In annexed East Jerusalem, which Israel considers part of its sovereign territory but remains occupied territory under international law, Israel provides the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living there with a legal status that weakens their residency rights by conditioning them on the individuals connections to the city, among other factors. 2. [342] Israeli Banks Profit from Settlements, May 24, 2018, Human Rights Watch video clip, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__HiXM_8Y94&feature=emb_logo. In February 2021, Israeli authorities announced that they would formally also permit the sale of peppers and zucchini, but, according to Gisha, none have actually exited Gaza due to onerous conditions on shipping the produce. Outside of Office Hours, contact: +91-11-2419-8000. [255] Pocket Guide: The Right to Demonstrate, ACRI et al., 2015, https://bit.ly/2ohIVrD (accessed July 2, 2019). Under the terms of its Memorandum and Articles of Association, the JNF acquires property for the purpose of settling Jews on such lands and properties.[123] In a 2004 court filing, the JNF made clear that it is not a public body that works for the benefit of all citizens of the state. [662] Survey results on file with Human Rights Watch. [726] Haqel and Kerem Navot, Out of Order: Civil Administration Eviction Orders from State Land 2005-2018, December 2019, https://f35bf8a1-b11c-4b7a-ba04-05c1ffae0108.filesusr.com/ugd/a76eb4_a511485a16f74e44a328efaa00e1444f.pdf (accessed June 15, 2020), p. 4; Kerem Navot, Blue and White Make Black, December 2016, https://www.keremnavot.org/blue-and-white-make-black (accessed May 2, 2020). The finding is based on an overarching Israeli government policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians and grave abuses committed against Palestinians living in the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem. [312], In addition, Israeli authorities have almost entirely deprived Palestinians access to water from the Jordan River, the only major surface water resource in the West Bank, by diverting its flow upstream of the West Bank. [817] The Israeli army said that, in the five-year period between July 1, 2014, and June 30, 2019, it prosecuted 4,590 West Bank Palestinians for entering a closed military zone,[818] a designation often used for protest sites. 718 (1977), Order No. The Knesset Research and Information Center found in July 2018 that only 2 percent of industrial zones managed by the government, which generate significant tax income, are located in Palestinian municipalities. [716] Israeli settlement authorities effectively control these lands, including about 540,000 that fall within their formal jurisdiction. The majority of Palestinians in Israel live in these communities, while some live in mixed cities like Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Haifa. [610] In a 2015 study, Yosef Jabareen, a professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, found that there are more than 900 small Jewish towns, including kibbutzim, across Israel that can restrict who can live there and have no Palestinian citizens living in them. The Knesset in 2018 passed a law with constitutional status affirming Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, declaring that within that territory, the right to self-determination is unique to the Jewish people, and establishing Jewish settlement as a national value. [839] Ibid. [565] Her permit expired, Leens presence in the West Bank became illegal, and she said she began to fear getting stopped and removed back to Gaza. However, it did not address other areas of disparity, including welfare services and high school education. The Israeli government has also carried out discriminatory seizures of land inside Israel. Allons logic focused on the strategic and security importance of Israeli control of the West Bank, but in justifying the need for control without formally annexing territory with large Palestinian populations, references the aim to preserve [Israels] Jewish character.[188] Allon certainly appeared motivated by a desire to safeguard the security of Israel and its citizens, as have subsequent officials. [734] Most of the confiscations took place before 1979 when the Israeli Supreme Court restricted the authority of the army to give to settlements privately owned land that it had seized on security grounds. [459] OCHA, East Jerusalem Palestinian Localities Behind the Barrier.. [134] Settlement Watch - Peace Now, Unraveling the Mechanism Behind Illegal Outposts, 2017, http://peacenow.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/unraveling-the-mechanism-behind-illegal-outpots-full-report-1.pdf (accessed June 1, 2020); Preliminary Approval for Settlement Division Bill, Peace Now press release, June 13, 2018, https://peacenow.org.il/en/preliminary-approval-settlement-division-bill (accessed June 1, 2020). [861] Like refugees in other contexts, Palestinian refugees should be given the opportunity to freely decide between returning to their country of origin, local integration, or third-country resettlement. [475] COGAT, Procedure For Settlement In The Gaza Strip By Residents Of Judea And Samaria Area, 2018. [539] Unemployment rates in Gaza have for some time hovered around 50 percent and are higher for young people and women. 84. By contrast to the differences in the treatment of Palestinians, Israeli authorities grant all Jewish Israelis the same rights and privileges regardless of which side of the Green Line they live on. [767], These coercive policies affect many more Palestinians living in these areas, who face demolition orders and the prospect that authorities could at any time raze their homes. [541] Gisha, Hand on the Switch: Whos Responsible for Gazas Infrastructure Crisis? January 2017, https://gisha.org/UserFiles/File/publications/infrastructure/Hand_on_the_Switch-EN.pdf (accessed June 4, 2020), p. 4. The closure adversely affects many aspects of everyday life and contributes to other violations of Palestinians rights, including the right to family reunification, the right to access healthcare, education, and economic opportunities. [658] Israel CBS, Population and Density Per Sq. Israeli authorities have carried out a range of inhumane acts in the OPT. In 1978, the Israeli army seized land in Mas-ha for military purposes.