REPORT OF THE IADL MISSION TO THE PALESTINIAN OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

I. Introduction

From 12-18 October 2001, an IADL mission to investigate human rights violations of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel took place, upon the invitation of the Palestinian Centre of Human Rights (PCHR) and the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (LAW). The members of the mission were: Beinusz Szmukler, General Secretary of the IADL and President of the American Association of Jurists, Audrey Bomse of the National Lawyers Guild (US)/ IADL, who currently works in East Jerusalem with the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, and Giulio Toscano, prosecutor in the Court of Appeals in Catania, Sicily, Italy and member of the National Council of "Magistratura Democratica."

The delegation first visited the Gaza Strip, where we met with Palestinian Ombudsman Dr. Haidr Abd’el Shafi, as well as various government representatives, including Jamila Soudani of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), Ibrahim Aldaghma, Chairman of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Justice of the Palestinian National Authority (PA), AlRahman Abu El Nasr, President of the Palestinian Bar Association, as well as various representatives of non-governmental organizations, including the head of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations (PNGO)’s human rights sector and director of the Centre for Democracy and Workers’ Rights, directors of the Canan Institute (affiliated with the Palestinian Forum for Education and Development) and Al Dameer Association for Human Rights and representatives of the Palestinian Association of Journalists. In East Jerusalem, we met with Ziyad Hamouri, Director of the Jerusalem Center for Economic and Social Rights, and in theWest Bank, we met with Judge Issa Abu Sharar, Chairman of the Income Tax Court Appeal Court, Chief of the Bethlehem District Court, Judge Farid I. Musleh, various Palestinian and Israeli attorneys, the Mayor of Al-Khader, Abdallah Ghuneim, and the Chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Qadoura Fares. We also met with representatives of other Palestinian and Israeli ngo’s, including the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee, the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling and Rabbis for Human Rights.

We received extensive documentation from the PCHR, LAW, Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights, BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights and Rabbis for Human Rights

We heard personal testimonies from individuals whose human rights had been violated, including the fathers of 10 young victims killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza, one of whom had two sons (Ibrahim, (14) and Adel (15) Mukhranah) killed in one year, as well as victims of house demolitions and home occupations by the Israeli army, and victims of settler attacks and harassment in Hebron.
In Gaza, we visited Alkara, Khan Younis, and Rafah, where we personally observed homes demolished and their inhabitants forced to live in makeshift tents, olive and other trees uprooted by Israeli military bulldozers, as well as countless homes, schools and mosques damaged by shelling and bullets, and roads damages by tanks.

In the West Bank, we visited Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Al Khader, and East Jerusalem. Ramallah was bombed and shelled and completely shut off from the rest of the Territories the day after our visit and Bethlehem was occupied by Israeli tanks and soldiers soon after. In Hebron, we observed Palestinian homes damaged and shops forced to close because of Israeli settler attacks, and anti-Arab racist graffiti on the walls. As we walked through the city, Israeli soldiers shot rubber bullets at the driver of our car. We personally experienced the arbitrary and illogical use of checkpoints, at one point having to pass through a total of 6 checkpoints in 10 kilometers on our trip back to East Jerusalem from Hebron. Judges, lawyers, teachers and countless others reported how the checkpoints totally disrupted their daily lives, making it impossible for them to accomplish their work, pursue an education or just survive from day to day.

Although the objective of our mission was to report on human rights violations against the Palestinian people by the State and settlers of Israel, in our interviews we received a good deal of information concerning violations committed by representatives of the Palestinian Authority, including corruption, security forces who sometimes function above the law, and long-term administrative detention without charges or trial, which we were not able to verify.


II. Human Rights Violations

It is the conclusion of the mission that Israel, member of the United Nations, has violated every human and civil right of the Palestinian people, as well as international human rights standards and humanitarian law. The primary human rights violation is the Occupation, itself. Since the start of the al-Aqsa intifada on 28 September 2000, Palestinians have been engaged in an anti-colonial rebellion. Equipped with the latest in American-donated fighter-bombers, helicopter gun-ships, tanks and missiles, and a state-of-the-art intelligence service, not to mention its own nuclear weapons, Israel has responded by attacking a dispossessed, essentially unarmed people, with no air force, no artillery, no army. Even under apartheid, South Africa never used F-16 jets to bomb African homelands, as they are now used against Palestinian towns and villages. With every Palestinian act of resistance, Israel raises the level of repression a notch, tightening the siege, taking more land, cutting off further supplies, launching deeper incursions into Palestinian towns, generally making life more intolerable for the victims of the Occupation, all the while claiming that these actions are merely "self-defense" moves aimed at "preventing terrorism." Palestinian terrorism, Israel claims, is the cause, not the effect of violence. However, while Palestinians acts of violence consist of throwing stones, at the most the use of guns, the overwhelming majority of the violence– tanks, planes, missiles, military checkpoints, soldiers, commit acts of violence against Israelis settlements – come from the Israeli side. Below we list the many specific violations we found and the evidence upon which we base our conclusions:

Excessive and Disproportionate Use of Force, violating the Most Fundamental Rights to Life and Security.
Willfully killing or causing great suffering/serious injury to body or health violates Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Such killings and infliction of great suffering have occurred during and prior to the current intifada. It is apparent there is, at times, a policy for the soldiers to aim to kill, as many of the victims had been killed by single bullet to the head or chest. Evidence obtained by LAW suggests that there has been a consistent pattern of shootings by Israeli soldiers to the upper body of demonstrators. For instance, out of 6,060 of the 11,363 people injured as of February 2001, LAW has documented that 1,440 were wounded in the neck and head and 2,014 were hit in the chest and abdomen. Several of the fathers of young victims killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza testified that their children were hit with dum-dum bullets used to disperse demonstrations. Mohammed Nasr al-Tawli testified that his 18 year old son was shot and killed on 13 November 2000, while coming to the aid of a friend who had been shot at a time when there had not been any shooting or other form of violent confrontation occurring in the area. Several youths were reportedly killed while attending the funeral of a friend, one of whom was, according to his father, shot in the back with a dum-dum bullet. The majority of young victims were killed while throwing stones at soldiers, who were often located in fortified installations where they could not be injured. We viewed one area commonly used by youth to throw stones at a fortified military post that was a considerable distance (at least 1000 meters) away. Although there was no possibility that rocks thrown from there could have hit the soldiers in their distant fortress, five young men, including Abdel Mukhranah, whose father we spoke with, have already been killed in this spot.

