At the 46th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which began on 22 February 2021 and will continue until March 23, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), together with Palestinian and international organizations, sent five joint written submissions on vital human rights issues affecting the Palestinian people to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC). The five interventions dealt with Israeli reprisals against human rights defenders, Palestinian prisoners, and detainees. It also reviewed the ongoing developments of Israeli crimes committed in the barricaded Gaza Strip, in addition to the apartheid crimes that affect the Palestinian people. The organizations also renewed, in a written intervention, their repeated request to ensure that the United Nations database on companies operating in illegal settlements is updated.
The submissions reviewed Israel’s violations against human rights defenders and Palestinian prisoners and detainees. They also addressed Israel’s illegal blockade and closure of Gaza and Israel’s apartheid regime targeting all Palestinians. Lastly, the organizations reiterated calls for the annual update of the UN database on businesses involved in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.
A Climate of Fear and Intimidation for Human Rights Defenders
- Human Rights Council
- Forty-six session
- 22 February–19 March 2021
- Agenda item 3
- Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development
- 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.
- [01 February 2021]
Silencing Opposition and Shrinking Civil Society Space in Palestine
Since the Nakba in 1948, Israel has instituted and designed a series of discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, which constitute the legal foundation of its institutionalised regime of systematic dispossession, fragmentation, racial domination, and oppression over the Palestinian people as a whole, including Palestinians on both side of the Green Line and Palestinian refugees and exiles abroad, which amounts to the crime of apartheid under international law[1].
Israel has aggressively and actively pursued a policy of silencing opposition to apartheid policies through intimidation and institutionalised harassment to shrink space for Palestinian civil society. These policies and measures, which include death threats, mass arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, widespread collective punishment, travel bans, punitive residency revocation, deportation, and Government-led smear campaigns, ultimately create a climate of fear and intimidation for Palestinians[2].
Intended to maintain apartheid over all Palestinians and to delegitimise the work of human rights defenders and organisations that advocate for Palestinian rights and call for international justice and accountability, these Israeli measures are fuelled by racist hate speech and incitement to racial hatred and violence, and will continue to be utilised as long as Israeli impunity persists.
Palestinian Human Rights Defenders: Systematically Harassed and Targeted
The Israeli occupying authorities, through official bodies within the Israeli government, such as the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, have pursued a campaign of intimidation, harassment, and delegitimisation targeted at Palestinian human rights organisations and defenders, including by coordinating efforts with several Israeli government-operated organisations[3] to carry out ongoing, systematic, and organised attacks, amounting to a concerted smear campaign against civil society, in an attempt to defame and construct a key narrative linking Palestinian human rights defenders with ‘terrorism,’ as well as directly targeting the organisations’ funding in order to undermine their human rights and accountability work[4].
Israeli government-led smear campaigns have utilised different tactics including death threats against Palestinian human rights activists and defenders, to intimidate and silence them. These tactics include, inter alia, widespread arbitrary detention, systematic torture and ill-treatment, travel bans, punitive residency revocation, and deportation. For example, Shawan Jabarin, the General Director of Al-Haq, received death threats and was banned from traveling for a number of years. He is still being targeted with smear and defamation campaigns for his human rights work.
More recently, Laith Abu Zeyad, a Palestinian human rights defender and a campaigner on the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel with Amnesty International, has been prevented from traveling outside the occupied West Bank by the Israeli occupying authorities since 26 October 2019, for alleged and undisclosed “security reasons”[5]. Notably, the entire case against Laith is based on “secret information,” undermining his right to a fair trial, which constitutes a violation of international human rights and humanitarian law. The presented material was examined by the Jerusalem District Court judge, while Laith’s lawyer was denied any access to it, in violation of due process rights. Israel’s utilisation of the “secret information” pretext, which is also widely used for the purposes of administrative detention, has been criticized and rejected by international organisations and experts[6]. Nonetheless, Israel continues to employ this practice, as is evident with Laith, and previously with Al-Haq’s General Director, Shawan Jabarin[7].
Utilising a different method of intimidation, the Israeli occupying authorities officially notified Salah Hammouri, a 35-year-old Palestinian-French human rights defender and lawyer with Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, on 3 September 2020, of its intention to revoke his permanent residency rights in Jerusalem for so-called “breach of allegiance” to the State of Israel. The Israeli occupying authorities have previously targeted Salah, including by banning him from accessing parts of the West Banks for 16 months, arbitrarily arresting him, and deporting his wife, Elsa Lefort, a French national, separating him from her and their five-year-old son[8].
Israel illegally applies its domestic Entry into Israel Law to the protected Palestinian people in occupied East Jerusalem, revoking permanent residency rights, as a tool of direct forcible transfer[9] in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, in order to establish an Israeli-Jewish demographic majority in the city of Jerusalem. By requiring protected Palestinians to pledge allegiance to Israel, the Occupying Power further breaches Article 45 of the Hague Regulations which states that “it is forbidden to compel the inhabitants of occupied territory to swear allegiance to the hostile Power.”
In a webinar highlighting the Israeli-harassment of Salah, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Professor Michael Lynk, has reminded Israel and the international community that “international law is not meant to be an umbrella that folds up at the first hint of rain”[10].
Conclusion and Recommendations
By silencing Palestinian civil society, and those who monitor and document human rights violations and seek international justice and accountability and an end to Israel’s impunity for international crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory, Israel seeks to maintain its repressive and prolonged 53-year military occupation, and institutionalised apartheid, while rapidly expanding its colonisation and annexation of occupied Palestinian territory, and denying the Palestinian people their inalienable rights to self-determination and return.