[342] In subsequent years, they declared lands around Mas-ha state land and allocated it to establish the settlement of Elkana in large part on agricultural lands belonging to Mas-ha residents. [175] The government adopted this recommendation and subsequent governments have reaffirmed it. [464] Documents on file with Human Rights Watch. Those policies include limiting the population and political power of Palestinians, granting the right to vote only to Palestinians who live within the borders of Israel as they existed from 1948 to June 1967, and limiting the ability of Palestinians to move to Israel from the OPT and from anywhere else to Israel or the OPT. Early the next morning, she said, officers cuffed her around her feet and hands, put her in a vehicle without windows and drove her to the Erez Checkpoint, where they removed her back to Gaza without her belongings or even her ID card. Those who lose their residency can petition the Interior Ministry to recover their status, during which time they can obtain a temporary status to remain in Jerusalem. 17-18. To obtain permits, Palestinians face an arbitrary, entirely non-transparent bureaucratic system, with no way of assessing the chances that their applications will be approved or how soon, according to the Israeli rights group BTselem. [156] A senior Israeli official at the time wrote that the Palestinian presence in these areas threatened Israeli control, worrying that Palestinians would invade all areas we neglect, strike footholds and establish new roots.[157] Ben Gurion told the Knesset that Israels imposition of military rule over most Palestinians in Israel at the time aimed to protect the right to Jewish settlement in all parts of the state.[158] The plan to Judaize the Galilee focused initially on creating and sustaining Jewish communities such as Nazareth Illit (Hebrew for Upper Nazareth) in 1957, while limiting the growth of nearby Palestinian communities. Israeli authorities have also for more than two decades sharply restricted the use of Gazas airspace and territorial waters by Palestinians. [376] BTselem described these arrests in Issawiya as part of an ongoing campaign of abuse and collective punishment against its residents,[377] documenting how police forces regularly entered the neighborhood to initiate friction block the narrow streets, fire stun grenades, tear gas and sponge rounds and arrest and beat residents.[378] The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which has reported on near-daily raids, patrols, checkpoints, and ambushes in Issawiya, and described the policy as one of collective punishment,[379] found that only a tiny fraction of those arrested have been charged with stone-throwing or other offenses. [755] Israel CBS, Population and Density Per Sq. Israeli authorities have pursued an explicit policy of ensuring Jewish control over geographic areas with strategic importance where there are concentrations of Palestinians across Israel and the OPT. In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army has militarily ruled over Palestinians living there, except in East Jerusalem, which Israel unilaterally annexed in 1967. [164] Concentrating Palestinian Bedouin communities on limited pieces of territory remains at the heart of Israeli government plans for the Negev. In 1973, Israel enabled some absentees to claim compensation for their seized property, but only to those residing in Israel and only effective if claimed within fifteen years. 1079 (1983), and Order No. [751] BTselem, Expel and Exploit, the Israeli Practice of Taking Over Rural Palestinian Land, December 2016, https://www.btselem.org/download/201612_expel_and_exploit_eng.pdf (accessed May 2, 2020), p. 16. [308] World Bank, Assessment of Restrictions on Palestinian Water Sector Development, p. 51. The order was first issued in 1995 and then re-issued in 2002. The language not only excludes the more than 700,000 Palestinians that fled or were expelled from their homes in 1948, along with their descendants,[574] but also those not counted in the population registry due to a perfunctory registration process and those not present or not able to prove their residency either before 1948 or continuously between 1948 and 1952. Nazareth, the largest Palestinian locality in Israel with a population of 77,400,[631] lies in the Galilee region within Israels Northern District. [849] Many Bedouins, though, see the development of these townships as an effort to extinguish their land claims elsewhere in the Negev and do not view them as acceptable residential options, given their lack of involvement in their development and concerns about overcrowding and government neglect. [655] Through these confiscations, Nazareth Illit deepened its footprint in the Galilee, weaving between Nazareth and six other Palestinian villages and impeding the establishment of a larger, contiguous Palestinian municipal area. [787] Israeli authorities set up a restrictive family reunification process that operated until 2000 based on low annual quotas and subject to arbitrary and evolving criteria that failed to take into account genuine familial or historical ties. [735] Since that decision, though, authorities with few exceptions have not returned to their Palestinian owners lands they seized and allocated to settlements prior to the court decision. [761] Meanwhile, Israeli