The delegation visited the home of Iman Hijo in Khan Younis, where, without warning, Israeli troops shelled the residential area, hitting the Hijo house which is adjacent to the main market, killing the three month old baby in her mother’s arms. We met another child, about 4 years old, injured in that same military attack, who still bore deep scars on his head and stomach. (His psychological scars were not as visible.) There was a large sign posted in Hebrew and English on an adjacent house reading:

"Attention: Families Live Here."

All of this shooting and shelling in civilian neighborhoods is in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which mandates that distinction be made between the military and civilians. Even where there is military necessity, the amount of force used must be proportionate to the threat.

Excessive and disproportionate use of force has frequently been used against Palestinians both within and outside of demonstrations. Most demonstrations appear to have started peacefully, often becoming violent after provocation by Israeli soldiers or settlers, then end with lethal use of force by the IDF (Israel Defense Force). The majority of non-peaceful demonstrators have used stones. Most non-peaceful demonstrators were throwing stones when they were killed or injured by Israeli forces, who were fully equipped with protective clothing, including bullet-proof vests, flack jackets and helmets, armored vehicles and/or tanks. No Israeli soldier has been killed during a demonstration. Weapons and methods employed during demonstrations violate international humanitarian law and human rights law, as well as national and international firearms regulations. Tear gas has been used to a bare minimum. Water canons, which have been used elsewhere in the world extremely effectively in crowd dispersal, have not been used at all. Instead, full force is used, usually without prior notice being given.

2. Restriction of Freedom of Movement: A Form of Collective Punishment.
Internal and external closures cut the West Bank and Gaza off from Israel and the rest of the world and also prevent free movement from one town to another. Consequently, 1.3 million people in the Gaza Strip are confined like human sardines into a tiny area, surrounded by barbed wire fences, and nearly 2 million in the towns and villages of the West Bank have their entrances and exits controlled by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). All Palestinians must endure long lines at these Israeli checkpoints, which come and go from day-to-day and where Palestinians are regularly detained and humiliated for hours. Literally millions of people are unable to travel, to buy food, to get health care. The location of check points change constantly adding an impediment to program a trip.
Ataf Hanani, mayor of Beit Furik, a village near Nablus, reported to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, that IDF soldiers at the checkpoints surrounding his village have prevented trucks loaded with water tanks and food from entering his village and Beit Dajan, affecting a total population of 11,500.
According to Abdallah Ghuneim, Mayor of Al-Khader, a municipality located in Area A, surrounded by 5 checkpoints, all roads to the town, except the one through Bethlehem, have been closed. The townspeople, most of whom are farmers, have been prevented from using bypass Road 60 to reach their fields, causing them to lose an entire grape crop this year, and throwing the town into an economic crisis. Unable to use their cars, many townspeople have purchased donkeys to try to reach their lands. The price of donkeys in Al-Khader has soared from 50 to 250 dinars. Whereas the trip to the fields by car used to take about 15 minutes, on a donkey it takes several hours.
Every single person with whom the mission met, no matter what his/her profession, age, or gender, testified to the total disruption of her daily routine of life by constant and arbitrary closures. Over all, the Occupation and closures have prevented the PA from developing an effective infrastructure and are destroying what little has been constructed so far. The Palestinian court system is almost in a state of collapse. For example, Shukri Nashashibi, a former appellate judge explained that there are three judges on the Palestinian Appeals Court that sits in Ramallah and handles appeals from all over the West Bank. Since September 2000, two of the three judges have been unable to get from their homes in Hebron and Nablus to Ramallah and thus the court has, for all intents and purposes, been forced to stop functioning. Attorney Raed Hamid reported that he has 20 cases now pending before the appeals court, none of which has moved in a year. On a more personal level, Attorney Hamid testified that his income has declined almost 70% since the start of the intifada and the closures.
On 2 November 2001, just weeks after our delegation left, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that an internal IDF report has concluded that the checkpoints found throughout the territories do not serve their purpose of preventing hostile incursions, but do harm the Palestinian population by creating friction between the soldiers and Palestinians, "with the former victimizing the latter." The report, prepared by 4 senior Israeli military officers mentions several incidents in which violence was used unnecessarily against Palestinians and cases of theft of money – cases that were never dealt with outside of the units involved. The report, however, did not recommend dismantling the odious checkpoints.

3. Extra-Judicial Executions.
To date, over 60 Palestinian have been killed in Israel’s policy of assassinations, including 16 bystanders, so-called "collateral damage." Despite universal international condemnation, Israel continues to pursue this policy of killing "wanted’ persons. This state policy of assassination is in direct contravention of international human rights law, especially of the right to life and the right to fair trial. People suspected of illegal activity must be arrested and brought to trial, even in a situation of armed conflict. Moreover, international law views resistance to occupation as a form of legal use of force.
The strategy was initially said to be employed only if necessary to stop a terrorist cell on its way to commit an attack (the so-called "ticking bomb"), a justification irrelevant under international law. Moreover, the decisions are open to very little scrutiny, as the evidence collected by Israeli intelligence against the victims of assassinations is never reviewed by judicial authorities, let alone by the public.
On 3 July 2001, new guidelines were issued by Israel to allow for the assassination of "known terrorists," even if they are not on the verge of committing a major attack. And this term has been applied very loosely to Palestinians fighting the occupation, regardless of the target or the means used. There seems hardly any limit to who can become the target of assassination. This policy had contributed significantly to the escalation of violence. Since its inception, Palestinian factions have justified most attacks against Israeli targets – from shootings to suicide bombings – as retaliation for some assassination.
Even more unacceptable is the death of innocent bystanders. Although Israeli spokespersons tend to refer to the policy as "targeted killings," more than one-third of the fatalities in these operations were probably not intentionally targeted.
An opinion poll conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center (JMCC) in September 2001 (available at www.jmcc.org) reveals that Palestinians consider this policy of assassination to be the most harmful aspect of the al-Aqsa intifada, ranking higher than the closure, the shellings, the incursions into Area A and settler violence.