While Israel has not been held accountable for its smear and delegitimisation of civil society, its systematic and organised efforts to undermine the work of Palestinian human rights defenders have not gone unnoticed. A June 2020 joint statement on behalf of 47 of the United Nations’ independent Special Procedures mandates, which condemned Israel’s plans to de-jure annex further parts of the occupied Palestinian territory, underlined how “Palestinian and Israeli human rights defenders, who peacefully bring public attention to these violations, are slandered, criminalised or labeled as terrorists”[11].
In light of the above, we call on Member States of the Human Rights Council to:
- Urge Israel the Occupying Power to immediately cease all practices and policies intended to intimidate, delegitimise, and silence human rights defenders in violation of their right to freedom of expression;
- Support the critical role of Palestinian local, regional, and international civil society in their efforts to monitor, document, and advocate for an end to human rights violations and suspected international crimes committed against Palestinians, particularly in the face of an ongoing and protracted smear campaign by the State of Israel and government-operated groups targeting human rights defenders and activists; and
- Recognise and address silencing efforts as part of an apartheid system over the Palestinian people as a whole, and endorse the 2019 concluding observations on Israel of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which recognised Israeli policies and practices of racial segregation and apartheid over Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line.
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Aldameer Association for Human Rights, Community Action Center, the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, and the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO), NGO(s) without consultative status, also share the views expressed in this statement.
[1] Al-Haq, “Palestinian, regional, and international groups submit report on Israeli apartheid to UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,” 12 November 2019, at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/16183.html. [2] Al-Haq and others, “Joint Parallel Report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Israel’s Seventeenth to Nineteenth Periodic Reports,” 10 November 2019, para. 122. [3] Ben White, “Delegitimizing Solidarity: Israel Smears Palestine Advocacy as Anti-Semitic,” Journal of Palestine Studies, 1 February 2020, at: https://online.ucpress.edu/jps/article-abstract/49/2/65/107373/Delegitimizing-Solidarity-Israel-Smears-Palestine. [4] See, Al-Haq “Israel’s Ongoing and Systematic Smear Campaign against Al-Haq and its Staff Members,” 5 October 2020, at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/17466.html, and Al-Haq, “Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs Campaign of Institutionalised Harassment Continues with the Alleged Closure of Palestinian NGOs’ Financial Accounts,” 19 June 2019, at: http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/6039.html. [5] See, for example Al-Haq, “PHROC Condemns Israeli Imposed Movement Restrictions and Travel Ban against Amnesty International Staff Laith Abu Zeyad,” 6 November 2019, at: http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/16170.html, and Al-Haq, “PHROC Condemns Israel’s Policy of Silencing Those Who Raise the Voice of Justice,” 8 June 2020, at: https://www.alhaq.org/palestinian-human-rights-organizations-council/16957.html. [6] See Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Special Rapporteur on OPT calls on Israel to comply with international law on detention, 16 May 2017, at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21624&LangID=E, and, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, 21 February 2018, at: https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/A-HRC-37-42.pdf. [7]See Al-Haq, “Update on the Case in the Israeli High Court of Justice Regarding the Travel Restrictions Imposed on Al-Haq’s General Director,” 20 June 2007, at: http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/7303.html; and Al-Haq, “The Secret to Success: Secret Evidence Provides Sole Basis for Continuation of Travel Ban on Al-Haq’s General Director,” 14 July 2008, at: http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/7257.html. [8] Al-Haq, “Human Rights Organisations Send Urgent Appeal to UN Special Procedures on the Imminent Threat of Forcible Transfer of Salah Hammouri,” 5 October 2020, at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/17385.html. [9] See, for example, Al-Haq, “Residency Revocation: Israel’s Forcible Transfer of Palestinians from Jerusalem,” 3 July 2017, at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/6331.html. [10] Al-Haq, “Civil Society Organize Webinar “HRD Salah Hammouri at Imminent Threat of Deportation from Jerusalem: Israel Must Be Held Accountable,”” 15 December 2020, at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/17650.html. [11] OHCHR, “Israeli annexation of parts of the Palestinian West Bank would break international law – UN experts call on the international community to ensure accountability”, 16 June 2020, at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25960. * Issued as received, in the language(s) of submission only.
Blockade and Closure of Gaza
- Human Rights Council
- Forty-six session
- 22 February–19 March 2021
- Agenda item 7
- Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories
- Joint written statement* submitted by Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, ADALAH - Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, 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.
- [01 February 2021]
Israel must uphold responsibilities as Occupying Power vis-à-vis the two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
Since 2007, Israel has maintained a comprehensive land, sea, and air blockade and closure over the occupied Gaza Strip, impacting over two million Palestinians. The closure, which constitutes an unlawful collective punishment, has undermined all aspects of life in Gaza, denying Palestinians the enjoyment of their rights and freedoms—including their inalienable right to self-determination and the right of return of Palestinian refugees—and has resulted in profound levels of poverty, aid-dependency, food insecurity, and unemployment, as well as the collapse of essential services, including healthcare.