authorities between 2000 and 2018 approved on average fewer than 400 construction permits a year for Palestinians in East Jerusalem. [180] Entry into Israel Law, 5712-1952, (unofficial translation), HaMoked - Center for the Defence of the Individual, http://www.hamoked.org/files/2011/2240_eng.pdf (accessed June 1, 2020). [64] See, for example, Miles Jackson, Expert Opinion on the Interplay between the Legal Regime Applicable to Belligerent Occupation and the Prohibition of Apartheid under International Law, Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Center, March 23, 2021, https://www.diakonia.se/globalassets/documents/ihl/ihl-resources-center/expert-opinions/apartheid-and-occupation---expert-opinion---miles-jackson.pdf (accessed March 27, 2021). In December 2019, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda concluded a nearly five-year preliminary inquiry into the Palestine situation and determined that all the statutory criteria to proceed with a formal investigation of alleged serious crimes by Israelis and Palestinians had been met. These seizure orders did not change the title to the land, premised as they were on the assumption that the occupation is temporary. [828], Second, the Israeli government declared many Palestinian towns and villages, particularly those outside the enclaves that Palestinians lived in during the period of military rule, as closed areas. It then passed in 1953 the Land Acquisition Law, which, building on a prior emergency regulation, permitted the state to take ownership of land uncultivated since 1948. [794] Application on Behalf of the Respondents for Summary Dismissal of the Petition in Response to the Application for a Temporary Injunction, HaMoked, September 2, 2007, http://www.hamoked.org/items/9073_eng.pdf. [770] Peace Now, Policy of Palestinian dispossession in the Jordan Valley and Northern Dead Sea, Factsheet, 2017, https://peacenow.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/JordanValleyEng.pdf (accessed June 15, 2020). She said she has considered returning to Gaza, but she worries about how life in Gaza would affect her three young boys. Throughout most of this area, Israel is the sole governing power; in the remainder, it exercises primary authority alongside limited Palestinian self-rule. [228] It also rises to an intention or intentions of maintaining that regime [or regimes of systematic oppression and domination], as set out in the Rome Statute definition of apartheid,[229] and a discriminatory intent or intents, as part of the customary international law definition of persecution. Salfit is one of eleven Palestinian governorates in the West Bank. [301] Military Order 158: Order Concerning Amendment to Supervision Over Water Law, October 30, 1967, published in JMCC, Israeli Military Orders, p. 22. [178] Quoted in BTselem, A Policy of Discrimination: Land Expropriation, Planning and Building in East Jerusalem, January 1997, https://www.btselem.org/sites/default/files/publications/199505_policy_of_discrimination_eng.pdf (accessed August 16, 2020), pp. [401] In January 2016, the Jerusalem district court ordered the municipality to build more playgrounds in the Palestinian neighborhoods of Shuafat and Beit Hanina, after residents of those neighborhoods alleged that they only had two playgrounds to serve a combined population of 60,000, while nearby Jewish neighborhoods had a playground for every 1,000 residents. [480] Israeli authorities have consistently failed to meet their obligations as an occupying power. [495] Raoul Wootliff, Parts of Gaza Sent Back to Stone Age: Gantz Videos Laud His IDF Bona Fdes, Times of Israel, January 20, 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/only-the-strong-survive-gantzs-new-campaign-videos-laud-his-idf-bona-fides/ (accessed June 4, 2020). [245] Order Concerning the Administration of Local Councils, Israeli Military Order No. Israeli authorities have since retained control over the OPT. [416] Yesh Din, Petitions to Halt Construction of Illegal Structures Near the Settlement Kochav Yaakov and Annul the Declaration of Kafr Aqab Land as State Land, July 19, 2018, https://www.yesh-din.org/en/petition-to-halt-construction-of-illegal-structures-by-the-settlement-of-kochav-yaakov-hcj-650509-barkat-et-al-v-the-minister-of-defense-et-al/ (accessed June 4, 2020); Michael Sfard, Yesh Din legal advisor, email to Human Rights Watch, May 8, 2020. [135] Human Rights Watch, Separate and Unequal: Israel's Discriminatory Treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2010), https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/iopt1210webwcover_0.pdf, p. 35; Preliminary Approval for Settlement Division Bill, Peace Now press release, June 13, 2018, https://peacenow.org.il/en/preliminary-approval-settlement-division-bill (accessed June 1, 2020). 29-30; Gisha,Separating Land, Separating People: Legal Analysis of Access Restrictions between the West Bank and Gaza, June 2015, https://bit.ly/2MJaYc4pp (accessed June 4, 2020), footnote 5, pp. Theres a need for the existence of a Jewish state.[100] He later added that authorities had a correct and important intention of Israel being a Jewish state with a massive Jewish majority and that we must do everything so that this state remains a Jewish state in the future.[101] Giora Eiland, national security advisor at the time, who served on a committee in 2005 examining immigration policies, conceded that the Citizenship Law is the way to overcome the demographic demon.[102] Then-finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu put it more directly during discussions over renewing the law: Instead of making it easier for Palestinians who want to get citizenship, we should make the process much more difficult, in order to guarantee Israels security and a Jewish majority in Israel.