The Palestinian Human Rights Organization Council holds the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the death of Nasser Taqatqa, 31, who died while being held in Nitzan prison on 16 July 2019.
According to the preliminary information available to our organizations, Taqtaqa was arrested from his home in Beit Fajjar on 19 June 2019, a month before his death. He was taken to Al-Moscobiyeh interrogation center in Jerusalem, where he spent the majority of his detention. He was later transferred to Al-Jalameh interrogation center, and then, to Nitzan prison.

The circumstances under which Taqatqa died remain unclear as neither we nor his family have been communicated with or given access to his dead body. He had also been banned from meeting a lawyer for the most part of his detention. For the majority of his time in detention, he was kept at Moscobiyyeh, an interrogation center known for its brutal use of torture. He was also held in isolation. Thus, under such circumstances, there is serious concern that he was tortured and exposed to ill and/or degrading treatment while he was in detention.

Since the beginning of 2018 three Palestinian prisoners have died in detention. Their bodies are still being held by the Israeli occupation authorities until this day. Aziz Awisat,53, died on 9 May 2018 from organ failure after experiencing medical neglect while in detention. Faris Baroud,51,died on 6 February 2019 after 17 years in isolation during which a lack in adequate medical care was observed. Such neglect represents a violation of article 91 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires the provision of adequate medical treatment for prisoners and the transfer of sick prisoners, who require special medical care, to hospitals where they should be treated in a manner befitting any other citizen.

According to Addameer’s documentation, since 1967, there have been 220 prisoners who have died while under the custody of the occupation. Of them,78 were killed in circumstances amounting to murder; eight were killed by gunshots while in prison; 60 died in circumstances linked to medical negligence; and 73 died as a result of torture. .
Notably, 114 Palestinian prisoners were killed or died since 3 October 1991; the date of Israel’s signature ratification of the Convention against Torture. This figure includes 57 individuals who were killed following arrest, 33 who died due to medical neglect, and 23 who died due to torture while under interrogation.
Torture and ill-treatment continue to be codified in Israeli military and civilian law. Article 1/34 (j)(a) of the Israeli penal code of 1972 allows the use of physical pressure and extreme mechanisms during interrogations in situations that requires what the law qualifies as the “necessity defense”.

In 1999 the Israeli high court allowed those extreme measures in cases of what it qualified as a “ticking bomb” situation, which the court ruled to include threats that are not immediate but necessary to defend against. In 2017, the Israeli high court affirmed the use of torture, qualifying them as “means of pressure,” as a legitimate and reasonable practice to extract confessions under the “necessity defense ” doctrine, as in the High Court Decision 15/5722: As’ad Abu Gosh vs The Attohenry General. This case was the outcome of the first criminal investigation out of 1,100 complaints opened against Israeli intelligence interrogators.

Despite ratifying the United Nations Convention Against Torture in 1991, the occupation authorities have systematically applied torture as a semi-standard practice of punishment and extracting confessions, resulting in severe psychological, physical, and frequently fatal consequences for Palestinian prisoners.

In light of these concerns, PHROC calls on the international community to hold Israel accountable to its responsibilities under the Convention Against Torture, to the Geneva Conventions, and to UN procedures and mechanisms. We also call on international institutions to put pressure on Israel, the occupying Power, to provide an autopsy and to release the body of Mr Taqatqa and all the bodies of prisoners who died under their custody to their families.

In 2016 the Committee Against Torture included in its recommendations that Israel lacks an absolute prohibition of torture in its law. In accordance with the protection of human rights and dignity, it is important that, and the duty of, the international community to show solidarity in rejecting the inhumane policies that allow the lack of the prohibitions against torture to exist in Israeli law and practice. It is a dangerous precedent and a serious threat to human and civil rights everywhere to continue to allow vague security concerns to justify the persistent violation of international human rights law and humanitarian law, and to inflict and legalize torture and ill-treatment in such a widespread, systematic manner without effective accountability.

Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council comprising:

Addameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Association
Sahar Francis
General Director
Aldameer Association for Human Rights
Hala Jaber
General Director

Al-Haq
Shawan Jabarin
General Director
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
Issam Younis
General Director

Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Nidal Azzah
General Director
Defence for Children International
Palestine Section
Khaled Quzmar
General Director

Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies
Suhaib Sharif
General Director
Hurryyat – Centre for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights
Helmi Al-Araj
General Director

Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights
Issam Aruri
General Director
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Raji Sourani
General Director

Ramallah | Hurryyat: The Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights “Hurryyat” confirmed that the number of martyrs of the prisoners national movement in the prisons of the Israeli occupation since 1967 rose to 220 today, Tuesday, after the martyrdom of the prisoner Nassar Majed Omar Taqatqa from the town of Beit Fajjar in Bethlehem, isolated in the prison of Nitzan Ramla.

Hurryyat indicated that Taqatqa, 31, was arrested on June 19, 2019 and did not suffer from any health problems. He was transferred to the Jalameh detention center and was interrogated. He was subjected to various forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, after that he was transferred to solitary confinement and was martyred.

Hurryyat, mourns the prisoner martyr Nassar Taqatqa, and extends condolences to his family, the prisoners’ movement, and our people, and holds the Israeli government and the Prisons Authority full responsibility for this crime.

Hurryyat, calls on the international community and world public opinion to stand for the Palestinian and Arab prisoners in the prisons of the occupation, as they are prisoners, who have struggled for the freedom and independence of their people, and condemns the Israeli narrative of stigmatizing their struggle with terrorism, which based on it the occupation government justifies their ongoing daily crimes against the prisoners.

Ramallah – Hurryyat | After the release of the prisoner Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Khalil Mahmoud, nicknamed “Abed Arefa”, who spent 17 years in the prisons of the Israeli occupation, the occupation authorities prevented him from reaching his hometown of Issawiya, and deported him to the “city of Jericho” for ten days. On his way from prison to Jericho, he was detained and arrested again and transferred to the occupation police station in Jerusalem.

The occupation authorities were not satisfied with that. After releasing him the next day, the Israeli intelligence service summoned him several times and threatened to arrest him if he did not come to meet them, forcing him on 04/03/2019 to come to Ofer Prison, so he was arrested again and presented to the court the next day Which extended his detention for another three days.

Hurryyat condemns these blatant Israeli procedures and violations against our liberated prisoners and their families, and stresses that the occupation authorities are systematically using the policy of deportation, as a form of collective punishment that has been internationally and legally prohibited since 1967, based on the unjust emergency law and Israeli military orders, in violation of international covenants and treaties and United Nations resolutions. Which clearly opposed this policy, especially in the Geneva and Hague Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which calls for an international move to condemn and stop this policy.