Land Confiscations and House Demolitions – Forms of Ethnic Cleansing
a. Land confiscation by the military is a frequent occurrence and is done in the name of "security." Qadoura Fares, Chairman of the PLC Human Rights Committee reported that in the last ten years, under the umbrella of peace, Israel has confiscated as much land as it had from 1967-1990. The Mayor of Al-Khader, Abdullah Ghuneim, told the delegation that 2,000 acres of the town’s land had been confiscated for Israeli settlement expansion since 1973. Just a few months ago, another 200 acres (1000 dunams) were confiscated.
Sometimes the owners of private property successfully litigate the confiscations; however, the army frequently ignores court decisions, even by the High Court of Israel. One such property owner came to the PCHR to complain about the confiscation of his land by the military to build a bypass road for use by Israeli settlers. The PCHR hired an Israeli attorney, at considerable cost, who obtained an Order from the High Court prohibiting the destruction of the home and property. However, on October 12, 2001, the members of the delegation personally witnessed Israeli soldiers on the property constructing the new road, in flagrant violation of the Court Order. Eyad Al Alami, Head of the PCHR Legal Aid Unit, reported that there are literally hundreds of such cases.
b. Two thousand Palestinians homes throughout the Occupied Territories and even in East Jerusalem have been demolished. The delegation observed many homes and trees demolished in Alkara, in the middle of the night, without any prior notice, by Israeli military bulldozers accompanied by army tanks, to clear the ground for the construction of a bridge for use by Israeli settlers. When the residents of Alkara attempted to peacefully demonstrate against the destruction, the soldiers shot them at; two were wounded. One of the women whose home was demolished (for the second time), showed us all her food, clothing and furniture, including a stove and TV (donated by an aid agency) still lying amidst the debris. The demolitions affected the entire community. We were told that due to the proximity of the soldiers, people are afraid to go out at night. The vice mayor of the village informed us that he had been prevented by the army from removing the destroyed tree trunks and other debris, which posed a hazard to the many children of the area. Electricity and water to the surrounding homes had been cut off for three days. One of the residents of a near-by home was Dr. Abdul Karim Abdeen, Director of the Palestinian Ministry of Housing. He showed us the front door to his house, which had been blocked by dirt and debris pushed there by an army bulldozer, preventing his young children from getting out of the house to go to school and him from driving his car to work. All of the many children we observed looked tired from lack of sleep.
The delegation spoke with Salma Abu Rizeq, an elderly woman whose house in Alkara had twice been demolished and who was now living in a primitive makeshift cottage. Within sight of the soldiers, she told us that the "most important thing is not to leave the land. It is our homeland." Although even her makeshift cottage has once been destroyed by the soldiers and despite the pleas of her relatives to leave, she remains, insisting, "even if I die, I want to be buried under the ground in my land." Our visit ended when Mrs. Rizeq’s brother arrived and pleaded with her to go inside and stop attracting the attention of near-by soldiers.
The delegation also spoke with the owner of the one house in the area left standing, apparently because his wife is German; the Israeli army, however, occupies the roof of the house. The family lives on the first two floors and must request permission from the soldiers to enter or exist their home. Soldiers shot two of the children, aged 6 and 16, at as they were walking to school. The owner, represented by the PCHR, has filed a complaint in court against the military authorities, which claimed the house occupation was a "military necessity," and decision is pending. To- date, he has not received any assistance nor even a visit from the PA.
At the Tufa’ checkpoint, the delegation observed countless more demolished homes and children playing amidst their tangled stone and iron remains, just up the hill from an Israeli beach resort.

Illegal Settlements.
Under international law (Fourth Geneva Convention), despite Oslo, the West Bank and Gaza are still considered to be occupied territories. This was reiterated by the United Nations on October 7, 2000. Under Article 49 of the Convention, an occupying power is prohibited from transferring its civilians to the occupied territories. Nevertheless, we were told by LAW that all attempts to challenge such settlements in Israeli courts have been rejected, for reasons of "security."
A recent report issued by the Israeli peace group "Peace Now" states that more than 400,000 Israeli settlers now dot the Palestinian landscape: almost 199.000 settlers lived in 145 colonies in West Bank and Gaza, and 200.000 not ideological settlers live in big cities surrounding the occupied East Jerusalem. National-religious settlers are the responsible of the great majority of violence acts against Palestinians.
Even a substantial part of the settlements were built on ideological-religious foundations, not all of them are in the same situation. Even though, all the Israelis Governments have set non ideological settlers in an unbelievable situation by offering economical incentives to move to Cisjordan and Gaza, even while holding negotiations with Palestinians for devolution of the occupied territories.
We cant generalize putting all settlers in the same category of dangerous extremist that believe god wanted Cisjordan and Gaza were a reserved area of Jews for ever. A poll conducted by Israeli movement "Peace Now", in may 1999, found that 53% of Cisjordan settlers have moved for "non ideological" reasons: inexpensive houses, beautiful views and tax reductions, and almost 34% was ready to abandon the settlements for an economical compensation. (The Guardian, 3/12/2000).
When the Oslo agreements were signed, there were, according to Peace Now, 32,750 housing units in the settlements. Since the signing of the Oslo agreements, 20,371 housing units have been constructed, representing an increase of 62% in settlement units. Settlement building in the year 2000, during theBarak Administration, reached its highest point since 1992, with 4,499 starts. At the end of June 2001, there were 6,593 housing units in different stages of active construction in settlements.
Israeli settlements are strategically placed on hilltops overlooking Palestinian towns. They have become increasingly militarized, with the settlers being armed by the army. In some areas, there are joint settler-army maneuvers. In other areas, settlers staff military checkpoints. Thus, not only are the settlements illegal, but civilians residing in them are being used for military purposes.