[103] Eli Yishai, while serving as minister of interior affairs, said in 2012 that approving a larger number of family unification applications from the West Bank would constitute national suicide.[104], In practice, the Interior Ministrys policies and practices have long aimed at ensuring Jewish Israeli demographic control. Israeli security forces manning checkpoints require Palestinians to present an identification card before allowing passage for travel within the OPT, including to schools, jobs, hospitals or to visit family. [334] Israel CBS, Population and Density Per Sq. [153] One of the law's sponsors, David Rotem of the Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party, told the Knesset in December 2009 that such a law would allow towns to be established by people who want to live with other Jews. In a radio interview that month, Rotem said the law would codify screening procedures so that Jewish Israelis could establish a place where everybody is an army veteran, a Yeshiva alumni, or something of that sort. Another sponsor, Yisrael Hasson of the Kadima party, said in December 2010 that "the bill reflects the Knesset's commitment to work to preserve the ability to realize the Zionist dream in practice in the state of Israel" through "population dispersal which the government had begun "thirty years ago [with] a string of small communities in the Galilee and Negev." The 1950 Law of Return, which guarantees Jews the right to immigrate to Israel and gain citizenship, defines Jew to include a person who was born of a Jewish mother, embracing a descent-based, as opposed to a purely religious, classification. Cease business activities that directly contribute to the crimes of apartheid and persecution. See PCBS, Palestinians at the end of 2020, (Arabic), December 2020, http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Downloads/book2546.pdf (accessed March 22, 2021). [216] As a central part of their policy, Israeli authorities have enforced what they call a policy of separation between Gaza and the West Bank, which they say serves both security and political goals.[217] In March 2019, the Jerusalem Post reported that Netanyahu justified allowing funding from Qatar to enter Gaza to support Hamas authorities in order to maintain the divide between Fatah and Hamas and thereby the separation between the West Bank and Gaza. Knesset Expected to Renew the Citizenship Law Despite Dissolution of the Knesset, Mossawa Center press release, n.d., http://www.mossawa.org/eng/?mod=articles&ID=800 (accessed May 3, 2020). 179;Prosecutor v. Kayishema and Ruzindana, ICTR, Case No. To sustain Jewish Israeli control, Israeli authorities have adopted policies aimed at mitigating what they have openly described as a demographic threat that Palestinians pose. Inside Israels pre-1967 borders, Palestinians hold citizenship, the right to vote and free movement, and encounter less severe policies and practices, but still face institutional discrimination and other abuses. [685] Human Rights Watch interview with Nazareth Illit general manager Hava Bachar, February 3, 2020; Israel: Discriminatory Land Policies Hem in Palestinians, Human Rights Watch news release. Their actions and policies further dispel the notion that Israeli authorities consider the occupation temporary, including the continuing of land confiscation, the building of the separation barrier in a way that accommodated anticipated growth of settlements, the seamless integration of the settlements sewage system, communication networks, electrical grids, water infrastructure and a matrix of roads with Israel proper, as well as a growing body of laws applicable to West Bank Israeli settlers but not Palestinians. This policy, which aims to maximize Jewish Israeli control over land, concentrates the majority of Palestinians who live outside Israels major, predominantly Jewish cities into dense, under-served enclaves and restricts their access to land and housing, while nurturing the growth of nearby Jewish communities. [31] The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which has 182 states parties,[32] including Israel and Palestine, declares that States Parties particularly condemn racial segregation and apartheid and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction.[33], Beyond its mere prohibition, apartheid has also been recognized as a crime against humanity for more than 50 years. [807] Israel: Jerusalem Palestinians Stripped of Status, Human Rights Watch news release. The legitimate objective of ensuring security does not negate an illegitimate intent to dominate or discriminate that is inherent in these policies. The graphics for the report were developed in partnership with Visualizing Impact, whose effort was led by Jessica Anderson and Yosra El Gazzar. In the occupied West Bank, Israel subjects Palestinians to draconian military law and enforces segregation, largely prohibiting Palestinians from entering settlements. The concept, which dates back more than one hundred years and became clearly part of international criminal law in the 1945 Charter of the International Military Tribunal that created the court that prosecuted members of the leadership of Nazi Germany in Nuremberg, refers to a small number of the most serious crimes under international law.