Hurryyat believes that the crime of re-arresting Abdel Rahman after 7 days of the festive ceremony to receive him in Jericho by family and popular and national events falls within the framework of the narrowing policy targeting national characters in Jerusalem with the aim of silencing their voice against the occupation policy that works on a daily basis to Judaize the city, which has increased dramatically Big after the deal of the century and the transfer of the American embassy to it.

Palestine abounds with many stories woven by children, men and women of their struggle over many years in the prisons of the occupation, among them the prisoner Helmy Muhammad Abed Araj, who spent 11 years of his life away from his family and was deprived of completing his studies, without bowing.

The fighter Helmy Al-Araj had a long story with the resistance and the struggle that continued even inside prisons. He is the young man against investigators and executioners who failed to subdue him because of his strength of determination and firmness of will, despite his young age at the time. Helmy said in a statement to “Meem” magazine: “I joined the Palestinian national movement at an early stage of my life. I was a student at Anabta Secondary School for Boys. I was sixteen years old when I began participating in student and mass demonstrations and various activities that resists the Israeli occupation.”

In the town of Anabta in the Tulkarm district, west of Palestine, Helmy Al-Araj was born on November 24, 1958, and received a master’s degree in political science. He is married and father of three daughters. He currently resides in Ramallah.

Al-Araj eagerly continues telling his story of resistance: “The year 1976 was a pivotal year in my life. After I joined the same year, I was arrested for the first time in my life, for five days I spent in the interrogation rooms in Tulkarm detention center. I was accused of participating in student and mass demonstrations, and during interrogation I was beat and tortured by using the Shabeh which is a torture method used by IOF against prisoners, an example of it : Shabeh on the wall: The interrogators stop the detainee so that his back is against the wall, the hands are tied back, the knees are bent at a 45 degree, and two interrogators stand on the sides to ensure that the detainee does not stand evenly, and they beat the detainee hard on his legs, and every time the detainee falls, the interrogators raise him and complete torturing him .”

In 1977, Mr. Helmy obtained his Tawjihi (high school) certificate, then joined the Faculty of Law at Damascus University, where he studied for three continuous years, to decide before the end of the third year, in 1981, to return to Palestine and his family.

I prepared myself to be arrested

Although he realized that he would be arrested immediately after his return to the Palestinian territories, Mr. Helmy Al-Araj was determined to return to his hometown: “I prepared myself for this arrest, because the Israeli intelligence was arresting the majority of the youth of the occupied territories who return from Damascus and Beirut to the Palestinian interior, In addition to knowing there are confessions about me from others who were arrested, however, I determined to return so I don’t lose my residency in the homeland due to the continuous absence, and what encouraged me also was the experience I gained in the investigation at the first and second arrests.

On his way back, he was arrested at King Hussein Bridge while he was coming from Damascus, to be taken to the Jenin Intelligence headquarters, and his new journey began with arrests and investigations after he was charged with “belonging to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.”

Mr. Helmy Al-Araj continues his interview with “Meem” magazine: “After a series of investigations that lasted for three months, the Israeli Military Court in Nablus issued an actual prison sentence for a year and a half, which I spent in the same prison.”

Prison school

One of the methods by which the prisoner defeats his jailer, silently and steadfastly, is his attachment to the book. The life of a Palestinian is not like the life of any Arab, as it is limited to two tasks: resistance outside prisons and learning and developing capabilities inside cells.

Prisoner Helmy Al-Araj says: “I used to get up early to earn as much time as possible with books and organizational and arrest brochures. I had special interests in literature, politics, philosophy and economics.”

He continues: “I wrote many political and cultural articles that I used to publish in the (Freedom) magazine, which is a magazine for the Democratic Front, as well as in the detention cultural magazine. I was a member of the General Cultural Committee, which was issuing a general detention magazine in which prisoners wrote their articles and political analyzes, and after copying it, it was distributed to all rooms to be read and discussed, especially political analyzes and important cultural topics, in expanded sessions with the participation of all families.”

The prisoner spent the period of his arrest, which he said: “It was easy and light on me,” due to his constant and continuous preoccupation with reading books and fully engaging in organizational and detention life until his liberation from captivity on September 29, 1982.

If it was a mountain, it would have confessed

After his liberation, he was prevented from traveling and could not return to Damascus University to continue his studies at the Faculty of Law. He refused an offer to sign not to return home before three years had passed, in exchange for permission to travel. This was considered an unacceptable bargain. He accepted losing years of study at Damascus University and joining Birzeit University again.

During his detention, Al-Araj was subjected to the most horrific forms of torture without confessing anything, to the extent that lawyer “Jawad Boulos” said about him before the military court judge: “If he was a mountain after this arrest and torture, he would have confessed.”

After a journey with interrogation, torture, and moving between the prisons of the occupation, Al-Araj was released on the seventy-third day. Al-Araj says about that moment: “It is the most beautiful and most important moment in my life, as the victory over the occupation and its torturers after a long and actually brutal battle during which I was subjected to internationally prohibited torture.”

Fifth arrest

Al-Araj continued his studies after his return to Birzeit University, and specialized in sociology until he reached the fourth year, only to be arrested again for the fifth time on November 2, 1987, after a hand grenade exploded in a residence in the town of Birzeit, where one of his comrades was in the process of preparing it. It caused him great damage as he lost both his hands and one of his eyes, and he was released after spending 12 years in captivity.

Al-Araj was arrested the day after the explosion, and his interrogation continued at the Tulkurm Intelligence Center for a period of 100 days. “There I defended the justice of our cause and the inevitability of its victory, and that our state is Palestine, not Jordan, as they claimed. I confronted the investigation crews with my head held high.”

Al-Araj was released on October 10, 1995, to resume his studies at Birzeit University, where he graduated in 1996 and obtained a BA in Sociology after twenty years of trying to obtain a degree. After that, he joined a master’s program at Birzeit University and graduated from it in the year (2003).

Helmy Al-Araj is now Director of the Center for Defending Freedoms, a member of the Freedoms Committee for Reconciliation, Rapporteur of the high committee for war prisoners and detainees’ affairs, and representative of the Democratic Front in the National and Islamic Forces in the West Bank.

Palestinian prisoners at the prisons of the Occupation called off their open hunger strike, which had lasted for eight days, as they made victory by getting their basic rights, after a series of systematic violations that they are subjected to. The violations had aimed to place the Palestinian prisoners under more constraints in detention especially after the publication of the recommendations of the committee that was formed by the Occupation’s Minister of Internal Security.

