RECENT REPORTS: PALESTINIAN CONDITIONS IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES AND ISRAEL
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Weekly HR reports of Israeli aggression available online
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Physicians for Human Rights
Israel resposible for imminent collapse of Palestinian health care system:
The Palestinian health system is the only framework currently capable of meeting the needs
of 3.5 million Palestinians, and cannot be replaced overnight by another system.
Lack of funding for this system will lead to the death of thousands of people in
the short term, and to extensive morbidity [disease] in the long term.
10 May 2006
ED. - Due to lack of time, numerous reports from October 2005 - May 2006 were not posted.
Physicians for Human Rights
Gaza after Disengagement- Patients pay the Price:
The closure imposed on the Gaza Strip by Israel since the beginning of the disengagement plan prevents entry into Israel or passage through Israel in order to reach the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Hundreds of patients have been left without treatment.
12 October 2005
United Nations
With world focused on Gaza,Israel expanding in West Bank and pushing Palestinians out of Jerusalem:
During the past year, Israel's decision to withdraw Jewish settlers and troops from
Gaza has attracted the attention of the international community. This focus of
attention on Gaza has allowed Israel to continue with the construction of the wall in
Palestinian territory, the expansion of settlements and the de-Palestinization of
Jerusalem with virtually no criticism. This report focuses principally on these
matters.
Summary article
8 October 2005 post
United Nations
Israel will remain occupier after disengagement:
Israel will in law remain an Occupying Power still subject to obligations under the Fourth
Geneva Convention. The report focused upon military incursions into the Gaza Strip, the demolition of
homes, violations of human rights and humanitarian law arising from the construction of the Wall
and the pervasiveness of restrictions of movement.
8 October 2005 post
United Nations
Israel pushing Palestinians out of Jerusalem:
Israel is striving to reduce the number of Palestinians living in Jerusalem while increasing
its Jewish population to undermine claims on East Jerusalem as the capital of an eventual Palestinian
state, a U.N. human rights investigator said on Monday.
27 September 2005
European Delegation to Israel and Palestine
Report on fact-finding trip after removal of settlers in Gaza
The visit took place shortly after Israelıs disengagement from The Gaza Strip. The
Delegation embarked on its [fact-finding] trip at this crucial moment in time, to witness and assess
at first-hand those facts that (continue to) threaten the prospects for a just peace
and that are not being decisively addressed by the international community.
The Delegation comes to the conclusion that in light of Israelıs persistence in the
[illegal] policies [that cause much suffering among Palestinians on a daily basis] ,
and the impact of such policies on the situation on the ground, an
end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict depends in the first instance on a more determined
international intervention to achieve accountability from Israel and to enforce a compliance with
International Law.
28 August 2005
International Crisis Group
The Jerusalem Powder Keg
While the world focuses on Gaza, the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations in fact
may be playing itself out away from the spotlight, in Jerusalem. With recent steps,
Israel is attempting to solidify its hold over a wide area in and around the city,
creating a far broader Jerusalem. If the international community and specifically the
U.S. are serious about preserving and promoting a viable two-state solution, they need
to speak far more clearly and insistently to halt actions that directly and immediately
jeopardise that goal. And if that solution is ever to be reached, they will need to be
clear that changes that have occurred since Israelis and Palestinians last sat down to
negotiate in 2000-2001 will have to be reversed.
2 August 2005 Posted 18 August 2005
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions and
Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Ruling Palestine:
A History of the legally sanctioned Jewish-Israeli Seizure of land and housing in Palestine (PDF 1.8M) or
excerpt
In tracing more than a century of Jewish-Israeli land acquisitions, this study documents the methodical process underlying
the Zionist conquest of Palestine and the dispossession and displacement of its indigenous Arab inhabitants. We examine
this process with reference to relevant international treaties and agreements. We show that Israel's discriminatory policies
towards Palestinians constituted violations of key United Nations resolutions adopted by the international community in the
General Assembly and the Security Council over the past several decades.
May 2005 Posted 16 August 2005
UN Adopts Pathbreaking New Global Standard which Demands Return of
Confiscated Refugee Land and Housing
The United Nations is expected to adopt a sweeping series of principles today that urge
governments everywhere to ensure all refugees and persons displaced due to conflict and
natural disasters are entitled to return to, recover and reside in their original
homes, lands and properties.