[21]. [19] For cases relating to issues in the West Bank and Gaza, see, for example, Yesh Din et al. This finding is based on the discriminatory intent behind Israels treatment of Palestinians and the grave abuses carried out in the OPT that include the widespread confiscation of privately owned land, the effective prohibition on building or living in many areas, the mass denial of residency rights, and sweeping, decades-long restrictions on the freedom of movement and basic civil rights. According to historian Benny Morris, Israeli officials gave the order to uproot all the residents of Nazareth, but the commander of the nascent Israeli armys brigade given the order, Ben Dunkelman, refused to carry it out, and authorities eventually allowed the city to surrender. Most importantly, we wish to thank the Palestinian, Israeli, and other human rights defenders and activists who for years have documented and courageously spoken out against the serious abuses documented in this report and the men and women who shared their stories with us. [749] Second, the Israeli army has issued formal no-construction orders, primarily along roads and parts of the separation barrier, on more than 488,600 dunams of Palestinian land in the West Bank, as documented by Kerem Navot. Following annexation, Israeli officials set a target ratio of 70% Jews and 30% Arab, although planners later acknowledged that this goal is not attainable in light of the demographic trend and adjusted it to a 60-40 percent target. [236] Human Rights Watch, Forget About Him.. [326] Shaul Arieli, Messianism Meets Reality: The Israeli Settlement Project in Judea and Samaria: Vision or Illusion, 1967-2016, November 2017, https://www.shaularieli.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/messianism-meets-reality.pdf (accessed June 1, 2020), p. 20. [643] Abu Arab said his family lost their home and about 200 dunams of land they owned in the village. They could also lose benefits under Israels national insurance program, which provides social welfare benefits, such as healthcare, unemployment benefits, and support payments for children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. [512] Between 2010 and 2017, the Palestinian rights group Al-Mezan documented 976 incidents of live fire at sea, resulting in five deaths and 250 incidents in which Israeli authorities seized boats or other equipment, allegedly for traveling beyond the permissible fishing zone. [390] Ateret Cohanim aims to create a Jewish neighborhood in the heart of Silwan, putting 700 Palestinians at risk of eviction. IT-92-14/2, Judgement (Trial Chamber III), February 26, 2001, para. 38-39. Israeli authorities refused to register at least 270,000 Palestinians who were outside the West Bank and Gaza when the occupation began in 1967 and revoked the residency of nearly 250,000, mostly for being abroad for too long between 1967 and 1994. Israeli military records show other parcels of land as sold by Palestinians to Israeli settlement entities. [275] Fatalities Since Operation Cast Lead, BTselem, January 19, 2009 - January 31, 2021, https://www.btselem.org/statistics/fatalities/after-cast-lead/by-date-of-event (accessed March 4, 2021). [641] Some other Safuriyya residents also managed to return, which prompted Israeli authorities in January 1949, as historian Benny Morris documented, to forcibly expel residents who remained in the village or had returned there. Alon and Benn, Netanyahu: Israel's Arabs Are the Real Demographic Threat, Haaretz. [793] Israeli authorities have cited the security situation following the outbreak of the second Intifada as the rationale for the freeze,[794] but they have not explained why their blanket refusal to process new applications is necessary for security reasons. Between June 2007 and October 2014, Israeli authorities on average permitted only 14 truckloads of goods to exit per month, according to Gisha. Despite withdrawing its settlers and ground troops, Israel has remained in critical ways the supreme power in Gaza, dominating through other means and hence maintaining its legal obligations as an occupying power, as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations (UN), among others, have determined. The essential tech news of the moment. Annexation does not change East Jerusalems status as occupied territory under international law. [391] Court Rules to Evict Palestinian Rajabi Family in Silwan because of Discriminatory Property Law, Peace Now press release, January 20, 2020, https://peacenow.org.il/en/the-court-ruled-to-evict-a-palestinian-family-from-its-home-in-silwan-because-the-property-was-owned-by-jews-before-1948 (accessed June 4, 2020); Nir Hasson, The Judaization of an East Jerusalem Neighborhood Gains Steam, Haaretz, November 2, 2015, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-judaization-of-e-j-lem-quarter-gains-pace-1.5415648 (accessed June 4, 2020); High Court of Justice Paves Way for Cleansing of Palestinians from Silwan, BTselem press release, November 22, 2018, https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/2018122_batan_al_hawa_ruling (accessed June 4, 2020). [445] An official from the municipal council observed that the only place left to build is towards the sky.[446], Although Jerusalemites living in Kufr Aqab pay the same municipal taxes as those living in other Jerusalem neighborhoods, public infrastructure, resources and services are significantly degraded or lacking entirely.[447] In February 2015, the municipalitys deputy legal advisor acknowledged to Ir Amim that the Municipality encounters difficulties servicing Kufr Aqab. [396] Jerusalem Municipal Data Reveals Stark Israeli-Palestinian Discrepancy in Construction Permits in Jerusalem, Peace Now press release, September 12, 2019, https://peacenow.org.il/en/jerusalem-municipal-data-reveals-stark-israeli-palestinian-discrepancy-in-construction-permits-in-jerusalem (accessed June 4, 2020). 2 (2012), pp. [484] Gisha, Changes at Rafah Crossing, n.d., https://gisha.org/updates/1688 (accessed September 17, 2020). [605], These dynamics most dramatically manifest themselves in the Negev, where discriminatory Israeli policies and practices leave about 90,000 Palestinian Bedouins living in unrecognized informal communities, where their homes face the constant threat of demolition. Samia: Samia, a 27-year-old English teacher, traveled to Jordan in 2016 for her studies. https://www.knesset.gov.il/laws/special/eng/citizenship_law.htm (accessed June 1, 2020); See Inhumane Acts and Other Abuses of Fundamental Rights section. [605] ACRI et al., Kaminitz Law (Draft Planning and Construction Law) (Amendment 109) 5776-2016, Position Paper. [219] See BTselem and HaMoked, Separated Entities: Israel Divides Palestinian Population of West bank and Gaza Strip, September 2008, https://www.btselem.org/download/200809_separated_entities_eng.pdf (accessed December 20, 2011). 