink (Haaretz, Nov 21, 2015).Philip WEISS: "The best way for Americans to defeat the Islamic state is to end support for Jewish nationalism" (Mondoweiss, Nov 15, 2015).Ahmed MOOR: (_east_north_africa/the-problem-of-palestine-is-zionism-31201/">"The Problem of Palestine is Zionism" (Fair Observer, Nov 11, 2015).Miko PELED: "Zionism is racism: Notes from Tel-Rumeida, Hebron, El-Khalil" (American Herald Tribune, Nov 13, 2015).Megan HANNA: "‘It Has Become A Prison’: The ghettoization of Hebron" (Mondoweiss, Nov 11, 2015).Avigail ABARBANEL: "Netanyahu’s craziness is calculated, to drive out Palestinians" (Mondoweiss, Nov 5, 2015).Michel WARSCHAWSKI: "La jeunesse palestinienne à couteaux tirés avec Israël" (Orient XXI, 15 Oct 2015).Kamel HAWWASH: (eastmonitor.com/articles/ (-east/21998-palestinians-have-a-problem-with-occupiers-not-jews">"Palestinians have a problem with occupiers not (with) Jews" (MEMO, Oct 30, 2015)."Palestijnse baby vermoord met traangas" (Alexandrina, Oct 31, 2015).Ali ABUNIMAH: "Israel’s executions of Palestinian teens must end, Amnesty says" (The Electronic Intifada, Oct 28, 2015).Killian REDDEN: "Hebron at eye of the storm as death toll rises" (Ma'an News Agency, Oct 26, 2015)."Netanyahu Shamelessly Exploits the Shoah to Stoke Fear of Palestinians" (Jewish Voice for Peace, Oct 21, 2015).Amos GVIRTZ: "From Unilateral- to Bilateral War - or: How the Palestinians Fight to Prevent Being Expelled From the Country" (Occupation Magazine, Oct 20, 2015).Noam SHEIZAF: "Jerusalem, in context" (+972, October 19, 2015). "The current events in Jerusalem have a political history and context. Attempts to attribute the violence to some kind of Palestinian pathology while ignoring other factors is a recipe for making things worse."Meron RAPOPORT: (easteye.net/columns/paradox-jerusalem-1449575959">"The paradox of Jerusalem" ( ( East Eye, October 17, 2015).
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