On the anniversary of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Day, statistics of ADDAMEER Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association tell us that at the end of March 2019, the number of Palestinian male and female prisoners at the prisons of the Occupation was 5,450 including 497 administrative detainees, 49 female prisoners, 7 members of the parliament – Palestinian Legislative Council –, 205 children prisoners (including 32 less than 16 years of age). According to DCI-P the Occupation forces have arrested 10,000 Palestinian children since 2000. They were tried before military courts that lacked the basis of fair trial rights. Detained Palestinian children are subject to torture and inhumane treatment while at custody or during interrogations. This violates all international norms and conventions related to children. Children prisoners are locked up at separate sections at Ofer Prison, Majeddo Prison, and Damon Prison. A number of children prisoners have recently been transferred to Damon Prison, which lack basichuman living conditions.

Many male and female prisoners at the Occupation prisons suffer from medical negligence, which exacerbates their health conditions. According to Hurryyat – Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights the number of sick prisoners at occupation prisons is more than 750, including 350 with chronic diseases, 7 have cancer, 8 have tumors, 23 have eye diseases, 30 have heart diseases, 24 have hypertension and diabetes, 5 have cardiovascular diseases, 11 with disability, 37 have osteopathy, 12 have kidney diseases, 28 have internal medicinal diseases, 23 have psychological and mental diseases, 18 have breathing difficulties, and 61 have bullet wounds.

Recommendations of Occupation’s Internal Security Minister Committee “Erdan’s Committee”

The Occupation’s Internal Security Minister, Gilad Erdan, formed a special committee in June 2018 which includes Knesset members and the intelligence agency. The purpose of the committee was to assess the conditions of detention of Palestinian prisoners at Occupation prisons and identify means of reducing such conditions to the minimum stage. The committee reviewed the conditions of Palestinian prisoners and paid visits to prisons. Then the committee recommended to impose more restrictions on prisoners at Occupation prisons. Hence, the Occupation authorities started systematic attacks on prisoners, which were justified by the recommendations of the committee.

Female Palestinian Prisoners were the First to be hit by the Punitive Measures

Cameras were switched back on at Hasharon Prison – the cameras were switched off for many years following an agreement between female prisoners and the prison administration in 2011. Naturally, Palestinian female prisoners refused the switching of the cameras back on and refused to go on their recreational time for two months. This was part of the punitive measures that followed the Committee’s recommendations – Erdan’s Committee actually visited Hasharon Prison where Palestinian female prisoners are detained.

Female prisoners also sent a letter in which they wrote that all recreational areas are covered by cameras; hence, they would not go to such areas and switching the cameras back on restricted the prisoners’ privacy. On September 20, 2018, the Occupation’s intelligence proposed switching off cameras for two and a half hours so that female prisoners can have their recreational time. Prisoners refused since the time was insufficient. Consequently, the prisoners were threatened to be transferred to Damon Prison because they refused the Occupation intelligence offer of switching cameras off for two and a half hours. The offer of switching the cameras off for two and a half hours was withdrawn. Prisoners’ protests against operating the cameras went on for two months. As a result, they were all transferred to Damon Prison, which lacks the minimumhumanlife conditions. That happened in the first week of November 2018.

Special Units Raid Prisons and Oppress Prisoners

The prisons administration launched provocative and sudden inspection campaigns at several prisons. This was part of the decision to impose more restrictions on prisoners. This was applying by mainly breaking into prisons by special units especially at Ofer Prison, Naqab Prison, and Rimon Prison. This included attacks on prisoners at Ofer and beating them with sticks, legs, and arms. Military dogs were also used in the raids against prisons, as well as rubber bullets, teargas, and stun grenades. Prison cells were damaged in many sections and prisoners’ belongings were ransacked. This was followed by tension at Naqab Prison and Rimon Prison ensued by the installation of cell jammer devices that affected some sections at Naqab and Rimon prisons and prisoners’ use of cellular phones, radio, and television. This deprived prisoners of the only means available to communicate with the world outside prison. The oppression led to injuring several prisoners and some ended up hospitalized. Until this moment, Palestinian prisoners still suffer from their wounds since they did not get the necessary treatment and suffer intentional medical negligence from the occupation authority. The recent breaking into prisons also led to taking several punitive measures against prisoners such as transfer from one prison to another, solitary confinement of some prisoners, banning prisoners from meeting their lawyers, ban on family visits, and imposing big fines on them.

Battle of Karameh 2: Prisoners’ Legitimate Step against Restriction

Prisoners went on open hunger strike, so that their legitimate demands could be met. The strike was launched after negotiations about living conditions in prisons between prisoners’ representatives and prison administration failed. This occurred especially when more restrictions were imposed on prisoners. Prisoners wanted to return to the situation that preceded the implementation of Erdan Committee’s recommendations. Prisoners also submitted several demands to end their hunger strike, including:

• Cancelation of Erdan Committee’s recommendationsincluding imposing more restrictions on prisoners especially with respect to food, cantina, prison recreational time, books, and education. Prisoners said that food rations were reduced after Erdan Committee’s recommendations were implemented as well as restrictions on education and availability of books. Many educational books were confiscated from a number of prisons and all textbooks were later banned. This meant that prisoners’ families could not bring books to their detained sons and daughters.
• Removal of all cell jamming devices that the prison administration had installed at Rimon and Naqab prisons.
• Install public phones at prisons’ sections to ensure prisoners’ natural right is guaranteed by international conventions and treaties to be able to communicate with their families and the outside world.
• Cancel the ban of visits to hundreds of prisoners and end collective punishments imposed by prison managements since 2014[1].
• End punitive measures recently imposed by Prison Authority especially those imposed in the aftermath of the campaigns of raids and oppression against prisoners at Naqab, Ofer, and Rimon prisons, and the return of prisoners to the sections they were transferred from.
• Ensure humanitarian conditions at the Mi’bar[2]and improve means of transportation of prisoners, especially sick prisoners.
• Transfer Palestinian female prisoners to a different prison where humanitarian conditions are available. There are 49 female prisoners and they are all imprisoned at Damon Prison, which lacks even the minimal life conditions. Damon Prison was previously a tobacco warehouse and a stable for horses. Hence, the structure of the prison was originally designed to be humid inside; it was never meant to accommodate human beings.
• Enhance prison conditions of children prisoners
• End medical negligence policy and ensure treatment for the sick prisoners and those who were wounded during recent attacks on prisoners.