Access to COVID-19 Vaccine in Gaza
Israel, as the Occupying Power, has the legal duty to provide essential health services to the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), including in Gaza (1); Thus, UN human rights experts have called on Israel “to ensure swift and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for the Palestinian people under occupation”(2); Notably, this obligation also applies to the prevention, treatment, and control of pandemics, such as COVID-19 (3).To fulfill its legal duties, the Israeli occupying authorities should provide Gaza’s population with medical supplies, including as needed to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, such as testing kits and devices, ventilators, and vaccines.
The Israeli healthcare system is currently leading the global vaccine roll-out per capita, having vaccinated more than twenty percent of the population, including Jewish settlers living in illegal settlements in the West Bank. Although Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and with permanent residency status in occupied East Jerusalem have been vaccinated, the Israeli occupying authorities continue to falsely maintain that the responsibility to vaccinate the rest of the population of the oPt lies with the Palestinian Authority (PA). The control Israel exerts through its occupation renders the State legally obligated to provide the vaccine to all Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to international law. Further, should the PA procure doses of the vaccine, Israel must ensure their entry to the oPt. In recent months, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted Palestinians in the oPt, where cases continue to rise at the expense of containment measures implemented by local authorities, especially in Gaza, which accounts for fifty-one percent of all active cases in the oPt (4).
In Gaza, a full-scale outbreak of COVID-19 would overwhelm the healthcare system, which is enduring significant shortages of equipment, medicines, and qualified personnel as a direct consequence of thirteen years of Israel’s illegal closure restrictions, repeated military attacks and bombardments directly targeting health infrastructure, and chronic lack of water and electricity (5).By restricting the movement of people and goods, including under the pretext of items being “dual-use,” the Israeli occupying authorities are blocking access to trained personnel, supplies, and medicines that Gaza’s healthcare system desperately needs.
Denial of Access to Healthcare for Palestinian Patients in Gaza
The restrictions imposed by Israel as part of its closure policy have left Gaza’s healthcare system on the brink of collapse. Gaza completely lacks radiotherapy treatment, while chemotherapy treatment is available but very limited both in terms of supply and variety. As a direct consequence of the closure, every year thousands of Palestinian patients from Gaza struggle to receive adequate medical treatment, forcing them to seek treatment outside the Strip. To do so, patients and their companions are required to obtain Israeli-issued exit permits. Yet, patient applications to travel via the Israeli-controlled Eretz crossing—the only one connecting Gaza with other parts of the oPt—are continuously arbitrarily delayed or rejected, without a clear justification.
This situation became even more critical in May 2020 when, in response to Israel’s plans to formally annex parts of the occupied West Bank, the PA suspended all coordination with Israel, including cooperation on medical permits. Although the PA has now resumed this coordination, Israel’s systematic arbitrary denial of permits persists. By implementing this permit denial policy, Israel is failing to fulfill its obligation to ensure access to health facilities, goods, and services on a non-discriminatory basis to Palestinians under its effective control, ultimately violating Palestinians’ right to the highest attainable standard of health, and in the most extreme cases, their right to life.
Notably, Israel’s unlawful restraints on access to healthcare for Palestinian patients from Gaza form part of the discriminatory policies and practices that are inherent in Israel’s commission of the crime of apartheid. These practices, coupled with Israel’s refusal to provide COVID-19 vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, not only illustrate Israel’s intention to punish the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza but to ultimately consolidate its entrenched fragmentation of the Palestinian people, amounting to the crime of apartheid.
"Access Restricted Areas" in Gaza
In addition to the closure, since 2008 Israel has enforced a maritime and land “buffer zone”, widely known as “access restricted areas” (ARA). The ARA is a no-go military zone located on Palestinian land and maritime territory, enforced by the Israeli military using live fire to target civilians, properties, and objects. At sea, the enforcement of access restrictions by Israel reduces the fishing area to six out of the twenty-four nautical miles from the coast of Palestine’s territorial sea as declared in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (6). On land, the ARA runs along the entire northern and eastern perimeter of Gaza and extends up to 1.5 meters into Palestinian territory, covering approximately 62.6 square kilometers, about fifteen percent of its total area and thirty-five percent of agricultural land.
Due to almost daily attacks by Israeli occupation forces (IOF), the ARA has been designated a high-risk zone, and this is especially true for those residing or working there. Notably, incidents of excessive force in the ARA occurred during demonstrations, such as the Great March of Return—during which 217 Palestinians were killed, including children, women, journalists, paramedics, and persons with disability—as well as in everyday situations, as in the case of violence against fishers and farmers.
Access to Palestinian territorial waters remains unsafe for Gaza’s fishers, who face systematic obstacles while practicing their livelihoods, due to the attacks carried out against them by the IOF. Attacks include shooting, harassment, verbal and physical abuse, arbitrary arrest and detention, damage and confiscation of their equipment, including fishing boats and nets, and the pumping of wastewater into their boats.
Likewise, IOF also engage in regular attacks against the farming community in the ARA. Such practices include the deliberate attack of residents or persons present in the area through various means, including live ammunition; raids and the incursion of Palestinian farmland with tanks and bulldozers aimed at leveling and destroying private property and resources, and aerial spraying of herbicides on fields; and the opening of water dams, causing flooding. Between 2018–2020, IOF in the ARA killed four farmers who were working their fields and injured seven civilian residents and four farmers, including a child. During the most recent raids that occurred in December 2020 and January 2021, the IOF also left placards urging Palestinian farmers to uproot their own crops, thereby creating a heightened state of fear among the agricultural community of Gaza.
