GEZEGEND EN VROLIJK SUIKERFEEST 2023!

AAN ALLE ISLAMITISCHE  LEZERS VAN MIJN WEBSITE EEN

GEZEGEND EN VROLIJK SUIKERFEEST TOEGEWENST

Vriendelijke groeten/Astrid Essed

NOTEN 1 T/M 26

NOOT 1

NOOT 2

NOTEN 3 EN 4

NOTEN 5 EN 6

NOTEN 7 EN 8

NOTEN 9 EN 10

NOTEN 11 EN 12

NOTEN 13 T/M 16

NOTEN 17 T/M 21

NOTEN 22 EN 23

NOTEN 24 T/M 26

[24]

ZIE EERDERE BRIEVEN ASTRID ESSED AAN SUPERMARKT

VOMAR

[25]

”Zwaar zieke patiënten worden vaak door Israël geweigerd om Gaza te verlaten voor medische behandeling die in Gaza niet voorhanden is”

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

BEVOLKING VAN GAZA AANGEWEZEN OP

OVERLEVEN

Na een verscherping van de Israëlische blokkade van de Gazastrook sinds 5 november, is de humanitaire situatie er erger dan ooit. Gaza is onderworpen aan nooit geziene beperkingen op toevoer van voedsel en hulp. Bakkerijen zijn gesloten door een tekort aan bloem, ziekenhuizen hebben gebrek aan energievoorziening.

Op 5 november kwam er einde aan het staakt-het-vuren dat sinds 19 juni van kracht was tussen Israël en Hamas in Gaza. Ondanks het staakt-het-vuren liet Israël geen echte verbetering van de humanitaire situatie toe. Sinds het eind van het staakt-het-vuren is de situatie nog verder achteruit gegaan. De gevolgen van de blokkade waren nog nooit zo zwaar voor de Palestijnse bevolking.

Tussen 5 en 24 november werden slechts 60 vrachtwagens met hulpmiddelen in Gaza toegelaten. In 2006 waren dat dagelijks nog 4000 voertuigen. De hoeveelheid VN-hulpgoederen die Israël binnenlaat, is te beperkt om in de basisbehoeften van de Palestijnse bevolking in Gaza te voorzien en maar net voldoende om te overleven.

“Gaza zit compleet door haar voorraden heen. De bevolking in Gaza had al bijzonder weinig te eten. Nu hebben ze nog minder. Soms kunnen ze zelfs geen brood kopen,” zegt Lore Van Welden, woordvoerster van Amnesty International Vlaanderen.

“Ondertussen liggen er ook bergen afval op straat. Door een tekort aan brandstof en elektriciteit komt er dagelijks rioolwater in zee terecht en loopt de watervoorziening mank. Er is een tekort aan veevoeder, meststoffen en zaden voor eigen voedselproductie en er is amper energie beschikbaar.”

Zwaar zieke patiënten worden vaak door Israël geweigerd om Gaza te verlaten voor medische behandeling die in Gaza niet voorhanden is. Daarvoor geeft Israël ‘veiligheidsredenen’ op zonder dat daar enig bewijs voor is.

Op 25 november overleed Karima Abu Dalal. Ze leed aan een geneesbare vorm van kanker. Een jaar geleden stelde een kankerspecialist van de Israëlische organisatie Physicians for Human Rights Israel: “Dit is een jonge vrouw die zal sterven als ze geen behandeling krijgt. Als ze die behandeling wel krijgt, zijn haar kansen op herstel optimaal.” Meermaals kreeg Karima geen vergunning om Gaza te verlaten. Het is onaanvaardbaar dat mensen daardoor sterven.

Als bezettende macht moet Israël toezien op het welzijn en bescherming van de rechten van de bevolking van Gaza. Beperkingen moeten gericht zijn op specifieke individuen die een veiligheidsrisico vormen. Nu lijdt de hele bevolking eronder. Dergelijke collectieve bestraffing is ontoelaatbaar.

“Israël komt haar verantwoordelijkheden tegenover de bevolking van Gaza zoals vastgelegd in internationaal humanitair recht niet na. Israël heeft het recht en de plicht haar bevolking te beschermen tegen raketaanvallen. Dat zijn immers ook zware schendingen van het internationaal recht. Maar schendingen van internationaal recht door de ene partij, hoe zwaar ook, mogen nooit een rechtvaardiging zijn voor misbruiken door de andere partij,” zegt Lore Van Welden.

Humanitaire hulp is momenteel bijzonder prangend. Het leven van duizenden Palestijnen hangt er van af. Amnesty International roept de Israëlische autoriteiten met aandrang op om een einde te maken aan de blokkade van Gaza zodat voedsel, medische hulp en brandstof door hulporganisaties geleverd kunnen worden. Enkel zo kan er een einde komen aan deze humanitaire catastrofe en kunnen Palestijnen een waardig leven leiden.EINDE BERICHT

”Almost 840 Palestinians died awaiting a permit to leave the besieged enclave for treatment between 2008 and 2021”

MIDDLE EAST EYE

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL PERMIT DENIAL

FOR GAZA’S CHILDREN DOUBLES IN

PAST YEAR, WARNS REPORT

Almost 840 Palestinians died awaiting a permit to leave the besieged enclave for treatment between 2008 and 2021

Israeli authorities have rejected a third of medical permit requests for Palestinian minors in the besieged Gaza Strip, almost double the previous year, according to new data.

A report by the Tel Aviv-based Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) found that 32 percent of requests to reach either occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank or Jordan to receive urgent medical care for children were rejected in 2021, compared with 17 percent in 2020. 

Out of 2,578 requests, 812 were either denied passage or have had their applications significantly delayed.

Ghada Majadle, director of the occupied territories department at PHR, said Israel was complicit in “a serious and ongoing crime that is harming patients, especially minors”. 

PHR, which relied on figures provided by the Israeli army through freedom of information requests, said there were several reasons for the spike in rejections, including restrictions put in place as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in May 2021.

In an 11-day bombing campaign, the Israeli army killed 256 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded nearly 2,000, including more than 600 children.

Palestinian rockets killed 13 in Israel, including two children.

The Israeli army turns down permit requests when a minor’s guardian’s application is rejected based on unspecified security reasons or due to purported errors in the submitted documents. 

At times, this compels minors, as young as mere months old, to leave without a parent. 

In one case, the permit of a seven-month-old’s mother was rejected, forcing the baby’s sick grandmother to substitute for her, Majadle told Middle East Eye. 

While receiving treatment in Jerusalem, the grandmother’s health worsened and she had to return to Gaza, leaving the baby alone in the hospital. 

PHR then petitioned for the mother to come in her place, and she was granted entry after a two-day wait. 

“Separating children from their parents during treatment has physical and psychological effects on the patients,” Majadle said.  

According to expert medical opinion, children deprived of their parents’ company during treatment respond to medicine slower and less effectively, she added.

‘Arbitrary’ permit system 

Under a 15-year-old Israeli-led blockade and repeated bombing campaigns, health infrastructure in the Gaza Strip has been debilitated.

According to the United Nations, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and PET/CT scans are unavailable. 

This leaves patients of the two million-strong Palestinian population, who are in need of vital and life-saving medication, with no option but to seek treatment abroad. 