• End solitary confinement policy: Prison administration places Palestinian prisoners in solitary confinement for security or psychological reasons or as punitive measures for disciplinary violations at prison. A prisoner is placed in a cell where the only possession allowed in is clothes. There is also a mattress and blanket. Solitary confinement can be based on a court order since the law allows the military courts to sentence prisoners to 6 months in solitary confinement. The courts may also sentence a prisoner to 12 months in a cell with another prisoner. The courts can extend the solitary confinement for additional periods and for indefinite periods.

Actually, to officers of the Israeli Prison Authority use solitary confinement policy against Palestinian prisoners; especially the leaders, as punitive measure to destabilize them and to deprive them of the right to communicate with the world outside prison and with their families. The officers of the Israeli Prison Authority also use solitary confinement against prisoners to subdue them and to weaken their capacity to organize, divide them, and incapacitate their ability to organize their fight for the rights that are guaranteed for the prisoners of war and freedom fighters in Third Geneva Convention and the Fourth Geneva Convention and other human rights conventions.

Administrative Detention: Detention without Charges or Trial

The arbitrary Occupation policy against Palestinian prisoners does not stop at detention conditions. It also affects administrative detainees who are placed in detention arbitrarily, which violates international conventions and treaties. The Occupation forces use administrative detention systematically and illegally. Palestinians are detained without charges or trial on the basis of a secret file or evidence that the prisoners or the prisoners’ lawyer have no access to. According to Israeli military orders, administrative detention can be renewed indefinitely; however, each administrative detention order is a maximum of six months that can be renewed. There are six Palestinian prisoners who are on an open hunger strike in protest against administrative detention policy. They demand an end to their administrative detention. They are Hasan Ewiwi, Husam al-Ruza (al-Ruza started a hunger strike on March 20, 2019) and currently detained at Eshel Prison. Khaled Faraj and Mohammad Tabanja are two administrative detainees who started an open hunger strike on March 26, 2019; they are in solitary confinement at Naqab Prison. Dahood Odwan started a hunger strike on March 1, 2019 and Oda al-H’roob has been on hunger strike since April 2, 2019.

Occupation authority bans the prisoners who are on hunger strike from any communication with the world outside prison and imposes restrictions on the visits of their lawyers. Hence, the Occupation authority pays no attention whatsoever to their basic right to meet and consult with a lawyer, which is guaranteed by international conventions and agreements.

The Fourth Geneva Convention and other international standards of fair trial procedures stress banning the use of administrative detention as an alternative to trial. This confirms that administrative detention, as used by the Occupation, is arbitrary detention and inconsistent with international laws and norms.

[1]Increasingrestrictions on Palestinian prisoners has occurred frequently including in 2014 when three Israeli settlers disappeared in the West Bank and during the recent war on Gaza. Many of the prisoners’ rights were restricted such as banning family visits to a number of prisoners or making such visits intermittent or irregular. Gaza prisoners face increasing restrictions on visits by their families making such visits bimonthly rather than monthly. The number of satellite channels prisoners could watch in prison was reduced to 3 out of 10. The prison yard walk time was reduced to two hours per day and shopping at the cantina limit was reduced from NIS 1,200 to a maximum of NIS 800.

[2]This is the prison where Palestinian prisoners are held while being transferred from one prison to another.

The Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights “Hurryyat” condemned the most blatant violation of the prisoners’ rights yesterday in Ofer prison due to the large number of special forces armed with firearms, rubber bullets, tear gas, and violent dogs that stormed into the prison and committed multiple acts of violence and abused prisoners, thus posting a serious threat to the prisoners’ lives. This incident is a reminder of a previous and similar crime that took place in 2007 at the prison in Negev, which lead to the death of imprisoned Mohammed Al-Ashqar and injured hundreds of detainees.

The center confirmed that large numbers of different special forces broke into multiple prison sections; including the minor’s section, which resulted in the injury of more than 100 prisoners, including twenty whom were transferred to hospitals.

Hurryyat believes this unprecedented escalation comes in the context of an atmosphere of incitement to prisoners and their rights and legal status, as well as work on the enactment of racist and discriminatory legislation affecting the lives of prisoners, specifically the death penalty. The center expresses their fears and concerns over the conversion of prisoners to electoral material in the midst of the Israeli elections in which right-wing parties are competing and debating over violating the rights of prisoners.

As multiple sources warn of a serious threat to the lives of the prisoners in Ofer prison, the Occupation Authorities, represented by Interior Minister Aradan, the Prison Service and the Ofer Prison Administration, bear full responsibility for the lives of the prisoners and any harm inflicted on them.

Hurryyat calls upon the International Committee of the Red Cross and international human rights institutions to intervene in order to stop the ongoing crimes against the prisoners and to provide them with international protection in accordance with the provisions of international humanitarian law and international human rights standards that guarantee the humane treatment of prisoners of war at all times and protect them from any measures resulting in death or serious injury to their physical integrity.

In August 2018, several Palestinian human rights organizations attended The Red Nation’s annual conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We, the undersigned Palestinian human rights and community organizations, state as follows:

1. In August 2018, several Palestinian human rights organizations attended The Red Nation’s annual conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Red Nation, a community organization dedicated to Indigenous liberation, extended an invitation to Palestinian civil society to participate in the conference, exchange strategies for securing human rights and historical justice, and develop shared language around systems of oppression as well as future visions of decolonization and self-determination.
2. October 8, 2018 marks Indigenous Peoples’ Day, officially celebrated in the United States as Columbus Day. This day marks the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 to indigenous lands in what is now known as the ‘Americas’, and the arrival of foreign domination over its Native peoples. Though recognized as a historical event, the dehumanizing structures introduced by the European settler-colonization of Turtle Island have allowed for the elimination of the Native people, the confiscation of Native land and the extraction of natural resources. Such institutionalized hierarchy of human life continues to the present day.
3. Similarly, the Nakba, Arabic for ‘Catastrophe’, is our rupture. In 1948, 85% of the Palestinian people were forcibly displaced from their homeland and over 500 villages were destroyed in order to establish the State of Israel. This process of displacement and dehumanization of Palestinians is ongoing. In addition to continued colonisation and control of the land, Israel attempts to preclude Palestinian collective memory through legal means. In 2011, for example, the Israeli Knesset (parliament) passed the ‘Nakba Law’ in order to deny public funding to any institution that commemorates Israel’s Independence Day as a “day of mourning,” violating the rights of the 1.6 million Palestinians who are citizens of Israel to preserve their history.
4. While recognizing the limitations of international law, significant developments have been made in legal discourse and practice to protect and promote the human rights of indigenous peoples to full self-determination, including the right to history, culture and heritage. Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) recognizes the right of all people to self-determination. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ (UNDRIP) was adopted by the UN general assembly in 2007 to elaborate on existing human rights standards as they apply specifically to indigenous peoples. We call on all governments to fully implement human rights instruments that ensure the survival, dignity and well-being of indigenous peoples.
5. We acknowledge that any advancement for human rights is the result of the “sumoud” (steadfastness) of the people and their sustained efforts to transform the dehumanizing institutions and structures of colonialism and oppression. We support and celebrate the victories of indigenous people on Turtle Island to change Columbus Day from a holiday that glorifies colonialism, to a day that respects and honours Native people. To date, 55 cities in the United States now celebrate Indigenous People’s Day. We welcome your victories and are reminded that community mobilization is often the strongest path for achieving human rights and collective liberation.
6. Truth, like accountability, is a virtue of justice. Centering the lived experiences of those impacted by oppression lays a foundation of collective knowledge upon which society can construct just legal, social and political solutions. By first publicly reclaiming critical facts about the injustices of the past, restorative practices such as the right of return, reparations for stolen land and labor, and deep institutional changes can usher in a future of justice and decolonization.
7. We call on the international community to center Native history as the necessary beginning of historical reconciliation and a collectively emancipatory process of decolonization.
8. In solidarity, we celebrate Indigenous People’s Day and the continued strength of the world’s indigenous peoples.