12.4; UN Human Rights Committee (HRC),CCPR General Comment No. She has spoken to lawyers to file a request to change her address, she said, but they have told her that the odds are quite low that Israel will allow her to establish legal residence in the West Bank, and that the process will take significant time. [444] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Kufr Aqab municipal council employee (name withheld), May 13, 2020. [623] Mossawa Center, Position Paper from the Mossawa Center on the Israeli State Budget and The Government Decision for Economic Development in the Arab Community for the Years 2016-2020, 2016, http://www.mossawa.org/eng//Public/file/0Position%20Paper%20Budget%202016-2020.pdf (accessed June 10, 2020). [339] Human Rights Watch, Occupation Inc.: How Settlement Businesses Contribute to Israels Violations of Palestinian Rights (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2016), https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/01/19/occupation-inc/how-settlement-businesses-contribute-israels-violations. The Rome Statute identifies the crime against humanity of persecution as the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity, including on racial, national, or ethnic grounds. The barrier entirely encircles the city, which is home to more than 55,000 Palestinians. [398] Data on Demolition and Destruction in the West Bank, OCHA. Discriminatory restrictions and burdens imposed by Israeli authorities restrict the entry and exit of goods in and out of Gaza and limit the access of Gazans to basic services, such as electricity and water. [627] Sikkuy and Injaz, From Deficits and Dependence to Balanced Budgets and Independence., [628] Mossawa Center, The 2019 State Budget and Government Resolution 922.. Palestinians from the villages near Road 443 instead rely on the fabric of life roads on which it takes them much longer to reach Ramallah or any destination beyond the several other small villages located alongside the road. The Israel CBS includes in its figures all residents of the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, as well as Israeli settlers in the West Bank. [636], Slated to belong to the Arab State under the 1947 UN partition plan, Nazareth came under Israeli control in July 1948. Two landowners from Bruqin, a village in an isolated pocket south of the cluster of settlements, told Human Rights Watch that soldiers have for the past 20 years blocked residents from accessing 100 dunams of land they own next to the settlement of Bruchin, southwest of Ariel. Others, including the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law and freeze of the OPT population registry, use security as a pretext to advance demographic objectives. [496] BTselem, WhitewashProtocol: The So-Called Investigation of Operation Protective Edge, September 2016, https://www.btselem.org/download/201609_whitewash_protocol_eng.pdf (accessed June 4, 2020). The cluster of settlements grew out of a 1977 Israeli government plan formulated by Ariel Sharon, then agriculture minister and chairperson of the Ministerial Committee for Settlement Affairs, to fortify Israeli control in the western West Bank. A/9030 (1974), 1015 U.N.T.S. Ramallah is a big one. Kufr Aqab has since the building of the barrier attracted Jerusalemites married to Palestinians from other parts of the West Bank, who under Israels Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order)2003 cannot obtain permanent status through marriage to a Jerusalem resident. 1423 (1995), available at https://bit.ly/2DfDTOA (accessed May 3, 2020). [141] The Israeli government has a ministry focused on the development of the Galilee and the Negev, has invested significantly in these areas, and has considered it a major government priority for much of the past two decades. In the nearly two decades since the erection of the barrier, Israeli authorities have effectively stopped governing in Kufr Aqab, failing to police, regulate construction, or in large part provide services to residents. [588] Mordechai Kremnitzer, Israel's Top Court Decided Not to Disqualify Arab Lawmaker, but Its Lack of Conviction Is Disturbing, Haaretz, February 10, 2020, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-israeli-court-didn-t-disqualify-arab-mk-but-its-lack-of-conviction-is-disturbing-1.8521477 (accessed June 1, 2020). [123] Adalah, Excerpts from the Jewish National Funds Response to H.C. 9205/04 and H.C. 9010/04, December 9, 2004, https://www.adalah.org/uploads/oldfiles/eng/publications/makan/hc9010.pdf (accessed June 1, 2020). The Interior Ministry has revoked this status from at least 14,701 Palestinians since 1967, mostly for failing to prove a center of life in the city. Israel recognized Gaza as part of a single territorial unit with the West Bank in the 1995 Oslo Accords. [462] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Moien Odeh, May 7, 2020. [624] Or Kashti, For Jews and Arabs, Israels School System Remains Separate and Unequal, Haaretz, July 7, 2016, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-for-jews-and-arabs-israels-school-system-remains-separate-and-unequal-1.5406700?lts=1593971995108 (accessed July 14, 2020). See Systematic Oppression section, p. 26. She lost hope and even told [her] fianc to break up with me, if we are not able to get together. He refused, she said, and they continue to look for a way to live together. [261] In law and in practice, Palestinian children in the West Bank enjoy far fewer protectionsIsraeli forces regularly arrest children during nighttime raids, interrogate them without a guardian present, and hold those as young as 12 in lengthy pretrial detention. [80] Knesset, Proclamation of Independence, https://www.knesset.gov.il/docs/eng/megilat_eng.htm (accessed June 1, 2020). (accessed January 23, 2012). 