CIHRS and Partners Advocate for Palestinian Rights at 47th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council

• Call on the OHCHR to provide a clear and public timeline for the publication of the 2021 update, in private letters, as well as in public statements at the upcoming 47th session of the HRC.
• Ensure the completion and publication of the 2021 update to the UN database of companies involved in Israel’s settlement enterprise as mandated by HRC 31/36;
• Call on the budget committee to provide an urgent, clear and public explanation regarding the budgetary implications of HRC resolution 31/36;
• Human Rights Council
• Forty-seventh session
• 21 June-9 July 2021
• Agenda item 7
• Human rights situation in Palestine and other
• occupied Arab territories
•               Joint written statement* submitted by Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, Human Rights & Democratic Participation Center "SHAMS", Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms "MADA", Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling, non-governmental organizations in special consultative status

The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.

[31 May 2021] 

              UN Database Critical for Corporate Accountability amid Ongoing Settlement Expansion and Escalating Attacks against Palestinians

Israel continues to commit systematic and widespread violations of international human rights and humanitarian law (1)  against the Palestinian people, including the crime against humanity of apartheid. (2) 

Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise constitutes a fundamental policy and root cause driving the continuation and intensification of grave violations of the rights of Palestinian people including the rights to self-determination and control over national wealth and resources. As noted by Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 Mr. Michael Lynk, “The Israeli settlements are a major source of human rights violations, and they are the engine of Israel’s occupation… built on confiscated Palestinian property; they rely upon the illegal appropriation of Palestinian natural resources, including water, land and minerals; and they have forced Palestinians into smaller and more constricted space on their own territory.” (3) 

While the international community has consistently condemned the construction and expansion of Israeli settlements, the United Nations has failed to take sufficient action to ensure deterrence or accountability for this illegal policy and other instances of grave violations of international law.  Moreover, Israel continues to create and consolidate demographic facts on the ground through a policy of illegal transfer of the Palestinian population, (4) including through the expropriation of Palestinian land and natural resources, the demolition of Palestinians homes, the enabling of settler violence through impunity, and the maintenance of a coercive environment (5) designed to drive the transfer of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. These policies have continued throughout the ongoing global pandemic. 

Business involvement in the creation, maintenance and expansion of settlements in the West Bank incentivize and propagate these grave violations of international law. As such, member states of the Human Rights Council (HRC) recognized the importance of taking effective measures to address corporate involvement in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise by establishing the UN database of businesses involved in activities related to Israeli settlements through HRC resolution 31/36 in 2016. However, since its conception and establishment, undue political pressure has consistently attempted to censure or do away with the work and mandate (6) of the database. Nevertheless, a group of cross-regional states (7) has maintained that the OHCHR should implement all mandates entrusted to it by the HRC in line with the principles of independence and impartiality. 

In February 2020, the initial report of the UN database was released, following a three-year delay. States and civil society welcomed the publication of the database which demonstrated the commitment of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to upholding human rights standards and the rule of law in pursuit of justice and accountability while reaffirming its independence and impartiality. 

In the report, the OHCHR recognized the importance of the annual update by stating that “where there are reasonable grounds to believe that, based on the totality of the information available, the business enterprise is ceasing or no longer involved in the relevant activity, the business enterprise would be removed from the database.” The HRC mandate clearly provides for the annual updating of the database report, and the OHCHR was scheduled to release the updated list of companies during the 46th Human Rights Council session in February 2021. Civil society has stressed that adding and removing companies from the UN database creates a necessary incentive and deterrent against engaging with Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise. Furthermore, UN members states that established the database have articulated a clear position that the mandate, as entrusted to the OHCHR, provides for the annual updating of the list of companies. 

However, on 18 March 2021, civil society organizations expressed deep concern following the statement (8) by High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet during the 46th HRC session that the database report was not completed due to  budgetary constraints and resource challenges and "noted the question of resource requirements for any further work". 

While recognizing that budgetary constraints are an issue facing the United Nations’ work, the OHCHR needs to implement all mandates entrusted to it in a non-selective manner. Our organizations know of no other mandates entrusted to the OHCHR which were indefinitely suspended due to budgetary constraints. 

This again raises concerns about continued pressure by a select group of countries aimed at preventing the High Commissioner and her office from implementing the mandate in relation to the annual updating of the UN database. Our organizations reiterate that there should be no selectivity in the implementation of mandates entrusted to the OHCHR by the HRC, and the imperative of ensuring the independence and impartiality of the OHCHR with respect to all mandates entrusted to it. 