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) strongly condemns Israel’s refusal to allow two human rights defenders to enter the country.  Lydia de Leeuw and Pauline Overeem, are both esteemed senior legal researchers for the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) in the Netherlands, who work on business and human rights. Although travelling separately, both were detained and deported from Ben Gurion Airport. De Leeuw was deported on the afternoon of 20 July 2018, while Overeem was held overnight and deported on 21 July 2018.  These incidents are indicative of Israel’s continued attempts to silence both international and domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals that are critical of Israeli policies.

Israel alleges that both de Leeuw and Overeem violated the anti-boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) provision of the Entry into Israel Law that bars foreign nationals from entering Israel if they “knowingly publish a public call to engage in a boycott against the State of Israel.”[1]  “Boycott,” in this instance, is defined as the intentional abstention of interaction with an entity “solely because of a link to the State of Israel [or] one of its institutions….”[2]  Recently, Israel has used this law as the basis to deny entry or revoke the visa of several prominent and respected human rights defenders, such as Ariel Gold[3] from Code Pink and Omar Shakir[4] from Human Rights Watch.  In May, Vincent Warren, Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights in the U.S., was also barred from entering Israel; no explanation was given for why he was denied entry.[5]

Israel’s mistreatment of foreign nationals due to baseless allegations should be of great concern to the international community.  De Leeuw was detained for over 4 hours while she was explicitly denied access to the Dutch Embassy or any other legal assistance. Her phone and other belongings were taken from her, and her repeated requests to contact the Dutch Embassy and a lawyer were denied. She was also strip searched.

Overeem was detained for nearly 24 hours before being deported. She was handcuffed and subjected to verbal abuse, including threats that the Israeli authorities would use force against her. When she enquired about the legal grounds for her arrest and for an explanation on why she was being singled out for such extreme treatment, she was ignored. During this time, Overeem was not offered consular or legal assistance.

De Leeuw’s case is of particular concern as it appears to be a well-orchestrated action between the Israeli government and Israeli media.  At around the time that de Leeuw was being taken for the first interrogation, both the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel published articles about de Leeuw being deported, and noted that the decision was administered by the Minister of Interior under the recommendation of Israel’s Strategic Affairs and Information Minister, Gilad Erdan.[6]  This suggests that the decision to deny her entry was made before she even landed in Israel. For example, de Leeuw was handed a ready file at the start of the interrogation, notifying her that she had been denied entry by the Minister of Interior. The document had been already typed up with her details already inserted, rendering the outcome of the interrogation moot. Therefore, the treatment de Leeuw received at the airport, including her interrogation, was solely inflicted to harass and humiliate her.

PHROC stands with Lydia de Leeuw, Pauline Overeem, and SOMO and condemns Israel’s continued attacks and harassment against human rights defenders.  The deportations are the latest action taken by Israel to silence human rights defenders and their organizations and to systematically prevent the monitoring and documentation of Israel’s ongoing human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory. PHROC calls on the international community to condemn these latest deportations, and to take steps alongside UN institutions, to ensure that human rights defenders are able to access the occupied Palestinian territory.

[1] Israel: Prevention of Entry of Foreign Nationals Promoting Boycott of Israel, Library of Congress: Global Legal Monitor, available at: http://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/israel-prevention-of-entry-of-foreign-nationals-promoting-boycott-of-israel/.

[2] Id.

[3] Noa Landau and Yotam Berger, Israel Denies Entry to U.S. Jewish BDS Activist, Haaretz (2 July 2018, 9:16 AM), available at: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-bars-entry-to-u-s-jewish-bds-activist-1.6224713.

[4] PHROC condemns Israel’s order to deport Human Rights Watch Director Omar Shakir as a grave violation of the right to freedom of expression and a systematic shrinking of civil society space, Al-Haq (23 May 2018, 2:07 PM), available at: http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/topics/human-rights-defenders/1259-phroc-condemns-israels-order-to-deport-human-rights-watch-director-omar-shakir-as-a-grave-violation-of-right-to-freedom-of-expression-and-systematic-shrinking-of-civil-society-space.

[5] Al-Haq condemns Israel’s entry denial and deportation of Vincent Warren and Katherine Franke of the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights, Al-Haq, 2 May 2018, available at http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/topics/human-rights-defenders/1225-al-haq-condemns-israels-entry-denial-and-deportation-of-vincent-warren-and-katherine-franke-of-the-us-based-center-for-constitutional-rights;  Dina Kraft, Two Leading U.S. Human Rights Activists Refused Entry to Israel, One for BDS Ties, Haaretz (3 May 2018, 1:01 PM), available at: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-two-leading-u-s-human-rights-activists-deported-from-israel-1.6052515.

[6] Juliane Helmhold, Dutch BDS Activist Denied Entry into Israel at Ben Gurion Airport, Jerusalem Post (20 July 2018, 1:59 PM), available at: https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Dutch-BDS-activist-denied-entry-into-Israel-at-Ben-Gurion-airport-563017; see also Israel prevents entry of Dutch activist, citing BDS support, Times of Israel (20 July 2018, 2:19 PM), available at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-prevents-entry-of-dutch-activist-citing-bds-support/.