Israel’s pervasive impunity is among the root causes of the State’s continued widespread and systematic violation of Palestinians’ rights, including in Gaza. Third States have a legal responsibility to ensure Israel’s compliance with international law, also by pursuing international justice and accountability. Accordingly, we call on the Council and UN Member States to:
- Call on Israel to fully, immediately, and unconditionally lift its illegal closure and blockade of Gaza; end all forms of collective punishment imposed on the Palestinian people; and address root causes entrenching apartheid over the Palestinian people.
- Support international accountability mechanisms, including universal jurisdiction and an investigation by the International Criminal Court into the Situation in Palestine.
- Urge Israel to uphold its moral and legal obligations concerning the right to health of Palestinians, including by supplying the entire population under its effective control with the COVID-19 vaccine.
- Pressure Israel to stop targeting civilians, properties, and objects throughout the Gaza Strip, particularly in the ARA; to end all military actions against the fishing and agricultural communities; and to compensate and redress victims of such violations.
[1] IV Geneva Convention, Articles 55, 56, 59; 1907 Hague Regulations, Article 43. [2] UN OHCHR, “UN experts call on Israel to ensure equal access to COVID-19 vaccines for Palestinians”, 14 January 2021, at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26655 [3] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 12. [4] UN OCHA, “COVID-19 Emergency Situation Report 26 (31 December 2020 - 13 January 2021)”. [5] Al Mezan et al., Joint Urgent Appeal to the United Nations Special Procedures on the escalating water and sanitation crisis in the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestinian territory, at: http://mezan.org/en/uploads/files/1605008575924.pdf [6] Declaration of the State of Palestine Regarding its Maritime Boundaries in Accordance with UNCLOS, 24 September 2019, at: https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/PSE_Deposit_09-2019.pdf *Issued as received, in the language(s) of submission only.
Note: Israel has also not met the standard explicitly agreed under the Oslo Accords—of 20 nautical miles of sea space—since shortly after signing the agreement.
UN Database
- Human Rights Council
- Forty-six session
- 22 February–19 March 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-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, Habitat International Coalition, International Federation for Human Rights Leagues, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 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.
- [01 February 2021]
Civil society calls for increased transparency and a clear timeline for the 2021 annual update of the UN database of businesses engaged with Israel's settlement enterprise
The release of the United Nations database of businesses engaged in activities related to Israeli settlements (database) in the occupied Palestinian territory on 12 February 2020 is an important tool to begin addressing Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise and ensure corporate accountability in the context of a prolonged military occupation, colonization, and apartheid. The first database report included 112 businesses, mostly domiciled in Israel as well as eighteen companies in six other countries[1]. The annual updating of the database is essential to ensuring it becomes a living tool. The database establishes a tangible mechanism strengthening the implementation of international law, particularly in relation to states’ obligations to ensure corporate respect for human rights, as well as the responsibility of businesses to respect international human rights and humanitarian law as reaffirmed by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), including in situations of occupation.
Due to pervasive impunity, Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise has been allowed to operate and expand in violation of international law. This has been supported by non-state and private actors such as business enterprises. According to the 2013 report of the independent international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements, “[…] business enterprises unfold their activities in the settlements and contribute to their maintenance, development and consolidation.”[2] Businesses have played a critical role in the sustainability of Israel’s illegal settlements and are at great risk of contributing to or benefiting from Israel’s persistent and systemic violations of international law committed against the Palestinian people.
While the world faces the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Israel is escalating its illegal demolition of Palestinian homes and properties, hitting a four-year high[3], in violation of, among other rights, Palestinians’ human right to adequate housing, a crucial component of the right to an adequate standard of living[4]. From March 2020 to January 2021, Israel has demolished 470 structures, including 211 residential structures, 166 of which were inhabited, resulting in the displacement of 811 Palestinians, including 382 children[5]. House demolitions, which are made possible through the use of equipment provided by companies such as JCP, Caterpillar, and Hyundai[6], assist Israel’s settlement expansion and de facto annexation. At the same time, Israel has accelerated the expansion of its illegal settlements, housing units, and associated infrastructure including transportation, in which Israeli and multinational companies such as the Basque CAF have evidently been involved[7].
Since the adoption of HRC resolution 31/36 in 2016 mandating the OHCHR to create the database, members of the United Nations as well as civil society organizations from all regions have persistently expressed support for the database and its annual update[8]. Some Member States have explicitly supported the process[9], whereas other states stressed the importance of its release - despite delays due to political pressure - in order to preserve the independence of the OHCHR[10].
In October 2020, Michael Lynk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, welcomed the release of the database in his report to the General Assembly and highlighted that it puts “a spotlight on corporate activity – both Israeli and international – in the settlements and advances public and corporate understanding of the adverse human rights environment sustained by the settlements.”[11]
Lynk also raised concerns that in the first report of the database “a number of companies with important supply relationships with the settlements and/or the occupation were not included.” He called for these concerns to be addressed by properly identifying “the scope of all business involvement with the settlements and the occupation” in order for the database to serve as a “living tool”[12].
In line with HRC resolution 31/36, the OHCHR is mandated to annually update the database, including by adding businesses engaged in activities related to Israeli settlements and removing listed companies when there is clear proof of disengagement. This provides an important deterrent for businesses against engaging with the illegal settlement enterprise which constitutes grave breaches amounting to internationally recognized crimes under international law.