Most recently, resolution A/HRC/S-30/L.1 adopted during the 30th Special Session of the HRC recalled the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which place responsibilities on all business enterprises to respect human rights by, inter alia, refraining from contributing to human rights abuses arising from conflict”. The UN database of businesses involved in Israel’s settlement enterprise is a practical and effective transparency tool. It ensures that corporations do not continue to benefit from a situation of prolonged occupation and injustice without taking the risk of being listed in the UN database and strengthens the implementation of international law and standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to situations of occupation. 

We therefore urge UN member states to:

 Reaffirm the call to the OHCHR to implement all mandates entrusted to the office by the HRC in line with the principles of independence and impartiality;  

• Human Rights Council
• Forty-seventh session
• 21 June-9 July 2021
• Agenda item 7
• Human rights situation in Palestine and other
• occupied Arab territories
•               Joint written statement* submitted by Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, non-governmental organizations in special consultative status
• The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.
• [31 May 2021]

              Israel Continues Repression of Palestinian Protests Challenging Israel’s Domination and Oppression on Both Sides of the Green Line

For 73 years, Israel has imposed an institutionalised regime of racial domination and oppression over the Palestinian people through policies, practices and laws, including prolonged denial of their inalienable collective rights, including the right to self-determination and return. For decades, Israel has pursued a policy of silencing, as a tool to maintain apartheid, those who oppose its unlawful policies and practices and seek justice and accountability for violations of international law and crimes committed against the Palestinian people. The persecution of Palestinian organisations and persons by “depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms, because they oppose apartheid” is one of the “inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining” Israeli domination over Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line “and systematically oppressing them.”1

Widespread Palestinian demonstrations on both sides of the Green Line erupted in May 2021 against Israel’s imminent threat of forcibly transferring eight Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in Jerusalem. The demonstrations have crystalized around this latest example of Israel’s institutionalised regime of racial domination and oppression, which the Palestinian people have endured for decades. In response, Israel escalated its crackdown. The Israeli occupying forces (IOF) and police have violently repressed Palestinian demonstrations in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and inside the Green Line, violating Palestinian right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression. The demonstrations have been met with unnecessary, disproportionate and excessive use of force.

Between 14 May 2021 and 29 May 2021, Al-Haq has monitored and documented the killing of 17 Palestinians during protests throughout the occupied West Bank by the IOF. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 3825 Palestinians have been injured in the occupied West Bank between 7 May 2021 and the morning of 18 May 2021. Of these, 446 were sustained from live ammunition.

The use of firearms by the IOF can only be justified in self-defence against imminent threat of death, serious injury, or to defend someone else from the imminent risk of death. According to Al-Haq’s initial documentation, it is highly unlikely that in the cases of killings of Palestinians by the IOF there was an imminent threat of death or serious injury to the occupying soldiers. As such, the killing of the 17 Palestinians most likely meets the criteria of wilful killings, which is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and is listed as a war crime by Article 8(2)(a)(i) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Inside the Green Line, Palestinian protestors were subjected to police violence and human rights violations, including denial of emergency medical care. High Commissioner Bachelet highlighted “reports of excessive and discriminatory use of force by police against Palestinian citizens of Israel”. Thousands of Palestinian protesters inside the Green Line were arrested. Dr Hassan Jabareen said in response to a police announcement regarding a mass arrest operation on 23 May 2021, “this is a war against Palestinian demonstrators, political activists, and minors, employing massive Israeli police forces to raid the homes of Palestinian citizens. These raids are intended to intimidate and to exact revenge on Palestinian citizens of Israel – ‘to settle the score’ with Palestinians, in the Israeli police’s own words – for their political positions and activities.” 

In addition to police, far-right Jewish Israelis organised and coordinated the arrival of armed Israelis to attack Palestinians in al-Lydd, Ramle, Akka, Haifa, and Yaffa, and other areas. Moreover, the IOF has allowed Israeli settlers2 coming from the West Bank entry into Israel to target Palestinian neighbourhoods and villages and provided support and protection as they attacked Palestinian residents and destroyed Palestinian property. Israeli police have not taken action to protect Palestinians, and in some cases, they cooperated and supported the mob violence. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet raised concern at “reports that Israeli police failed to intervene where Palestinian citizens of Israel were being violently attacked, and that social media is being used by ultraright-wing groups to rally people to bring weapons, knives, clubs, knuckledusters to use against Palestinian citizens of Israel.”