Torture.
On 6 September 1999, the Israeli High Court outlawed specific methods used by the General Security Service (GSS) in the interrogation of detainees from the Occupied Territories. Despite the fact that systematic use of torture appears to have ceased, Khalil M. Abu Shammata, Director of Al-Dameer, reported to the delegation concerning the renewed use of torture or inhumane treatment in Israeli jails. According to the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), an Israeli ngo, the methods reported include sleep deprivation for long periods of time, handcuffing detainees to chair for prolonged periods, providing insufficient food, continuous interrogation for more than 20 hours, and recurrent beating of the detainee throughout interrogation. Like willful killings, the use of torture is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and is a war crime. Andre Rosenthal, an Israeli attorney who worked on the case which led to the High Court ban described how the litigation dragged on for almost 5 years before it was finally successful.

Illegal Administrative Detention and Military Courts without Fair Trial Rights.
Palestinian civilians are subjected to military justice before military tribunals. Military judges have a huge amount of discretion to hold people without charges and without trial and also in sentencing defendants. There is no parole. There are currently 2200 Palestinians in Israeli prisons awaiting military trial, according to Mr. Fares of the Palestinian Prisoners Association.
Palestinians can be detained before being brought before a judge for up to 18 days for certain offenses. (An Israeli can be held in custody for only 48 hours before being brought before a judge.) A Palestinian can be held without charges for an initial period of 30 days, which can then be extended for a maximum period of 6months, while an Israeli can be held without indictment for an initial period of 15 days, which can be extended for only another 15 days. Palestinian detainees can be kept from seeing their attorneys for up to 90 days from the date of detention for reasons of "security." (Israeli detainees may be kept from meeting with an attorney for a total of 15 days.) . Palestinian detainees, according to Al Dameer, are usually kept in solitary confinement during this initial period of detention.
Israeli attorney Andre Rosenthal outlined his ongoing litigation challenging long-term administrative detention as a violation of Israel’s Basic Law, as well as on the basis of discrimination (as an Israeli soldier just won a case challenging use of such long-term detention for Israeli soldiers, who are similarly regulated by military orders). The main current issues in the area of the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, according to Rosenthal, are the holding of prisoners incommunicado (denying access even to their lawyers) and the extensive use of collaborators. The High Court recently held that Palestinian detainees do not have to be informed of their rights during interrogation. The result is that most detainees have no idea that they have the rights to remain silent and not incriminate themselves.
Qadoura Fares, Chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the Palestine Legislative Council (PLC) and leader of the Palestinian Prisoners Association reported that the use of administrative detention by Israel was much more widespread during the first intifada. At present, the tactic of choice seems to be assassinations and other killings.
Palestinian attorneys are prohibited from entering Israel and cannot visit their clients who are imprisoned there awaiting military trial. They thus cannot represent Palestinian defendants in those courts.
There is currently litigation pending before the High Court by Attorney Rosenthal, challenging the jurisdiction of the military courts, which sit in Israel, claiming that the moment a military judge steps out of the territories, he has no jurisdiction at all over Palestinians.
Not only does Israel administratively detain Palestinians for long periods of time in Israel, under the Wye Accords, Israel can order the Palestinian Authority to arrest Palestinians. As Judge Abu Sharar, chairman of the Palestinian Income Tax Appeal Court and head of the Palestinian Judges Association explained, this agreement is a corrupting influence on the entire Palestinian judicial system, as these arrests occur outside the rule of law. Raji Sourani specified that Israel military orders sets the framework where Palestinian Authority must act. Israel have veto power over all Palestinian Laws, even in area A.

8. Destruction of Local Economy, Forced Unemployment and Palestinian Worker Exploitation.
Destruction of Agricultural land.
a. Destruction of Agricultural land. Some 150,000 olive and citrus trees, which provided the livelihood for many Palestinians, have been uprooted either for punitive or "security" reasons by the Israeli military. In addition, Israeli settlers sometimes uproot trees and destroy agricultural land and crops, often with the aim of forcing Palestinian farmers to give up their rights to the land. In one incident on October 2, 2001, just before our arrival in the area, in retaliation for the death on a nearby bypass road of a settler woman, settlers in the Jordan Valley entered the land of the Palestinian village of Bardelah with bulldozers, destroying agricultural land, irrigation equipment, greenhouses and the entire harvest. Although the police were called as soon as the approximately 100 perpetrators trespassed onto the land, it took them 9 hours to respond. According to the complaint filed with the police, the estimated total damages are over US $150,000. Such crimes almost always go unpunished.
b. Forced Unemployment and Poverty: The director of the Centre for Democracy and Workers’ Rights reported that since the start of the intifada, approximately 135,000 Palestinians have been deprived of work in Israel. No Palestinians are currently permitted to work in Israel. . So many Palestinian workers found in Israel without permits have been detained for such long periods of time that Israel has reopened an old prison previously found to have been uninhabitable in order to house them.
Furthermore, 85% of Palestinian trade is either with Israel or through Israel. Since October 2000, Palestinian factories have neither been able to import necessary raw materials nor export finished products. The result is that more than 345,000 Palestinians are now unemployed. In Gaza, 51% of the work force is currently unemployed. Mayor Ghuneim of Al-Khader reported that unemployment in his town was approximately 70%. Over 1,000 of the town’s 9,000 residents used to work in Israeli factories, mainly in near-by Jerusalem. Now only a few continue to sneak in illegally

c. Workers’ Rights. According to Palestinian workers’ rights advocates, Israeli workers receive 13 social benefits, while Palestinian workers receive only 2 (pension and workers’ compensation), and usually only if they seek to enforce their rights in court. While both Israeli and Palestinian workers must pay 1% of their salary to join the union, the Histadrut only investigates complaints by and represents Israeli workers. Under Israeli law, Israeli workers receive unemployment benefits if they are unable to get to work because of circumstances beyond their control. However, although Palestinians pay taxes to Israel (between 13-32% of their salary) while they work in Israel, they do not receive this benefit.