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) condemns the crime that was committed against Palestinian deputy attorney general, Mr. Samir Banat, and calls upon Palestine’s attorney general to open a criminal investigation into his assault and to refer all those involved to the judiciary.

According to documentation by PHROC members, at around 3:00 am on the morning of Monday, 16 July 2018, deputy attorney general Samir Banat was assaulted by the director of the Hebron Police’s criminal investigation unit in addition to members of the unit, within the unit’s premises, and in the presence of the on-duty deputy attorney general Munther Al-Zughair, who was with Mr. Banat at the time he was assaulted. Mr. Banat was transferred to Alia Governmental Hospital in Hebron for treatment as a result of the assault.

This crime comes as a continuation to previous attacks against the Palestinian judiciary, including the assault on judge Nabil Al-Natsheh in the Hebron Governorate on the night of Saturday, 9 June 2018, and the assault on advocate Muhammad Hussein by three armed individuals on Thursday, 9 November 2017, while inside the premises of the Nablus First Instance and Conciliation Court and before the judges’ chamber, in addition to other attacks against the Palestinian justice sector.

In light of the above, PHROC renews its condemnation of the crime committed against attorney general Samir Banat, which constitutes an assault on the public prosecution as the guardian of criminal justice and as commissioned by Palestinian society on the grounds of public right, while further condemning previous attacks against judge Nabil Al-Natsheh and advocate Muhammad Hussein. Notably, PHROC warns against the gravity of these assaults, amounting to crimes, and their repercussions on the Palestinian justice system as a whole, which continues to suffer from a major deterioration, while it broadly condemns attacks targeting any citizen and violating fundamental rights and freedoms and human dignity. Accordingly, PHROC calls upon the attorney general, as supervisor of judicial officers, to open a criminal investigation into these crimes and to refer all those found to be involved to the judiciary with a view to ensuring effective remedies.

For the Palestinian people, 70 years of Nakba means seven decades of subjugation by Israel, characterized by occupation, apartheid and colonial policies and practices. It also attests to the chronic inaction and failure of the international community to fulfill its obligations and responsibilities under international law, to a lack of accountability and protection, and to the continued support of a shallow and biased peace process incapable of bringing about peace or justice. Nevertheless, after 70 years of Nakba, the Palestinian people remain resolute in demanding their most fundamental rights to return and self-determination.

Today, at least 8.26 million of 12.7 million Palestinians are forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of Israel’s ongoing policies of population transfer, annexation and colonization.^[1] Israel has persisted in its denial of reparations, refusing forcibly displaced Palestinians the right to return, restitution, compensation and guarantees of non-repetition as articulated in numerous UN resolutions.[2] The remaining one third of non-displaced Palestinians, spread across Mandatory Palestine, is subject to ongoing policies of forcible displacement by Israel.

In recent years there has been a growing campaign led by Israel and the United States (U.S.) to terminate the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the international body mandated to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees. This is not the first attempt by Israel to delegitimize UNRWA, nor is it the first time a U.S. administration has withheld, or threatened to withhold, funding to UNRWA as a form of political blackmail. The voluntary nature of UNRWA’s funding, however, has made the provision of its services dependent of the will of donors and, consequently, has rendered it vulnerable to political pressure and interference. In fact, a historical analysis of Israel’s demands and U.S. conduct from the outset of the Oslo ‘peace process’ reveals an organized and targeted strategy designed to eradicate the fundamental rights of Palestinians in general, and the rights of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons in particular. This strategy is intricately linked to the demise of UNRWA, which serves as a reminder of the international community’s failure to find a viable solution for the world’s largest and longest standing displaced population. This situation has resulted in a severe financial crisis at UNRWA that has significantly affected the Agency’s capacity to provide the most basic services to Palestinian refugees.

On 6 December 2017, U.S. President Trump announced Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, becoming the first state in the world to recognize Israel’s unlawful annexation of the city. International consensus over the past seven decades has rejected claims by Israel to sovereign rights over the city of Jerusalem and condemned Israeli measures that have sought to alter the character of the city as having no legal validity, as reaffirmed by numerous UN resolutions.[3] U.S. President Trump broke with this international consensus by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ordering the relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump’s declaration not only violates international law, it also deepens Israel’s unlawful annexation of East Jerusalem and illegal colonial and settlement enterprise in and around the city. Moreover, the declaration signifies a change in policy regarding final status issues which directly affect the conflict. The U.S.’s recent policies vis-à-vis Palestinian refugees, UNRWA and Jerusalem show a clear bias in favor of Israel, rendering the U.S. unfit to play a mediating role in peace efforts.

With the chronic lack of just and durable solutions, Palestinians organized marches demanding the right of return in the 1990s. The March of Return has been organized by Palestinians in Israel annually since 1998, each year taking place in a different village forcibly depopulated during the Nakba. The march has become the biggest event of the year for Palestinian citizens of Israel, with growing participation across the political and geographical spectrum, as well as from Palestinian youth. More recently in the Gaza Strip, the Great March of Return has seen thousands of Palestinians protesting for the realization of their fundamental rights and the end of the eleven years closure of the Gaza Strip.

Israel has responded to these protests with excessive, lethal force. Since the march started on 30 March 2018, Israeli forces have killed 40 Palestinians at the protests, including five children, two journalists, and two people with disabilities. Approximately 4,000 people have also been injured, over 2,000 from live ammunition. The willful killing and injuring of unarmed protesters represents a flagrant violation of international human rights law and constitutes a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention. It also constitutes a crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[4] These practices attest to the continued domination and subjugation of the Palestinian people. The marches, and Israel’s excessive use of force and unlawful killings, demonstrate the urgent need to ensure protection for the Palestinian people and to hold Israel to account in accordance with international law.

The lack of durable solutions for Palestinian refugees is also of great significance in the context of the destructive conflicts within Arab countries. These conflicts have resulted in secondary mass displacement of Palestinian refugees. During the war in Syria, of the 560,000 Palestinian refugees present in the country before the commencement of the war, 400,000 have been displaced, 120,000 outside the country and 280,000 internally, most of them requiring immediate humanitarian assistance.[5]

The inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, principally to self-determination and reparations for forcible displacement, cannot be ensured by the humanitarian and political approaches currently deployed by the international community, which are based on an immense imbalance of power and lack any foundation in international law. Any just and durable solution to the Palestinian Question must begin with the adoption of a rights-based approach. Failure to do so will maintain a status quo in which international protection is absent, and in which Palestinians are condemned to a fate of acute hardship and further displacement. The passivity of the international community not only impacts those who have already been displaced, but also encourages further displacement as Israel continues to enjoy impunity for systematic and grievous violations of international law.

