27 july 2020
Palestinian citizens getting ready to travel via the West Bank crossing with Jordan
The Israeli occupation authorities yesterday denied two Palestinian women the right to leave the West Bank via the crossing with Jordan with their newly born babies under the pretext the babies were not registered in Israel despite the fact they are West Bank Palestinian citizens, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates.
It said in a statement that the two babies were registered with their mothers’ documents by the Palestinian Ministry of Interior, but that when the two women arrived at the Israeli-controlled Allenby/King Hussein/al-Karama crossing with Jordan, the Israeli occupation authorities turned them back under the pretext the babies were not registered in the Israeli population registration as well.
Before ending all coordination with the occupying power, Israel, on May 19 following Israel’s decision to annex a large chunk of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority (PA) used to submit to Israel documents about children born in the West Bank or Gaza to include them in the Israeli population registration as they are being added to the identity cards of their parents and issued Palestinian passports. However, with the PA suspending all agreements with Israel and ending coordination with in protest to its annexation plans, this process, as all coordination steps, has stopped.
The Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the Israeli denial for a travel right to the two mothers and their babies to be reunited with their husbands who work in the United Arab Emirate after coming home to give birth before returning to join their husbands.
“This stance by the occupation state is a violation and an infringement of the Geneva Conventions, which guarantee freedom of movement of people under occupation, particularly since the two women carry valid documents for themselves and their babies issued by the State of Palestine, which is under occupation,” said Ahmad al-Dik, from the Foreign Ministry.
The Israeli occupation authorities yesterday denied two Palestinian women the right to leave the West Bank via the crossing with Jordan with their newly born babies under the pretext the babies were not registered in Israel despite the fact they are West Bank Palestinian citizens, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates.
It said in a statement that the two babies were registered with their mothers’ documents by the Palestinian Ministry of Interior, but that when the two women arrived at the Israeli-controlled Allenby/King Hussein/al-Karama crossing with Jordan, the Israeli occupation authorities turned them back under the pretext the babies were not registered in the Israeli population registration as well.
Before ending all coordination with the occupying power, Israel, on May 19 following Israel’s decision to annex a large chunk of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority (PA) used to submit to Israel documents about children born in the West Bank or Gaza to include them in the Israeli population registration as they are being added to the identity cards of their parents and issued Palestinian passports. However, with the PA suspending all agreements with Israel and ending coordination with in protest to its annexation plans, this process, as all coordination steps, has stopped.
The Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the Israeli denial for a travel right to the two mothers and their babies to be reunited with their husbands who work in the United Arab Emirate after coming home to give birth before returning to join their husbands.
“This stance by the occupation state is a violation and an infringement of the Geneva Conventions, which guarantee freedom of movement of people under occupation, particularly since the two women carry valid documents for themselves and their babies issued by the State of Palestine, which is under occupation,” said Ahmad al-Dik, from the Foreign Ministry.
20 july 2020
Five human rights organizations yesterday demanded in a letter to top Israeli officials lifting Gaza travel restrictions imposed under the guise of COVID-19 pandemic.
Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel sent an urgent letter to Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Kamil Abu Rukun, and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit demanding that Israel immediately remove restrictions on movement of people to and from Gaza imposed under the guise of the pandemic.
For four months now, Israel has exploited the health crisis to further entrench the severe closure it has imposed on Gaza for years, while at the same time allowing Palestinian laborers to enter Israel from the West Bank according to its needs, according to a press release by the five organizations.
Restrictions currently being implemented by Israel on travel between Gaza, Israel, and the West Bank via Erez Crossing, which Israel controls exclusively, deny travel even in cases which Israel usually defines as “exceptional and humanitarian,” such as attending the funeral or wedding of a first-degree relative. Consequently, the total number of exits via Erez Crossing in June dropped sharply (218 exits), just 1% compared to the total exits recorded in February (21,032 exits).
In the letter, the organizations point to the disparity in Israel's approach to the West Bank, as opposed to Gaza, where “no changes have been made to the access policy put in place in response to coronavirus.”