However, Israeli authorities – which control Gaza’s airspace, seafront, vehicle and pedestrian access – limit their travel through the Beit Hanoun crossing.

Exceptions are made for what they deem “exceptional humanitarian circumstances”.

Between 2008 and 2022, around 30 percent of patient permits were denied or delayed, with applicants receiving no definitive response by the date of their hospital appointment, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Of those, 24 percent were cancer patients and 31 percent were children. Between 2018-2021, around 43 percent of children travelled without parents.  

WHO also recorded 839 deaths of patients while they were waiting for a permit response from Israel between 2008 and 2021. 

In a report published in May, the UN body called on Israel to “end the arbitrary delay and denial of permits for Palestinian patients in need of essential care and ensure unhindered access for patients and their companions throughout the occupied Palestinian territory”. 

Majadle said that as the occupying power over Gaza, Israel bears the full responsibility for ensuring the welfare of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

“It’s easier to examine the impact on one segment of society, like children for example,” she said. “But it’s important to highlight that the entire permit regime by the Israeli authorities impacts the health of everyone in Gaza, and to the same extent in the occupied West Bank.”

[26]

ZIE NOOT 22

[22]

CONTINUING STORY/DE NOS EN DE FASCISTISCHE ISRAELISCHE 

REGERING/ASTRID ESSED ZIT DE NOS OP DE HUID!

20 JANUARI 2023

[23]

”Heb je wel gehoord van de zeven, de zevenHeb je wel gehoord van de zevensprong
Ze zeggen dat ik niet dansen kan
Ik kan dansen als een edelman
Dat is één, dat is twee, dat is drie
Dat is vier, dat is vijf, dat is zes
En dat is ze-he-ven!”

DE LIEDJESKIST

”HEB JE WEL GEHOORD VAN DE ZEVENSPRONG”

Heb je wel gehoord van de zeven, de zeven
Heb je wel gehoord van de zevensprong
Ze zeggen dat ik niet dansen kan
Ik kan dansen als een edelman
Dat is één

Heb je wel gehoord van de zeven, de zeven
Heb je wel gehoord van de zevensprong
Ze zeggen dat ik niet dansen kan
Ik kan dansen als een edelman
Dat is één, dat is twee

Heb je wel gehoord van de zeven, de zeven
Heb je wel gehoord van de zevensprong
Ze zeggen dat ik niet dansen kan
Ik kan dansen als een edelman
Dat is één, dat is twee, dat is drie

Heb je wel gehoord van de zeven, de zeven
Heb je wel gehoord van de zevensprong
Ze zeggen dat ik niet dansen kan
Ik kan dansen als een edelman
Dat is één, dat is twee, dat is drie
Dat is vier

Heb je wel gehoord van de zeven, de zeven
Heb je wel gehoord van de zevensprong
Ze zeggen dat ik niet dansen kan
Ik kan dansen als een edelman
Dat is één, dat is twee, dat is drie
Dat is vier, dat is vijf

Heb je wel gehoord van de zeven, de zeven
Heb je wel gehoord van de zevensprong
Ze zeggen dat ik niet dansen kan
Ik kan dansen als een edelman
Dat is één, dat is twee, dat is drie
Dat is vier, dat is vijf, dat is zes

Heb je wel gehoord van de zeven, de zeven
Heb je wel gehoord van de zevensprong
Ze zeggen dat ik niet dansen kan
Ik kan dansen als een edelman
Dat is één, dat is twee, dat is drie
Dat is vier, dat is vijf, dat is zes
En dat is ze-he-ven!

[17]

THE RIGHTS FORUM

ISRAEL GEEFT GROEN LICHT VOOR RECORD AANTAL NIEUWE

WONINGEN IN ILLEGALE NEDERZETTINGEN

25 FEBRUARI 2023

Met de goedkeuring van een ongekend aantal nieuwe woningen in de illegale Israëlische ‘nederzettingen’ geeft de regering-Netanyahu uitwerking aan haar radicale uitgangspunten. Bijkomende maatregelen kleuren de toekomst nog somberder.

De Israëlische autoriteiten keurden deze week de bouw van 7.157 woningen in de illegale kolonies – ‘nederzettingen’ en ‘buitenposten’ – op de bezette Westelijke Jordaanoever goed. Daarvan kregen er 1.900 definitief groen licht, terwijl 5.257 woningen goedkeuring kregen in de voorlaatste fase van het planningsproces. Hun definitieve goedkeuring is een kwestie van tijd. Het aantal van 7.157 is een record: niet eerder werden in één klap zoveel nieuwe woningen goedgekeurd. Het aantal overstijgt nu al het aantal woningen dat in heel 2022 (4.427) en heel 2021 (3.645) groen licht van de autoriteiten kreeg.

Het besluit is geen verrassing, gezien de beleidsuitgangspunten die het twee maanden geleden aangetreden kabinet-Netanyahu formuleerde. Volgens uitgangspunt nummer 1 heeft ‘het Joodse volk een exclusief en onvervreemdbaar recht op alle delen van het Land Israël’, en zal de regering de kolonisering van al die delen stimuleren, inclusief de bezette Syrische Golan-hoogvlakte en de Palestijnse Westoever, aangeduid met de bijbelse termen ‘Judea en Samaria’.

De nieuwe woningen komen ten goede aan 37 nederzettingen en een vijftal met terugwerkende kracht ‘geautoriseerde’ buitenposten. Ze liggen verspreid over de hele Westoever, blijkt uit een overzicht van Peace Now, de Israëlische waakhond die het illegale koloniseringsproject op de voet volgt. De organisatie berekent dat de uitbreiding neerkomt op een toename van het aantal kolonisten met meer dan 35 duizend; kolonistenhuishoudens tellen gemiddeld ten minste vijf leden. Per 1 januari van dit jaar woonden er volgens Israëls ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken al 502.991 kolonisten op de Westoever (exclusief Oost-Jeruzalem).

Buitenposten ‘geautoriseerd’

De goedkeuring volgt op het besluit van het Israëlische kabinet van twee weken geleden om tien buitenposten te ‘autoriseren’, ter vergelding van terreuraanslagen door individuele Palestijnen in Jeruzalem. Buitenposten zijn nederzettingen die niet door de Israëlische autoriteiten zijn gepland en goedgekeurd. Ze zijn vaak gesticht door een handvol gezinnen die zich met steun van kolonistenorganisaties in caravans of prefabwoningen op Palestijns land vestigen. Ze zijn niet alleen illegaal onder internationaal recht, zoals de wel geplande nederzettingen, maar ook onder Israëlische wetgeving

Tegen buitenposten worden doorgaans dan ook ontruimings- of sloopbevelen uitgevaardigd, vaak onder druk van Israëlische mensenrechten­organisaties. Daar blijft het echter bij; slechts bij hoge uitzondering worden buitenposten daadwerkelijk ontmanteld. In de praktijk kunnen ze doorgroeien en worden ze op zeker moment aangesloten op het elektriciteitsnet, de waterleiding en andere infrastructuur.