Local, regional, and international organizations remain committed to continuing to support the OHCHR’s work on the database. In this context, our organizations urge:
- The OHCHR to continue to work toward the annual update of the database and publicly share the 2021 update upon completion of the review.
- The OHCHR to increase transparency regarding the annual update process for the database, including by providing a clear and public timeline for the publication of the 2021 update.
- Member States of the United Nations to support the OHCHR in fulfilling its mandate in its entirety to annually update the UN database and ensure the allocation of necessary financial resources to this end.
- Member States that are home states of companies listed in the database must take the necessary measures to ensure that business enterprises within their territory and/or jurisdiction respect international law and other relevant laws throughout their operations and relationships in the oPt. To this end, states should deny businesses listed in the UN database and others that are involved in violations of international law access to public support and services, including by excluding them from public procurements.
- Member States should issue clear guidelines and advisories to private actors and business enterprises - in line with international law - surrounding risks and legal repercussions of grave breaches of international law should they be involved with Israel’s settlement enterprise.
The Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, the Palestinian Counselling Centre, the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, the Community Action Center (Al-Quds University), the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights, NGO(s) without consultative status, also share the views expressed in this statement.
[1] ‘Database of all business enterprises involved in the activities detailed in paragraph 96 of the independent international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem’, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session43/Documents/A_HRC_43_71.docx [2] ‘Report of the independent international factfinding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem’, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A-HRC-22-63_en.pdf [3] See B’Tselem, “In pandemic, of all times: Number of Palestinians Israel has left homeless hits four-year record,” 4 November 2020, available at: https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20201104_number_of_palestinians_israel_left_homeless_hits_four_year_record_in_pandemic. [4] OHCHR, ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context’ (27 July 2020), UN Doc A/75/148. [5] See Al Haq et al., “Joint Urgent Appeal to the United Nations Special Procedures on Israel’s Continued Demolitions Amidst a Global Pandemic,” 25 January 2021, p. 3, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/cached_uploads/download/2021/01/25/210125-joint-urgent-appeal-on-israels-continued-demolitions-amidst-a-global-pandemic-25-01-2021-1611570818.pdf [6] Al-Haq, ’De Facto Annexation Continues with House Demolitions using Hyundai bulldozers, Destruction of Palestinian Lands, Infrastructure and Pillage’ (16 July 2020) https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/17124.html. During demolitions carried in 2019 and 2020 a regular usage of machinery from Hyundai (145 instances), JCB (142), CAT (57) and Volvo (88) were documented and reported by victims of demolitions (source: Al-Haq’s Documenting and Monitoring Department). See also: https://lphr.org.uk/latest-news/jcb-to-be-investigated-after-uk-government-body-accepts-lphr-complaint-is-material-and-substantiated-relating-to-involvement-in-israels-human-rights-violations-against-palestinians/ [7] https://cihrs.org/31-palestinian-european-human-rights-organisations-networks-trade-unions-demand-basque-company-caf-be-included-in-un-settlement-database/?lang=en [8] See for example: Al-Haq, ‘More than 100 Organizations Call for the Release of the UN Database of Businesses Engaged in Activities with Israeli Settlements’ (29 August 2019) http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/14950.html and CIHRS, ‘Civil society calls for annual updates of database on corporate involvement in Israeli settlements’ (16 June 2020) https://cihrs.org/civil-society-calls-for-annual-updates-of-database-on-corporate-involvement-in-israeli-settlements/?lang=en [9] During HRC 43, states from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America welcomed the release of the database. States also called for the annual update of the database, including in two joint statements on behalf of OIC and the Arab Group, reflecting the position of 57 states. OIC statement: https://cihrs.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/OIC.pdf [10] “In July 2019, during the 41st Human Rights Council session, some 90 states, in two joint statements, emphasized the crucial importance that the High Commissioner and her Office maintain their independence and are able to execute their mandates impartially and without interference.” https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/01/joint-statement-continued-delay-un-database-un-high-commissioner-human-rights [11] Report A/75/532 of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (22 October 2020), https://undocs.org/A/75/532 [12] Ibid. * Issued as received, in the language(s) of submission only.
Prisoners and Detainees
- Human Rights Council
- Forty-six session
- 22 February–19 March 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.
- [01 February 2021]
Israel’s Medical Negligence Targeting Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees During COVID-19
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) in March 2020, Israel, the Occupying Power, has consistently failed to abide by its legal obligations to ensure the protection of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons. The conditions inside Israeli prisons and detention centres have significantly deteriorated and Palestinian prisoners continue to be subjected to harsh detention conditions that do not align with the bare minimum of adequate living standards. Overcrowding, insufficient ventilation, and a lack of hygiene products for prisoners make it difficult, if not impossible, to contain spread of the coronavirus inside Israeli prisons, leaving Palestinian prisoners and detainees unprotected and exposed to the rapid spread of COVID-19. As of 27 January 2021, about 335 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons have tested positive for COVID-19 since March 2020, 98 of whom remain infected.
Israel’s Systematic Medical Negligence Policy
Concerns regarding the deteriorating health situation of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention centres have been raised by Palestinian human rights organisations already before the start of the global pandemic[1]. Palestinian prisoners and detainees have systematically suffered from routine medical negligence policies and practices at the hands of the Israeli Prison Service (IPS). Violating Palestinian prisoners’ rights to health and dignity, the IPS’s deliberate medical negligence policy has become an integral part of Israel’s oppression of Palestinian prisoners and detainees. In 2020 alone, four Palestinian prisoners died in Israeli prisons and detention centres[2].
