[…CONTINUED]

VI. Water Confiscation

34. Since 1967, the State of Israel has confiscated more than 80% of Palestinian groundwater. Shortly after the June 1967 war, the State of Israel destroyed 140 Palestinian water pumps in the Jordan Valley, used to irrigate Palestinian farms in the area. Since 1967, all water management in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been placed under Israeli military rule.

35. The State of Israel has strategically established illegal colonies to tap Palestinian groundwater and springs, enabling discriminatory allocation of water resources. Per capita basis, Israelis consume more than five times as much water as Palestinians, even though their population is only twice that of Palestinians, despite widespread dry periods where Palestinian municipal water supplies literally dry up for months during the summer.

36. In April and May of 2002 alone, the State of Israel has caused destruction to the Palestinian water sector worth of US$ 7 million. In that period, the State of Israel destructed water networks, denying Palestinians access to running water for up to two weeks at a time.

37. The State of Israel has systematically dug trenches across main roads, disrupting water and sewer mains and telecommunication lines to Palestinians homes, caused intentional damage to pumping facilities, intentional destruction of water transmission lines from wells located outside city limits, obstruction of municipal crews from carrying out emergency repair work, killing a municipality engineer in Nablus. A well operator from Jenin was taken hostage twice.

VII. Due Process Violations and Torture

38. Since 1967 to date, the State of Israel has arbitrarily detained over 620,000 Palestinians. In 1989 alone, the State of Israel detained 50,000 Palestinians, representing 16% of the entire male population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip between the ages of 14 and 55. By way of comparison, that same year, out of a total African population of 24 million in South Africa, no more than 5,000 or 0.2% were detained for security offenses against the apartheid regime.

39. Since 1948, the State of Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians without charge or trial.

40. Over 200 Palestinian prisoners have died while in Israeli custody, due to torture, ill-treatment, deprivation of medical treatment, and neglect.

41. The State of Israel has systematically tortured and ill-treated approximately 80% of all Palestinian detainees. Methods of torture used by the State of Israel include both psychological and physical torture, including beatings of sensitive organs, choking, pulling of hair off the body, prolonged solitary confinement, subjecting Palestinian detainees to noise, screams, and threats against their families. Other forms of torture and ill-treatment applied by the State of Israel against Palestinian detainees include forcing a person to stand, hooded and handcuffed, for long periods of time, while depriving him of food or sleep, starvation, the use of electric shocks, burnings, beatings with hands, fists, truncheons, and boots, deprivation of food, sleep, and basic hygiene, resulting in lice and general discomfort, and forcing detainees to stand for protracted periods of time.

42. In the occupied Palestinian territories, the State of Israel has established military courts that do not comply with fair trial standards.

43. The State of Israel provides virtual impunity for those Israeli soldiers and settlers, who commit crimes against Palestinians. The State of Israel has failed to investigate or properly and impartially investigate or prosecute those Israeli soldiers and settlers, who have committed crimes against Palestinians. The State of Israel has denied any remedy for Palestinian victims, including denies compensation.

VIII. Destruction of Means of Livelihood

44. Since 1967, the State of Israel has uprooted hundreds of thousands of trees. In 1984, the State of Israel issued a military order which made it illegal for Palestinians to plant a new or replacement fruit tree without a permit. During the summer of 1988, the state of Israel burnt 8,000 olive and fruit trees and thousands of dunums of wheat. Between 1993 and August 2001, the State of Israel has uprooted 280,000 fruit and olive trees belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank alone. In 2001 alone, the State of Israel uprooted 23,551 fruit and olive trees.

45. The State of Israel has deliberately strangulated the Palestinian economy with forced dependency through border controls of imports and exports, exploitation of natural resources, de-development of Palestinian industries and businesses, violation of the full range of employment and workers’ rights, including through closures and curfews.

46. The State of Israel has deliberately imposed a range of measures and acts that have diminished the living conditions of Palestinians to an extent that can only result in their physical destruction. Methods include the confiscation and expropriation of Palestinian land and other natural resources, particularly, water, which has seriously affected the health and viability of Palestinian communities and their way of life. The State of Israel has damaged Palestinian property and environment through the use of heavy weaponry and has permitted dumping toxic and hazardous products. The State of Israel has imposed restrictions on movement on Palestinians in and out of Palestinian localities, affecting population centers and their associated agricultural and economic communities, including restrictions on movement, depriving them of access to their land and property.

IX. Discrimination and Apartheid

47. The State of Israel imposed a tax system on Palestinians, while, in per capita terms, Israeli Jews received fifty times more grants than Palestinians. Of aid spent in the occupied Palestinian territories, 96.5% was spent on Israeli settlers, and 3.5% on the 90% Palestinian population. In 1992, discounting East Jerusalem, Israeli settlers constituted barely 6% of the West Bank and Gaza populations. Although since 1970, the State of Israel required Palestinian workers to pay dues for the Histadrut, Palestinian workers cannot be members of this trade union federation. Between 1970 and 1994, the Histadrut confiscated NIS 700 million from Palestinian workers without these workers being represented.

48. Since 1948, the State of Israel has increasingly imposed segregation and apartheid, including by cutting off Palestinians from access to wider Arab communities in neighboring Arab states, cutting Palestinians from their families and communities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

49. Since 1967, the State of Israel has separated and isolated Palestinians in East Jerusalem from their families in other parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since 1987, the State of Israel has separated and isolated Palestinian communities through barbed wired fences and iron gates, for example Dheishe refugee camp, near Bethlehem. Since 1989, the State of Israel has segregated, isolated and separated the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and to outside neighboring countries.

50. Since 1993, the State of Israel has denied Palestinians in the West Bank access to the Gaza Strip and Israel. Since this period, the State of Israel has used curfews, partial and total closures on an ad hoc basis. Since 1993, the State of Israel further separated Palestinian communities inside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, separating villages from cities and villages from villages, through checkpoints, bypass roads, settlements and closures.

51. Since March 2001, the State of Israel dug trenches into main roads, cutting of all movement for Palestinian villagers to any other area, including urban centers upon which they rely for work, education, humanitarian aid and assistance, including medicines, field clinics and hospital, and crucial supplies, including food and water. Since June 2001, the State of Israel dug more trenches and erected iron gates in some areas, closing off villages and cities. Since June 2002, the State of Israel has segregated, separated and isolated more than 11,000 Palestinians living between the 1967-demarcation line and a currently built wall or so-called ‘security fence’ in the north of the West Bank.

X. Denial of Freedom of the Press

52. The State of Israel has barred journalists access to areas, subjected journalists to physical violence and harassment, arrested and detained journalists, restricted access to Palestinian sources of information, for example, the closure of press agencies, impersonation of journalists and confiscation of materials, including footage, cameras, and films.

XI. Denial of Education

53. The State of Israel has repressed Palestinian education by closures, raids and destruction. The State of Israel has killed, injured, detained and harassed Palestinian professors, lecturers, teachers and students. The State of Israel has regularly closed schools and universities in the West Bank and Gaza for prolonged periods, disrupting Palestinian education, and has banned alternative education. Furthermore, the State of Israel has occupied many schools and destructed school property. The State of Israel has raided schools and universities and used tear gas inside school buildings.

XII. Denial of Freedom of Religion

54. The State of Israel has obstructed and harassed worship. The State of Israel has raided mosques and harassed worshippers. The State of Israel has allowed its soldiers to shoot tear gas inside places of worships, have assaulted mosques and churches, has disrupted the burial rites of Palestinians.

[ends]

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