De tien ‘gelegaliseerde’ buitenposten, waarvan sommige al meer dan twintig jaar geleden werden gesticht, voldoen volgens Peace Now naadloos aan dit beeld. Ze liggen alle geheel of gedeeltelijk op particulier Palestijns land en tegen vrijwel alle woningen zijn lang geleden sloopbevelen uitgevaardigd. Drie van de tien liggen bovendien geheel of gedeeltelijk op militaire oefenterreinen (‘firing zones’), waar de Palestijnse bevolking plaats dient te maken voor het Israëlische leger.

Het meest schrijnende voorbeeld daarvan is de buitenpost Avigayil, die gedeeltelijk in de beruchte Firing Zone 918 ligt, waar duizend inwoners van acht Palestijnse dorpen met deportatie worden bedreigd – zie ook onze petitie. Terwijl de autochtone Palestijnse bevolking dient te vertrekken wegens ‘illegale vestiging op een militair oefenterrein’, wordt de illegale Israëlische buitenpost Avigayil op datzelfde oefenterrein door Israël ‘gelegaliseerd’.

Vijftien nieuwe nederzettingen

Samen met de vijf nu geautoriseerde buitenposten sticht Israël in feite 15 nieuwe nederzettingen in bezet Palestijns gebied, schrijft Peace Now. Dat is des te ernstiger daar de buitenposten fors mogen uitbreiden; in meerdere gevallen is sprake van een verveelvoudiging van het aantal inwoners. De Israëlische gewoonte, ook nu toegepast, om de buitenposten als ‘nieuwe wijken’ aan bestaande nederzettingen toe te voegen – een door ons vaker beschreven fenomeen – is volgens de organisatie louter bedoeld om dit feit te maskeren. In veel gevallen liggen de buitenposten kilometers verwijderd van de nederzettingen waarvan zij zogenaamd deel uitmaken.

Peace Now betitelt de Israëlische besluiten van de afgelopen twee weken als ‘de facto annexatie’ van Palestijns grondgebied, bedoeld om het tot wasdom komen van een soevereine Palestijnse staat onmogelijk te maken. De organisatie waarschuwt eens te meer dat de Israëlische kolonisering een oorlogsmisdaad is en bovendien neerkomt op de misdaad van apartheid:

De jure annexatie

De recente besluiten zijn niet de enige alarmerende ontwikkeling, waarschuwt Peace Now. Als kers op de taart besloten de Israëlische autoriteiten eergisteren om een plan voor de bouw van een nieuwe nederzetting in het E1-gebied (East One) uit de mottenballen te halen. Het plan behelst de bouw van 3.412 woningen in het gebied, waar ook het met deportatie bedreigde bedoeïnendorp Khan al-Ahmar ligt, en vormt ‘een fatale klap’ voor het perspectief op een Palestijnse staat, aldus Peace Now. Het plan was onder druk van de internationale gemeenschap van tafel verdwenen, maar wordt op 27 maart opnieuw besproken.

Minstens zo alarmerend is de toekenning, eveneens eergisteren, van vérgaande bevoegdheden met betrekking tot de nederzettingen aan minister van Financiën Bezalel Smotrich van de partij Religieus Zionisme. Tijdens de kabinetsformatie eiste de ultranationalist Smotrich die bevoegdheden op, en met dat doel werd binnen het ministerie van Defensie een speciale ministerspost voor hem gecreëerd, die nu formele afbakening kreeg.

Smotrich en zijn partij zijn fervente voorstanders van Israëlische annexatie van de Westoever, zonder toekenning van gelijke rechten aan de Palestijnse bevolking. Het verder uitbreiden van de nederzettingen en het in overeenstemming brengen van de wettelijke status van de kolonisten met die van de Israëlische bevolking zijn concrete doelen waarvan Smotrich nu voortvarend werk zal gaan maken. Komt hiermee een de jure annexatie van (delen van) de Westoever al nadrukkelijk in het vizier, de overdracht van verantwoordelijkheden van de militaire autoriteiten naar Smotrich komt daar hoe dan ook op neer, betoogt de bekende Israëlische advocaat Michael Sfard.

Religieus extremisme

Illustratief voor Smotrich en zijn missie is dat hij twee weken geleden spoorslags afreisde naar de juist geautoriseerde buitenpost Givat Harel, om de heuglijke mijlpaal met gebed en vertier te vieren met zijn vriend Shivi Drori, de stichter van de buitenpost. De geschiedenis van de buitenpost, deze week belicht in een artikel van Associated Press (AP), is kenmerkend voor de ontwikkeling van het Israëlische koloniseringsproject op de Westoever.

Drori plaatste in 1998 drie caravans op een heuveltop, gehoor gevend aan de oproep van toenmalig minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Ariël Sharon om ‘te rennen en zoveel mogelijk heuveltoppen in te nemen om de nederzettingen uit te breiden, want alles wat we nu pakken zal van ons blijven’. De Israëlische overheid en de lokale kolonistenraad – de Binyamin Regional Council – zorgden ervoor dat de buitenpost werd aangesloten op het elektriciteitsnet, de waterleiding en het wegennet, en bewaking kreeg van Israëlische militairen.

Hoewel tegen de woningen sloopbevelen werden uitgevaardigd, kon Givat Harel onbelemmerd uitgroeien tot een goed onderhouden dorp met negentig gezinnen en een bloeiende, door Drori bestierde wijnmakerij (Gva’ot), die volgens AP jaarlijks 100 duizend flessen exporteert. De wijngaarden liggen deels op land dat toebehoort aan de Palestijnse dorpen Sinjil en Qaryut.

De inwoners van het iets lager gelegen Palestijnse dorp Turmus Aya, dat de afgelopen decennia delen van zijn land geconfisqueerd zag door de Israëlische nederzettingen Shiloh en Shvut Rachel, gaan gebukt onder de bekende kolonistenterreur, zo blijkt uit het AP-artikel. Zij zien de autorisatie van de buitenpost als een veeg teken, maar moeten volgens Drori niet zeuren: ‘als ze hier willen blijven’ hebben ze zich te voegen naar de besluiten van de Israëlische regering, punt uit.

Drori beschouwt zichzelf als een ‘pionier’ in een vijandig, maar door God aan de Joden beloofd land. In die opvatting is het overnemen van het hele voormalige mandaatgebied Palestina – from the River to the Sea – niets minder dan een goddelijke opdracht. Het is een extremistische visie die door Smotrich, zelf woonachtig in de nederzetting Kedumin, en veel kolonisten wordt gedeeld, en die direct na het begin van de Israëlische bezetting in 1967 de motor vormde achter de start van het illegale koloniseringsproject.

EINDE BERICHT

TELEGRAAF

ISRAEL PLANT BIJNA 4500 NIEUWE HUIZEN OP

WESTELIJKE JORDAANOEVER

JERUZALEM – Israël wil bijna 4500 nieuwe woningen bouwen voor kolonisten op de Westelijke Jordaanoever. De regering heeft de plannen donderdag goedgekeurd volgens Peace Now, een groep die tegen de Israëlische nederzettingen is. Wanneer de bouw van de huizen zal beginnen is nog niet bekend.

De minister van Binnenlandse Zaken Ayelet Shaked reageerde door het “een feestelijke dag voor de nederzettingen op Judea en Samaria” te noemen, de Bijbelse benamingen voor het gebied op de Westelijke Jordaanoever.