The organizations emphasized that anyone entering the Strip is sent to a government-run quarantine facility for 21 days. Therefore, contrary to Israel and the West Bank, no cases of COVID-19 have been identified among Gaza's general population. So long as Israel allows movement within its territory, there is no justification for denying Gaza residents' travel, subject to necessary precautions. Israel's decision to block movement is disproportionate, extremely unreasonable and appears to be motivated by extraneous considerations.
Since the closure on Gaza was tightened further in early March 2020, a first step in measures to curb the pandemic, exits via Erez have been limited mostly to critical medical cases. When the Palestinian Authority (PA) halted coordination with Israel in late May in response to Israel's intention to annex parts of the West Bank, the system that enabled coordination between Israel and Gaza residents collapsed.
In a previous letter to the Defense Minister, COGAT and the Attorney General, the five organizations demanded that Israel identify an alternative mechanism to allow Gaza residents to submit applications even in the absence of Palestinian coordination, highlighting Israel's ultimate control over travel.
In its response, COGAT disavowed Israel’s responsibility for protecting the health of Gaza’s residents and insisted that applications be filed through the PA's coordination committee in Gaza. COGAT also stated that “beyond legal requirement,” applications by Gaza residents for urgent medical treatment could be submitted directly for its consideration.
For months, Gaza residents have had virtually no way of submitting applications for permits issued by Israel, other than for urgent and life-saving treatment. In an urgent letter sent last week, responding to COGAT, the five organizations demanded that the Defense Minister, COGAT and Attorney General ensure travel via Erez for all needs.
According to Israeli and to international law, Israel’s ongoing control over the Strip comes with legal obligations to uphold the rights of Gaza residents, including to freedom of movement.
Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel sent an urgent letter to Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Kamil Abu Rukun, and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit demanding that Israel immediately remove restrictions on movement of people to and from Gaza imposed under the guise of the pandemic.
For four months now, Israel has exploited the health crisis to further entrench the severe closure it has imposed on Gaza for years, while at the same time allowing Palestinian laborers to enter Israel from the West Bank according to its needs, according to a press release by the five organizations.
Restrictions currently being implemented by Israel on travel between Gaza, Israel, and the West Bank via Erez Crossing, which Israel controls exclusively, deny travel even in cases which Israel usually defines as “exceptional and humanitarian,” such as attending the funeral or wedding of a first-degree relative. Consequently, the total number of exits via Erez Crossing in June dropped sharply (218 exits), just 1% compared to the total exits recorded in February (21,032 exits).
In the letter, the organizations point to the disparity in Israel's approach to the West Bank, as opposed to Gaza, where “no changes have been made to the access policy put in place in response to coronavirus.”
The organizations emphasized that anyone entering the Strip is sent to a government-run quarantine facility for 21 days. Therefore, contrary to Israel and the West Bank, no cases of COVID-19 have been identified among Gaza's general population. So long as Israel allows movement within its territory, there is no justification for denying Gaza residents' travel, subject to necessary precautions. Israel's decision to block movement is disproportionate, extremely unreasonable and appears to be motivated by extraneous considerations.
Since the closure on Gaza was tightened further in early March 2020, a first step in measures to curb the pandemic, exits via Erez have been limited mostly to critical medical cases. When the Palestinian Authority (PA) halted coordination with Israel in late May in response to Israel's intention to annex parts of the West Bank, the system that enabled coordination between Israel and Gaza residents collapsed.
In a previous letter to the Defense Minister, COGAT and the Attorney General, the five organizations demanded that Israel identify an alternative mechanism to allow Gaza residents to submit applications even in the absence of Palestinian coordination, highlighting Israel's ultimate control over travel.
In its response, COGAT disavowed Israel’s responsibility for protecting the health of Gaza’s residents and insisted that applications be filed through the PA's coordination committee in Gaza. COGAT also stated that “beyond legal requirement,” applications by Gaza residents for urgent medical treatment could be submitted directly for its consideration.
For months, Gaza residents have had virtually no way of submitting applications for permits issued by Israel, other than for urgent and life-saving treatment. In an urgent letter sent last week, responding to COGAT, the five organizations demanded that the Defense Minister, COGAT and Attorney General ensure travel via Erez for all needs.
According to Israeli and to international law, Israel’s ongoing control over the Strip comes with legal obligations to uphold the rights of Gaza residents, including to freedom of movement.
