The treacheries of war are undoubtedly painful to all who experience them. In particular are the unacceptable pains that afflict the mothers and sisters of all warring parties, regardless of who they are. The grief of a Jewish mother is no greater than that of a Palestinian mother, both are offensive and intolerable. With the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the commanding Soviet Union officer uttered “Never Again.” Since the condemnation of the horrors of the Holocaust, the phrase has been employed by politicians, theologians, and human rights activists alike as a stern cry to the moral abominations that have been exacted against the human race in the contemporary “modern” age following World War II. While the Palestinian-Israeli conflict may be incomparable to the Holocaust in magnitude and scope, Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is driven by the same overarching themes of oppression and dehumanization underpinning the Nazi philosophy. Regardless of the wanton killings of civilians during the Gaza War or the death of a single mother unable to reach a healthcare facility due to the mobility restrictions imposed on her under occupation, neither human suffering nor a single death can be quantified. And hence, there exists grave tension between Israeli policy governing the occupied Palestinian territories and its pride as a Jewish democracy ingraining the values of Judaism. The thread of common humanity imbedded within Judaism is of no consequence to Israel’s execution of law over the territories, effectively demonstrating Israel’s defection from Judaism. Israel’s treatment of civilians—not suspected terrorists—is irreconcilable with the tenets of equality and common humanity which Israel, as a Jewish State, purports to uphold. Women and children unjustly, and in breach of Judaism, share the brunt of the burden—a burden that subjects them to health and life insecurity, leaving their livelihood not at the mercy of God, but Israeli lawmakers. The plight of Palestinian women is unique to that of other political calamities attributing impoverishment a gendered face in that the Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, “Fourth Geneva Convention,” binds Israel, the occupying power, under international law to provide unprejudiced health services to the occupied, un-naturalized Palestinians of the occupied Palestinian territories, including Palestinians holding Israeli residency in east Jerusalem. Furthermore, Article 38 of the convention even goes as far as to legally compel Israel to afford Palestinians “if their state of health so requires…medical attention and hospital treatment to the same extent as the nationals of the State concerned,” in this context, Israel. Consequently, the convention affords Palestinians health security irrespective of the occupation. William Shakespeare too offers a logical and applicable equivalence among individuals founded on the mere grounds of being human in his play the Merchant of Venice, in which Shylock, a Jewish merchant, pleas for recognition to his Christian rival, Antonio: Jennifer Urgilez is a Writer for the Media and Information Program at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mip@miftah.org. To View the Full Study as PDF (80 KB)
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By: Tamara Tamimi
Date: 18/08/2020
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Protection of Women from Violence in Times of Armed Conflict: Palestinian Women as a Case Study
Abstract Violence against women in Palestine at the hands of Israeli occupation forces and settlers is part and parcel of the wider framework of violence against the Palestinian people. Violence by occupation forces takes many different forms, some are evident and clear such as targeted killing and injury, as well as imprisonment. Other forms of violence are less pronounced but equally important as they pertain to the forcible displacement of Palestinians; these include house demolitions, house evictions, revocation of residency, land and property confiscation and imposition of restrictions on the registration of newborns. While this violence is targeted against the entirety of the Palestinian people, including women, children and the elderly, it has a disproportionate impact on women due to reinforcement of patriarchy, traditional gender roles and stereotypes, as well as the reproduction of the cycle of violence by the stronger social group against the weaker social group, and signifying diminishing acceptance and tolerance to diversity and difference. Violence against the Palestinian people as a whole has persisted for over fifty years despite the multitude of instruments and mechanisms to protect from violence in times of armed conflict. This includes instruments within the framework of international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international criminal law, as well as the women, peace and security agenda. Notwithstanding the multitude of instruments and mechanisms, their effectiveness remains constricted by a large number of factors including the absence of enforcement mechanisms due to the alleged primacy of state sovereignty, provided that this does not contravene the economic and geopolitical interests of a few select states. Another important factor is that these instruments are not designed to appreciate the impact of protracted occupation, and are instead tailored to armed conflicts that do not give rise to protracted military occupation and that are time-bound even if they persist for a long period of time, such as the wars in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. This paper seeks to highlight forms of Israeli violence against the Palestinian people, describe their disproportionate impact on women, analyse why violence persists against women in times of armed conflict, and identify stakeholders and recommendations to increase protection of women from violence in times of armed conflict.