Internationale kritiek

Vorige week kondigde Shaked al aan met plannen voor nieuwe woningen te komen. Dat kwam haar op veel internationale kritiek te staan, onder anderen van de Amerikaanse president Joe Biden.

De Palestijnse autoriteiten roepen de internationale gemeenschap op “stappen tegen Israël te ondernemen om de nederzettingen en agressie tegen het Palestijnse volk te stoppen”. De meeste landen beschouwen de Israëlische nederzettingen op de Westelijke Jordaanoever als illegaal. In de nederzettingen wonen naar schatting 470.000 Israëliërs.

EINDE BERICHT

THE RIGHTS FORUM

ISRAEL KONDIGT BOUW VAN NOG EENS 2860 WONINGEN

IN ILLEGALE NEDERZETTINGEN AAN

29 OCTOBER 2021

[18]

”En zoals u zult weten, zijn kolonisten bewoners van in bezet gebied gestichtenederzettingen, die illegaal zijn volgens het Internationaal Recht [4] EN regelrechte landdiefstal, omdat zij worden gebouwd op gestolenPalestijns land of, zoals in het geval van Oost-Jeruzalem bij die uitgezettePalestijnse families, gestolen Palestijnse huizen.Waarbij Israelische kolonisten vaak ook nog eens verantwoordelijk zijnvoor bijna dagelijks geweld tegen de bezette Palestijnse bevolking! [5]”

SUPERMARKT VOMAR, STOP MET DE VERKOOP VAN ISRAELISCHE

PRODUCTEN!

ASTRID ESSED

4 SEPTEMBER 2021

[19]

ISRAELISCHE NEDERZETTINGEN, ILLEGAAL VOLGENS HET INTERNATIONAAL RECHT

”It is unlawful under the Fourth Geneva Convention for an occupying power to transfer parts of its own population into the territory it occupies. This means that international humanitarian law prohibits the establishment of settlements, as these are a form of population transfer into occupied territory”

ICRC.ORG [INTERNATIONALE RODE KRUIS]

WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY ABOUT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SETTLEMENTS

05-10-2010 FAQ

When a territory is placed under the authority of a hostile army, the rules of international humanitarian law dealing with occupation apply. Occupation confers certain rights and obligations on the occupying power.

• International Review of the Red Cross, No 885, special issue on Occupation
• Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 49.  

Prohibited actions include forcibly transferring protected persons from the occupied territories to the territory of the occupying power. 
It is unlawful under the Fourth Geneva Convention for an occupying power to transfer parts of its own population into the territory it occupies. This means that international humanitarian law prohibits the establishment of settlements, as these are a form of population transfer into occupied territory. Any measure designed to expand or consolidate settlements is also illegal. Confiscation of land to build or expand settlements is similarly prohibited. 

ZIE OOK

[20]

”The establishment of the settlements contravenes international humanitarian law (IHL), which states that an occupying power may not relocate its own citizens to the occupied territory or make permanent changes to that territory, unless these are needed for imperative military needs, in the narrow sense of the term, or undertaken for the benefit of the local population.”

BTSELEM.ORG

SETTLEMENTS

From 1967 to the end of 2017, more than 200 Israeli settlements were established in the West Bank. They include:

• 131 settlements officially recognized by the Israeli Ministry of the Interior;
• About 110 settlements built without official authorization but with governmental support and assistance (known as “illegal outposts”);
• Several settlement enclaves inside the city of Hebron;
• 11 neighborhoods in the areas of the West Bank that Israel annexed to the municipal jurisdiction of Jerusalem in 1967, and several settlement enclaves within Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

Another 16 settlements that had been established in the Gaza Strip, and four in the northern West Bank, were dismantled in 2005 as part of the Disengagement Plan.

Settlements are the single most important element shaping life in the West Bank. Their destructive impact on the human rights of Palestinians far exceeds the hundreds of thousands of dunams seized to build them.

More than 620,000 Israeli citizens currently reside in settlements. Of these, about 209,270 live in the parts of the West Bank that Israel annexed to the municipal jurisdiction of Jerusalem (according to Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research figures from late 2016), and 413,400 live throughout the rest of the West Bank (according to Central Bureau of Statistics figures from late 2017).

The settlements are the single most important factor in shaping life in the West Bank. Their destructive impact on the human rights of Palestinians extends far beyond the hundreds of thousands of dunams [1 dunam = 1,000 sq. meters], including farmland and grazing areas, that Israel appropriated from Palestinians in order to build them. More land has been expropriated to pave hundreds of kilometers of roads for settler use only; roadblocks, checkpoints, and other measures that limit Palestinian movement only have been erected based on the location of settlements; Palestinian landowners have been effectively denied access to much of their farmland, both within settlements and outside them; and the winding route of the Separation Barrier, which severely violates the rights of Palestinians living near it, was established inside the West Bank in order to leave as many settlements as possible – and large tracts of land for expanding them – on the western side of the barrier.

All the settlement practices in the West Bank share the same objective, although those employed in the urban areas of Hebron and East Jerusalem – where Palestinians have also been dispossessed of their homes and of other structures – take a different form. 

In the early years of the occupation, the main ploy that Israel used to take over land for building settlements was to seize the land “for military purposes”. Military seizure orders were issued for some 31,000 dunams, most of which were earmarked for building settlements. In June 1979, the military issued a seizure order for privately-owned land near Nablus, which was slated for establishing the settlement of Elon Moreh. Several Palestinians petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ), arguing that the seizure violated international law, since it served a civilian purpose of building a settlement rather than true military needs. The court had rejected this argument in previous petitions, accepting the state’s claim that settlements contribute to security.

In this case, however, top security officials stated that building a settlement at that location would serve no military purpose. Also, some of the settlers joined the proceedings as respondents, explaining to the court that it was their intention to settle in the area permanently, for religious and political reasons, rather than to promote security. Given these unique circumstances, the court could not rule that the establishment of the settlement would serve military needs – although it did not rule out such a possibility in general. The justices restricted their decision to the specific case of Elon Moreh, ruling that the land seizure was meant to serve a civilian rather than military purpose and therefore breached international law. The court did not completely deny the possibility of seizing private land for building settlements, but held that when the dominant reason for issuing a seizure order is the establishment of a civilian settlement rather than military considerations, the order is unlawful.

This ruling made it difficult for Israel to continue seizing Palestinian land as it had done until that point. Instead, it required the state to obtain agreement between top security officials on the military advantage of every planned settlement, and to ensure that the settlers kept their intentions to themselves. To circumvent this, the government announced that it would thereafter build settlements only on land that had been declared state land.

However, when the state sought such land, it discovered that only some 687,000 dunams were considered state land at the time, mostly in the Jordan Valley and in the Judean Desert. This frustrated the governmental plan to build settlements along the central mountain ridge of the West Bank. Therefore, the state came up with a new system for declaring state land.