On 10 May 2021, Mousa Hassouna, a 32-year-old Palestinian from al-Lydd was killed by an Israeli settler during a protest. The following day, Israeli settlers attacked his funeral.3 Israeli police arrested four settlers suspected of killing Mousa. On 13 May 2021, all suspects were released on bail,4 exemplifying, yet again, the discriminatory and biased nature of Israel’s judicial system, and its complicity in maintaining its apartheid system. 

Attacks on the journalists and paramedics in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly in East Jerusalem, have significantly increased during the past month. These attacks are not unprecedented.5 On 27 May 2021, for example, Israeli police detained two Palestinian journalists, Zeina Halwani and Wahbe Makiyyah, as they were covering Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Before detaining them, Israeli forces attacked Wahbe, resulting in his bleeding and damaging of his camera. On 23 April 2021, Israeli police attacked the same two journalists with sound bombs, severely beat them, and destroyed their equipment while covering Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.6

In the context of attacks against Palestinians, the IOF denied ambulances and paramedics from reaching injured civilians in several cases documented by Al-Haq, preventing them from treating injuries. This occurred in several instances in Jerusalem in April/May 2021.7 In addition to access denial, excessive use of force against paramedics has been documented and monitored by Al-Haq. On 10 May 2021, a Palestinian paramedic was directly shot by the IOF with a rubber-coated metal bullet while carrying out his duties in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Attacks against paramedics were not limited to the use of less-lethal weapons. In May 2021, during confrontations between IOF and Palestinian youth around Al-Jalame checkpoint in northern Jenin, the IOF fired live ammunition at an ambulance while carrying an injured person, hitting it with at least seven bullets. No injuries of paramedics were reported in the incident.

The continuous killing of Palestinians, including Palestinian protesters on both sides of the Green Line, is a direct result stemming from the climate of impunity granted by the Israeli occupying authorities and its judicial system, which prevent and undermine accountability and redress for Palestinians.

Accordingly, we call on Member States of the Human Rights Council to:

1. Publicly condemn the killing and targeting of Palestinian protesters by the IOF, which amounts to a war crime under the Rome Statute and contributes to the commission of the crime against humanity of apartheid over all Palestinians, giving rise to individual criminal responsibility at the International Criminal Court;
2. Recognise Israel’s systematic shoot-to-kill policy contributes to the maintenance of Israel’s apartheid system of systematic racial oppression and domination over the Palestinian people as a whole, embedded in a system of impunity, which prevents Palestinians from effectively challenging Israel’s apartheid policies and practices;
3. iii. Call on the Israeli authorities to immediately bring their rules of engagement for the use of live fire in line with international human rights law, as recommended by the UN Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 protests in the occupied Palestinian territory and adopted by Member States of the Human Rights Council in accountability resolution 40/13 of 22 March 2019;
4. Uphold their responsibility as third States to refrain from recognising as legitimate the illegal situation established and maintained in the oPt by Israel, the Occupying Power, to refrain from rendering aid or assistance towards its maintenance, and to cooperate to bring the illegal situation to an end, including through lawful means such as sanctions and arms embargoes; and
5. Call for international justice and accountability for widespread and systematic human rights violations committed against the Palestinian people, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

1 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

2 +972 Magazine, “How Israeli police are colluding with settlers against Palestinian citizens,” 13 May 2021, at: https://www.972mag.com/israel-police-settlers-lyd/.

3 Al Jazeera, “Palestinian protests in Israel showcase ‘unprecedented’ unity,” 16 May 2021, at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/16/palestinian-protests-in-israel-showcase-unprecedented-unity.

4 The Times of Israel, “4 Jewish Suspects Held Over Fatal Shooting of Arab in Lod are Released on Bail,” 13 May 2021, at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/4-jewish-suspects-held-over-fatal-shooting-of-arab-in-lod-are-released-on-bail/.

5 See Al-Haq, “Israel’s Attacks on Press Freedom Violate Right to Freedom of Expression”, 30 October 2017, at: https://www.alhaq.org/monitoring-documentation/6310.html; Al-Haq, “Special Focus: Attacks against Health Facilities and Medical Staff by the IOF”, 09 November 2015, at: https://www.alhaq.org/monitoring-documentation/6470.html.