2021. [565] See Inhumane Acts and Other Abuses of Fundamental Rights section. No international criminal case has ruled on the definition of racial group in the context of the crime against humanity of apartheid. 4, Summer 2001: pp. When one Nazareth resident sought to enter a public park in the nearby predominantly Jewish city of Afula in June 2019, security guards barred her entry upon learning that she was from Nazareth, just months after Afulas mayor promised to act against the conquest of the park, calling for residents to hoist Israeli flags throughout the park and play music in Hebrew, and campaigned on a platform of preserving the Jewish character of Afula.[681] The city reversed course and agreed to open its park to all visitors following a lawsuit by Adalah. Separately from the inhumane acts committed in the OPT, the Israeli government has carried out other abuses against Palestinians within its pre-1967 borders. [98] These policies create a reality where a Jewish citizen of any other country who has never been to Israel can move there or to a West Bank settlement and automatically gain citizenship, while a Palestinian refugee expelled from his home and languishing for more than 70 years in a refugee camp in a nearby country cannot move to either Israel or the OPT. [581] Revital Hovel, Supreme Court Rejects Citizens' Request to Change Nationality From 'Jewish' to 'Israeli', Haaretz, October 3, 2013, https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-court-israeli-isn-t-ethnicity-1.5343897 (accessed June 4, 2020). If you have many products or ads, [241], Israel ostensibly built the separation barrier for security purposes, starting in 2002 during the second Intifada. [415] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Kufr Aqab municipal council representative (name withheld), May 17, 2020. [110] Israel: End Restrictions on Palestinian Residency, Human Rights Watch news release, February 5, 2012, https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/02/05/israel-end-restrictions-palestinian-residency. [813] The Defense (Emergency) Regulations, 1945, available at http://www.imolin.org/doc/amlid/Israel/The_Defence_Emergency_Regulations_1945.pdf (accessed May 3, 2020). 140-147; Joel Beinin, Was the Red Flag Flying There? [812] Human Rights Watch, Born Without Civil Rights. [779] Rome Statute, arts. 23-25. [351] In a 2009 report, BTselem documented how Ariels wastewater had since the mid-1990s flowed south towards the city of Salfit where it merged with Salfits sewage and flows westward into Bruqin and Kufr ad-Dik. [805] HaMoked, Ministry of Interior Data: 18 East Jerusalem Palestinians Were Stripped of their Permanent Residency Status in 2020.. 179; , ICTY, Case No. [303], Israel has used its control over parts of the Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank to serve its own citizens and settlers, in contravention of international humanitarian law which prohibits occupiers from exploiting natural resources for its own economic benefit. See also Meron Benvenisti, Why Does Jerusalem No Longer exist? (Hebrew), Haaretz, May 29, 2011, https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/education/1.1175494 (accessed June 1, 2020). [790] BTselem and HaMoked, Perpetual Limbo, p. 20. [144] Zafrir Rinat and Haaretz correspondent, PMO Issues Rush Order for 30 New Towns in Negev, Galilee, Haaretz, July 20, 2003, https://www.haaretz.com/1.5347089 (accessed June 1, 2020). [515] Israel MFA, Security Cabinet Declares Gaza Hostile Territory, September 19, 2007. [211] Israel CBS, Localities (1) And Population, By Municipal Status And District (2), 2004. https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/doclib/2004/2.%20shnaton%20population/st02_13.pdf (accessed June 1, 2020). She said her fianc twice applied for permits to visit Gaza, but Israeli authorities denied him both times; once due to Jewish holidays and the other without reason. Those who have a checking or savings account, but also use financial alternatives like check cashing services are considered underbanked. The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which came into force in 2002, sets out 11 crimes that can amount to a crime against humanity when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.[22] The statute defines attack as a course of action involving the multiple commission of acts pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy. Widespread refers to the scale of the acts or number of victims,[23] whereas systematic indicates a pattern or methodological plan.[24] Crimes against humanity can be committed during peace or armed conflict. [748] Kerem Navot, A Locked Garden, Declaration of Closed Areas in the West Bank, March 2015, https://f35bf8a1-b11c-4b7a-ba04-05c1ffae0108.filesusr.com/ugd/cdb1a7_5d1ee4627ac84dca83419aebf4fad17d.pdf (accessed May 2, 2020). Between 2005 and 2019, police closed 91 percent of the complaints tracked by the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din of reported settler violence against Palestinian persons and property without indicting anyone. [673] Algazy, Nazareth Rejects Another Raw Deal for Its Future, Haaretz; Human Rights Watch phone interview with Ramiz Jaraisy May 5, 2020. [129] KKL-JNF and Its Role in Settlement Expansion, Peace Now press release, February 4, 2020, https://peacenow.org.il/en/settler-national-fund-keren-kayemeth-leisraels-acquisition-of-west-bank-land (accessed June 