d. Poverty. Over 2 million Palestinians live below the poverty line. Half of the population of both Gaza and the West Bank live on less than $2 a day. The quality of Palestinian life has deteriorated due to this forced unemployment; health, education, housing, food consumption, etc. have all suffered. Although it costs only 70 shekels (less than $20 US) to attend second school, many families cannot afford to send their children. Although it costs less than $300 per semester to attend a Palestinian university, 37% of the children of Palestinian workers cannot afford to pay.

9. East Jerusalem. Denial of Building Permits. Unfair Taxation.
Security Council 267 Resolution condemned as illegal Israel conquest of East Jerusalem as well as any measure to modify the city status.
Historically, Jerusalem was part of the West Bank. Its economy depended on internal and international tourism. Both have now stopped. As a result, inside the Old City, nearly one-quarter of the shops have closed. Many of the owners have left the country, furthering Israel’s goal of reducing the Palestinian population to 25% of the City.
Ziyad Hamouri, Director of the Jerusalem Center for Economic and Social Rights (JCESR) inform us that even in East Jerusalem, whose inhabitants have Israeli residency, have not been excluded from the house demolition policy, which is a manifest form of ethnic cleanness. Mr. Hammoury also explained how original residents of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of East Jerusalem had been evicted and evacuated to the city outskirts, because Israeli authorities refused to give them permits to build in the city.
Others were offered the possibility of building if they pay the extremely high sum of US$25-35.000 for a permit. Houses build without permit have been demolished.
Eighteen years after these people were evicted from the Old City, they found they would lose their residency rights in East Jerusalem if they could not prove they were still living there. The JCESR filed a Petition against the Interior Ministry and before a final court decision, the Interior Minister ordered most of the confiscated identity cards to be returned. Any way, Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem legally living out of city for more than three years, for example, studying or working in EE.UU. o Jordan-, can not have their ID cards back.
Despite the severe shortage of housing throughout the West Bank, especially in East Jerusalem, Israel refuses to grant building licenses to Palestinians. This causes many to construct without permits. Israel then uses old Jordanian and Ottoman laws to justify its demotion of houses built without permits. Palestinians wanting to challenge such demolitions must go to the military courts, where many judges are settlers. According to LAW, in the last 34 years there have only been some five or 6 decisions in favor of Palestinians. And even if Palestinians receive a favorable decision, it is often not honored by the military.

Mr. Hamouri of the JCESR explained to the delegation how the Jerusalem municipal taxation policy discriminated against Palestinians. Although the tax rate is the same for East and West Jerusalem, while 31% of the municipal tax revenue is paid by East Jerusalemites, only about 5% of municipal expenditures are made in East Jerusalem. The JCESR has a Petition currently pending before the High Court challenging this form of discrimination. Moreover, for many years, Israel did not collect municipal taxes and arrears accumulated to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then suddenly, the government demanded payment of arrears and took steps against those who could not pay, up to and including confiscation of the property. Palestinians have been stopped at checkpoints and had their cars, taxis and trucks confiscated if they cannot pay tax arrears on the spot. Shop owners have had their merchandise confiscated.
Mr. Hamouri is now challenging the discriminatory Jerusalem municipal tax regulations in court. As the head of the Municipal Taxation Committee, he led demonstrations and merchant strikes, and raised the issue of inequality both locally and internationally. In retaliation the Jerusalem tax collector demanded that he pay back taxes on his shop in the amount of 300,000 NIS. (There are approximately 4 shekels to the US dollar.) When he could not pay, the Israelis confiscated all his merchandise, as well as his car and even tried to confiscate his house. Hamouri filed a petition in court in 1997, arguing that confiscation of property for past due taxes without court action was illegal – the case is still in litigation. The court has ordered that the municipality negotiate with him over the amount due and the municipality has so far agreed to reduce the amount owed from 400,000 to 193,000 shekels. Arguing that the amount the municipality had been charging all along was a mistake, but that he had been paying the higher amount as long as he was able to because taxes were collected by Israel as the occupier ,i.e., armed soldiers accompanied the tax collector, Hamouri agreed to pay 100,000 over a period of time. The final hearing is scheduled for December 2001. As a result of his struggle, the JCESR was founded. The Center now represents about 40 other merchants who have similar cases.

De Jure and De Facto Discrimination.
Forms of extreme institutionalized and systematic racial discrimination, as well as elements of the crime of apartheid, lie at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Whether Palestinians reside in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OT), in Israel, or in exile, they are discriminated against in a variety of forms and denied equal individual rights on the grounds of their descent and national origin. This racial segregation and discrimination is designed to establish and maintain domination by the Israeli people over the non-Jewish inhabitants, in particular, the Palestinians. Israel’s systematic form of extreme racial discrimination includes key elements of the ‘crime of apartheid,’ as codified in the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, 1976.
LAW reported to the mission on the recent visit to Israel/Palestine of South African Members of Parliament, all but two of who were white. That delegation declared that the situation they saw was worse than it had been under South African apartheid for several reasons, including the types of discriminatory methods and their widespread use, as well as the different role played by the international community (which sees the violence as a war between two equal forces). LAW recently published a report, which concluded that all elements of the International Convention on Apartheid’s definition of the term are fulfilled by Israel. It compared the areas of the West Bank and Gaza under PA control (Area A) to South African bantustans.