This system was founded on rewriting legal provisions and applying a completely different approach to the Ottoman Land Code, which governs land ownership in the West Bank, than the standard interpretation applied until then. The new approach made it much easier to declare state land, even when the land in question was considered private or collective Palestinian property under British and later Jordanian rule. One method for achieving this was requiring Palestinians to regularly cultivate farmland as a prerequisite to acquiring ownership rights; another was to disregard the provisions of local law, which grants Palestinian communities collective rights to use grazing areas and other public land. By employing these new tactics, from 1979 to 2002 Israel declared more than 900,000 dunams as state land. There are now some 1,200,000 dunams of state land in Area C, constituting 36.5% of Area C and 22% of the entire West Bank. An additional 200,000 dunams of state land are located in areas A and B, where planning is in the hands of the Palestinian Authority.

A comparative survey carried out by B’Tselem in the area of Ramallah revealed massive differences between the amount of land that Jordan defined as government property in areas registered before the occupation, and the amount that Israel declared state land in areas that the Jordanians had not managed to register prior to 1967. The results of the survey indicate that a significant proportion of the land that Israel declared as state land is actually private Palestinian property that was taken from its lawful owners through legal maneuvering, in breach of both local and international law.

This process of land takeover also contravenes basic tenets of due process and natural justice. In many cases, the Palestinian residents were not aware that their land had been registered as state property and when they found out, it was too late to appeal. The burden of proof always lies with Palestinians claiming ownership; even if landowners did manage to prove their ownership over the land, in some cases it was registered state land based on the claim that it had been handed over to a settlement “in good faith”.

Even if all the declarations of state land were lawful, public land – including the land declared as government property prior to 1967 – is meant to serve the population of the occupied territory, i.e. the Palestinian public, not the State of Israel or its citizens. However, Israel prohibits Palestinian use of this land almost entirely and considers it Israeli property. In keeping with this policy, Israel has allocated to settlement vast tracts of this “state land”, stretching far beyond their built-up sections. The lands allocated to settlements have been declared closed military zones and are off limits to Palestinians, except by special permit. In contrast, Israeli citizens, Jews from around the world and tourists can enter them freely.

At present, settlements cover 538,130 dunams – almost 10% of the West Bank. Their regional councils control another 1,650,370 dunams, including vast open areas that have not been attached to any particular settlement. This brings the total area under the direct control of settlements to 40% of the West Bank, and 63% of Area C.

Along with this governmental land grab, settlers have exploited the forced separation between Palestinians and their land to build houses, outposts and roads, sow fields and groves, graze livestock and take over natural water sources – all outside the vast areas already allocated to the settlements. This is attended by routine violence against Palestinians. These actions play a major role in the implementation of Israel’s policy in the West Bank by complementing official measures. The settlers’ apparently independent actions serve as a privatized system for taking over land, allowing Israel to establish and expand entire settlement blocs through an unofficial sidetrack while formally disavowing these actions.

Unlike the restrictive planning policy enforced upon Palestinian communities, Israeli settlements are fully represented in the planning process, enjoying detailed outline plans and advanced infrastructure. Although the state uses the same professional and legal terms to refer to both Israeli and Palestinian construction in the West Bank with– such as building and planning laws, urban master plans, planning procedures and illegal construction – it applies them very differently in practice. When it comes to Israeli settlements, the state turns a blind eye and offers support and retroactive approval, all as part of an overarching policy to de facto annex parts of the West Bank to Israel’s sovereign territory. Palestinian communities, on the other hand, are subjected to painstaking bureaucracy, stalled plans and widespread demolitions, in keeping with Israel’s policy to prevent Palestinian development in the West Bank and continue dispossessing Palestinians of their land.

The establishment of the settlements contravenes international humanitarian law (IHL), which states that an occupying power may not relocate its own citizens to the occupied territory or make permanent changes to that territory, unless these are needed for imperative military needs, in the narrow sense of the term, or undertaken for the benefit of the local population.

The existence of settlements also leads to the violation of many human rights of Palestinians, including the rights to property, equality, an adequate standard of living and freedom of movement. In addition, the radical changes that Israel has made to the map of the West Bank preclude any real possibility of establishing an independent, viable Palestinian state in fulfilment of the right to self-determination. Although the West Bank is not part of Israel’s sovereign territory, Israeli has applied most of its domestic laws to the settlements and their residents. As a result, the settlers enjoy almost all the same privileges as citizens living within Israel. Meanwhile, Palestinians continue to live under martial law and are thereby systematically deprived of their rights and denied the ability to have any real impact on policymaking with respect to the territory in which they live. In creating this reality, Israel has formed a regime in which a person’s rights depend on his or her national identity.

Israel has refrained from formally annexing the West Bank (except in East Jerusalem). In practice, however, it treats the settlements established throughout Area C as extensions of its sovereign territory and has virtually eliminated the distinction for Israeli citizens – while concentrating the Palestinian population in 165 disconnected “islands” (Areas A and B). This double movement, of Israeli settlers taking over more and more West Bank land and Palestinians being pushed aside, has been a consistent mainstay of Israeli policy in the West Bank since 1967, with all Israeli legislative, legal, planning, funding and defense bodies working towards that end.

[21]

BTSELEM.ORG

SETTLER VIOLENCE =STATE VIOLENCE

[13]

On 5 August, Israel launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip targeting the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and its armed wing, destroying or damaging some 1,700 Palestinian homes and displacing hundreds of civilians.”

….

…..

”On 7 August, an Israeli missile, apparently fired by a drone, hit Al-Falluja cemetery in Jabalia refugee camp, killing five children and injuring one, in an apparent direct attack on civilians or indiscriminate attack”

ARMED CONFLICT BETWEEN ISRAEL AND

PALESTINIAN ARMED GROUPS IN GAZA

”Israeli forces killed 151 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and injured 9,875, according to OCHA-OPT, amid a surge of military incursions that involved excessive use of force, including unlawful killings and apparent extrajudicial executions.4 Defense for Children International-Palestine reported that Israeli forces or settlers killed 36 children across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

On 11 May, Israeli soldiers killed Shirin Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-US Al Jazeera correspondent, and injured her colleague, while they were covering an Israeli army raid in Jenin Camp. In September, the Israeli authorities admitted that an Israeli soldier “likely” killed the journalist but concluded that no criminal offence had been committed.”

WEST BANK

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

ISRAEL AND OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

2022

ISRAEL AND OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES 2022

Israel’s continuing oppressive and discriminatory system of governing Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) constituted a system of apartheid, and Israeli officials committed the crime of apartheid under international law. Israeli forces launched a three-day offensive on the occupied Gaza Strip in August during which they committed apparent war crimes. This compounded the impact of a 15-year ongoing Israeli blockade that amounts to illegal collective punishment and further fragments Palestinian territory. Israel escalated its crackdown on Palestinians’ freedom of association. It also imposed arbitrary restrictions on freedom of movement and closures that amounted to collective punishment, mainly in the northern West Bank, ostensibly in response to armed attacks by Palestinians on Israeli soldiers and settlers. The year saw a rise in the number of Palestinians unlawfully killed and seriously injured by Israeli forces during raids in the West Bank. Administrative detentions of Palestinians hit a 14-year high, and torture and other ill-treatment continued. Israeli forces demolished al-Araqib village in the Negev/Naqab for the 211th time. A further 35 Palestinian-Bedouin towns in Israel were still denied formal recognition and residents faced possible forcible transfer. Authorities failed to process asylum claims for thousands of asylum seekers, and imposed restrictions on their right to work.