By: MIFTAH
Date: 18/04/2020
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Israeli violations during the Coronavirus pandemic
The following report illustrates Israeli violations during the Coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Israeli occupation forces continued their violations against the Palestinian people in every part of Palestine and in Jerusalem in particular. They did not halt raids into cities, villages and camps, conducting arrests, confiscating land, closing institutions and targeting official Palestinian figures. It is clear that the violations Israel perpetrated in Jerusalem stem from a permanent and systematic policy based on two focal points: First: resistance and rejection of any show of Palestinian national sovereignty in occupied Jerusalem through every means possible, under the pretext of ”breaching Israeli sovereignty”. Israeli authorities also accuse Palestinians of violating the so-called “interim agreement” in reference to the Oslo Accords, which prohibits the PA from holding any activity in the city without an Israeli permit. Second: the Israelization and Judaization of every aspect of life in Jerusalem through disrupting the demographic balance in order to impose a new reality on the ground. Throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, Israel escalated these policies and the following measures taken against Jerusalemites. Arrests: During this period, arrests were focused on curtailing any efforts in Jerusalem aimed at protecting Palestinian residents from the dangers of the epidemic. Israel considers such efforts a violation of Israeli law, which culminated in the arrest of over 20 activists from various parts of Jerusalem. Some were put under house arrest and prohibited from contacting Palestinian officials in the city. Arrests included Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Fadi Hidmi and Jerusalem Governor Adnan Ghaith. These are two of the most prominent national Palestinian symbols in Jerusalem, which prompted Israel to use an iron fist with them, humiliating and mistreating them during their arrest. Hidmi, for example mistreated during his arrest and later said he had been violently assaulted at the detention facility. The two officials were arrested on charges of being responsible for aid distribution to needy Jerusalemite families. According to the Wadi Helwa Information Center, throughout March until the date of this report (April 9) a total of 193 arrests were made by Israeli authorities, including four women and 33 minors. A total of 73 arrests were made in the Old City and inside and around the Aqsa Mosque Compound; 57 Palestinians were arrested in Essawiyeh, 35 in Silwan and several others in various parts of the city. Furthermore, Israeli intelligence services summoned Jerusalem governor Adnan Ghaith, Aqsa Mosque Director Sheikh Omar Kiswani and Deputy Director Sheikh Najeh Bkeirat for questioning. They also summoned and arrested several Fatah members under the pretext of ”violating Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem” and arrested three Jerusalemite activists at the Allenby Bridge en route to Jordan. Attorney Mohammed Mahmoud, who is handling the detentions in Israeli courts, says there has been a noticeable escalation in Israeli measures against youth in Jerusalem during the pandemic. “Several preventative measures have been taken in courts since mid-March against the virus. Courts are conducted via Skype where the prisoner is connected by a phone and monitor in a special room in the prisons. There are some prisons that do not have television monitors and the sessions are conducted only by phone. This makes communication difficult between the prisoner and defense team. It is hard to fully explain what is going on in the session to the prisoner. These sessions also lack the confidentiality and immunity between lawyer and client. However, the lawyers try as much as possible to clarify certain rights and points to the prisoner. What more, the glass partition in front of the judge is another impediment in terms of hearing what he is saying,” Mahmoud said. He also mentioned how difficult these procedures were for the families waiting outside the courtroom since only one person is allowed in and the families are barred from speaking to their imprisoned children. He accused Israeli authorities of taking advantage of the Coronavirus crisis and their preventative measures to further oppress Palestinians, maintaining that several cases of abuse and arrest were recorded for supposedly violating these measures. A number of fines were also imposed, ranging from NIS500-NIS5000. Confiscation of food packages and relief assistance: Another aspect of Israel’s policy against Palestinians is focusing on measures against them instead of measures to combat the virus. Israeli authorities have actively pursued Palestinians, including volunteers and institutions which provide relief aid and food packages to poor families. They assaulted many of the volunteers, arrested them and confiscated the aid. In Sur Baher at the end of March, Israeli soldiers assaulted six volunteers, beating them and throwing teargas at them before confiscating a truckload of relief and food assistance. Prior to this, Israeli forces arrested three teams disinfecting Silwan, Suwwana and the Old City and confiscated the cleaning products being used to disinfect public and vital facilities in these areas. They also arrested four others for distributing and hanging up posters to raise awareness about the coronavirus, barring them entry into the Old City. Violation and desecration of places of worship This was apparent from the closure of the Aqsa Mosque Compound and barring entry to Muslim worshippers, including its guards and caretakers. At the same time, it assumed a much more relaxed policy with Jews in synagogues. They were able to move freely in their places of residence contrary to the policy imposed against Jerusalemites whose movement was much more limited. What’s more, Palestinians were heavily fined, ranging from NIS500 to NIS5000. By targeting the Aqsa Mosque, Islamic Waqf officials say Israeli occupation authorities are attempting to interfere and impose Israeli sovereignty under the pretext of preventing the spread of the virus. In this regard, Israeli authorities closed the doors to Al Aqsa with the exception of “Hutta” and “Chain” Gates and kept “Dung Gate” open, the keys to which Israel has held since its occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, and which allows in settlers to the compound. On March 20, Israeli authorities closed the gates to Al Aqsa and prevented anyone from entering both the mosque and the Old City just before Friday prayers. They claimed this was a preventative measure against the coronavirus. That day, according to Waqf estimates, only 500 Muslim worshippers prayed at the mosque even though Waqf authorities had taken the necessary measures and precautions against the epidemic. They had fully sanitized and disinfected the grounds and mosques and distributed instructions to worshippers before Friday. In addition, there were employees sanitizing worshippers’ hands inside the compound. Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces cracked down on worshippers who tried to pray in the streets and allies of the Old City, firing stun grenades, striking them with nightsticks and pushing them away from the Aqsa gates. Similar incidents occurred in other areas of the city, especially Wadi Joz, Musrara, Ras Al Amoud/Silwan and outside of Dung Gate. Israeli police also issued penalties to worshippers for praying outside of the Aqsa’s gates and to youths as they walked in the city on claims they ”were not abiding by preventative measures.” Israeli authorities took their policies up a notch when they raided the home of President of the Islamic Waqf Council, Sheikh Abdel Atheem Salham and issued him a penalty of NIS5000 on claims he ”did not abide by police orders and allowed more than the permitted number of people to enter the Aqsa grounds.” They also summoned Aqsa Mosque Director Sheikh Omar Kiswani and Aqsa Mosque Imam Amer Abdeen for questioning. Furthermore, Israeli forces stormed the Bab Al Rahmeh prayer site and threatened to impose fines on the worshippers for ”not adhering to health ministry instructions”, also threatening worshippers that they would be fined if they gathered in the Aqsa courtyard for prayer. Israeli authorities continued to issue orders banning Palestinians from entering the Old City and the Aqsa Mosque Compound. Eight Palestinian youths were banned from the Aqsa and seven from the Old City and travel ban orders were issued against four other Jerusalemites. In order to avoid any further interference into Aqsa affairs by Israeli authorities, the Islamic Waqf , which is the caretaker of the Aqsa Mosque, closed the compound until further notice as a protective measure against the novel coronavirus. The same was applied to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with only members of the clergy allowed entry. Isolating the Old City: Under the pretext of responding to the coronavirus pandemic, Israeli occupation authorities isolated the Old City from its surroundings. Approximately 40,000 Jerusalemites live in the Old City of Jerusalem and were suddenly cut off from the rest of East Jerusalem, whose Palestinian population is around 360,000. Only those who live within the Old City walls were allowed entrance while Jewish settlers living in settlement enclaves inside or outside it were allowed to enter and exit freely. This policy of isolation led to huge losses for shops owned by Jerusalemites many of whom could not reach their stores. Figures provided by the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights and the Jerusalem Merchants Committee indicate that this constrictive Israeli policy, which has been implemented for the past three years, has led to the closure of an increasing number of shops in the Old City. Today around 300 shops are shuttered, a number which is likely to grow with this recent isolation. Expansion and acceleration of settlements It is clear that Israeli authorities have been exploiting this pandemic to continue settlement projects in Jerusalem and in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. This includes approval for the construction of tens of thousands of housing units in the settlement of “Atarot, north of Jerusalem, approval to start construction in the “E1” settlement project in Tur, Zaayem, Essawiyeh and Ezzariyeh where over 10,000 housing units will be built, approval for the construction of hundreds of thousands of settlement units in “Givat Hamatos” south of Jerusalem and the establishment of a new settlement neighborhood in Beit Hanina. Plans have also been put in place to build a wall separating the village of Sheikh Saad from Jabal Mukkaber. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities are floating a plan to push Shufat camp and Kufr Aqab out of Jerusalem’s municipal borders as a means of dealing with the concerning ”demographic problem” in the city. Impeding the work of health centers While Israel rushed to stymie coronavirus outbreaks in its own residential and settlement centers in Jerusalem, it assumed a policy of discrimination when it came to Palestinian Jerusalemites. Israeli forces purposely delayed the opening of Covid-19 testing centers in Palestinian areas. Furthermore, the majority of Jerusalemites do not speak Hebrew, the language spoken in the various Israeli health insurance funds, not to mention that over 40,000 Jerusalemites do not have access to Israeli health care services under the pretext that they live outside of the unilaterally-designated Jerusalem municipal borders. This policy came in tandem with the crisis already felt by the Palestinian health sector in Jerusalem, reflected in the lack of necessary equipment and medical supplies in the six East Jerusalem hospitals, making them incapable of accommodating dozens of potential Covid-19 patients. The current patients have been distributed in nearby hotels for monitoring while hospitals only have 60 beds available, not to mention the lack in medicines and medical staff they suffer from. Discriminatory measures against the prisoner movement The medical negligence towards Palestinian prisoners during the pandemic is evident by how prison services failed to take the necessary precautionary measures in response to the coronavirus. What’s more, they continued to prohibit anyone from being informed about the conditions of quarantined prisoners in the Megiddo Prison. Israeli prisoner services also banned the entry of over 140 products from the prison commissary, including basic food products such as meat, vegetables, fruit and spices. Cleaning products and disinfectants necessary for prisoners to protect themselves from Covid-19 infection were also