Scott Leckie, Executive Director of the Geneva-based
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), an independent human rights
organisation with extensive experience working on restitution themes, said "Housing and
property restitution is an essential element of reconstruction and recovery in
post-conflict situations...The Middle East is a good example of this. The
dispossession of Palestinian homes, lands and properties remains at the heart of the
longstanding conflict which today seems no closer to being resolved. More than half of
the original Palestinian population has been displaced from Palestine, and some six
million Palestinian refugees need to achieve residential justice through the exercise
of their legal rights to housing, land and property restitution. Any peace agreement
between the Israelis and Palestinians will not be feasible until Israel acknowledges
the right of Palestinians to return to and re-possess their homes which are now
controlled by Israel."
11 August 2005
U.N. Human Rights Commission - Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory
The Special Procedures mandate holders would like to
express their concern at the fact that the wall violates Israel's obligations under
international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminations against Women and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. The wall particularly violates freedom of
movement, as well as the rights to adequate housing, food, family life, education and
health. Furthermore, the wall violates important norms of international humanitarian
law prohibiting the annexation of occupied territory, the establishment of
settlements, the confiscation of private land and the forcible transfer of people. The
disproportionately severe impact of the wall on women and children is also a grave
concern that calls for immediate action.
4 August 2005
B'Tselem - Means of Expulsion: Violence, Harassment and Lawlessness Toward Palestinians
in the Southern Hebron Hills
In the southernmost West Bank , some one thousand Palestinians have maintained
the way of life of their ancestors: living in caves and earning a living from
farming and livestock. In the 1970s, the Israeli military commander declared
the area a "closed military area," and for the past five years, Israel has
been trying to expel them from the area.
18 July 2005
The Logic of Suicide Terrorism
Itıs the occupation, not the fundamentalism
The American Conservative Interview with Robert Pape
18 July 2005
Settler Violence
Human Rights Watch -Promoting Impunity: The Israeli Military's Failure to
Investigate Wrongdoing
In recent months several high-profile killings have drawn Israeli and
international attention to the army's failure to conduct thorough and
impartial investigations where there is credible evidence of unlawful use of
force against civiliansnone more so than the October 5, 2004, incident in
which Givati Brigade soldiers shot a thirteen-year-old Gaza schoolgirl
[news article]. An
internal IDF debriefing immediately after the incident found that the company
commander had ³"not acted unethically."[IDF news report] Fellow soldiers then released a
communications tape to the media showing that another soldier had warned the
commander that the victim was "a little girl". The tape recorded the
commander saying, "Anything thatıs mobile, that moves in the zone, even if
itıs a three-year-old, needs to be killed." On the tape he also states that he
"confirmed the kill" by firing at the girlıs body at close range.
UPDATE 2005: Commander received a PROMOTION to major/span>
UPDATE 2006: Commander received MONETARY
COMPENSATION despite the
evidence
22 June 2005
International Labour Organization: Situation of workers in occupied Arab territories continues
to deteriorate
"[ILO] observed a prevailing feeling that the economic situation
of Palestinians must rapidly improve in order for them to continue to support
the policy of dialogue and negotiation with Israel", the report says. "This
calls for a rapid lifting of closures, better access to the Israeli labour
market, and improved trade facilities, as well as putting an end to
discrimination against Arab people in the occupied Syrian Golan".
One in three young persons aged 15-24 years and over half of those aged 25-29
years are in forced idleness, that is neither studying nor in employment... In
2004, 57 per cent of all wage workers in the occupied territories received
monthly wages that failed to lift a family of two adults and four children
above the official poverty line. Approximately half of the population, 1.8
million persons, live below the national poverty threshold. In 2004, 57 per
cent of all wage workers in the occupied territories received monthly wages
that failed to lift a family of two adults and four children above the
official poverty line.
Friday 27 May 2005
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions and
Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Ruling Palestine:
A History of the legally sanctioned Jewish-Israeli Seizure of land and housing in Palestine (PDF 1.8M) or
excerpt
In tracing more than a century of Jewish-Israeli land acquisitions, this study documents the methodical process underlying
the Zionist conquest of Palestine and the dispossession and displacement of its indigenous Arab inhabitants. We examine
this process with reference to relevant international treaties and agreements. We show that Israel's discriminatory policies
towards Palestinians constituted violations of key United Nations resolutions adopted by the international community in the
General Assembly and the Security Council over the past several decades.