6 Al-Haq Affidavit 147A/2021, given by Zeina Mazin Hamed Halawani, 23, a resident of Wadi al-Joz in Jerusalem Governorate, on 27 April 2021, and Al-Haq Affidavit 148A/2021, given by Wahbe Kamil Taher Makiyeh, 36, a resident of Jabal al-Zaytoun in Jerusalem Governorate, on 27 April 2021.

7 Al-Haq, “Action Alert: International Community Must Take Immediate and Concrete Measures to Halt Israel’s Aggression against Palestinian Jerusalemites,” 10 May 2021, at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/18289.html.

               *   Issued as received, in the language(s) of submission only.

• Human Rights Council
• Forty-seventh session
• 21 June-9 July 2021
• Agenda item 9
• Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
• forms of intolerance, follow-up and implementation
• of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action
•               Joint written statement* submitted by Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, non-governmental organizations in special consultative status
• The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.
• [31 May 2021]

              Effective Measures Needed to Ensure Accountability Amid Escalating Israeli Attacks against the Palestinian People

Throughout May 2021, Israel escalated its crackdown of Palestinian protesters on both sides of the Green Line as mass demonstrations erupted against Israel’s imminent threat of forcibly transferring eight Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem. Israel’s illegal evictions in Sheikh Jarrah are only the most recent example of Israel’s longstanding policies of displacement and dispossession, which the Palestinian people have endured for decades, and its institutionalized regime of racial domination and oppression, which amounts to the crime of apartheid, as defined by the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court and the Apartheid Convention.1 Due to inaction and a lack of political will by the international community, Israel has been enabled to continue to commit widespread and systematic human rights violations against the Palestinian people for decades with impunity.

In order to effectively address the root causes of settler colonialism and apartheid and ensure accountability for violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, the international community must address Israel’s policies and practices targeting the Palestinian people as a whole as “one comprehensive regime developed for the purpose of ensuring the enduring domination over non-Jews”.2 In this context, our organizations welcome the historic resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council (HRC) during its 30th Special Session, which established a standing Commission of Inquiry to address Israel’s latest and ongoing violations against the Palestinian people on both sides of the Green Line while also addressing the root causes, “including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.”

Following the Nakba of 1948, 85 percent of the Palestinian indigenous population became refugees. Since then, Israel has designed and institutionalized a series of laws, policies and practices aimed at displacing and dispossessing Palestinians.3 Israel’s institutionalized racial domination and oppression forms the foundation of its apartheid system over the Palestinian people as a whole.

Today, Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah and Batn Al-Hawa neighborhoods in East Jerusalem continue to face the imminent threat of forcible transfer, after settler organizations filed eviction cases against them in Israeli courts. Most of the families living in Sheikh Jarrah and Batn Al-Hawa neighborhoods are refugees from 1948, who have been denied their right of return and to reclaim their original land and properties.

In Sheikh Jarrah, eight families of 19 households, including 87 Palestinians, are at imminent risk of forcible transfer, due to the case filed against in Israeli courts by Nahalat Shimon International, a settler organization based in the United States. Previously in 2008 and 2009, Nahalat Shimon International succeeded in evicting three Palestinian families of 67 Palestinians, from Sheikh Jarrah.4 As the Occupying Power, Israel is unlawfully applying Israeli domestic law in occupied territory. Israel’s forced eviction orders stem from claims made under the inherently discriminatory 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters Law, which grants Jewish Israelis the exclusive right to pursue claims to land and property allegedly owned by the Jewish population in East Jerusalem before the establishment of the State of Israel.5 Israeli courts consistently rule in favor of such lawsuits filed by Israeli settler organizations to evict Palestinian families.6 By unlawfully applying Israeli domestic law to occupied territory, Israeli courts have ruled in favor of such lawsuits undertaken by settler organizations to evict Palestinian families.