banned. Mistreatment of Palestinian laborers There have been several testimonies about Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinian workers inside the Green Line, including returning workers to the Palestinian territories after suspecting they contracted Covid-19. Last month, Israeli soldiers dumped a Palestinian laborer showing symptoms of Covid-19 at the Beit Sira checkpoint without providing him with any treatment. This behavior was repeated at the Hizma military checkpoint, north of Jerusalem. Laborers are returned to the Palestinian territories on an almost daily basis without being tested, which has resulted in the spread of the virus in Palestine. At the same time, Israel unofficially opened its crossings to workers as a way to circumvent Palestinian preventative measures. They offered laborers incentives such as higher daily wages, thus exploiting their difficult living conditions and avoiding any legal obligations towards them. Uprooting residents from their land and homes At the height of the Coronavirus crisis, the Israeli ”civil administration” continued with its policy of confiscating Palestinian land, homes and tents. Some of these facilities were being used as emergency clinics to meet the needs of locals. On March 26, Israeli occupation forces raided Khirbet Ibzeiq in the northern Jordan Valley, confiscating steel rods and canopies designed for setting up eight tents, two equipped as clinics and four as emergency shelters for residents who were forced out of their homes. Two other tents were to be used as a mosque. Israeli forces also confiscated a corrugated-iron trailer that had been in the area for over two years, an electric generator, sand and cement bags and four loads of brick to lay the ground inside the tents. In Ein Diyouk, west of Jericho, Israeli forces demolished three buildings which Jerusalemite farmers use as seasonal residences. In Hebron, Israeli forces tore down a wall separating Wadi Haseen from Wadi Nasara in preparation for closing the entire area and in Deir Ballout in the Salfeet area, they demolished a farm room and water well. It should be noted that in contrast to its measures taken in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Israeli government suspended all demolitions inside Israel during the state of emergency. To View the Full Report as PDF
By: MIFTAH
Date: 26/05/2018
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Palestinian Women: the Disproportionate Impact of the Israeli Occupation
With the support from the Arab Regional Network on Women, Peace, and Security- El Karama, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) has collaborated with the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC), the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD), and Women Media and Development (TAM) in preparing the evidence based report “Palestinian Women: the Disproportionate Impact of the Israeli Occupation.” The report aims to draw on Israeli human rights violations under international law and highlight the effects these violations have on Palestinian women. The report was discussed in a “side event” of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 62nd session in New York during March 2018. The purpose of the side event was to engage regional and international human rights networks and human rights defenders and women movements in advocating for the implementation of human rights provisions through the enforcement of international ratified conventions and agreements. The report includes personal testimonies and quantitative research of four categories of Palestinian women: women refugees, female Jerusalemites subjected to residency revocation/family reunification refusal; female prisoners subjected to gender-based violence and Gazan women, focusing on denial of their access to healthcare. The main findings of the report shed light on the direct discrimination that Palestinian women are subjected to and their effects that are particularly damaging to women. The findings reflect the results of an armed occupation coupled with a patriarchal society and can be contextualized by broader Israeli motives: “to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinians”. Women Refugees (MIFTAH) The report uncovers how Palestinian women living in refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza live under high levels of violence. Many Palestinian refugee women experience a “triangle of oppression” according to MIFTAH, this is due to a combination of violence committed by the Israeli occupation, the daily life and traditional attitudes towards women and they bear the brunt of Israeli abuses while forced to endure in already suppressive and patriarchal environment. MIFTAH found that 33 percent of the interviewed women had been directly exposed to physical assault by Israeli Occupation Forces. As many as 21 percent had been exposed to beatings or tear gas at Israeli checkpoints while they were pregnant, and 4 percent reported that they aborted or gave birth at Israeli checkpoints. Moreover, 24 percent were forced to live in shelters or with extended family and 37 percent had been exposed to detention or interrogation. The physical violence women experience while living in the refugee camps is alarming and the number of psychological violence is even higher. Moreover, 72 percent of Palestinian women feel panicked when they hear the sounds of Israeli bullets, war jets, bombs or Palestinian ambulances, and 88 percent confirm that they feel terrified when Occupation Forces storm the camp. These women live in a mentally stressed environment where it is hard to feel safe because they have experienced or know that physical violence is a part of their everyday life. Recommendations include:
Jerusalem: Residency Revocation and Family Reunification (PWWSD) Palestinian Jerusalemites are facing the challenge of resisting the Israeli forces of removing Palestinians from the region and reshaping east Jerusalem toward a majority of Israelis. Between 1967 and 2016, 14,595 Palestinians from east Jerusalem had their residency status revoked. Israel targets the Palestinian Jerusalemites with their policies of residency revocation and family reunification by making it very difficult to stay in Jerusalem. Palestinian Jerusalemites have to live in Jerusalem to have the residency permit, but if they marry a non-Jerusalemite they cannot live together in Jerusalem without going through the process of family reunification, which is a demanding process with an average waiting period of ten years, it is costly and the Israelis may refuse the application without giving any reason. PWWSD has documented a number of cases of attempted family reunification one of these is Afaf A who explains how she after almost ten years of applying still are denied residence permit: “To this day, we are denied the right to know the true reason as to why I am unable to receive a Jerusalem ID. All in all, this entire case cost me up to nearly 70,000 NIS.” Afaf’s story is a typical example of the burden that reunification places on women’s family life and social relations. The policy of residency revocation forces Palestinian Jerusalemites to leave their homes and it divides families, which can lead to a traumatic fear of separation form children and homes for the women living in Jerusalem. This creates an enormous psychological stain and stress upon women. Israel is denying Palestinians fundamental liberties such as the right to movement and work. This policy also has a negative impact for female victims of domestic violence because they fear going to authorities in case they are forcibly transferred away from their children. Recommendations include:
Female Prisoners (TAM) TAM has contributed with evidence of Israeli violations against female ex-prisoners. Through the testimonies of female ex-prisoners TAM found that violations concerned four themes: “ (1) Physical and psychological torture at the moment of imprisonment; (2) Physical and psychological torture during investigation; (3) Prison conditions and family visits prohibition and (4) Medical Negligence/Denial of Access to Services.” The female ex-prisoners recounts of being kept in solitary confinement for long periods of time without being given a reason, they are treated inhumane by being denied access to sanitation, denied sleep, being beaten and sexually harassed. The family of the female prisoners rarely permitted to visit, which is yet another method to punish the Palestinian women prisoners. Soldiers will deny them to see their family or cut the family visits short
In a testimonies conducted by TAM, Yasmine J a female ex-prisoner describes one of her prison cells like this The Palestinian female prisoners experienced unhygienic prisons cells that are overcrowded and flooding with sewage. The women prisoners describe the food as inedible and the cells as filthy. The conditions in the prisons are very critical and they are not equipped for female prisoners. Often in the prisons there is no awareness for cultural or gender-based sensitivities and invasive bodily searches are a popular method for Israeli soldiers to humiliate the prisoners. Palestinian women are frequently labeled security prisoners and are placed with Israeli criminals that in some cases will extend the assaults and humiliation. Recommendations include:
Access to Health in Gaza (WCLAC) The blockade of Gaza has been going on for 11 years and Israel is not letting go of its grip, actually it seems that Israel is tightening its grip. On the basis of testimonies gathered from women in Gaza has WCLAC highlighted three areas of concern: Israeli border polices health rights and access to health, and the effects of the Israeli blockade on Gaza. The approval rate of patient permits to exit Gaza to be treated has declined rapidly during the recent years. In 2012, 92 percent of patients’ permits were approved while in 2017, the approval rate had declined to 54 percent. In 2016, 31.4 percent of these applications were delayed for months or even years beyond medical appointments the consequence of this is that diseased people get sicker and in some cases this results in death. Israelis are also very observant of what goes into Gaza even when it concerns essential health care, medicine, fuel and adequate nutrition. The approval rate for health related access was 48 percent in 2016. These numbers show clearly how Israel is failing to facilitate humanitarian access and therefore is preventing the development and functioning of human life inside Gaza. The lack of rights to health care is detrimental to pregnant women who are subjected to dangerous risks due to a lack of services and equipment. Abortions, premature births and labor complications are at an increasing rate. The fact that women are not given access to pregnancy related healthcare is gender based discrimination. It is vital for women that the gap in access to maternal and reproductive health care is addressed. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is forcing women, who often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and even permanent disabilities, to neglect their own needs to take care of their families. Recommendations include:
Efforts of the international community Israel’s actions against Palestinian women refugees, women living in Jerusalem, female prisoners, and women living in Gaza, as stressed in the report, are discriminating and in clear violation of International Law and the International Human Rights and are a clear result of the gravity of Israeli officials impunity. The policies outlined in this report contextualized by, wider systems of discrimination against Palestinians. Free movement is being curtailed, individuals are being coerced off their land, and individual rights are being removed. These are fundamental breaches of international law, and must be recognized as ethnic discrimination. The international community has again and again urged Israel to allow the return of the Palestinian refugees, stop the forced eviction and forcible transfer of Jerusalemites, respect the international standards of treatment of women prisoners and let Gazans have access to basic healthcare but the international community’s effort to make Israel change its policies has been ignored and they have failed in holding Israel accountable for its actions. Women’s rights, enshrined in conventions such as CEDAW, Israel and its violent occupation, creeping annexation and ethnic cleansing is bolstered by the failure of the international community to hold Israel to account. Israel and the international community are responsible for the suffering of the various groups of women discussed in this report, as well as the subjugation and suffering of Palestinians. More broadly, Israel will continue to force Palestinians to live as second class citizens without civil, political, economic, social nor cultural rights.