May 2005
Amnesty slams Israel 'war crimes'
Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing war crimes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The rights group's report for 2004 says Israeli forces have killed some
700 Palestinians - including 150 children - mostly in unlawful
circumstances. The report lists "reckless shooting, shelling
and air strikes in civilian areas... and excessive use of force".
Thursday, 26 May, 2005
BıTselem Report - Take No Prisoners: Lethal Shooting of Palestinians by Israeli Forces
During Arrest Operations
Grave suspicion of assassinations under the guise of arrests.
Wednesday, 25 May, 2005
BıTselem Report - One Big Prison: New Report Warns Against Continued Strangulation of Gaza Strip after Disengagement
One Big Prison documents the ongoing violations of human rights and international law
resulting from Israelıs restrictions on the movement of people and goods between Gaza and the West Bank,
Israel, and the rest of the world. The report also warns against Israelıs attempt to avoid its responsibility
toward residents of the Gaza Strip following disengagement.
March 29, 2005
OTHER REPORTS FROM B'TSELEM
Administrative punishment
Administrative detention
House demolitions as punishment
Deportation
Destruction of property
Demolition of houses as punishment
Demolition for alleged military purposes
Planning and building
Detainees and prisoners
Administrative
Torture
East Jerusalem
Background
Legal Status
The Separation Barrier in Jerusalem
Family unification and child registration
Revocation of residency
Revocation of social rights
Planning, building and expropriation of land
Neglect of infrastructure and services
International Law
Background
International
human rights law
International
humanitarian law (Laws of war)
Land and water
Land
expropriation and settlements
The
water crisis
Residency rights and deportation
Family
separation
Deportation
Revocation
of residency of Palestinians in East Jerusalem
Restrictions on movement
Background
Closure
Siege
Curfew
Effect on the economy
Medical treatment
Separation Barrier
Background
Opinion of the International Court of Justice
Israeli High Court of Justice ruling
Jerusalem
Settlements and Israeli civilians
Land expropriation and settlements
Attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinians
Settler violence
East Jerusalem
Use of force
Beating and abuse
Use of firearms
Human shields
Violations by Palestinians
Attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinians
Harm to Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel
Death penalty in the Palestinian Authority
I AM IN THE PROCESS OF COLLECTING LINKS TO REPORTS PRIOR TO 2005. IN OTHER WORDS, THE SECTION BELOW IS
"UNDER CONSTRUCTION" - WEBMASTER
Human Rights Watch - Israel: Caterpillar Should Suspend Bulldozer Sales Weaponized
Bulldozers Used to Destroy Civilian Property and Infrastructure
Caterpillar Inc., the U.S.-based heavy equipment company, should immediately suspend
sales of its powerful D9 bulldozer to the Israeli army, Human Rights Watch said
today. As Human Rights Watch documented in a recent report, the Israeli military uses
the D9 as its primary weapon to raze Palestinian homes, destroy agriculture and shred
roads in violation of the laws of war.
"Caterpillar betrays its stated values when it sells bulldozers to Israel knowing that
they are being used to illegally destroy Palestinian homes," said Sarah Leah Whitson,
Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Until Israel stops these practices,
Caterpillar's continued sales will make the company complicit in human rights abuses."
Above press release refers to this report Razing Rafah
23 November, 2004
Amnesty International - Under the rubble: House demolition and destruction of land and property
More than 3,000 homes, hundreds of public buildings and private commercial properties, and vast
areas of agricultural land have been destroyed by the Israeli army and security forces in Israel
and the Occupied Territories in the past three and a half years. Tens of thousands of men, women
and children have been forcibly evicted from their homes and made homeless or have lost their
source of livelihood. Thousands of other houses and properties have been damaged, many beyond repair.
In addition, tens of thousands of other homes are under threat of demolition,
their occupants living in fear of forced eviction and homelessness..
18 May, 2004
Amnesty International 2004 Report on Israel/Occupied Territories
Amnesty International - Surviving under siege: The impact of movement restrictions on the right to work
Amnesty International - Israel must end its policy of assassinations
Amnesty International - Israel must immediately stop the construction of wall
Four Years of Intifada: Statistical Overview
US State Department 2003 Report on Israel and the Occupied
Territories
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