Human rights in Israel
Encyclopedia
Human rights in Israel have been evaluated by various human rights treaty bodies, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and individuals, often in relation to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict
which forms part of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict and Israel internal politics.
When analyzing Israel's human rights
records, a distinction between Israel proper and the territories that it currently occupies
will be made. Israel proper is a multiparty
parliamentary
democracy
, and while it is described as a Jewish state in the Declaration of Independence, it includes religious and ethnic minorities. Some of these minorities claim de facto
discrimination
. In the Palestinian territories
, successive Israeli governments have been subject to criticism by other governments and human rights groups inside and outside the country. While Israel does not have a constitution
, it has a set of Basic Laws
, intended to form the basis of a future constitution. One of those Basic Laws, Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty
, serves as one of the major tools for defending human rights
and civil liberties
.
The Council of the League of Nations adopted a resolution on 4 September 1931 regarding the general conditions which had to be fulfilled before a mandate regime could be brought to an end. The criteria included a requirement that the new government provide an oral or written declaration acknowledging acceptance of an obligation to constitutionally guarantee the equal rights of ethnic and religious minorities. That resolution followed a longstanding precedent of international law in cases where the Great Powers had assisted in the restoration of sovereignty over a territory. The UN resolution on "The Future Government of Palestine" contained both a plan of partition and a Minority Protection Plan
.
It placed minority, women's, and religious rights under the protection of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. The plan provided specific guarantees of fundamental human rights. The new states were to supply a declaration, which according to precedent was tantamount to a treaty.
The resolution stated that "the stipulations contained in the declarations are recognized as fundamental laws of State, and no law, regulation or official action shall conflict or interfere with these stipulations, nor shall any law, regulation or official action prevail over them." The resolution also required that the Constitution of each State embody the rights contained in the Declaration.
During the hearings on Israel's application for membership in the United Nations, Abba Eban said that the rights stipulated in UN resolution 181(II) had been constitutionally embodied as the fundamental law of the state of Israel as required by the resolution. The instruments that he cited during the hearings were the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, and various cables and letters of confirmation addressed to the Secretary General.
Mr. Eban's explanations and Israel's undertakings were noted in the text of General Assembly Resolution 273 (III) Admission of Israel to membership in the United Nations, 11 May 1949.
The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel
proclaimed on May 14, 1948 that "the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country" ... "was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations
which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and "Eretz-Israel
[Land of Israel] and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home." It also declared that the state "...will be open for Jewish immigration
and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion
, conscience
, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."
Prof. James Crawford, Prof. William Thomas Mallison, and other legal scholars, say that Israel did not comply with its original obligation to constitutionally protect minority rights.
In 1950 Israel said that it had been admitted to the United Nations in accordance with General Assembly resolution 273 (III) of 11 May 1949, without the Declaration having been made. Subsequently, in a series of decisions, the Supreme Court of Israel stated that the Declaration had no constitutional validity, and that it was not a supreme law which may be used to invalidate laws and regulations that contradict it.
Israeli Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, states that fundamental human rights in Israel shall be upheld in the spirit of the principles set forth in the Declaration, but it specifically exempted legislation that was already in force. Israeli legal scholars say that the wording of the law was adopted to avoid the difficulty of giving priority to equality, which was not expressly entrenched. The result is that the principle of equality can be reversed by ordinary legislation, and furthermore will not override statutory or judge-made laws.
The United Nations and its subsidiary organs say that Israel has a binding legal obligation that flows from resolution 181(II) and that the United Nations has a permanent responsibility in the matter.
The Kach
Party had run candidates under a platform which proposed forced population transfer
of Arabs from Israel and establishment of a theocracy
in Israel ruled by traditional Jewish law. This platform was felt to be inciting of racism
by the Knesset
and the party was banned from participation in elections. In 1988, the Supreme Court of Israel upheld this Knesset decision. After a member of the Kach party killed 29 Palestinians, the party was outlawed completely. See also Reactions in Israel to the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.
A concurrent 1985 decision by the Central Elections Committee
to disqualify the Progressive List for Peace
for allegedly threatening the Jewish character of the State of Israel was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1988.