PHROC believes that a just and durable solution is impossible without the adoption of a strategy based upon justice, international law, and relevant international resolutions, including UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and UN Security Council Resolution 237. It reasserts that the international community must:

• Take all measures to ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law;
• Genuinely strive to secure international protection – including durable solutions – for Palestinian refugees, primarily their rights of return and to self-determination;
• Ensure regular funding for the UNRWA is secured in order to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance and protection to all forcibly displaced Palestinians.

On 25 February 2018, the Patriarchs and Heads of Local Churches in Jerusalem announced the closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem as a measure of protest against Israel’s deliberate violation of the status quo and its systematic campaign of targeting Churches and the Christian presence therein. Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality, has demanded that Churches in Jerusalem must pay municipal taxes for their properties and assets, supposedly excluding houses of worship.[1] In protest, the Church was closed for three days. Over the years, Israel’s occupation has explicitly and deliberately developed and implemented policies and measures to ensure the Judaisation of Jerusalem. Israel, the Occupying Power, has unlawfully altered the legal status of Jerusalem, amending its 1980 Basic Law to annex Jerusalem as its ‘united and eternal Capital’, in contravention of international law.[2]

Alongside Israel’s annexation, Israel has implemented policies and laws to forcibly transfer  Palestinians from Jerusalem[3] and to Judaise the City. Such  measures include revoking and denying residency status for Palestinians in the City, preventing child registrations of births, house demolitions, discriminatory planning and zoning, and deliberately restricting the economic life to de-develop East Jerusalem. The Occupying Power has erected physical and administrative barriers, including the illegal Annexation Wall and its associated regime, to separate Jerusalem from the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), isolating it and its Palestinian residents from the rest of the occupied population.

Over the past few years, the occupying authorities have subjected the Old City of Jerusalem to arbitrary measures of collective punishment, closures and restrictions.[4]Palestinian social and cultural centres,[5] as well as religious sites in Jerusalem have been subject to restrictions and attacks. Israel’s targeted measures against Jerusalem’s holy sites include the closure of the Al-Aqsa Compound by the occupying authorities most recently in July 2017, denying Palestinians entry to the Compound while allowing settlers to enter the compound under the protection of Israeli forces. Meanwhile in February 2018, Israeli authorities attempted to impose staggering taxations on Churches and their property in Jerusalem and have further threatened them with the confiscation and seizure of their property through a Bill initiated before the Israeli Parliament, which was subsequently shelved on 25 February 2018.[6] On 27 February, the Israeli Prime Minister said that the collection actions of taxes is suspended.[7]

It should be noted, that churches have offered hundreds of Palestinian families from the Christian community in Jerusalem subsidised housing. This has alleviated a considerable amount of the burden inflicted by Israel’s severe restrictions on housing and planning for Palestinian neighbourhoods and communities in the city. Moreover, Church-run institutions have long provided services to Palestinians in Jerusalem, and beyond, irrespective of their religious affiliation, both free of charge or for a minimal price. Such services include: health care and medical assistance through hospitals and clinics; education through the numerous schools benefiting more than 12,000 students in Jerusalem alone; orphanages; legal services; among many others. If the Jerusalem municipality continues to demand tax payment from churches, this will have a crippling affect on the occupied Palestinian population, who benefit from the charity of the Church. Specifically, the law of occupation dictates that any change of law by the Occupying Power should be administered in the best interest of the occupied population.[8]  Furthermore, given Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality’s discriminatory policies and projects – in favour of the Israeli population – it is highly unlikely that any of the collected tax would be used for the benefit of the occupied Palestinian population in Jerusalem.

In accordance with the decrees formulated during the reign of the Ottoman Empire, the principle of ‘status quo’ is an arrangement that governs the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and  other churches and holy sites. This principle was intended to end disputes regarding ownership between the Christian communities and governing authorities, and remains in use to this day.[9] The commitment to these unwritten decrees has been traditionally accepted as in the best interest of safeguarding churches and Christian heritage in Jerusalem. Israel’s interference with Church property in this regard, is contrary to international law, which specifies that the Occupying Power is not a sovereign in the territory it occupies and must respect the laws in force in the territory.[10] In addition, the law of occupation stipulates that the Occupying Power does not acquire ownership of private property, including property used for religious purposes, charity and education, as well as historical monuments and cultural property – all of which cannot be confiscated.[11] Notably, Church property is especially protected as private property under the Hague Regulations.[12]

Israel’s provocations targeting religious sites in Jerusalem should be perceived within the larger context of Israel’s plan to seize control of and Judaise the City, including by administering its religious institutions, as part of its ongoing colonisation process. Cultural rights are guaranteed under international law, namely the Universal Declaration of Human Rights[13] and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[14] According to the UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, “cultural heritage is a fundamental resource for other human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as the economic rights of the many people who earn a living through tourism related to such heritage.”[15]

In 1982, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls to the World Heritage Sites in Danger, a status updated in 2017.[16] Furthermore, Article 11 of the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property of 1970 prohibits and renders illicit the direct and indirect transfer of ownership of cultural property, including religious sites, by a foreign occupying power. Seeking the protection and preservation for Jerusalem as a whole, its occupied population, as well as its religious and historical sites, the international community must take effective and immediate measures to end Israel’s unlawful and unilateral measures affecting the status of Jerusalem. States must “bring to an end through lawful means any serious breach” of international law,[17] such as that in the occupied city of Jerusalem.

This statement is endorsed by Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council members:

Al Haq Organization – Defending Human Rights

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights

ADDAMEER Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

BADIL – Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights

DCI – Defense for Children International – Palestine

Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center

Aldameer Association for Human Rights

Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies

Hurryyat – Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights

The Independent Commission for Human Rights (Ombudsman Office ) – Observer Member

Other organizations:

Community Action Centre (Al-Quds University)

Society of St. Yves

[1] Yori Yalo, Jerusalem to Start Collecting Taxes from Churches, UN Facilities (Israelhayom 2 February 2018) available at: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/02/02/jerusalem-to-begin-collecting-property-taxes-from-churches-un/ ; Nir Hasson, Jerusalem Churches to Boycott Mayor’s Event in Protest of Tax Policy (Haaretz, 15 February 2018) available at: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-jerusalem-churches-to-boycott-mayor-s-event-in-protest-of-tax-policy-1.5822971

[2] Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel 1980, unofficial translation available here: https://www.knesset.gov.il/laws/special/eng/basic10_eng.htm

[3] See for example: Badil Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Coercive Environment: Israel’s Forcible Transfer of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, February 2017, available at: http://www.badil.org/phocadownloadpap/badil-new/publications/research/in-focus/FT-Coercive-Environments.pdf