1, 2020). Many of these communities also have no reliable access to water sources and have to spend up to one-sixth of their income to purchase water from small, portable water tankers. The 1952 Citizenship Law also authorizes granting citizenship based on naturalization. The army has further cited the broad definition of incitement in its military laws, defined to include praise, sympathy or support for a hostile organization and attempts, orally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in the Area in a manner which may harm public peace or public order, to criminalize speech merely opposing its occupation. These longstanding policies and systematic practices box in, dispossess, forcibly separate, marginalize, and otherwise inflict suffering on Palestinians. [691] William Booth and Ruth Eglash, High Above Nazareth, an Israeli Mayor Wants to Keep His City Jewish Now and Forever, Washington Post, September 20, 2013, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/high-above-nazareth-an-israeli-mayor-wants-to-keep-his-city-jewish-now-and-forever/2013/09/19/1a3fd172-2157-11e3-ad1a-1a919f2ed890_story.html (accessed June 10, 2020). [190] Shaul Arieli, Messianism Meets Reality: The Israeli Settlement Project in Judea and Samaria: Vision or Illusion, 1967-2016, November 2017, https://www.shaularieli.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/messianism-meets-reality.pdf (accessed June 1, 2020). [313], Israeli policies in Area C further restrict Palestinian water access. Permanent residents may live, work, and receive benefits, but that status derives from their presence, can be revoked at the Interior Ministrys discretion, and does not automatically pass to ones children or non-resident spouse even if they have lived in Jerusalem for years. Israel: Reject Law Separating Spouses, Human Rights Watch news release, May 22, 2005. https://www.hrw.org/news/2005/05/22/israel-reject-law-separating-spouses; Declaration regarding Area Closure (Prohibition on Entry and Stay (Israelis) (Area A), 5761-2000 (Hebrew), Israel Defense Forces, October 5, 2000, https://www.nevo.co.il/law_html/law65/666_039.htm (accessed July 14, 2020); Also see Umm Forat, For an Israeli Married to a Palestinian, Family Unification Is Forbidden, Haaretz, June 1, 2020, https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/for-an-israeli-married-to-a-palestinian-family-unification-is-forbidden-1.8886935 (accessed May 3, 2020). It declared Gaza hostile territory and took a range of measures aimed at, among other things, weakening the economy. For example, the 1980 Drobles Plan, which guided the governments settlement policy in the West Bank at the time and built on prior plans, called for authorities to settle the land between the [Arab] minority population centers and their surroundings, noting that doing so would make it hard for Palestinians to create territorial contiguity and political unity and remove any trace of doubt about our intention to control Judea and Samaria forever., In Jerusalem, the governments plan for the municipality, including both the west and occupied east of the city, sets the goal of maintaining a solid Jewish majority in the city and a target demographic ratio of 70% Jews and 30% Arabslater adjusted to a 60:40 ratio after authorities acknowledged that this goal is not attainable in light of the demographic trend.. Fully respect the human rights of Palestinians, including those in the OPT, as well as the protections owed to Palestinians in the OPT under international humanitarian law. [73] Although the prosecutor did not require formal judicial authorization to move forward with a formal investigation, she nonetheless sought a ruling from the courts judges on the ICCs territorial jurisdiction before proceeding. [782] Human Rights Watch, Forget About Him., [784] Gisha, Changes at Rafah Crossing.. In the beginning [in 1978 and 1979], they took 100 dunams and put caravans there. [359] UNICEF and the Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG), Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Monitoring Program (WASH MP), Water for Life, June 2011, https://www.unicef.org/oPt/WASH_MP_Final_Report_2009__WP_21_June.pdf (accessed June 4, 2020), p. 39. Israel maintains full control over the majority of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Area C. In Areas A and B, where Palestinians have a limited degree of self-rule and which comprises the remaining roughly 40 percent of the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem, it concentrates Palestinians, according to BTselem, into 165 non-contiguous territorial islands.[751], The mass confiscation of Palestinian land and restrictions that block Palestinians from recovering what authorities seized from them or using their lands amount to the inhumane act of expropriation of landed property under the Apartheid Convention. Israel has long defined itself as the nation-state of the Jewish people, as enshrined in its 2018 Basic Law: IsraelThe Nation-State of the Jewish People. [15] In August, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Israel would delay the move following an agreement with the United Arab Emirates, but noted that there is no change to my plan to extend sovereignty over the West Bank. [168] Jerusalem Outline Plan 2000 on file with HRW. [197] The Scarcity of Water, Emerging Legal and Policy Responses, International Environmental Law and Policy Series (Kluwer Law International: 1997), Edward H. P. Brans, Esdier J. de Haan, Andr Nollkaemper, and Jan Rinzema (eds. [289] World Bank, Palestinians Access to Area C Key to Economic Recovery and Sustainable Growth, October 8, 2013, https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/10/07/palestinians-access-area-c-economic-recovery-sustainable-growth (accessed June 4, 2020). 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