Although Israel is a Jewish state, all religious groups have freedom to practice and maintain communal institutions in Israel. According to the 2009 US Department of State report on Israel and the occupied territories, "The Israeli Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty provides for freedom of worship and the Government generally respected this right in practice." The report added that in 2009 the "Government policy continued to support the generally free practice of religion, although governmental and legal discrimination against non-Jews and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism continued." and noted that "Many Jewish citizens objected to exclusive Orthodox control over fundamental aspects of their personal lives." The report stated that approximately 310,000 citizens who immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return
are not considered Jewish by the Orthodox Rabbinate and therefore cannot be married, divorced, or buried in Jewish cemeteries within the country.
After gaining control of the West Bank in 1967, Israel guaranteed Muslim access to mosque
s including the Al-Aqsa Mosque
and Christian access to churches. Israel has extended protection to religious sites of non-Jewish religions; most famously the IDF foiled a Kach
party attempt to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and continue to protect this site from attacks by non-Muslims. At times, the observances of holy days by various religions has the potential to cause conflict; thus Israeli police take measures to avoid friction between communities by issuing temporary restrictions on movement and audible worship. The 1967 Protection of Holy Sites Law protects all holy sites, but the government has implemented regulations only for 137 Jewish sites, leaving many Muslim and Christian sites neglected, inaccessible, or threatened by property development.
The city of Jerusalem has given financial support to Muslim religious activities as well has giving them facilities for their use. Israel does not give funding to some religious communities including Protestants. Proselytising is illegal.
The Bahá'í Faith
(in 1960) maintains the seat of their governing bodies, the Universal House of Justice
in Haifa. Buddhism
is also active as a religion in Israel.,
According to a 2009 report from the U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Israel falls short of being a tolerant or pluralistic society. According to the report, Israel discriminates against Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Reform Jews, Christians, women and Bedouins. Israel only recognises and protects Jewish holy sites, ignoring and neglecting all Christian and Muslim sites. All 137 official holy sites are Jewish.
, as opposed to religious marriage, in Israel. A couple wishing to marry must do so through a religious ceremony, be it Jewish
, Muslim, Christian or other. Non-religious couples must undergo a religious ceremony to marry, as do persons with no recognized religion, such as many of the immigrants from the former Soviet Union
, who received citizenship based on a Jewish relative, but who are not recognized as Jews by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel
. As a result couples of mixed religion, for example a Christian and a Jew, or a Muslim and a Jew, cannot legally marry in Israel. Common-law marriage
, which gives couples the same rights married couples enjoy, mitigates this difficulty. Israeli citizens may also travel abroad for a civil marriage, which is then binding under Israeli law.
messages, Jerusalem 1500 and Jerusalem 3239, sent from the United States Consulate General in Jerusalem to the United States Department of State
in Washington, D.C.
, described abusive methods allegedly used by Israeli authorities to interrogate Palestinian
detainees in Jerusalem and the West Bank
. Alexandra U. Johnson
, the consular officer who wrote the cables, was terminated from the United States Foreign Service
later that year; and the cables became the focus of controversy when their contents became public in 1979. A third report, Jerusalem A-19, sent as an airgram
message from the Consulate General in Jerusalem to the Department of State in October 1978, described the military trial of two young American citizens who reported that Israeli authorities used physical coercion to obtain confessions from them. The report concluded that Israeli authorities were aware that "physical coercion and mistreatment" probably had been used to obtain the confessions.
The 1987 Landau Commission
, headed by then-Supreme Court Justice Moshe Landau
, was appointed to examine the interrogation methods of the General Security Service and said that "the exertion of a moderate degree of physical pressure cannot be avoided". Nevertheless, the commission condemned a 1982 internal memo that instructed interrogators on the kind of lies they should tell in court when denying they'd used physical force to obtain confessions. It condemned the perjury involved but advised against prosecution of those who'd carried it out. The second part of the Landau report remains secret, it is believed to contain guidelines for permissible interrogation methods.
The Landau Commission resulted in hundreds of petitions of detained Palestinians complaining that force had been used against them during GSS interrogations. In isolated cases, interim orders were issued temporarily prohibiting the GSS from using all or some of the methods, but in September 1999 the High Court refused to rule whether they are legal under Israeli and international law.
In 1991, Israel ratified the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, a measure which states (Article 7) "no one shall be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". Critics say Israel is also in breach of section 2(2) of the Convention against torture which stipulates that, "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."
In 1994 a State Comptroller’s Report (partly released in summary form in February 2000) found that GSS interrogation methods contravened the law, the Landau Commission guidelines and the internal guidelines formulated by the service itself.