In addition to medical negligence, IPS further withholds the bodies of deceased Palestinian prisoners, refusing to return the bodies to their families for a dignified burial, in what constitutes unlawful collective punishment[3]. Currently, eight Palestinian prisoners’ bodies continue to be withheld by Israel.
Despite the fact that serious illness amongst Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons is common, proper medical care is rarely provided by IPS, while available care entails long delays placing prisoners in need of urgent attention in further jeopardy, in violation of the right of Palestinian prisoners and detainees to health care guaranteed under international law[4]. Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, for example, affirms that prisoners and detainees “shall enjoy conditions of food and hygiene which will be sufficient to keep them in good health,” further emphasising that they “shall receive the medical attention required by their state of health.” Nevertheless, specialised doctors and services are not regularly available for Palestinian detainees, and over-the-counter painkillers are administered as a remedy for almost all health problem[5].
Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
Despite calls by numerous civil society organisations6 and United Nations experts[7] for the release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly those arbitrarily detained, including human rights defenders, Israel has taken no steps to adequately mitigate and prevent a COVID-19 outbreak in prisons nor to release vulnerable elderly or sick Palestinian prisoners, even while releasing some 400 ‘non-violent’ Israeli common law prisoners who were serving lighter sentences and nearing the end of their time in prison, selected on the basis of health condition and age[8]. Rather, Israel has taken further arbitrary measures, including the halting all family and lawyers’ visits for Palestinian prisoners for almost three months, postponing all trial proceedings in the military courts, preventing Palestinians who are undergoing pre-trial detention or interrogation from being brought to court for their detention extensions, and the use of solitary confinement, an internationally recognised form of torture, justifying these arbitrary measures as COVID-19 precautions, while refusing social distancing measures for Palestinians in Israeli prisons[9].
With about 700 sick Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons and detention centres, 300 of whom have chronic illnesses, and at least eleven of whom are cancer patients, Israeli prison guards and IPS staff have continued to conduct daily searches and daily counts of prisoners, carried out five times a day, without taking proper precautions.
In December 2020, Israel commenced the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines in a discriminatory, unlawful, and racist manner by completely disregarding its obligations, as the Occupying Power, for the health and well-being of protected Palestinians. Throughout the oPt, excluding East Jerusalem, Israel has reserved access to the vaccine to the unlawfully transferred settler population of Israelis in illegal settlements, and denied the vaccine to the Palestinian population[10].
Following statements from the Israeli Public Security Minister Amir Ohana that Palestinian prisoners would be the last to get inoculated in the campaign to vaccinate all jailed persons[11], five human rights organisations submitted a petition to the Israeli High Court against the aforementioned decision, and demanded that IPS prevent prioritising the vaccination of prison staff over prisoners and vaccinate the entire prisoner population according to the vaccination priority set by the Israeli Ministry of Health, with an emphasis on prisoners aged 60 and over, and those in high-risk groups[12]. On 18 January 2021, following the petition, IPS submitted an action plan to vaccinate all prisoners in Israeli prisons, including Palestinian prisoners, over the course of a week.
According to Physicians for Human Rights, and up until 26 January 2021, 9,089 prisoners out of 12,360 prisoners, which constitutes seventy-four per cent of eligible prisoners[13], have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Since the start of the vaccine roll-out in Israeli prisons and detention centres, one Palestinian prisoner has passed away. The 45-year-old prisoner Maher Sa’sa’ died on 20 January 2021 in Rimonim prison, one day after receiving his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. While there are no clear details yet about the cause of death, Maher suffered from hypertension and heart and lung problems and required monitoring after receiving the first dose.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Amidst a global pandemic, our organisations are alarmed at the possible aftermath of Israel’s policy of medical negligence in Israeli prisons. Many Palestinian prisoners and detainees fall victim to the IPS’s policy of deliberately stalling the provision of specialised medical care. Accordingly, we call on Member States of the Human Rights Council to:
- Fulfil their obligations, as High Contracting Parties, to ensure respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention in the oPt, particularly with regard to Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners and detainees during COVID-19;
- Address Israel’s human rights violations against Palestinians during COVID-19, including the human rights situation of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, with a view to establishing a commission of inquiry to investigate the legal implications of Israel’s administration of justice for Palestinians, including their treatment while incarcerated amidst COVID-19, and Israel’s long-standing policy of medical negligence;
- Call on Israel, the Occupying Power, to release all Palestinian political prisoners and detainees from Israeli prisons and to ensure their safety from COVID-19, particularly those who are more vulnerable and susceptible to the disease, including children, female prisoners, older persons, prisoners with underlying health conditions, and those suffering injuries; and
- Call on Israel to ensure adequate and independent access to healthcare, hygiene facilities, and sanitary products for all prisoners and detainees, including by ensuring the provision of lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines to Palestinian prisoners and detainees incarcerated in Israeli prisons and detention centres, under the supervision of international and Palestinian health committees.
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Aldameer Association for Human Rights, Community Action Center, the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, and the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO), NGO(s) without consultative status, also share the views expressed in this statement.