In parallel, the Jerusalem District Court held a hearing on 26 May 2021 regarding the forced eviction of 108 Palestinians of 18 households from their homes in the Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan; however, the Court postponed its ruling.7 Based on an alleged property deed from the Ottoman rule period, the Benvenisti Trust, a Jewish Trust, claims ownership of 5.2 dunums of Batn Al-Hawa land. In 2002, the Custodian General transferred the land to the Benvenisti Trust, whose management is in the hands of the settler organization Ateret Cohanim. The decision was sanctioned by the Jerusalem District Court and the transfer of ownership was done without informing the Palestinian residents who have contracts proving ownership of the land they have lived on since the 1950s.8

Ateret Cohanim has since filed “eviction orders” against the Palestinian families. In 2017, the Palestinian residents filed a petition with the Israeli High Court to contest the evictions, arguing, in accordance with Ottoman law applied at the time, that the ownership applies only to the buildings, which no longer exist, and not the land itself. In June 2018 the Israeli government acknowledged that the Israeli Custodian General’s transfer of the land to the Benvenisti Trust was done without investigating the nature of the Trust, the Ottoman laws, or the existing buildings. In  spite of this, the Israeli High Court rejected the appeals of the families, paving the way for the settler group Ateret Cohanim to continue its legal proceedings to evict 81 Palestinian families of approximately 436 Palestinians.9

Israeli evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and Batn Al-Hawa are only the latest examples of Israel’s longstanding policies to displace and dispossess Palestinians, which is one of many tools used by Israel to impose and maintain is apartheid system over the Palestinian people as a whole and to further expand and entrench its settler-colonialism.

Conclusion and Recommendations:

Our organizations condemn Israel’s escalating attacks and targeting of the Palestinians people and welcome the mounting international recognition10 that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people as a whole. We also welcome the recent statement by nine UN Special Procedures urging the ICC to “investigate acts and policies that have taken place during the conflict or have contributed to it, that may amount to the crime of apartheid and crimes against humanity.”11 We urge Member States of the Human Rights Council to take the following actions:

1. Recognize that, through its laws, policies, and practices, Israel has established an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination over the Palestinian people as a whole, amounting to the crime of apartheid;

2. Call on Israel to cease the unlawful application of its domestic laws and policies in occupied East Jerusalem and to immediately repeal its 1950 Absentees’ Property Law and 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters Law;

3. Condemn Israel’s apartheid system and call for the reconstitution of the UN Special Committee against Apartheid and the UN Centre against Apartheid to ensure the implementation of the Apartheid Convention with the aim of bringing the illegal situation to an end; and

4. Pursue international justice and accountability for widespread and systematic human rights violations perpetrated against the Palestinian people, including the crime of apartheid, by activating universal jurisdiction mechanisms and supporting a full, thorough, and comprehensive investigation by the International Criminal Court into the Situation in Palestine without any further delay.                            

1 UN General Assembly, International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, 30 November 1973, A/RES/3068(XXVIII) and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, (last amended 2010), 17 July 1998.

2 UN ESCWA, “Israeli Practices Towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid,” 2017, available at: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/201703_UN_ESCWA-israeli-practices-palestinian-people-apartheid-occupation-english.pdf.

3 Al-Haq, “Joint Urgent Appeal to the United Nations Special Procedures on Forced Evictions in East Jerusalem,” 10 March 2021, p. 2, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/cached_uploads/download/2021/03/10/joint-urgent-appeal-to-the-united-nations-special-procedures-on-forced-evictions-in-east-jerusalem-1615372889.pdf.

4 Al-Haq, “Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan: Ongoing Nakba and Israeli Dispossession of Palestinians,” 21 May 2021, availalbe at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/18442.html.

5 Al-Haq, “Joint Urgent Appeal to the United Nations Special Procedures on Forced Evictions in East Jerusalem,” 10 March 2021, p. 5, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/cached_uploads/download/2021/03/10/joint-urgent-appeal-to-the-united-nations-special-procedures-on-forced-evictions-in-east-jerusalem-1615372889.pdf.Ibid. p. 5.

6 Al-Haq, “Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan: Ongoing Nakba and Israeli Dispossession of Palestinians,” 21 May 2021, availalbe at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/18442.html.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 CIHRS, “Palestine: Civil Society Welcomes Mounting Recognition of Israeli Apartheid at the UN HRC,” 5 November 2020, available at: https://cihrs.org/palestine-civil-society-welcomes-mounting-recognition-of-israeli-apartheid-at-un-hrc/?lang=en.

11 OHCHR, “Gaza-Israel: UN experts welcome ceasefire, call for ICC probe,” 21 May 2021, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27108&LangID=E.

               *   Issued as received, in the language(s) of submission only.