By the Same Author
Date: 01/09/2009
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Bringing Down the House: Home Demolitions in East Jerusalem
In the immediate aftermath of the 1967 War culminating in Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel unilaterally annexed 70.5km² of the occupied area into Israel proper, extending the boundaries of east Jerusalem. In contravention of United Nations Security Council Resolution 252 “reaffirming that acquisition of territory by military conquest is inadmissible,” Israel expropriated these lands into the Jerusalem municipality for the purpose of expanding the Jewish presence in the city. Of the seized lands, 35% or 24.5km² has been earmarked for Israeli settlement development, also in breach of international humanitarian law, specifically Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War prohibiting Israel from transferring fragments of its civilian population into its occupied territories. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of the end of 2008, over 195,000 Israeli settlers inhabited settlements in east Jerusalem. Of further interest, 35% or 24.7% of the expropriated area retains master plans approved by the Jerusalem District Committee, whereas the lingering 30% or 21.3km² continues to remain unplanned since 1967. Yet, 63% or 15.5km² of the lands that are planned have been denoted as non-constructible or public-purpose-serving regions--“green areas.” The remaining 9.2 km²--13% of east Jerusalem’s totality--is all that is at Palestinians’ disposal for construction in east Jerusalem, and thus, triggering a housing crisis on lands which have already largely been built upon. I. Following Palestinians’ Footsteps in Obtaining a Building Permit: Construction is only permissible on lands that are not designated as green areas and reside within the 24.7km² retaining master plans. Prior to commencing construction, a comprehensive plan of the area must be founded and approved. A lack of sufficient public infrastructure--roads, water, and sewage--often impedes authorization for new construction. Building permits will not be granted for construction in areas with deficient public infrastructure, even if the plans had been approved. Strict zoning laws further limit Palestinians’ ability to build in east Jerusalem even when construction permits are granted. Limitations on Palestinian construction density is quite harsh, often reducing their plot ratios to half, or even less, of what is permissible for Israelis in neighboring settlements in east Jerusalem. The end result: harsher plot ratio restrictions leads to fewer housing units for Palestinians in comparison to Israelis, despite the higher population growth rate of Palestinians. As if the aforementioned limitations were not enough, the applicable fees for obtaining a permit are quite high, and often, prohibitive, especially when considering that 2/3 of the non-Jewish population of Jerusalem lives below the poverty line. According to OCHA’s Special Focus of April 2009, the cost for a permit to erect a small 100m² building on a 500m² area of land will roughly total NIS 74,000 or USD 17,620. Note that these fees pertain only to the obtainment of a permit, not the costs accompanying actual construction. Jennifer Urgilez is a Writer for the Media and Information Program at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mip@miftah.org. Date: 23/07/2009
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Hebron's Trail of Tears
Hebron, the southernmost city of the West Bank and settler stronghold, continually and for obvious reasons, falls into an abyss of neglect. In 1997, The Hebron Protocol divided the city into two fractions: H1 and H2. While H1 constituting nearly 80% of Hebron remained under PA control, Israeli military forces assumed responsibility for the internal security and public safety of H2 inhabitants, including that of both Palestinians and Israeli settlers—or at least this was their mandate. Instead, discriminate applications of the law and continuous whitewashing of settler violence is an almost daily occurrence. On a trip to the Abdel Karim Al Jabari home in H2, I became but another witness to the injustices inflicted on local Palestinians, wrongs often excluded from news headlines. At 10:53am, our tour bus parks parallel to the Al Jabari home isolated from its sheep and goat pen, olive trees, and land by concrete walls, fences, and barbed wire reaching a minimal of 12 feet in height. Here we encounter a local political activist who introduces us to Mr. Al Jabari’s daughter and offers us a tour of the land whose mere landscape tells a callous tale of razing, seizing, and trespassing by ideological Israeli settlers living just up the hill in the Givat Ha’avot Jewish settlement. Not even 10 minutes afterwards, an Israeli military jeep enters the family’s land and just stands, observing the internationals’ every move like a hawk awaiting provocation. Taking the military’s arrival, and then that of the police, as a clear signal of our unwanted presence, the coordinators quickly hurry us onto the bus as the officers watch on, ensuring them that our Palestinian “friend” did not board the bus or travel by settler-only roads prohibited to Palestinians. Just when I thought we had evaded the watchdogs, at exactly 11:09am, an Israeli police officer pulls the bus over. According to the policeman, by contacting a political activist, we were engaging in a “political act.” While Yoav, our coordinator and an Israeli-Jew, attempts to ease the officer’s suspicions by assuring him that our visit to Hebron was serving a purely educational purpose, the officer remarks that prior to the entry of such a large group into H2 territory, authorization from Israeli forces should have been sought. Just then, a tour bus carrying 40-plus tourists and two Israeli soldiers passes us by. The picture suddenly becomes clear: in their efforts to repress and censor information accessible to internationals, armed soldiers escort foreign travelers into areas plagued by settler violence. Agitated, waiting impatiently in a bus filled with silence, curiosity, and frustration, I look on as the officer spends nearly 45 minutes on both his mobile and handheld transceiver discussing the “situation at hand” with his superiors. Meanwhile, a combination of at least 20 military and police trucks, jeeps, and cars turn down our street. As I ponder their purpose, I notice a Palestinian mother with her children watching the spectacle from her second floor apartment window. I look up, smile, and wave. Perhaps it was my covert picture-taking of the police or my constant shrugging that revealed my distress, but soon enough, I see this woman whom I had never met trying to comfort me, making hand gestures indicating that it will take a little while, but ultimately, they will let us go. “Istannee,” she says to me in Arabic. “Just wait.” Now, whenever I walk down a Palestinian street and hear someone utter the three-syllable word, "istannee," all I can think of is the woman