[1] See, Al-Haq, “PHROC Condemns the Death of Palestinian Sick Prisoner Sami Abu Diyak,” 26 November 2019, at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/16225.html. [2] Information provided by Addameer. [3] Article 33, Fourth Geneva Convention. See also, Al-Haq, “Human Rights Groups Submit to UN experts on the Israeli policy of withholding the mortal remains of indigenous Palestinians,” 27 June 2020, at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/17033.html, and UN Committee against Torture, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Israel (3 June 2016) UN Doc CAT/C/ISR/CO/5, paras. 42-43. [4] Article 12 (1), ICESCR. [5] Al-Haq, “Ongoing Violations of the Rights of Palestinian Prisoners,” 17 April 2007, at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/7311.html. [6] See, Al-Haq, “Addameer, Al-Haq, and CIHRS Send Follow-Up Urgent Appeal to UN Special Procedures on the Situation of Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees in Israeli Detention Centres, Highlighting Israel’s Failure to uphold its Legal Obligations,” 17 August 2020, at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/17228.html. [7] See, OHCHR, “Urgent action needed to prevent COVID-19 ‘rampaging through places of detention’ – Bachelet,” 25 March 2020, at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25745&LangID=E, and OHCHR, “COVID-19: Israel must release Palestinian prisoners in vulnerable situation, say UN experts,” 24 April 2020, at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25822&LangID=E. [8] The Jerusalem Post, “Israel releases 230 prisoners early to reduce crowding amid COVID-19 fears,” 29 March 2020, at: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/israel-releases-230-prisoners-early-to-reduce-crowding-amid-covid-19-fears-622844. [9] Adalah, “Israeli Supreme Court rules: Palestinian prisoners have no right to social distancing protection against COVID-19,” 23 July 2020, at: https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10063. [10] Al-Haq, “Racism and Institutionalised Discrimination in the Roll-Out of the COVID-19 Vaccine,” 18 January 2021, at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/17767.html. [11] Al Jazeera, “Israel to start vaccinating prisoners, including Palestinians,” 17 January 2021, available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/17/israel-says-it-will-start-vaccinating-palestinian-prisoners. [12] Adalah, “5 human rights groups petition against Israeli Public Security Minister Ohana’s refusal to vaccinate prisoners,” 11 January 2021, available at: https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10214. [13] All prisoners are eligible for the vaccine, excluding those who are yet to be convicted, those under the age of 16, and those who will be released within 20 days. * Issued as received, in the language(s) of submission only.
Apartheid
- Human Rights Council
- Forty-six session
- 22 February–19 March 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 Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, Habitat International Coalition, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 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.
- [01 February 2021]
Racism and Institutionalized Discrimination in Israel’s COVID-19 Response
Israel’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination roll-out is yet another manifestation of its institutionalized racial domination and oppression targeting the Palestinian people as a whole. Since the onset of the pandemic, Israel’s response has been fraught with racism and systematic discrimination targeting Palestinians.
Although Israel has inoculated a higher percentage of its citizens against the COVID-19 virus than any other country, including Israeli-Jewish settlers illegally colonizing the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel has denied equal access to vaccines for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, in violation of its obligations as Occupying Power under international law[1], as underscored by UN human rights experts: “The denial of an equal access to health care, such as on the basis of ethnicity or race, is discriminatory and unlawful”[2].
Seven decades of institutionalized racism targeting Palestinians has caused wide disparities between Israeli and Palestinian access to healthcare and their broader enjoyment of the right to health that predate the spread of COVID-19. This is an acutely dire reality for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, with their health sector left on the verge of collapse by Israel’s illegal 13-year closure and blockade. In December 2019, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination deplored the “disproportionately poor health status of the Palestinian and Bedouin populations, including shorter life expectancy and higher rates of infant mortality compared to the Jewish population”[3]. These deliberate health inequities have left Palestinians especially vulnerable to the spread of the pandemic, a stark example of Israeli policies of apartheid. This statement examines Israel’s discriminatory response to COVID-19 as part of its commission of the crime of apartheid[4] targeting the Palestinian people as a whole.
Since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, Israel has failed to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health of Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line, a perpetuation of longstanding disparity resulting from Israel’s discriminatory policies and practices in the provision of, and access to healthcare. As the WHO declared a global pandemic, Israel failed to provide real-time updates and public health information in Arabic for Palestinian citizens of Israel and residents in Jerusalem[5], to release accurate real-time data on the spread of COVID-19 among Palestinian communities within the Green Line[6], and to disaggregate data for infections in occupied East Jerusalem[7]. It also showed significant delays in testing in Palestinian communities within the Green Line and in occupied East Jerusalem[8].
Moreover, the Israeli occupying authorities undermined the health of Palestinian workers from the occupied Palestinian territory and their families by continuing to exploit Palestinian labor in unsafe conditions, while also refusing to test and treat Palestinian workers prior to their return to the West Bank[9]. As a result, Palestinian workers and their families have been at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 and related stigmatization and made up the majority of COVID-19 infections in the occupied West Bank by May 2020[10]. The pandemic further exacerbated the vulnerabilities of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons. Despite global calls by UN human rights experts for the release of all those arbitrarily detained, especially in the context of COVID-19[11], including political prisoners and human rights defenders, the Israeli occupying authorities have failed to release Palestinian prisoners and detainees while taking steps to release hundreds of Israeli-Jewish prisoners[12].
For decades, Israel has deepened its institutionalized oppression of the Palestinian people and the colonization of Palestine, facilitated by the systematic transfer of the indigenous Palestinian people from their lands, the prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory, the de facto annexation of the West Bank, and the de jure annexation of Jerusalem and the occupied Syrian Golan, in violation of international law. Israel has aggressively pursued an illegal policy of population transfer and demographic manipulation targeting the Palestinian people on both sides of the Green Line and refugees and exiles abroad.