• Human Rights Council
• Forty-seventh session
• 21 June-9 July 2021
• Agenda item 7
• Human rights situation in Palestine and other
• occupied Arab territories
•               Joint written statement* submitted by Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, non-governmental organizations in special consultative status
• The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.
• [31 May 2021]

              Current Escalation of Israel’s Systematic Arbitrary Arrest and Detention Campaigns Against Palestinians

In the latest Israeli crackdown on Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line, Israel undertook large-scale campaigns of systematic arbitrary arrest and detention. Between 13 April and 26 May 2021, Israel detained some 2650 Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line.1 These arrests are a continuation of a long-established policy used to intimidate and silence Palestinians. Notably, these campaigns are upheld by Israel’s apartheid judicial system, which systematically grants impunity to Israeli occupying forces (IOF), police, and settlers, while upholding indictments submitted against Palestinian detainees and ignoring evidence of their physical assault.

Repression of Protests, Violent Arrests and Ill-treatment During Detention

Israel’s violence and state repression serves as a tool of collective punishment targeting all Palestinians who engage in support, protests, or self-defence. The excessive use of force by Israel includes the deployment of tear gas, sound grenades, rubber-coated metal bullets, home raids, and physical assaults of Palestinians, including women, children, the elderly and Palestinians with disabilities.2 In particular, the IOF target the upper body leading to serious injuries, including the loss of eyes, and hospitalizations. Moreover, such violence is not limited to protest sites, but is also perpetrated arbitrarily in neighbouring areas, including by the undercover mustaribeen.3

The IOF violently assault those arrested, beating them with batons and rifle butts, stepping on their heads and neck, dragging them by their hair or clothing, and deliberately slamming their heads against the ground, walls and cars.4 Once arrested, the IOF employ greater violence against detainees during the period of transfer to, and in, detention centres, that have resulted in heavy bruising and fractures in their feet, hands, and back, along with injuries to their eyes, face, and head.

In detention centres, physical violence, ill-treatment, deliberate medical negligence, and psychological torture are routinely deployed, in contravention of international law. Excessive force and ill-treatment have been used against detainees with mental health problems, leading to seizures and requiring their transfer to the hospital, despite cases in which police were clearly notified about the detainees’ pre-existing health issues.5 Still, dozens of cases were recorded in which the police refused to transfer injured detainees to hospitals for medical treatment despite the recommendations of paramedics and their need for immediate medical care.6

Campaigns of Systematic Arbitrary Arrest

In the past few weeks, Israel has escalated its practice of systematic arbitrary arrest and detention across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and inside the Green Line. These arrests, both random and organized, are carried out indiscriminately and en masse during demonstrations, including in nearby neighbourhoods, and through organised arrest campaigns.

According to the Israeli police report on 25 May 2021, at least 1550 were detained in Israel since 9 May 2021. The overwhelming majority of detainees were Palestinian citizens of Israel or from Jerusalem. The majority of those detained were released following high fines and financial guarantees, or on the condition that they cannot return to their neighbourhoods for periods of time and/or home arrest, highlighting the arbitrary nature of their arrest. Random arrests took place in the streets and public arenas during repression of protests, as well as during home raids and attacks on families, where many children were detained. In addition to the physical violations of the rights of child detainees, many children were subjected to threats, denied access to legal counsel, interrogated in a language that is not their mother tongue and for prolonged periods, including at night.

Between 24 and 25 May 2021, Israeli police carried out a retaliatory campaign of mass arbitrary arrests against Palestinians in Jerusalem and Palestinian citizens of Israel, under the announced “Operation Law and Order.”7 In its statement, the Israeli police highlighted that the aim of this campaign is “to settle the score” with Palestinians for their political positions and activities.8 Dr. Hassan Jabareen, general director of Adalah said “These raids are intended to intimidate and to exact revenge on Palestinian citizens of Israel – ‘to settle the score’ with Palestinians, in the Israeli police’s own words – for their political positions and activities.” At least 250 Palestinians were detained in those two days, with a particular focus on demonstrators, activists, and minors. Israeli authorities submitted 150 indictments against Palestinian detainees, the majority of which related to charges of assaulting police personnel, participating in protests, throwing stones, incitement, and harassment of the police. 

In Jerusalem, arbitrary arrest campaigns targeted young men, women, and children and were especially prevalent in and around the Damascus Gate near Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. Many of these campaigns were pre-emptive - such as the case on 9 May 2021, the day ahead of a planned march by Israeli settlers into Al-Aqsa Mosque, of mass arrests of Jerusalemite activists and those who had been previously arrested—and all were retaliatory. Most of those detained were released a few days later, with dozens of orders of transfer from Al-Aqsa Mosque, surrounding neighbourhoods, including Sheikh Jarrah, and additional orders of forced house arrest.