at the windowsill. How a family, living under constant fear and military barricades, manages not to lose hope is truly remarkable. Al Jabari and his 13 children are representative of Palestinians targeted by Hebron's systematic settler violence. Neither he nor his three physically impaired children have been exempt from assault. The family’s situation is quite dire: as one of Al Jabari’s daughters explains, fearing a settler invasion, an adult male is always present. Yet, irrespective of who is there, whether members of the Al Jabari family or internationals, the settlers attack. Habitually after 10pm, the settlers come down from their tactical safe havens throwing stones, sometimes even shooting bullets at the home while chanting, “Kill the Arabs.” Ideological settlers from Givat Ha’avot routinely intimidate, harass, and target the few Palestinian families wedged between this settlement and Kiryat Arba for standing as obstacles to their linkage and Israeli purification of the H2 area of Hebron. Determined to cleanse H2 of its Palestinian roots, settlers exact a “price” from Palestinians, like the Al Jabari family, who refuse to yield to settler concessions by abandoning or selling their property. Hence, unable to take a direct route to school due to restrictions on Palestinian movement, the Al Jabari children cannot cross their own land without risk of being stoned or attacked, even in the midst of day. The harassment does not end here, however. From erecting a tent serving as a synagogue on their property, to preventing them from harvesting their olive trees, to stealing their goats, the settlers deliberately strangulate the family's livelihood, attempting to drive the Al Jabaris off their own land. Despite the upward trend in settler violence reported by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, in which 31% of total recorded settler-related incidents in the West Bank targeting Palestinians and their property in the first ten months of 2008 occurred in the H2 area of Hebron, Israeli soldiers barely intervene on behalf of Palestinians. Instead, complaints are often made in vain followed by deficient investigations, more often than not, granting the settlers impunity. While the soldiers protect their fellow citizens, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of settler lawlessness, with video cameras provided by human rights organizations, such as B’Tselem, the Al Jabari family and others alike have been able to document the injustices sustained—as a local political activist tells me, “The camera is our gun.” Although international humanitarian law defends Palestinians’ rights, the Israeli government incessantly breaches the safeguards guaranteed to its occupied people under the Hague Convention of 1907 and Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, including protections from forced displacement, transfers of population, and property acquisition. Hebron, a ghost-town-in-waiting in which rows of shops once adorned by keffiyehs, needlework, and Palestinian souvenirs in the Old Souq, or market, have been replaced by tightly shut green metal doors, illustrates the economic strangulation accompanying Israeli-Jewish settlements in the center of what once was a vibrant, robust city. And yet, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu speaks of “natural growth,” not expansion of West Bank settlements. Defying United Nations Security Council Resolution 465 calling on Israel to “dismantle the existing settlements” in flagrant breach of international humanitarian law, Prime Minister Netanyahu conveys an unnerving disregard for the international consensus on the illegality of settlement development in the occupied Palestinian territories. Hence, to no surprise, a quick glance at a comparative map of the West Bank finds the two synonymous—natural growth and expansion. Rather than halting settlement expansion in accordance with international demands, the Israeli government is pursuing an expansionist policy reminiscent of the United States’ Indian Removal Act of 1830 clearing lands east of the Mississippi River of Native Americans for the purpose of establishing American settlements. Similarly, the Israeli government incentivizes settlement growth in the West Bank through subsidies and other monetary inducements. As one Temporary International Presence in Hebron observer notes, “The settlers are stealing inch by inch the land of the Palestinians.” Unless the international community reigns in the occupation, continued expansion is sure to obliterate not only the viability of a two-state solution but predetermine Palestinians’ fate. Is a Trail of Tears next? Jennifer Urgilez is a Writer for the Media and Information Program at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mip@miftah.org.
Date: 15/07/2009
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Bil’in Under Fire: Peaceful Resistance Meets Assailment
The systematic arrest of Bil’in activists begins with the covert intrusion of Israeli soldiers into Bil’in at the stroke of midnight. From the west, soldiers cross the Separation Wall in military vehicles concealed under a blanket of darkness, each entering one by one in 10 minute intervals dropping off soldiers on the eastern side of the barrier. Five to 30 soldiers, depending on the size of the military vehicle, jump off and immediately transition into combat-mode, laying close to the ground, managing to maneuver across the land on their elbows, while signaling the army car to recede back into isolation within two to three minutes of ensuring no opposition in sight. From here, the soldiers clandestinely begin their operation towards the village in silence, veiled by the obscurity of night. They slowly proceed without flashlights, some wearing military camouflage paint while others, black masks. The soldiers circumvent the most direct route into the heart of Bil’in, executing their mission through neglected back roads and fields, keeping a careful eye on the lookout for Palestinians, ready to drop and hide. Often, the activists stand on their rooftops, attempting to catch the soldiers in the act and forewarning each other of the troops' coming. Upon receiving word, Abdullah Abu Rahmah and other activists immediately get in their cars and pursue the predators only to find no evidence of their nearing. Raids usually comprised of approximately 100 soldiers divided into groups of 20-30 men, each encircling the home of an accused stone-thrower at varying hours of the night, are ideal for operations in highly volatile regions, but not to detain a 16-year-old child taking part in a peaceful resistance movement. Witnessing the injustices endured by the villagers of Bil’in as detonated tear gas bombs adorn the eastern side of the wall relates the oppression of occupation under which Palestinians are subjected. Even while its backdrop tells its tale, it was not until my interview of Abdullah Abu Rahmah, a local Bil’in villager and organizing member of the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall, that