Discrimination against speakers of Arabic.
Another form of discrimination against Palestinians that was explained to the delegation was in the area of language. Officially, Arabic is the second language of Israel. In practice, it is not used by the government, so that Palestinians dealing with the police or with the National Insurance Company (NIC), for example are given documents to read and complete in Hebrew only. The JCESR has filed a petition before the High Court challenging the fact that the people working for the NIC whose job was to determine whether Palestinians actually lived in Jerusalem and were therefore eligible for benefits could not speak read or read Arabic. All police and court documents are written in Hebrew and often soldiers and police who interact daily with the Palestinian population are unable to communicate in Arabic.

Violation of Children’s Rights.
The statistics concerning the number of deaths of children is extremely disturbing: 32% of the total number of Palestinian deaths during the intifada. According to LAW, 41% of the total number of people injured during the al-Aqsa intifada has been children. A disturbingly high proportion of those children received upper body injuries, including eye injuries. Palestinian children who are political prisoners are currently incarcerated together with adult Israeli criminals, in violation of international standards.
The restrictions on freedom of movement have severely impaired the proper functioning of schools and the educational system, and violate Israel’s specific obligations to children. Due to Israeli military operations, including shellings, bombings and physical occupations, as well as imposition of closure, curfews and sieges of towns, many Palestinian schools have been forced to close for long periods of time. Al-Khader’s mayor reported that the town’s schools for boys and girls, located in the Old City near settler bypass Road60 (Area B), attended by approximately 2,500 students, were closed for more than 2 months. Soldiers occupied and damaged the schools and the townspeople do not have the money to make necessary repairs. After they withdrew from the school, Israeli soldiers erected an observation tower right by the wall of the girls’ school, from which they constantly aim weapons at the students. On the day of our visit, all the roads leading to the school were closed by the military, forcing students to climb over the barricades to get to class. We were told by LAW that in some cases, teachers have risked their lives by walking around the concrete blocks and military barriers placed at the entrances to Palestinian schools and towns.
We viewed one of four schools in Hebron, which have been taken over for use as military posts. In Hebron, as a result of an 84-day 24-hour curfew in 2000, about 13,000 Palestinian students were deprived of their right to education; 28 schools were closed; 460 teachers could not get to work. Schools were subjected to frequent attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers.
Again according to LAW, over 175 schools in the West Bank and Gaza were shot up or bombed by soldiers and/or settlers. As of November 2000, 23 had been bombed.

Interference with Right of the Press.
Journalists from al-Quds, al-Ayyam and al-Khayyat testified to constant Israeli interference with their ability to perform their professional tasks. Three Palestinian journalists have been killed by the IDF while on the job and countless others have been injured by gunfire or beaten by Israeli soldiers or police. 19 journalists have been detained and interrogated by Israeli police. Many are prevented from reaching points of conflict and thus cannot perform their professional duties. Several have been detained at the borders and specifically interrogated about their articles. These journalists believe that they – and especially photographers among them - have been targeted for attacks, as they are easily recognizable because of their media equipment and press insignia. At times, they are shot at in areas where there is no other shooting occurring. Reporters Sans Frontiers has found this claim of being specifically targeted to be credible. However, Israeli law enforcement authorities have only investigated three such cases.
The day-to-day performance of the jobs by journalists in Gaza is made far more difficult by the fact that they are unable to meet with the heads of their newspapers, which are located in East Jerusalem or Ramallah. Staff meetings for al-Ayyam, for example, must beheld in Amman, Jordan so that the entire staff can attend.
The building housing al-Ayyam’s offices in Ramallah has been bombed three times. Al-Quds, the Palestinian newspaper published in East Jerusalem, is subject to military censorship and there are words, such as "Occupation," which it is prohibited from using in the paper.
The journalists we spoke with expressed the opinion that international press organizations are not doing enough to support them in these difficult and dangerous circumstances.

Appropriation of Water Rights.
One of Israel’s first acts after occupying the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 was to transfer water rights to itself. This, together with the transference of Palestinian land to Israel was done with the aim of creating ‘facts on the ground’ supporting the expansion of the State of Israel, in expectation of future negotiations.
The use of the Jordan River was prohibited to Palestinians, and what it is even more tremendous, water from the colonies sewer was sent to Palestinians, this creates a focus of mosquitoes and diseases. The situation went worst since Al Aqsa intifada, with the destruction of more than 40 big reserve tanks, making the Palestinians to have rain water as the only source.
Israel controls almost the 80% of Palestinian water resources. According to "Palestinian Hydrology Group," each West Bank Settler consumes 800 liters of water a day, while each Palestinian only consumes 30. This has contributed to the increase of health and poverty problems.

15. impediments to proper functioning of the National Palestinian Authority.
In addition to pointing out the above-listed numerous human rights violations, the mission wishes to point out the fact that although under the Oslo Agreements, large portions of the West Bank andGaza Strip are theoretically under Palestinian Authority rules, the PA infrastructure has been destroyed by Israeli military attacks and restrictions on movement. An official with the Palestinian Ministry of Justice explained how the Occupation and Israel’s continuing control over the roads and airways makes it impossible for Palestinian government officials to get from Gaza to the West Bank. In addition, internal closures of towns and cities make it almost impossible for the ministries to function, as it often takes hours to go from home to work and back. At times, all travel is impossible.
For example, Dr. Abdul Karim Abdeen, Director of the Palestinian Ministry of Housing. He showed us the front door to his house, which had been blocked by dirt and debris pushed there by an army bulldozer, preventing his young children from getting out of the house to go to school and him from driving his car to work.

III. Conclusion
Human Rights violations described in particular above, when seen as a hole show, without doubt, a Estate Terrorism Policy containing many elements of the crime of "genocide" and "apartheid". We believe it is convenient to remember the definitions of this crimes.
Under the "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" (1948), "genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part" (article 2).

