THE ASSOCIATION OF CIVIL RIGHTS IN ISRAEL (ACRI)

ACRI’s State of Human Rights Report 2009: Rights on Condition

In its annual survey of the protection of human rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories, ACRI reveals an alarming trend: the conditioning of rights.

According to ACRI, the conditioning of rights is contrary to the principle of the universality of human rights.

Freedom of Expression – If they like what you say: In 2009, there has been a disturbing increase in infringements on freedom of expression, specifically when individuals and organizations criticized the government.
Delegitimization of Human Rights Defenders and Activists: Decision-makers and senior officials within the Israeli government have worked to silence activists and members of social change organizations, whose messages do not correspond to their own.
Arab Citizens of Israel – Rights, if you are loyal: Though Arab citizens of Israel have suffered entrenched discrimination since the establishment of the State, they have faced particularly vicious attacks on their political and civil rights in the past year.
Increased Racism among Different Groups: A survey in the daily Haaretz reported a high level of intolerance of, and among, virtually all sub-groups in Israeli society.
The Right to Adequate Housing – If you are “one of us”: ACRI has documented many instances of illegal discrimination in various housing projects against Arabs, religious groups, members of lower socio-economic classes, and others through acceptance committees, acquisition groups, and other mechanisms
The Right to Health Care – If you can pay: With the increasing privatization of health care and the increase in the cost of co-payments, members of weaker socio-economic classes are surrendering health care and treatments because they cannot afford them.
Occupied Territories – Rights, if you are Israeli: During “Operation Cast Lead”, Israel was responsible for the widespread killing of civilians and continues to view the entire population of Gaza, including minors, as an enemy population, worthy of collective punishment.
In the West Bank, Israelis and Palestinians continue to live in two separate and unequal realities: Palestinians are forbidden from travelling on certain main thoroughfares for the purported benefit of Israelis; Israelis and Palestinians are subject to two separate justice systems, where the military law to which Palestinians are subject is much harsher and neglects their due process rights; Palestinians in the West Bank suffer from a grave shortage of water, again for the benefit of Israelis; and Palestinians continue to be victims of attacks by Israelis in the West Bank, with the Police and military not sufficiently protecting Palestinians as required by law and not punishing the perpetrators adequately.
The Deterioration of Democracy: In 2009, lawmakers repeatedly attempted to pass harmful laws in a secretive and hasty manner, purposely trying to circumvent public debate.
State increasingly ignores Supreme Court rulings, continuing to implement illegal policies, which violate a range of rights, and challenging the basic tenets of Israel’s democratic institutions.

Visit the website: http://www.acri.org.il/eng/story.aspx?id=695

 Read the full report:   http://www.acri.org.il/pdf/state2009en.pdf

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Report Submitted to UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)  Jan 2006

Executive Summary

The first section of the report, “House Demolitions and Discriminatory Planning and Enforcement Policies in the West Bank,” focuses on Israel’s discriminatory planning practices which lead to the lack of building permits for the Palestinian population in the West Bank. This is followed by an analysis of the discriminatory selective enforcement of planning laws on Palestinians living in the West Bank. As a result of these racially discriminatory policies and practices, Israeli settlements are expanding while most Palestinians continue to be prevented from building in most areas controlled by Israel in the West Bank. Unable to obtain permits, Palestinians build without building permits and live under the constant threat of having their homes demolished.

The second section of the report, “The Permit Regime in the Seam Zone between the Separation Barrier and the Green Line,” describes the debilitating impact of the permit regime on the lives of thousands of Palestinians who live and/or pursue their livelihood in the seam zone. As a result of the discriminatory permit regime, the basic situation in the seam zone is that Israelis and even tourists are entitled to enter and stay in the seam zone without being subjected to any constraints whatsoever, whilst Palestinians represent the only “type of persons” who are required to hold a special personal permit in order to do so. The permit regime has turned the lives of Palestinians living near the separation barrier, and those who make a living from farming, in particular, into a bureaucratic nightmare, and severely infringes their rights to live in their own homes, to enjoy basic services such as education, health and sanitation services; it also violates the right to pursue a livelihood of those Palestinians who live on the other side of the separation barrier but have agricultural lands in the seam zone.