In 2017, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) recognized, in its report on Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid[13], that Israel uses strategic fragmentation as a tool to establish institutionalized racial oppression and domination over the indigenous Palestinian people as a whole. Israel divides Palestinians mainly into four distinct legal, political, and geographic domains, comprising Palestinian citizens of Israel, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, Palestinians subject to military law in the West Bank and Gaza, and Palestinian refugees and exiles abroad who are denied the right to return to their homes, lands, and property[14].
As defined by the Apartheid Convention and Rome Statute[15], intention to maintain apartheid is a core element of the crime. To create a climate of fear and intimidation, Israel systematically resorts to arbitrary detention and arrests, torture and other ill-treatment sanctioned by Israeli courts, and unlawful collective punishment. Further, the silencing of opposition to Israeli oppression is key to maintaining apartheid over the Palestinian people, notably carried out through government-led smear and delegitimization campaigns targeting human rights defenders and organizations seeking to challenge Israeli policies of settler colonialism, occupation, and apartheid[16].
The impacts of the global pandemic have brought into sharper focus Israel’s denial of the right to health of the Palestinian people as part of its commission of the crime of apartheid. This comes amid increasing international recognition of the apartheid system established and proactively maintained by Israel[17] [18].
Our organizations welcome the growing international recognition that Israel has been committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people as a whole and urge Member States of the Human Rights Council to take the following actions:
- Call on Israel to ensure swift and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and health care provision for all Palestinians, including in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip;
- 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;
- Condemn Israeli apartheid 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
- 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.
The Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, the Palestinian Counselling Centre, the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, the Community Action Center (Al-Quds University), the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights, NGO(s) without consultative status, also share the views expressed in this statement.
[1] OHCHR, Israel/OPT: UN Experts Call on Israel to Ensure Equal Access to COVID-19 Vaccines for Palestinians,” 14 January 202: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26655&LangID=E. [2] Ibid. [3] CERD, Concluding observations on the combined seventeenth to nineteenth reports of Israel, 12 December 2019, UN Doc CERD/C/ISR/CO/17-19, para. 38(c). [4] Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (‘Rome Statute’), Article 7(2)(h) defines the crime of apartheid “inhumane acts… committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other… and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.” [5] Adalah, “Israel fails to provide real-time coronavirus updates in Arabic for Palestinian citizens,” 10 March 2020: https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9916. See also OHCHR, “COVID-19: Israel has ‘legal duty’ to ensure that Palestinians in OPT receive essential health services – UN expert,” 19 March 2020: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25728&LangID=E.q [6] Osama Tanous wrote at the time, for example, “The following maps taken from the website of the Israeli Ministry of Health show confirmed cases of COVID-19. Palestinian towns are almost completely absent from these maps with zero confirmed cases.” See Osama Tanous, “A New Episode of Erasure in the Settler Colony” (Critical Times, 9 April 2020): https://ctjournal.org/2020/04/09/a-new-episode-of-erasure-in-the-settler-colony/. [7] Al-Haq, JLAC, and MAP UK, “COVID-19 and the Systematic Neglect of Palestinians in East Jerusalem,” 14 July 2020, pp. 7-8: https://www.alhaq.org/publications/17118.html. [8] Nihaya Daoud, “The Reluctance to Test Israeli Arabs for COVID-19 Is a Ticking Time-bomb,” 31 March 2020: https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-israel-pays-a-price-for-ignoring-the-arab-community-in-its-coronavirus-response-1.8729117. Al-Haq, JLAC, and MAP UK, “COVID-19 and the Systematic Neglect of Palestinians in East Jerusalem,” 14 July 2020: https://www.alhaq.org/publications/17118.html. [9] Al-Haq et al., “Joint Open Letter – Protection of Palestinian Workers During and After COVID-19,” 5 May 2020, p. 2: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/16831.html. [10] Ibid. [11] OHCHR, “Urgent action needed to prevent COVID-19 “rampaging through places of detention” – Bachelet,” 25 March 2020: https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25745&LangID=E. [12] The Jerusalem Post, “Israel to Release Hundreds of Prisoners to Curb Coronavirus Spread,” 28 March 2020: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israel-to-release-hundreds-of-prisoners-to-curb-spread-of-coronavirus-622611. [13] E/ESCWA/ECRI/2017/1, p. 37. [14] Ibid., p. 4. [15] International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (‘Apartheid Convention’), Article II; Rome Statute, Article 7(2)(h). [16] Al-Haq, “Joint Parallel Report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Israel’s Seventeenth to Nineteenth Periodic Reports,” 10 November 2019, p. 43: http://www.alhaq.org/cached_uploads/download/2019/11/12/joint-parallel-report-to-cerd-on-israel-s-17th-19th-periodic-reports-10-november-2019-final-1573563352.pdf. [17] CIHRS, “Palestine: Civil Society Welcomes Mounting Recognition of Israeli Apartheid at UN HRC,” 5 November 2020: https://cihrs.org/palestine-civil-society-welcomes-mounting-recognition-of-israeli-apartheid-at-un-hrc/?lang=en. [18] “Al-Haq Welcomes B’Tselem’s Recognition of Israeli Apartheid,” 21 January 2021: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/17806.html. * Issued as received, in the language(s) of submission only.