7 july 2020
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Monday evening kidnaped a Palestinian passenger at the Beit Hanoun (Erez) border crossing in the north of the Gaza Strip as he was trying to get approval for travel to the 1948 occupied lands.
The Gazan passenger, Abdullah Shaker, was intending to go to Israel to donate bone marrow to his sick brother at the Tel Hashomer Hospital.
Instead of being denied travel and sent back to Gaza, the IOF kidnaps many Gazan citizens, including merchants and patients, after they submit requests for travel through the Beit Hanoun crossing and later go there to be interviewed in order to receive final approval.
The Gazan passenger, Abdullah Shaker, was intending to go to Israel to donate bone marrow to his sick brother at the Tel Hashomer Hospital.
Instead of being denied travel and sent back to Gaza, the IOF kidnaps many Gazan citizens, including merchants and patients, after they submit requests for travel through the Beit Hanoun crossing and later go there to be interviewed in order to receive final approval.
2 july 2020
Al-Mezan Center For Human Rights: Press Release:
To mark the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Al Mezan highlights its recent monitoring and documentation concerning the torture and abuse of Palestinian children attempting to cross the Israeli-imposed buffer zone, or access-restricted area, in Gaza.
This documentation shows patterns of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment (CIDTP) affecting all 92 children interviewed, including verbal and physical assault, attack by military dogs, extensive blindfolding, and restraint in painful positions while in Israeli custody.
The Israeli military uses live fire to enforce its movement restrictions in the access-restricted area in the Gaza Strip; however, some Palestinian children in Gaza, citing socioeconomic distress due to Israel’s unlawful closure and blockade that maintains dire humanitarian conditions, were undeterred in their attempts to leave Gaza.
Between 2015-2019, 92 children, who were arrested attempting to cross the perimeter fence, reported abuse during arrest and detention.
Of the 92 children, 91% reported excessive verbal abuse and being forced to take off their clothes and remain restrained in painful positions for long periods of time; 36% reported being beaten during arrest; Israeli soldiers unleashed military dogs in 30% of the cases, and 93% of the children interviewed said they were blindfolded the entire time they were transported to the interrogation center.
The Israeli forces at the separation fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired live ammunition in 72.5% of the cases, and 4% reported being injured even before their arrest. Al Mezan’s monitoring and documentation in that period shows that the military killed eight children in the buffer zone who were attempting to leave Gaza.
These patterns of abuse have been reported for years, in particular in the access-restricted area by sea, where fishermen both inside and outside the Israeli-imposed permitted fishing zone are routinely subjected to unwarranted attacks and harassment, arbitrary arrest, and physical and verbal abuse in custody.
The majority of fishermen are released back into Gaza within one day, indicating that the Israeli authorities lack the grounds to detain the fishermen. Some medical patients from Gaza who have received Israeli-issued permits to seek treatment via Erez crossing have also reported abuse within the checkpoint that would amount to prohibited torture and ill-treatment.
The prohibition of torture is absolute, and while Israel has ratified the UN Convention Against Torture (UN CAT), to date, Israeli law does not include a prohibition or criminalization of torture.
Further, a 1999 Supreme Court decision[1] allows interrogators that used techniques amounting to torture and ill-treatment to be protected from indictment in “ticking bomb” cases under the “necessity defense” clause of Israel’s penal code.
Pervasive trends therefore continue to be documented of state actors and the military torturing and abusing Palestinians, including Gazan children, with impunity. The criminal complaints that Al Mezan pursues on behalf of victims from Gaza are not examined through independent or thorough procedures, and are delayed, with crucial scarce evidence lost, which compounds the fact that the Israeli authorities do not refer torture and ill-treatment victims to hospital where their injuries could be documented.
Palestinians are also vulnerable to torture and CIDTP by Palestinian authorities across the occupied Palestinian territory, making the 92 children susceptible to added abuse upon their release by Israel back into the Gaza Strip. While Palestine also signed UN CAT, the provisions of the Convention have not been incorporated into Palestinian law.
Fundamentally, the political division between the authorities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip contributes to the breakdown in the rule of law, in which torture and other forms of ill-treatment are able to persist.