The section entitled, “Hebron: Segregationist and Discriminatory Practices Leading to the Destruction of the Center of Hebron and the Expulsion of its Palestinian Population,” describes the ways in which the Israeli settlements established in the heart of Hebron are the cause of the severe infringement of the human rights of the city’s Palestinian residents. The various means used by the Israeli government to encourage and protect the few hundred Israeli settlers living in Hebron, and the means of repression and control it employs against the majority Palestinian population, create egregious and systemic discrimination against Palestinians based solely on their national origin, and is reminiscent of policies characteristic of an Apartheid regime. The results today are clear – Area H-2, once populated by tens of thousands of Palestinians and the economic, social, and cultural center of Hebron, has become (since the establishment of a number of settlements in the heart of the city) a ghost town, heavily “decorated” with hateful, racist graffiti.

Section Four marks a shift from violations of ICERD within the Occupied Territories to violations of the Convention within Israel. “Two Systems of Justice: Discriminatory Detention and Deportation Procedures for Foreign Nationals,” examines the discriminatory regulations relating to deportation that apply to foreign nationals, which greatly deviate from those that are considered acceptable according to the Israeli legal system. This section also provides a brief overview of the excessive use of force employed by the Immigration Police against migrant workers suspected of illegal residence in Israel. Also included in this section are Israel’s violations of the rights of foreign minors who have been abandoned in Israel, and of the rights of asylum-seekers and their families
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Section Five, “Immigration and Access to Citizenship: Entry into Israel, Status in Israel, and the Right to Marriage and Choice of Spouse,” highlights the glaring disparity between the automatic manner in which Jews are granted residency status for themselves, their families, and their offspring, and the tight-fisted policy concerning the opportunities available to non-Jews who wish to acquire status. This creates an immigration policy which violates human rights in general, and the right to not be discriminated against on the basis of ethnic and national origin in particular.

Another area of concern raised in this section is the discrimination against Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, who are liable to lose their status in Israel, and with it their right to enter the country (including East Jerusalem itself), if they obtain foreign residency or citizenship status, or if they reside outside of Israel for a period of at least seven years.

Also examined in this section is the Law of Citizenship and Entry into Israel (Temporary Order), which anchors in law severe racial discrimination against the Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories and violates their right and the right of their spouses (in most cases Palestinian citizens of Israel) to marriage and choice of spouse. The section entitled “Migrant Workers and Employment Rights” explores the ways in which Israel has failed to effectively address the ongoing and severe violations of the employment rights of migrant workers, who represent a particularly vulnerable group within Israeli society. This section also illustrates the fact that migrant workers are not equally protected by the labor laws which apply to Israeli citizens.

The final section of the report, “Racial Discrimination against the Arab Bedouin Residents of the Unrecognized Villages in the Negev in the Areas of Housing and Health Rights,” analyzes the government’s racially discriminatory policy regarding the Bedouins of the Negev. About half the Bedouin Arab population of the Negev lives in nearly 45 unrecognized villages that Israel refuses to recognize by providing a planning structure and converting them into municipalities. The residents of these villages suffer from the non-provision of basic and essential services (such as connections to water and electrical grids, sewer systems, telephone lines, and road networks) and from the inequitable allocation of educational, health, and social services. Furthermore, discriminatory planning policies and practices enable the existence and continued creation of over one hundred villages for the Jewish population in the Negev, while refraining from recognizing and planning the Bedouin Arab villages (most with a population of over 1,000 inhabitants) which have existed since before the establishment of the State, or were created following the forced transfer of the Bedouin population by the State in the early 1950s.

Read the full Report:

http://www.acri.org.il/pdf/CERD0106.pdf

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Law Enforcement upon Israeli Civilians in the OPT: Yesh Din’s Monitoring

Data sheet July 2008

The investigations by the Samaria and Judea (SJ) District Police of offenses by Israeli civilians against Palestinians and their property are met with little success. The findings of a Yesh Din study published in the report “A Semblance of Law: Law Enforcement upon Israeli Civilians in the West Bank” (hereinafter: “A Semblance of Law”) in June 2006 revealed that some 90% of the SJ District Police investigations into such offenses ended in failure: investigation files were closed on the grounds of “lack of evidence” and “perpetrator unknown,” and in some cases complaints were filed and lost and thus never investigated. Along with significant structural problems, including the dependence of police investigators upon IDF escorts in order to reach certain crime scenes, the inadequate manpower at the SJ District, and the lack of trust by Palestinians of the Israeli Police, Yesh Din has identified recurring patterns of
defects and failures in investigations.

http://www.crikey.com.au/Media/docs/080711-Yesh-Din-report-df9f887d-a1d8-4ab8-b3a2-b1e261c47de4.pdf