Background

In March, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the OPT determined that the “political system of entrenched rule” in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip “satisfies the prevailing evidentiary standard for the existence of apartheid”. In November, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing reached the same conclusion in relation to Israel’s policies of home demolitions. Some states, including South Africa, condemned Israeli apartheid, echoing statements by Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organizations. Despite this growing recognition, Israel continued to enjoy impunity thanks to the support of its key allies.

In October, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, concluded that the occupation of the OPT is unlawful due to its permanence and Israel’s measures to annex Palestinian land in law and in practice. In 2022, such measures included retroactive authorization of settlement outposts, including by the Israeli Supreme Court.

In November, Israel held its fifth elections in three years after the collapse of an ideologically diverse coalition government, which continued to discriminate against Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line. The vote was polarized between those supporting and opposing former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while consensus on maintaining Israel’s occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territories remained. The right-wing bloc, led by Benjamin Netanyahu and a religious-nationalist coalition, secured a majority of seats and formed a government in December.

Apartheid

In February, Amnesty International released a 280-page report showing how Israel was imposing an institutionalized regime of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people wherever it exercised control over their rights, fragmenting and segregating Palestinian citizens of Israel, residents of the OPT and Palestinian refugees denied the right of return. Through massive seizures of land and property, unlawful killings, infliction of serious injuries, forcible transfers, arbitrary restrictions on freedom of movement, and denial of nationality, among other inhuman or inhumane acts, Israeli officials would be responsible for the crime against humanity of apartheid, which falls under the jurisdiction of the ICC.1

In March, Israeli authorities re-enacted the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (temporary order) that imposes sweeping restrictions on Palestinian family unification between Israeli citizens or residents and their spouses from the OPT to maintain a Jewish demographic majority.

In July, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld a law authorizing the interior minister to strip citizens of their citizenship if convicted of acts that amount to “breach of allegiance to the state”. Since its enactment in 2008, application of the law has only been considered against Palestinian citizens. On 20 September, the Israeli Appeals Tribunal approved the revocation of stay or temporary residency permits of 10 Palestinians – four children, three women and three men – living in Jerusalem because they are distant relatives of a Palestinian assailant. On 18 December, Israel deported French-Palestinian human rights defender Salah Hammouri following the revocation of his East Jerusalem residency.2

Unlawful attacks and killings

Armed conflict between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza

On 5 August, Israel launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip targeting the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and its armed wing, destroying or damaging some 1,700 Palestinian homes and displacing hundreds of civilians. The Israeli army and Palestinian armed groups committed apparent war crimes during the three days of fighting. (See State of Palestine entry.)3

According to the UN, 49 Palestinians were killed, including 31 civilians. Amnesty International established that Israeli forces killed 17 of the civilians, including eight children. Seven civilians, including four children, were killed by a rocket that misfired apparently launched by a Palestinian armed group. On 7 August, an Israeli missile, apparently fired by a drone, hit Al-Falluja cemetery in Jabalia refugee camp, killing five children and injuring one, in an apparent direct attack on civilians or indiscriminate attack.

West Bank

Israeli forces killed 151 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and injured 9,875, according to OCHA-OPT, amid a surge of military incursions that involved excessive use of force, including unlawful killings and apparent extrajudicial executions.4 Defense for Children International-Palestine reported that Israeli forces or settlers killed 36 children across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

On 11 May, Israeli soldiers killed Shirin Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-US Al Jazeera correspondent, and injured her colleague, while they were covering an Israeli army raid in Jenin Camp. In September, the Israeli authorities admitted that an Israeli soldier “likely” killed the journalist but concluded that no criminal offence had been committed.

Right to truth, justice and reparation

Israeli authorities continued to refuse to cooperate with the investigation by the ICC Office of the Prosecutor, despite a 2021 decision by the ICC to initiate an investigation into the situation in Palestine. The authorities also failed to adequately investigate violations and crimes under international law.

Freedom of movement

In the West Bank, 175 permanent checkpoints and other roadblocks, as well as scores of temporary irregular barriers and a draconian permit regime, supported by a repressive biometric surveillance system, continued to control and fragment Palestinian communities.

In October, Israeli authorities placed additional restrictions on freedom of movement in the occupied West Bank reportedly in response to Palestinian attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, through sweeping and arbitrary closures that severely disrupted everyday life and amounted to unlawful collective punishment. In April, the Israeli army closed checkpoints into Jenin in a move that appeared designed to stifle Jenin’s businesses and trade with Palestinian citizens of Israel. In October, Israeli forces re-imposed a closure on Jenin and closed off Nablus for three weeks, and Shufat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem for over a week, gravely affecting the freedom of movement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians living in those areas and restricting access to medical aid and other essential services.

According to COGAT, a unit of the defence ministry, Israel revoked the permits to work in Israel of 2,500 Palestinians as a means of collective punishment.

A new procedure issued by the Israeli military authorities came into effect in October, restricting the ability of foreign passport holders to live with their Palestinian spouses in the West Bank by limiting their visas to a maximum of six months, requiring couples to request permanent residency status in the West Bank, which is subject to Israeli approval.

In Gaza, the illegal Israeli blockade entered its 16th year. According to Gaza-based human rights organization Al-Mezan, nine patients, including three children, died while waiting for Israeli permits to receive life-saving treatment outside of the Gaza Strip, amid a complex bureaucratic entanglement between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas administration.

The only power plant in Gaza was forced to shut for two days in August because of a week-long Israeli closure of all crossings, which prevented the delivery of fuel.

Forced evictions

Tens of thousands of Palestinians remained at risk of forced evictions in Israel and the OPT, including some 5,000 living in shepherding communities in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills. Israeli authorities demolished 952 Palestinian structures across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, displacing 1,031 Palestinians, and affecting the livelihoods of thousands of others.

On 4 May, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld a decision to forcibly transfer over 1,000 residents of Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills from their ancestral land, which Israel had designated as “firing zone 918”, a military training zone closed to Palestinian access.

In July, the Israeli Supreme Court legalized the settlement outpost of Mitzpe Kramim, built on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, claiming that it was “purchased in good faith”. This reversed its 2020 decision that ordered the government to evacuate the outpost.

According to OCHA, 2022 was the sixth consecutive year that saw an increase in state-backed settler violence against Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, reaching a peak in October during the olive harvest season. The Israeli army and police continued to fail to investigate complaints by Palestinians about such violence.

In Israel, the authorities continued to deny official recognition to 35 Palestinian villages in the Negev/Naqab, depriving them of essential services. In January, the Israeli Land Authority and the Jewish National Fund began planting trees on lands belonging to the village of Saawa al-Atrash in the Negev/Naqab to forcibly transfer its Palestinian population.

In December, Israeli authorities demolished tents and structures in al-Araqib for the 211th time since 2010.

Arbitrary detention

Israeli authorities increased their use of administrative detention, prompting a mass boycott of Israeli military courts by hundreds of detainees including Salah Hammouri, who went on hunger strike together with 29 others in protest at their detention without charge or trial. By 31 December, 866 individuals, all but two of them Palestinians, were administratively detained, the highest number in 14 years.