Under article 2 of the "International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid" (1973), the term "the crime of apartheid", which shall include similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practised in southern Africa, shall apply to the following inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them: a) Denial to a member or members of a racial group or groups of the right to life and liberty of person: i) By murder of members of a racial group or groups; ii) By the infliction upon the members of a racial group or groups of serious bodily or mental harm, by the infringement of their freedom or dignity, or by subjecting them to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; iii) By arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment of the members of a racial group or groups; b) Deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or in part; c) Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country and the deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group or groups, in particular by denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to work, the right to form recognized trade unions, the right to education, the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association; d) Any measures, including legislative measures, designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups, the prohibition of mixed marriages among members of various racial groups, the expropriation of landed property belonging to a racial group or groups or to members thereof; e) Exploitation of the labour of the members of a racial group or groups, in particular by submitting them to forced labour; f) Persecution of organizations and persons, by depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms, because they oppose apartheid.

The delegation must underline that in any of the several meetings, interviews and conversations with Palestinians, have perceived a single anti Jewish expression (cant be anti-Semitic because Arabs are also Semites). All critics the delegation heard always referred to Israeli government, to his leaders, to soldiers and settlers. That doesn’t means that doesn’t exist persons and groups holding global anti Jewish positions, but they must be a minority, because the ones we contact are representatives of the majority.

We have the conviction that peace in Middle East requires the fulfillment of United Nations resolutions, and the respect of the International Conventions on human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, and in consequence imposes:

The cease of Israeli military occupation of Palestine;

The establishment of the Palestine Estate;

The departure from the territories actually occupied by Israeli settlers and the delivery of the colonies to Palestinians.

The return of the refugees;

The give back of the confiscated properties or an economical compensation;

The compensation to the victims of the crimes;

18 October 2001.

APENDIX: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Introduction:
We believe it is necessary to briefly summarize the historical background of the Palestine/Israel conflict, focusing on the legal aspects.

4.000 years B.C., a Semitic people, the Cananeos, settled in the territory of Canaan, later called Palestine, and one of their tribes, the Jebuceos, founded a town that later would become Jerusalem.

2.000 years B.C., another Semitic people, the Hebrews, led by Abraham, passed through this city on the way to Egypt, from where,7 centuries later, the 12 tribes, led by Moses, returned, and fought bloody battles against the Jebuceos for possession of the land. The Jebuceos were finally defeated 4 centuries later. After various events, including expulsions, returns, diverse dominations, the Roman Empire conquered the city of Jerusalem by fire and blood, eventually expelling the Jews and crucifying Jesus of Nazareth. After the Byzantine Empire domain, in 611 A.C, the Persians invaded this territory and in 634, the Arabs, another Semitic people, invaded. Jerusalem, after Prophet Mohammed was believed to have ascended to heaven, became sacred for all three monotheist religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Except from very short periods of partial domination by the Christian Crusaders and the Mongols in XI and XIII century, Palestine had Arab governments for almost one millennium, and Islamic governments for one and a half millenniums. In 1516, Jerusalem was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.

In 1896, Theodore Herzl founded the Zionist movement with the publication of his book "the Jewish State," in which he advocates the need to build a new nation-state in Palestine, in the place where the ancient Jewish Kingdoms once existed, which was then under Ottoman rule, where all Jewish victims of progroms and other forms of anti-Semitism could live.

In 1916, Palestine was under British rule. This situation was consolidated legally by the mandate given by the League of the Nations in 1922, and continued until 1947.

Demography.

At the beginning of the century, half a million Arabs and 50.000 Jews lived in Palestine. There were 300.000 Jews by the 1930s. When the UN General Assembly approved the partition plan, there were 749.000 Arabs and 9.250 Jews in the part belonging to Arab State, while in the part adjudicated to be the Jewish State, there lived 497.000 Arabs and 498.000 Jews. Today, Israel has a population of nearly 5 and ½ million inhabitants, of which one million are Arabs descendants of the 120.000 who were left in 1948 in its territory. Four millions Palestinians live in exile and 2.500.000 in Gaza and Cisjordan.


The creation of the State of Israel and its expansion.

In 1947, the UN General Assembly approved a partition plan of the Palestinian Territories - 33 votes for, 13 against and 10 abstentions - creating two independent states: one Arab (Palestinian) and one Jewish, reserving a special international status for Jerusalem. Immediately, Zionist armed organizations occupied the large cities and started the mass expulsion of Palestinians, at times accomplished by the commission of massacres by the extremist organization "Irgun," led by Menahem Begin (later Israel Prime Minister). One example is the massacre of the village Deir Yassin, where, in April, all 234 inhabitants were killed. The terror led to the exodus of 10.000 Arabs.

On 14 May 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed and was immediately attacked by the armies of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. The war ended with an armistice in January 1949, thanks to which Israel increased by 40% the territory given it by the UN partition plan. This produced a forced massive exodus of Palestinians, more than the half, - deprived of their land and possessions - to the neighboring countries, especially to Jordan and the Gaza Strip. Those Arabs remaining inside the Israel borders became "Arab-Israelis", in practice second class citizens, despite their theoretical equality.

During the "Six Day War" of 1967, Israel occupied all Palestine, East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan Heightd and the Egyptian Sinai territories, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees had previously settled.

Resolution 242 of UN Security Council (22-xi-1967) called upon Israel to withdraw from all the Occupied Territories. Israel refused to withdraw, arguing the necessity of "safe borders".

Before 1964, the Palestine struggle was totally in hands of the Arab governments, very different from each other and deeply divided in almost every aspect. That same year, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation), called for, by means of armed struggle, "the establishment of a lay and independent State in all the Palestinian territory, where Muslims, Christians and Jewish could live in peace, with the same rights and duties", which would imply the destruction of the State of Israel. "Throw the Jews into the sea" became a slogan for long time.

With the Camp David Agreements (1977), a separate peace was signed between Israel and Egypt, which resulted in the return of the Sinai territory to Egypt.