Al Mezan is alarmed by the reports of the 92 children of torture and CIDTP and demands justice on their behalf. As the prohibition of torture is a peremptory norm of international law that gives rise to the obligation by all States to take action against those who torture, Al Mezan calls for concrete steps by the international community to end Israel’s practices of torture and ill-treatment against Palestinians.
The competent Palestinian authorities must also take all legislative, judicial and administrative measures to end abuse. Finally, Al Mezan’s long engagement with the Israeli justice system definitively evidences the need for the International Criminal Court to urgently conduct a genuine investigation into the use of torture and CIDTP on Palestinian territory.
To mark the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Al Mezan highlights its recent monitoring and documentation concerning the torture and abuse of Palestinian children attempting to cross the Israeli-imposed buffer zone, or access-restricted area, in Gaza.
This documentation shows patterns of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment (CIDTP) affecting all 92 children interviewed, including verbal and physical assault, attack by military dogs, extensive blindfolding, and restraint in painful positions while in Israeli custody.
The Israeli military uses live fire to enforce its movement restrictions in the access-restricted area in the Gaza Strip; however, some Palestinian children in Gaza, citing socioeconomic distress due to Israel’s unlawful closure and blockade that maintains dire humanitarian conditions, were undeterred in their attempts to leave Gaza.
Between 2015-2019, 92 children, who were arrested attempting to cross the perimeter fence, reported abuse during arrest and detention.
Of the 92 children, 91% reported excessive verbal abuse and being forced to take off their clothes and remain restrained in painful positions for long periods of time; 36% reported being beaten during arrest; Israeli soldiers unleashed military dogs in 30% of the cases, and 93% of the children interviewed said they were blindfolded the entire time they were transported to the interrogation center.
The Israeli forces at the separation fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired live ammunition in 72.5% of the cases, and 4% reported being injured even before their arrest. Al Mezan’s monitoring and documentation in that period shows that the military killed eight children in the buffer zone who were attempting to leave Gaza.
These patterns of abuse have been reported for years, in particular in the access-restricted area by sea, where fishermen both inside and outside the Israeli-imposed permitted fishing zone are routinely subjected to unwarranted attacks and harassment, arbitrary arrest, and physical and verbal abuse in custody.
The majority of fishermen are released back into Gaza within one day, indicating that the Israeli authorities lack the grounds to detain the fishermen. Some medical patients from Gaza who have received Israeli-issued permits to seek treatment via Erez crossing have also reported abuse within the checkpoint that would amount to prohibited torture and ill-treatment.
The prohibition of torture is absolute, and while Israel has ratified the UN Convention Against Torture (UN CAT), to date, Israeli law does not include a prohibition or criminalization of torture.
Further, a 1999 Supreme Court decision[1] allows interrogators that used techniques amounting to torture and ill-treatment to be protected from indictment in “ticking bomb” cases under the “necessity defense” clause of Israel’s penal code.
Pervasive trends therefore continue to be documented of state actors and the military torturing and abusing Palestinians, including Gazan children, with impunity. The criminal complaints that Al Mezan pursues on behalf of victims from Gaza are not examined through independent or thorough procedures, and are delayed, with crucial scarce evidence lost, which compounds the fact that the Israeli authorities do not refer torture and ill-treatment victims to hospital where their injuries could be documented.
Palestinians are also vulnerable to torture and CIDTP by Palestinian authorities across the occupied Palestinian territory, making the 92 children susceptible to added abuse upon their release by Israel back into the Gaza Strip. While Palestine also signed UN CAT, the provisions of the Convention have not been incorporated into Palestinian law.
Fundamentally, the political division between the authorities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip contributes to the breakdown in the rule of law, in which torture and other forms of ill-treatment are able to persist.
Al Mezan is alarmed by the reports of the 92 children of torture and CIDTP and demands justice on their behalf. As the prohibition of torture is a peremptory norm of international law that gives rise to the obligation by all States to take action against those who torture, Al Mezan calls for concrete steps by the international community to end Israel’s practices of torture and ill-treatment against Palestinians.
The competent Palestinian authorities must also take all legislative, judicial and administrative measures to end abuse. Finally, Al Mezan’s long engagement with the Israeli justice system definitively evidences the need for the International Criminal Court to urgently conduct a genuine investigation into the use of torture and CIDTP on Palestinian territory.