In July 2002, Ha’aretz quoted a senior GSS official saying that, since the High Court’s decision, ninety Palestinians had been defined as "ticking bombs" and "extraordinary interrogation methods," i.e. torture, was used against them". Other Israeli interrogators have admitted that the GSS "uses every manipulation possible, up to shaking and beating." Dozens of affidavits from Palestinians also confirm that torture is still part of Israeli interrogations.
Torture is recorded by B'Tselem as having being carried out against individuals not suspected of crime, including religious sages, sheiks and religious leaders, persons active in charitable organizations and Islamic students. Others to be tortured include brothers and other relatives of persons listed as "wanted" and any Palestinians in engineering profession. In some cases, wives of the detained have been arrested and mistreated to further pressure their husbands. GSS agents have sometimes tortured Palestinians in order to recruit them as collaborators.
B'Tselem estimates that the GSS annually interrogates between 1,000 and 1,500 Palestinians and uses methods constituting torture against some 85 percent of them, at least 850 persons a year.
According to a 2011 report by two Israeli human rights organisations, the Public Committee Against Torture (PCAT) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), Israeli doctors fail to report suspected torture and conceal related information, allowing Israeli Security Agency interrogators to use torture against Palestinian detainees.
According to the 2005 US Department of State report on Israel, "[t]he law provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the government generally respected these rights in practice subject to restrictions concerning security issues. The law provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the government generally respected these rights in practice.
Some government officials and others have been critical of the freedom of speech
rights afforded to Israeli settlers during their forced evacuation from the Gaza Strip
and the West Bank
. This led to the criticism that “the authorities took disproportional steps, unjustifiably infringing on the right to political expression and protest.”
Within Israel, policies of its government are subjected to criticism by its press as well as a variety of political, human rights and watchdog groups such as Association for Civil Rights in Israel
, B'Tselem
, Machsom Watch
, Women in Black
, Women for Israel's Tomorrow
, among others. According to the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders
, "The Israeli media were once again in 2005 the only ones in the region that had genuine freedom to speak out." However in 2010 human rights groups operating in Israel complained of a hostile environment in the country, and said they were coming under attack for criticising Israeli policies. The groups say that some Israeli leaders see human rights criticism as a threat to Israel's legitimacy, especially following war crimes allegations against the Israeli military over the Gaza war in 2008-9.
In 2009, Israel came 93rd out of 175 in the Reporters Without Borders
Press Freedom Index
. This was a nose-dive from the previous year and was mainly due to actions from the government during the Gaza war. The fall have left Israel trailing Kuwait
(ranked 60th), Lebanon
(ranked 61st) and UAE (ranked 86th) in its region. Overall Israel was ranked one behind Guinea-Bissau
and right before Qatar
. Freedom House
ranked Israel as having a "Partly Free" media climate in 2009. Previously Israel have been the only country in the region with a "Free" media.)
In 2003, Israel's film board banned from commercial screenings (in cinemas) a film about the 2002 Battle of Jenin
. The film, titled "Jenin, Jenin
", was a collection of interviews with residents of the Jenin
refugee camp
filmed in April 2002, a week after the battle. Mohammad Bakri
, an Israeli Arab, directed the film. The film was banned due to its allegations of war crimes committed by Israeli forces, which the board deemed false and hurtful to the soldiers' families. Following legal proceedings, a petition was filed to the Supreme Court of Israel
, which unanimously overturned the board's decision, and allowed the movie to be shown in cinemas. However, in a later deposition following a slander lawsuit by Israeli soldiers' families, Bakri admitted to lack of fact checking and fabricating scenes for "artistic purposes" throughout his film. All of this was addressed in Pierre Rehov
's counter-film, "The Road to Jenin
", parts of which were used as testimony in the aforementioned lawsuit.
In January 2011, the Israeli parliament endorsed a right-wing proposal to investigate some of Israel's best-known human rights organisations for "delegitimising" its military. The investigations would entail inquiries into the funding of several human rights groups that have criticised Israeli policies. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel
described the parliament's decision as a "severe blow" to Israeli democracy, and critics labeled the policy as "McCarthyist
".
Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index
Reporters Without Borders
publishes an annual report on worldwide press freedom, called the Press Freedom Index
. The first such publication began in 2002. The results for Israel
and the Palestinian Authority from 2002 to the present are shown below, with lower numbers indicating better treatment of reporters:
women to actively participate in Israeli life. The Israeli Declaration of Independence states: “The State of Israel (…) will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”
Israel was the third country in the world to be led by a female prime minister, Golda Meir
, and in 2010, women's parliamentary representation in Israel was 18 percent, which is above the Arab world's average of 6 percent and equals that of the U.S. Congress. Still, it trails far behind the Scandinavian countries' 40 percent average
The Israeli parliament, The Knesset, has established “The Committee on the Status of Women,” to address women’s rights. The stated objectives of this committee are to prevent discrimination, combat violence against women, and promote equality in politics, lifecycle events and education. In 1998, the Knesset passed a law for "Prevention of Sexual Harassment
".
However, the fact that large parts of Israeli life is governed by religious laws instead of secular, means that many forms of discrimination of women are legally allowed in Israel, which is a continued matter of concern to the U.S. State Department, as described in their annual International Religious Freedom Report, most recently in their 2009 report:
, the Muslim Arab citizens of Israel are afforded all the rights and privileges of Israeli citizenship. He noted that Israel is one of the few countries in the Middle East where Arab women can vote. In contrast to the non-Israeli Arab world, Arab women in Israel enjoy the same status as men. Muslim women have the right to vote and to be elected to public office. Muslim women, according to Sayyed, are more liberated in Israel than in any Muslim country. Israeli law prohibits polygamy, child marriage, and female sexual mutilation.
Arab-Israeli women actively participate in government and public life. Nadia Hilou
was the second Israeli-Arab woman to serve in the Knesset.
, same-sex marriages valid in foreign countries are legally recognized in Israel. Israel guarantees civil rights for its homosexual population, including adoption
rights and partner benefits
. Israel also grants a common-law marriage
status for same-sex domestic partners. The Sodomy law
inherited from the British Mandate of Palestine was repealed in 1988, though there was an explicit instruction issued in 1953 by the Attorney General of Israel
ordering the police to refrain from enforcing this law, as long as no other offenses were involved. A national gay rights law bans some anti-gay discrimination, including in employment; some exemptions are made for religious organizations. In the past, military service of homosexuals was subject to certain restrictions. These restrictions were lifted in 1993, allowing homosexuals to openly serve in all units of the army.
prohibits discrimination in hiring, working conditions, promotion, professional training or studies, discharge or severance pay and benefits and payments provided for employees in connection with their retirement from employment, because of race, religion, nationality and land of origin, among other reasons.
Prohibition of Discrimination in Products, Services and Entry into Places of Entertainment and Public Places Law, forbid those who operate public places or provide services or products to discriminate because of race, religion, nationality,and land of origin, among other reasons. According to the 2010 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories, Israeli law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, and the government effectively enforced these prohibitions.
In a report submitted to the United Nations, Bedouin
claim they face discrimination and are not treated as equal citizens in Israel and that Bedouin
towns are not provided the same level of services or land that Jewish towns of the same size are and they are not given fair access to water. The city of Be'er Sheva refused to recognize a Bedouin holy site, despite a High Court recommendation.
According to the 2004 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories, the Israeli government had done "little to reduce institutional, legal, and societal discrimination
against the country's Arab citizens." Reports of subsequent years also identified discrimination against Arab citizens as a problem area for Israel, but did not repeat the assertion that Israel had done little to reduce discrimination.
The 2004 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices notes that:
The 2007 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices notes that:
Human Rights Watch
has charged that cuts in veteran benefits and child allowances based on parents' military service discriminate against Arab children: "The cuts will also affect the children of Jewish ultra-orthodox parents who do not serve in the military, but they are eligible for extra subsidies, including educational supplements, not available to Palestinian Arab children."
Human rights group B'Tselem
has claimed that Arabs in Jerusalem are denied residency rights, leading to a housing shortage in the Arab areas of Jerusalem.
In September 2010 Israeli government endorsed an amendment to the country's citizenship laws. The draft law obliges that any person applying for an Israeli citizenship to pledge an oath of allegiance
to "Israel as a Jewish and democratic state". The amendment has been strongly criticized by Israeli arabs as well as by Israeli left-wing movements including Kadima
opposition party chief Tzipi Livni
. Israeli educational psychologist Prof. Gavriel Solomon said that the loyalty oath resembles Nazi racist laws of 1935
. Supporters of the amendment state that non-Jews who become citizens need to fully appreciate that the "State of Israel is the national expression of the self-determination of the Jewish people."