In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon, in alliance with Lebanese Falangists, occupying a great portion of its territory. This Israeli-trained force then engaged in the mass killings of unarmed Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila. The investigation into the massacre concluded that responsibility for this horrendous crime lay with the Israeli Minister of Defence (at that time), now Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. A similar, older antecedent, not that well remembered today, is the one of 1953, committed when Sharon was Commander of a battalion in Qibya district, Jordan, in which Israeli soldiers destroyed more than 40 Palestinian houses, leaving 69 civilians dead under the debris.

On 9 December 1987, Israelis patrols attacked a vehicle of Palestinians in Gaza, murdering many of them, leading to the outbreak of the first intifada. The intifada started with a general strike in Gaza and immediately spread to the entire occupied territory, and radically changed the nature of the resistance against the Israeli occupation. Its principal characteristic was the involvement in the struggle of children and youths, using the unique weapon of stones which they threw at the occupying troops, who responded with military weapons, killing the youth. As the cruelty of the repression increased, so did the strength of the resistance; the demand for independence and the creation of a Palestinian State increased as well. This struggle eventually led to the negotiation process.

On 30 October 1991, the "Peace Conference on Meddle East" was inaugurated in Madrid, sponsored by the USA and the URSS. In attendance was also delegates from Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, a Jordan-Palestinian delegation, the European Community, the Gulf Council, the Arab Magreb Union and as an observer, the United Nations. No agreement was reached, although this was a step for the bilateral negotiation. On 16 December, the UN General Assembly rescinced the resolution of 1975 that had compared Zionism to racism. After a dozen of negotiation rounds in different places, negotiations in August 1993 in Oslo, Norway – which were surrounded by secrecy- between the Israeli government and the PLO, it was agreed that Palestine would be granted gradual autonomy, starting with the Gaza Strip and Jerico City, as an embryo of the future Palestine State.

On 13 September 1993, in Washington, Palestinians and Israelis signed the "Declaration of Principles on provisional autonomy agreements on Jordan and Gaza", agreed upon in Oslo, whereby Israel recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The Declaration also recognized the right of existence of the Israel State, renounced the use of violence and rescinded the Palestinian National Charter provisions that called for the destruction of the State of Israel. But the Declaration recognized that additional negotiations would be necessary to concretize the conditions for the creation of the mini-Palestinian State. Overcoming critics from different sectors on both sides, on 9 February 1994, Simon Perez and Yasser Arafat signed the agreement by virtue of which:

Israelis remained in control of the security of their settlements in the Occupied Territories and in control of the roads leading to them;

Palestinians took control of the Gaza and Jerico security, in some cases sharing control with Israelis;

On the Jordan and Egypt borders, two roads would be built, one under Palestinian control for Palestinian citizens living in Jerico and Gaza to use, and the other one with Israeli police, for Israeli travelers and travelers of other nationalities who go to Jerico or Gaza first and then continue on their way to Israel or the Occupied Territories;

Israeli control of the synagogues and joint security (with Palestinians) at the entrance of some mosques,

The growth of Jerico was limited to less than 50 square km.

However, the negotiation process was immediately paralyzed, as a consequence of the fact that on 25 February, an Israeli settler, armed with an assault rifle and hand grenades, entered the Hebron Mosque and, in 15 minutes, killed 19 Palestinians and wounded 200, without any explanation being provided about how he had been able to enter the mosque or why the soldiers who had custody of the building had not intervened to stop him.

The violent reactions from both sides increased, and Israel started to backtrack from its agreements by closing off the Gaza Strip and Jordan, increasing security measures throughout the territories, building walls surrounding the settlers houses, with the aim of limiting the free circulation of Palestinians, (which measures served to prevent many Palestinians from entering or leaving their homes without being forced to pass through a military Jewish checkpoint).

Finally, on 4 May 1994, an "Agreement on Palestinian Autonomy for Gaza and Jerico" was signed in El Cairo. Under this agreement, the National Palestinian Authority was created, chaired by Yasser Arafat as President.

Since that time, Israel has repeatedly ignored its promises and the compromises to which it had agreed. The out beak of the second intifada (Al Aqsa intifada) was caused by Sharon, who, on 28 September 2000, insisted upon entering the Temple Mount, in the Mosque Square, surrounded by 2000 Israelis soldiers. His strong belief in the superiority of the Jewish people is a very curious parallel with Hitler’s conception. Sharon uses the desperate acts of terrorism committed by Palestinian suicide bombers as a pretext to fight against the sectors of the Israeli society that seek a peaceful end to the conflict.


Israel first requested the Commission, headed by former American Senator Mithchel, to investigate the violence in the occupied territories, and then refused to comply with its recommendations.

Contrary to the sentiment expressed by Ben Gurion more than 30 years ago, that "peace is more important than material goods", on 30 May 2001, Sharon said to "Le Monde Diplomatique" that he doesn’t accept the borders established in 1967, and that the land given to the settlers won’t be given back.

The members of the IADL mission think the position and actions of the Israeli Government does not in any way reflect Judaism. And we ask, as did the Judeo-Argentinean poet, how it is possible for the descendants of the victims of the progroms and the nazi concentration camps to "create ghettos for Palestinians, blast their homes, siege by hunger, destroy their olives and their crops when they interfere with building projects, usurp the land applying the law of the jungle, that is to say, raw force. And what does this Israeli policy have to do with Judaism?" And heconcludes: "This tactic of confusing critics of the State of Israel with anti-Semitism reminds me of the pretension of the recent Argentinian military dictatorship that labelled as an "anti-Argentina campaign" any attempt to denounce their crimes. I am filled with sadness at the genocidal policies of the Israel State, because I am truly Jewish. Because once, when I was a child and with very high fever, my father seated besides my bed read to me in Yiddish a Sholem Aleijem story, entitled "Das messerl" ("the little knife"), which speaks about the pains of the ghetto"("Pagina 12", Buenos Aires).

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