Human Rights
General
From indiscriminate and excessive use of force, beatings, attacks on civilians, medical personnel and aid workers, to Israel's policy of assassination, administration detention and torture, to collective punishments, restrictions on movement. All these violations are being documented.
Apartheid
Whether they reside in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, or in Israel, Palestinians are discriminated against in a variety of forms and denied equal individual rights on the grounds of their descent, national and ethnic origin. These policies and practices of segregation and domination bear striking similarities to those adopted in apartheid-era South Africa, and its illegal occupation of Namibia.
Children
Palestinian children suffer violations of their rights on a daily basis, violations that impact their lives, health, education, their standard of living, freedom of movement and education. Violations that impact their dreams, opportunities and future.
Detention and Torture
During the course of the Palestinian uprising, the Israeli authorities have conducted a widespread arrest campaign against suspected Palestinian activists. Numerous detainees were held without charge or trial and more were prohibited from receiving visits from lawyers and relatives.
House Demolitions
Israeli authorities have destroyed private homes and public buildings, uprooted olive trees and swept large swathes of agricultural land. The destruction of family dwellings was most marked in Nablus and Jenin on the West Bank and the districts of Rafah and Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. Most of these homes were little more than shacks belonging to refugees.
Israel's Policy of Transfer
International humanitarian law stipulates that individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations are prohibited, regardless of their motive. Israel has adopted a policy of transfer as a collective punishment.
Legal Instruments
The enforcement of international humanitarian law is critical not only for the protection of civilians living under occupation, but also in preserving prospects for peace and security.
Palestinians in Israel
The Palestinians in Israel comprise one million citizens, about twenty percent of Israel's total population. The status of Palestinians in Israel as a Jewish state is problematic. From 1948 until 1966 they lived under military rule. Nowadays, Palestinians in Israel are not equal under the law.
Press Freedom
Journalists and reporters face numerous difficulties and danger while trying to do their job. Journalists, especially members of the Palestinian press, are frequently fired upon by Israeli soldiers and more recently, Palestinian and international journalists alike have found themselves subject to kidnapping by Palestinian actors.
Related Websites
Palestinian, Israeli, and international human rights organisations.
Restrictions on Movement
Israel has imposed sweeping movement restrictions on the civilian population in the occupied Palestinian territories, which has the effect of isolating individual communities. In broad terms, these restrictions fall into two categories, closure and curfew.
Suicide Bombings
Attacks on civilians have been carried out by subnational groups on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- in addition to the far greater level of ongoing violence perpetrated by the State of Israel against Palestinian civilians, detailed elsewhere in "BY TOPIC: Human Rights". This section offers a list of articles and other resources that specifically relate to violence by Palestinian groups against Israeli civilians, including suicide bombings and other attacks.
The New Anti-Semitism
Hardly a day passes in Israel without another lengthy feature in the press documenting the rapid reemergence of anti-Semitism in Europe. The blurring of one, legitimate criticism of Israeli actions, with the other, illegitimate retaliation against Jews, serves a useful purpose for Israel. It makes it difficult, at times impossible, to give voice to the daily suffering of millions of Palestinians under occupation without invoking the label "anti-Semite" from a muscular Zionist lobby in Europe and the United States.
War Crimes
Criminal acts committed during, or in connection with, war. These acts include wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, wilfully causing great suffering, causing serious injury to body or health, extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, unlawful deportation or transfer, unlawful confinement of a protected person and taking of hostages.
Women
Palestinian women live in a difficult situation. They bear the costs of Israel's occupation and oppression and they play a central role in Palestinian society. Included in this section are reports, articles, reviews of relevant and relating topics concerning the rights of women and the role of women in armed conflicts.
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