On 15 April, Israeli police arrested more than 400 Palestinians, including children, journalists and worshippers, during a raid on the al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least 152 Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets, live ammunition and stun grenades, and were beaten. Most were released after several hours.

Torture and other ill-treatment

Israeli forces continued to subject Palestinian detainees to torture and other ill-treatment. As in previous years, the internal investigation unit of the police, Mahash, failed to properly investigate complaints of torture. On 24 November, the Beersheba District Court extended, by four months, the solitary confinement of Ahmad Manasra, imprisoned as a 13-year-old in 2015 and held in solitary confinement since November 2021, an act that amounts to torture. The same court had rejected in September his appeal for early release on medical grounds despite his severe mental health condition.

Freedom of association and expression

On 18 August, Israeli soldiers raided the offices of seven Palestinian civil society organizations in Ramallah, vandalizing equipment, seizing files, and issuing closure orders based on the 1945 Defense (Emergency) Regulations.5

On 29 September, the Israeli Central Elections Committee disqualified the Palestinian party Balad from running in Israeli parliamentary elections because it called for a “state for all of its citizens”, in violation of Israel’s Basic Law. The Israeli Supreme Court reversed the decision in October.

On 24 November, the Israeli military renewed by 45 days and for the fourth time the detention of four Jewish Israeli teenagers – Einat Gerlitz, Evyatar Moshe Rubin, Nave Shabtay and Shahar Schwartz – who were first imprisoned in September for refusing, on grounds of conscience, to enrol in compulsory military service.

Failure to tackle climate crisis and environmental degradation

On 28 June, the government introduced a climate bill, which proposed to reduce Israel’s greenhouse gas emissions by 27% by 2030. The bill remained pending. Meanwhile, Israel’s military industrial complex, including its August offensive in Gaza, exacerbated environmental damage caused in previous attacks that Israel continued to disregard.

In March, Israeli planes resumed aerial spraying of herbicides on the buffer zone in the Gaza Strip, damaging Palestinian farmland.

LGBTI people’s rights

On 14 February, Israel’s health ministry published a circular banning medical practitioners from conducting medical “conversion therapy” to change the sexual orientation of gay and lesbian individuals, but failed to grant it legislative status.

Women’s rights

In Israel, marriage and divorce remained under the exclusive jurisdiction of religious courts, leading to systematic discrimination against women in personal status matters.

Despite legal protections against domestic violence, 24 women were killed by partners or relatives according to the Israeli police. Some 69 women were killed between January 2020 and August 2022. Of the 40 femicides against Palestinian women in Israel during that period, 58% were not resolved by the police while all 29 femicides of Jewish-Israeli women in the same period were resolved.

Refugees’ and migrants’ rights

Israel welcomed tens of thousands of people fleeing Ukraine and allowed thousands of Jewish Ukrainians to settle under the 1950 Law of Return, while continuing to deny Palestinian refugees their right of return.

Israel continued to reject asylum applications of nearly 30,000 African asylum seekers, primarily from Eritrea and Sudan. Following a 2021 court decision, over 2,000 Sudanese asylum seekers from Darfur, Blue Nile and the Nuba mountains were given temporary residence permits, including access to national health insurance and other benefits.

In October, a commission appointed by Israel’s minister of interior concluded that asylum seekers from Darfur and the Nuba mountains were no longer at risk of persecution on ethnic grounds and could be returned safely to Sudan’s capital Khartoum, amid concerns of a possible reversal of Israel’s general non-deportation policy.

Government regulations banning some 20,000 asylum seekers from work in 17 Israeli cities unless they seek employment in construction, agriculture, hospitality and institutional nursing, came into effect in October.

1. Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity, 1 February
2. “Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories: A perfect storm of apartheid policies led to Salah Hammouri’s deportation”, 21 December
3. “They Were Just Kids: Evidence of War Crimes During Israel’s August 2022 Gaza OffeEnsive”, 25 October
4. Israel/OPT: Continuing patterns of unlawful killings and other crimes further entrench apartheid, 11 May
5. “Israel/OPT: The stifling of Palestinian civil society organizations must end”, 18 August

[14]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIE

ADMINISTRATIEVE DETENTIE

Administratieve detentie is gevangenhouding zonder tussenkomst van een rechter, op grond van een beschikking door de politie of een overheidsinstelling.

Administratieve detentie heeft in het Westen in de regel de vorm van korte perioden van voorarrest. Binnen enkele dagen moet de rechter beoordelen of de gevangenhouding rechtmatig is. In de vreemdelingendetentie kan dat echter veel langer duren. In Nederland toetst een rechter die detentie van illegale, ongedocumenteerde of van criminaliteit verdachte vreemdelingen na zes weken, of als een advocaat bezwaar aantekent na een week of twee.

China

In veel niet-westerse landen is administratieve detentie heel verbreid en kan ze maanden of jaren duren. Zo waren er China in 2006 naar verluidt meer dan 300.000 mensen opgesloten in werkkampen, voor een periode van twee of drie jaar, op last van de politie en zonder dat er een rechter aan te pas was gekomen. In 2013 kondigde de Chinese regering aan het stelsel van ‘heropvoeding door arbeid’ (laojiao) te zullen afschaffen, maar veel vormen van administratieve detentie bleven bestaan.

Andere niet-westerse landen

In het gevangenkamp Guantánamo Bay hielden de VS vanaf januari 2002 meer dan zevenhonderd verdachten van terrorisme gevangen, zonder proces. In 2022 zitten er nog mensen gevangen in Guantánamo. In Franstalige Afrikaanse landen is de garde à vue een vorm van administratieve detentie, dan wel van langdurig voorarrest. Andere landen die Amnesty heeft aangeklaagd voor praktijken van massale en langdurige administratieve detentie zijn onder meer Egypte, India en Israël. De VN kent een Werkgroep voor Willekeurige Detentie.

BTSELEM.ORG

ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION

In administrative detention, a person is held without trial without having committed an offense, on the grounds that he or she plans to break the law in the future. As this measure is supposed to be preventive, it has no time limit. The person is detained without legal proceedings, by order of the regional military commander, based on classified evidence that is not revealed to them. This leaves the detainees helpless – facing unknown allegations with no way to disprove them, not knowing when they will be released, and without being charged, tried or convicted.

In the West Bank (not including East Jerusalem), administrative detention is carried out under the Order regarding Security Provisions. The order empowers the military commander of the West Bank, or another commander to whom the power has been delegated, to place individuals in administrative detention for up to six months at a time, if the commander has “reasonable grounds to believe that reasons of regional security or public security require that a certain person be held in detention”. If, prior to the expiration of the order, the military commander has “reasonable grounds to believe” that the same reasons “still require the retention of the detainee in detention”, he may extend the original order for an additional six-month period “from time to time”. The Order regarding Security Provisions places no limit on the overall time that a person can be held in administrative detention, so the detention can be extended over and over. In practice, this allows Israel to incarcerate Palestinians who have not been convicted of anything for years on end.