in 2003, the Knesset made a temporary amendment to the Citizenship and Entry into Israel law which prohibited Palestinians married to Israelis from gaining Israeli citizenship or residency. Critics argue that the law is racist because it is targeted at Israeli Arabs who are far more likely to have Palestinian spouses than other Israelis; defenders say the law is aimed at preventing terrorist attacks and preserving the Jewish character of Israel. The United Nations
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination unanimously approved a resolution saying that the Israeli law violated an international human rights treaties against racism. The Israeli Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Yaakov Levy, said the resolution was "highly politicized", citing the committee's failure to grant Israel's request to present evidence of the, "legislation's compliance with existing international law and practice', examples of "numerous concrete instances [in which the] granting of a legal status to Palestinian spouses of Israeli residents [was] abused by Palestinian residents of the territories for suicide terrorism", and also ignoring the fact that at the time of the UN resolution the matter was under review by the Israeli High Court of Justice
.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel
filed a petition to have the law struck down but it was upheld by a High Court decision in 2006. In formulating the law, the government cited, "information presented by the security forces, which said that the terrorist organizations try to enlist Palestinians who have already received or will receive Israeli documentation and that the security services have a hard time distinguishing between Palestinians who might help the terrorists and those who will not "
In the Israeli Supreme Court decision on this matter, Deputy Chief Justice Mishael Cheshin argued that, "Israeli citizens [do not]enjoy a constitutional right to bring a foreign national into Israel... and it is the right – moreover, it is the duty – of the state, of any state, to protect its residents from those wishing to harm them. And it derives from this that the state is entitled to prevent the immigration of enemy nationals into it – even if they are spouses of Israeli citizens – while it is waging an armed conflict with that same enemy "
In 2009, the US State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor released a report critical of Israel's tolerance of ethnic and religious minorities. The report claims that 300,000 immigrants who are not considered Jewish under rabbinical law are not allowed to marry and divorce in Israel or be buried in Jewish cemeteries. The report recognizes the 1967 law on the protection of all areas of religious significance but "the government implements regulations only for Jewish sites. Non-Jewish holy sites do not enjoy legal protection under it because the government does not recognize them as official holy sites." All 137 of the recognized holy site are Jewish whilst Muslim and Christian sites are neglected. The report claims that Israel discriminates against Muslims, Jehova's Witnesses, Reform Jews, Christians, women and Bedouin.
, prompting protests from Orthodox families who objected to sending their children to integrated schools.
An August 2009 study published in Megamot by Sorel Cahan of Hebrew University's School of Education demonstrated that the Israeli Education Ministry's budget for special assistance to students from low socioeconomic backgrounds severely discriminated against Arabs. It also showed that the average per-student allocation at Arab junior high schools was one-fifth the average at Jewish ones. This was the result of the allocation method used – assistance funds were first divided between Arab and Jewish school systems, according to the number of students in each, and then allocated to needy students; however, due to the largest proportion of such students in the Arab system, they received less funds, per student, than Jewish students. The Ministry of Education said that it had already decided to discontinue this allotment method in favor of a uniform index method, without first dividing the funds between the school systems.
Ministry data on what percentage of high school students pass their matriculation exams, broken down by town, showed that most Arab towns were once again the lowest ranked – an exception was Arab Fureidis
which had the third highest pass rate (75.86 percent) in Israel.
issued a report which stated that "the Government of Israel does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking however it is making significant efforts to do so." It noted that Israel continued law enforcement actions against human trafficking, and established a shelter for labor traffic victims,however the government did not identify the victims, and law enforcement and protection efforts diminished since transferring anti-trafficing duties from Immigration police to the Ministry of Interior.
In Israel more than 144,000 people with disabilities rely solely on government allowances as their only means of support. According to Arie Zudkevitch and fellow members of the Israeli Organization of the Disabled: "The amount of money that we get cannot fulfill even the basic needs of people without special needs." In Tel Aviv, more than 10,000 people marched in solidarity with the disabled, demanding increased compensation and recognition from the Israeli Government.
A 2005 report from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel raised the concern: "It was reported this year that the Health Ministry has known for over two years that private psychiatric hospitals are holding 70 individuals who no longer need hospitalization, but continue to be hospitalized to serve the institutions` financial interests." The report suggests that, "the Health Ministry is supposed to supervise the private hospitals, but has been powerless to move these patients into an appropriate community situation." The most recent statistics of the Israeli Health Ministry showed over 18,000 admissions for psychiatric hospital care.