this story of their subjugation to Israeli raids and arrests became known. Cognizant of Israel’s tightening grip over the West Bank and Gaza Strip, largely as a response to the Aqsa Intifada, the villagers of Bil’in have shunned away from armed struggle, and instead, banded in uniform as a peaceful, nonviolent resistance to the Separation Wall. Setting the ground for the annexation of 49% of Bil’in territory into Israel, the Separation Wall, far from the 1949 Armistice Line, snakes well into the West Bank isolating 1,968 of Bil'in’s 4,040 dunums, or 486 of its 998 acres of land. The inception of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall in January of 2005 afforded activists ripe ground for the genesis of peaceful, Friday demonstrations reminiscent of Women in Black’s non-violent vigils in Israel demanding the “end of the occupation.” Emblematic of the overall catastrophe befallen Palestinians, activists from all walks of life—Palestinian, Israeli, and international—unite in the struggle against economic strangulation, occupation, and apartheid. From resisting the uprooting of olive trees for the construction of the wall, to blockading the bulldozers from gaining entrance to Bil’in roads, to building a small edifice in the midst of dusk between the Modi’in Illit settlement bloc and the Separation Wall to secure access to their lands, the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall refuses to allow the Israeli military to tiptoe around UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and the International Court of Justice July 2004 ruling declaring Israel’s Separation Wall and Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank in breach of international humanitarian law. Fighting the occupation two-dimensionally, through legal contestments and nonviolent public activism, the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall has monitored and challenged the construction of the barrier every step of the way, cornering the government of Israel in its own courtroom. In his judgment of September 4, 2007, President D. Beinisch of the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that the government of Israel must implement an alternative route of the separation barrier on Bil’in land relinquishing both agricultural land in the Dolev riverbed and terrain seized for future development of the eastern region of the Mattityahu settlement. Irrespective of the Israeli High Court of Justice’s decree, the Israeli government has not rerouted the barrier, rather finalized its erection, depicting the already-suspected disconnect between the Israeli government’s judicial and military branches. Inferring from President Beinisch’s judgment and Israeli military operations, settlement growth, and not security motives, lay at the heart of Israeli expansionist policy. Despite the brokering of the Oslo Accords in 1993 partitioning the West Bank into three distinct security enclaves—Area A under absolute Palestinian Authority (PA) control, Area B under PA civil control and Israeli security control, and Area C under complete Israeli military control—as Mr. Abu Rahmah denotes, “Nothing is Area A, everything is Area C.” Commencing on June 23, 2009, the Israeli military initiated its most recent string of raids into the village of Bil’in in spite of its Area A demarcations. In the past three weeks, 15 youth activists have been detained—13 Palestinians, one Israeli, and one American—and scores injured at Friday’s peaceful demonstration with sound bombs, tear gas canisters, rubber-coated bullets, and a foul-smelling chemical spray, a clear use of excessive force against unarmed protesters. Hence, regardless of the detainee’s culpability, an entire military unit is not needed to arrest one individual. Judging from their actions, the Israeli military’s goal is psychological warfare—the brewing of helplessness and terror among Bil’in’s 1,800 residents aimed at freezing the resistance. Surrounding the house, destroying everything in their path, and even confiscating the detainee’s mobile phone at 3:00am can certainly break Palestinian morale. Luma, Mr. Abu Rahmah’s seven-year-old daughter, depicts the constant panic in which these children live. As of late, Luma awakes in the middle of the night, sometimes in screams and tears, calling out for her father. Luma’s sleepless nights are illustrative of the emotional and psychological despair of children in conflict. Moreover, in their attempts to dismantle the movement, the Israeli military specifically targets the youth. For example, on June 23 and 25 of 2009, four children were detained ranging from 16-17 years of age, who during interrogation were forced to release the names of peace activists and information related to the movement’s organizing body. In response, the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, recognizing that the children do not have “experience” in these types of matters, gathered all the youths and with the assistance of a lawyer, “trained” the children on how to act during an Israeli interrogation, and further instructed them not to answer any questions—“I don’t want to speak. I have rights.” If the systematic arrest and injuring of activists is the military’s methodological plan to demolish the movement, it fails to understand the struggle’s resilience—“If they want to arrest us all, they can. But our wives and children will continue the struggle,” admits Abdullah Abu Rahmah. On April 19, 2009, Bassem Abu Rahmah, a peaceful demonstrator, was shot in the chest with a tear gas bomb during one of Bil’in's nonviolent, Friday protests. Thus, if neither the murder of Abu Rahmah, Abdullah's extended family member, nor the 1,300 injuries and 60 arrests endured by activists has broken their spirits, virtually nothing can affect them now. As Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi pursued satyagraha—nonviolence—in his quest for Indian independence, the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall too employs this philosophy in the pursuit of achieving Palestinian sovereignty and absolute freedom from Israeli occupation. The picture is clear: concessions to Israeli “democratic” values and security modus operandi deprive Palestinians of their inalienable human rights. Our common humanity generates a moral duty to uphold the United Nations’ explicit benchmark for an occupying power’s conduct in its occupied territories. Despite big brother’s backing in the Security Council, Israel is not absolved of its responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War—the Separation Wall and settlement activity in the West Bank indeed constitute war crimes. The international community needs to stop playing big-power politics and start dodging the aura of taboo accompanying espousal of the Palestinian plight—accountability is a must and exoneration, pure blasphemy. Jennifer Urgilez is a Writer for the Media and Information Program at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mip@miftah.org.
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