Individuals held in administrative detention must be brought before a military judge within eight days – either of the original detention order or of its extension. The judge may uphold the order, reject it, or shorten the period of detention stipulated in it. Whatever decision the military judge makes, both the detainee and the military commander may appeal it to the Military Court of Appeals, and thereafter, to the High Court of Justice (HCJ). Hearings on administrative detention orders are held in camera, and the judges are permitted to set aside ordinary evidence law. In particular, judges may “accept evidence in the absence of the detainee or their counsel and without disclosing it to them”, if they are convinced that disclosing the evidence may “harm regional security or public security”.

Administrative detention of Israeli citizens and residents is carried out under the Emergency Powers (Detentions) Law. Over the years, Israel has used this measure against several Israeli citizens, including settlers. These are isolated cases, and in most of them, the detention lasted a few months. Since Israel “disengaged” from the Gaza Strip in September 2005, it has used the Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law to place Gaza residents under administrative detention. This measure has so far been used in very few cases. The provisions of both these laws are similar in essence to those of the military order that applies in the West Bank.

The Order regarding Security Provisions includes provisions that are ostensibly meant to protect administrative detainees, in keeping with the tenets of international law on this matter, which allow the occupying power to place residents of the occupied territory under administrative detention only in rare, exceptional circumstances. This has not stopped Israel from making extensive use of this measure in the Occupied Territories. Israel routinely uses administrative detention and has, over the years, placed thousands of Palestinians behind by bars for periods ranging from several months to several years, without charging them, without telling them what they are accused of, and without disclosing the alleged evidence to them or to their lawyers. Some of the detainees were under 18 years of age.

During the first and second intifadas, Israel held many hundreds of Palestinians in administrative detention, and the figure crossed the 1,000 mark several times in 2003 (during the second intifada). Yet the widespread use of this extreme measure is not confined to those periods: Since March 2002, not a single month has gone by without Israel holding at least 100 Palestinians in administrative detention.

Moreover, in some cases, the authorities use administrative detention as a quick and easy alternative to criminal trial, rather than to prevent future danger. This occurs primarily when they do not have sufficient evidence for indictment, or when they do not want to reveal the evidence they allegedly possess. This use of administrative detention is absolutely prohibited and totally blurs the distinction between an administrative proceeding that is intended as a prospective, preventive measure, and a criminal proceeding, whose purpose is punitive and retroactive. Israel also exploits this measure to detain Palestinians for their political opinions and for engaging in non-violent political activity.

In addition, the restriction in the Order regarding Security Provisions on the duration of administrative detention is meaningless, as the detention may be extended over and over with no time limit. Such extensions are not rare. At the end of May 2017, for instance, 475 Palestinians were being held under administrative detention in Israel Prison Service facilities. Of these, 128 had been held for six to twelve months, meaning their detention had been extended at least once, and 121 had been held for more than a year, meaning their detention had been extended at least twice.

The military order does require that detainees be brought before a judge, but this does little to prevent abuse of this measure, and the judicial proceedings on administrative detention are mostly a façade of judicial review. In the vast majority of cases, the judges accept the prosecution’s position and approve the detention order.

According to figures provided by the IDF Spokesperson, from the beginning of 2015 to the end of July 2017, 3,909 administrative detention orders were issued. Of these, 2,441 (62.4%) were extensions of existing orders. Only 48 (1.2%) were cancelled by a military court. The remaining detention orders were approved, as follows:

• 2,953 (75.5%) were approved with no amendments or limitations.
• In 390 cases (9.9%), the judges instructed that the orders be shortened, yet placed no limitation on the possibility of renewing them.
• In 501 (12.8%) cases, the judges approved the orders, in some cases shortening them, but stipulated that they could only be extended if new information came to light – which, again, would not be disclosed to the detainee.

(Note: The discrepancy between the total number of orders and the number of court decisions appears in the original. Moreover, despite our request, the IDF Spokesperson did not provide B’Tselem with figures concerning the Military Court of Appeals).

Moreover, the judges always accept the prosecution’s demand that the evidence remain confidential for “reasons of national security”. By following this practice, the judges turn the exception provided for in the administrative detention order into a rule that denies detainees any possibility of mounting a defense against the allegations. The secrecy of the evidence prevents detainees and their counsel from examining the quality, veracity and relevance of the information used against them. True, the military judges and the HCJ justices have stated that, given the confidentiality, they must fill the void and act as defense for the detainees. However, this statement is not followed up in practice. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the judges do not ask to see the ISA’s information, do not examine the military prosecution regarding the information that led to the detention, and simply accept the arguments presented to them as fact.

Moreover, in their judgments on administrative detention, the justices of the HCJ have agreed that this is an “extreme” measure that must be used carefully and in rare exceptions only. They agreed it must be used only for prevention and never for punitive purposes, and only when the danger is posed specifically by the person under detention. They also agreed that administrative detention, like all other measures, is subject to the principle of proportionality and therefore must be used only when the alleged danger cannot be prevented through criminal proceedings or an administrative measure that is less injurious to human rights. Nonetheless, the justices have upheld nearly all the administrative detention orders brought before them.

The power to incarcerate people who have not been convicted or even charged with anything for lengthy periods of time, based on secret “evidence” that they cannot challenge, is an extreme power. Israel uses it continuously and extensively, routinely holding hundreds of Palestinians at any given moment. The state makes sure to lend this policy a guise of legality by requiring the courts to review every detention order. In these proceedings, the detainees are represented by counsel; they may appeal the judge’s decision, and the hearings follow procedural and evidentiary rules. However, this is merely a façade of judicial review, as the detainees have no real opportunity to mount a reasonable defense against the allegations. Nevertheless, the courts routinely uphold the detention orders. At the end of the day, the military, the Military Advocate General’s Corps and the State Attorney’s Office, military judges and the justices of the HCJ Court are all complicit in creating this state of affairs.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

ISRAEL AND OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

2022

ZIE VOOR GEHELE TEKST, NOOT 13

[15]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

ISRAEL AND OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

2022

ZIE VOOR GEHELE TEKST, NOOT 13

[16]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

ISRAEL AND OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

2022

ZIE VOOR GEHELE TEKST, NOOT 13

[11]

” The attacks also damaged neighboring structures, made several dozen families homeless, and shuttered scores of businesses that provided livelihoods to many people.”

…

….

” Three of the four buildings were immediately leveled. Although no deaths or injuries of fighters or civilians were reported, the attacks destroyed civilian property worth millions of US dollars.”

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

GAZA: ISRAEL’S MAY AIRSTRIKES ON

HIGH RISES

APPARENTLY UNLAWFUL ATTACKS CAUSE

MAJOR LASTING HARM

23 AUGUST 2021

ZIE VOOR GEHELE TEKST, NOOT 10

[12]

The 14-year Israeli closure of Gaza, along with Egyptian border restrictions, has devastated the economy in Gaza. Restrictions on the entry of goods broadly deemed to be “dual-use,” for example, have sharply reduced the population’s access to construction material and certain medical equipment. Unless lifted or substantially eased, the sweeping restrictions on the movement of people and goods will hamper reconstruction efforts.”

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

GAZA: ISRAEL’S MAY AIRSTRIKES ON

HIGH RISES

APPARENTLY UNLAWFUL ATTACKS CAUSE

MAJOR LASTING HARM

23 AUGUST 2021

ZIE VOOR GEHELE TEKST, NOOT 10