In other parts of the West Bank, a campaign of arbitrary arrests began on 4 May 2021 and intensified on 12 May 2021, targeting freed prisoners, activists, and politicians. On 12 May alone, nearly 60 Palestinians, including journalists, activists, and candidates for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) were arrested.9 Overall, between 13 April and 26 May 2021, around 550 Palestinians in the West Bank were arrested in night raids that included the storming of their houses, attacks on family, and property destruction by the IOF. According to Addameer’s documentation, 38 children, two journalists, six candidates for the PLC, and two former PLC members were arrested. The majority of the detainees in the West Bank remain in detention, where they are subjected to additional fair trial violations by the Israeli military judicial system.10

At the same time, Israel issued 155 administrative detention orders between 1-26 May 2021, including 84 new administrative orders, including eight Jerusalemites and two children.11 Since April, three children were transferred to administrative detention, including the case of Amal Nakhleh, whose case was directly addressed by UN human rights experts.12 Currently, around 550 Palestinians are held in administrative detention indefinitely without charge and based on “secret evidence.”13

Complicity of the Israeli Apartheid Judiciary System

The practices of the Israeli judicial system clearly demonstrate an apartheid system in which two separate, discriminatory legal systems are in place: one for Israeli Jews and the other for Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line. Recent events have brought the reality of Israeli apartheid to the fore, with a clear contrast between the impunity granted to IOF, Israeli police, and Israeli settlers and the wide-scale arrests and assault campaign targeting Palestinians.

Indictments submitted against Palestinian detainees centred on racially-motivated charges of incitement to “terrorism,” and/or “harassment of police work,” aimed at the intentional portrayal of Palestinians as violent and racially and ideologically-motivated. Furthermore, Israeli judges refuse to address physical evidence of assault and ill-treatment left on the detainees’ bodies.  While Palestinians are subjected to Israeli-imposed arbitrary release conditions, including house arrest, denial to return to place of residence, and a ban on participating in protests, Jewish Israelis are rarely detained or held accountable. The Israeli prosecutor submitted indictments against only 15 Israeli Jews during recent events, including charges related to stone throwing and attacks on Israeli press crews covering events.14

Recommendations

Accordingly, we call on Member States of the Human Rights Council to:

1. Condemn Israel’s intimidation tactics against Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line, including its systematic and long-established arbitrary detention policies;
2. Recognise that in the context of the commission of the crime of apartheid, Israel persecutes Palestinian “organizations and persons, by depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms, because they oppose apartheid” through harassment, arbitrary detention, torture, and other ill-treatment on both sides of the Green Line, who mobilise to challenge Israel’s policies, laws and practices of racial domination and oppression; and

iii. Call on the CoI established pursuant to the resolution adopted during the 30th Special Session of the HRC to address Israel’s systematic and long-established arbitrary detention policies.

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, NGO(s) without consultative status, also share the views expressed in this statement.

1Addameer collected these numbers with coordination with lawyers and local civil society groups. The number of arrests is rapidly changing by the hour, and these numbers may expect change.

2Addameer, “Mass Arrests and Detention Amidst the Escalation of Israeli Aggression Against the Palestinian People,” 20 May 2021, at: https://www.addameer.org/media/4393.

3The mustaribeen/mista’arvim are undercover Israeli forces, disguised as Palestinian civilians, carrying hidden weapons.

4See supra note 3.

5See supra note 3.

6See supra note 3.

7https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/SyMVBVOKO.

8Mondoweiss, “Israeli police are rounding up hundreds of Palestinians to ‘settle scores’ in mass arrest campaign,” 24 May 2021, at: https://mondoweiss.net/2021/05/israeli-police-are-rounding-up-hundreds-of-palestinians-to-settle-scores-in-mass-arrest-campaign/.

9See supra note 3.

10Addameer, “In the Case of the Palestinian People vs. Military Courts Campaign,” 1 March 2021, at: https://www.addameer.org/node/4318.

11See supra note 3.

12Published communiqué by UN OHCHR experts, 25 February 2021, UA ISR 2/2021, https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=26048

13Addameer, “Administrative Detention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: A Legal Analysis Report,” 2016, at: https://www.addameer.org/sites/default/files/publications/administrative_detention_analysis_report_2016.pdf

14See supra note 3.

               *   Issued as received, in the language(s) of submission only.