[4]See for example: Al-Haq, Suppression of Peaceful Assemblies in Jerusalem, 23 December 2017, available at: http://www.alhaq.org/documentation/weekly-focuses/1163-suppression-of-peaceful-assemblies-in-jerusalem

[5] On 24 February 2018, Al-Haq monitored the Israeli Occupying Forces shut down Philadelphia Restaurant in the eastern part of Jerusalem, prohibiting a dinner organized for journalists, claiming that it is funded by a ‘terrorist’ organisation. In addition, in August 2017, Israeli forces forcibly shut down the Yabous Cultural Centre in Jerusalem to ban a lecture on Al-Aqsa Mosque from taking place. See: Stop the Wall, Yabous Cultural Centre, Jerusalem, Shut Down by Israeli Police, 29 August 2017, available at: https://www.stopthewall.org/2017/08/29/yabous-cultural-center-jerusalem-shut-down-israeli-police

[6] Jonathan Lis and Nir Hasson, Jerusalem’s Church of Holy Sepulchre Closes in Protest Amid Row With Israel (Haaretz, 25 February 2018) available at: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/jerusalem-s-church-of-holy-sepulchre-closed-indefinitely-in-protest-of-israeli-bill-city-tax-policy-1.5847184

[7] Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PM Netanyahu Establishes Team to Formulate a Solution for Taxes on Church Properties, 27 February 2018, available at: http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2018/Pages/PM-Netanyahu-establishes-team-to-formulate-solution-for-taxes-on-church-properties-27-Feb-2018.aspx

[8] Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land (the Hague Regulations 1907), Article 43.

[9] Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, What Does Status Quo Stand for?, available at: http://en.lpj.org/2014/11/24/what-does-status-quo-stand-for/

[10]The Hague Regulations 1907, Article 43.

[11] The Hague Regulations 1907, Articles 46 and 56.

[12] The Hague Regulations 1907, Article 56.

[13] Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 27.

[14] See for example: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 15.

[15] UNESCO, Karima Bennoune: Cultural Heritage is a Human Rights Issue, 25 October 2016, available at: https://en.unesco.org/news/karima-bennoune-cultural-heritage-human-rights-issue

[16] See: World Heritage List, UNESCO, available at: http://whc.unesco.org/?cid=31&l=en&&; and UNESCO, Update of the List of World Heritage in Danger (Retained Properties), available at: http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/6926

[17] Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, 2001, Article 41.

On Monday, 25 December 2017, Israeli right-wing Likud Member of Knesset (MK) Oren Hazan assaulted a bus transporting families of Palestinian political prisoners from Gaza to Nafha Prison, beyond the Green Line, to visit their detained relatives. Together with a group of right-wing Israelis, MK Hazan blocked the entrance to Nafha Prison, boarded the bus and verbally assaulted and harassed the Palestinian families, most of whom were women and elderly men.

MK Hazan hurled abusive and degrading statements at the families and their detained relatives, vowing to do everything in his power to deny them further family visits to Israeli prisons. MK Hazan was joined by the right-wing Task Force for the Release of Prisoners and Missing Persons, a group of Israeli activists who have taken it upon themselves to deny prison visits to Palestinian families by blocking buses on their way to prisons and by confronting and harassing Palestinians visiting their detained relatives.

The vast majority of Israeli military prisons are located beyond the Green Line, which means that Israel unlawfully deports Palestinian detainees from the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) into Israel proper. The unlawful deportation of protected persons from occupied territory into the territory of the Occupying Power is prohibited as a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention¹ and amounts to a war crime punishable by the International Criminal Court.² Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention specifically stipulates that Israel, as Occupying Power, may not detain residents of the oPt in prisons outside of the occupied territory.

As a consequence of the unlawful deportation of detainees by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF), all Palestinian families from the oPt, with the exception of Palestinian East Jerusalem ID holders, are required to receive an entry permit into Israel in order to be granted the right to visit their detained relatives. Yet, Israel’s application process for entry permits is lengthy and may take up to three months whereas the permit itself is only valid for one year.

The application is submitted via the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and then transferred to the IOF for processing and approval. The ICRC, which organizes family visits for relatives of Palestinian detainees from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, have refrained from thoroughly addressing Monday’s incident, only stating that “[t]he ICRC takes very seriously what happened today during the visit of Palestinian families to their relatives detained in Israel. Families have the right to visit their loved ones in a dignified manner.” An ICRC spokesperson reaffirmed that “[i]t is the responsibility of the competent authorities to ensure that the visits take place safely and without interference.”³

Part of the ICRC mandate in the oPt is to restore and maintain family contacts and to improve the conditions of Palestinians in Israeli detention. The right of prisoners to receive family visits and to enjoy proper communication with their families is firmly rooted in international law and is binding upon Israel, as Occupying Power. Article 116 of the Fourth Geneva Convention enshrines the right of internees “to receive visitors, especially near relatives, at regular intervals and as frequently as possible.”The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners further provide that prisoners have the right to communicate with their families at regular intervals “both by correspondence and by receiving visits.”⁴

Under international humanitarian law, Israel is further required to ensure that protected Palestinian persons “are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity.”⁵ Accordingly, Israel is under an obligation to prevent and protect against acts of ill-treatment such as that experienced by the Palestinian families from Gaza on 25 December 2017.⁶ Israel is further under an obligation not to condone statements made by MK Hazan to the effect that he plans to prevent further prison visits by Palestinian families.

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) reaffirms the importance of family visits to Palestinian detainees and calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure Israel’s respect for international humanitarian law and to exert real pressure on Israel to bring to an end all restrictions imposed on Palestinian prison visits, to halt the unlawful deportation of Palestinian prisoners out of the oPt, and to transfer all Palestinian detainees back to the oPt in line with its obligations as Occupying Power. PHROC further calls upon the ICRC to fulfil its role as a facilitator of family visits by urging the IOF to investigate the acts of Hazan and the Israeli right-wing group against the Palestinian detainees’ families during Monday’s assault.

¹Articles 49 and 147, Fourth Geneva Convention.

²Article 8(2)(a)(vii), Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

³Times of Israel Staff and Dov Lieber, “Likud MK confronts, threatens Palestinians visiting imprisoned relatives” (25 December 2017), available at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/likud-mk-confronts-threatens-palestinians-visiting-imprisoned-relatives/.

⁴Article 37, Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

⁵Article 27, Fourth Geneva Convention.

⁶The protection from ill-treatment is further enshrined in Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), by which Israel is bound.