. Women from the former Soviet Republics
were brought into the country by criminal elements for forced labor in the sex industry
. In 1998 the Jerusalem Post estimated that pimps engaging in this activity derived on average $50,000 – $100,000 (USD) per prostitute, resulting in a countrywide industry of nearly $450,000,000 annually.
By July 2000, Israel passed the Prohibition on Trafficking Law. In its 2003 report, the Human Rights Committee noted it "welcomes the measures taken by the State party to combat trafficking in women for the purpose of prostitution” . The 2005 US Department of State report on Israel mentioned "societal violence and discrimination against women and trafficking in and abuse of women."
In October 2006, the Knesset
passed a new law outlawing human trade with sentences for human trade offences of up to 16 years, and 20 years when the victim is a minor. The law also addresses forced labor, slavery
, organ theft
, and prostitution
.
The bill also requires compensation of victims of human trade and slavery. Trials will be able to be held behind closed doors to protect the identity of victims. By November, prostitution activity in Israel has become less apparent. Police raided the places that offered sex services, and detained criminals related to prostitution and sex trafficking. However, campaigners say that police action has shifted the industry to private apartments and escort agencies, making the practice more difficult to detect.
(ACRI) found that "accelerated privatization
" is damaging human rights. According to the report, "State economic policy, including cutting stipends, reducing housing assistance, and constantly declining state participation in health-care and education costs, are forcing more elderly, children and whole families into poverty and despair. The increasing damage to citizens' rights to earn a dignified living – both due to low wages and the lack of enforcement of labor laws – is particularly prominent."
. According to the United Nations
, the occupied territories currently include the West Bank
, including East Jerusalem
, which is held by the State of Israel in belligerent occupation, and the entire Golan Heights which has been placed under civil administration. Residents of the Golan Heights are entitled to citizenship
, voting rights and residency that allows them to travel within Israel's borders. Israel no longer exercises military control in the Gaza Strip
, but has subjected it to various measures such as blockade
s and other measures it deems necessary to Israeli security. The government of Israel has declared that it observes the international humanitarian laws contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention
in the occupied territories. Israel denies that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of which it has signed, are applicable to the occupied Palestinian territory.
During the second Intifada, the UN Commission on Human Rights reported "widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights perpetrated by the Israeli occupying Power, in particular mass killings and collective punishments, such as demolition of houses and closure of the Palestinian territories, measures which constitute war crimes, flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity."
Israel advised the UN treaty monitoring bodies that the Occupied Palestinian territory is not part of its sovereign territory or jurisdiction and that they are part and parcel of an armed conflict. As a result, it has not submitted the periodic reports for the foreign territory under its national control in accordance with the terms of the international human rights covenants. It has explained that the fact that the Palestinian Council does not represent a State, does not, in itself, preclude its responsibility in the sphere of human rights protection. Israel believes that in light of transfer of responsibilities under the Oslo Accords, and the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Council, it cannot be held internationally responsible for the human rights guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in these areas.
In the process of answering the question put by the General Assembly, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined that Israel's territorial jurisdiction as the occupying Power is subject to an obligation not to raise any obstacle to the exercise of the right of self-determination and such rights in those fields where competence had been transferred to Palestinian authorities. The Court said that the human rights covenants are applicable with respect to acts done by a State in the exercise of its jurisdiction as an occupying power outside its own territory. The Court concluded that Israel had breached its obligations under international law by establishing settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and that Israel cannot rely on a right of self-defence or on a state of necessity in order to preclude the wrongfulness of imposing a régime, which is contrary to international law. The Court also concluded that the Israeli régime violates the basic human rights of the Palestinians by impeding the liberty of movement of the inhabitants of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (with the exception of lsraeli citizens) and their exercise of the right to work, to health, to education and to an adequate standard of living.
High Representative Catherine Ashton released a statement condemning the verdict against Abu Rahmah calling him a human rights defender. "The EU considers Abdallah Abu Rahmah to be a Human Rights Defender committed to non violent protest against the route of the Israeli separation barrier through his West Bank village of Bil'in."
Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination says "States Parties particularly condemn racial segregation and apartheid and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction." A review of Israel's country report by the experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination took issue with the establishment of Jewish-only settlements and stated "The status of the settlements was clearly inconsistent with Article 3 of the Convention which, as noted in the Committee's General Recommendation XIX, prohibited all forms of racial segregation in all countries. There was a consensus among publicists that the prohibition of racial discrimination, irrespective of territories, was an imperative norm of international law.
On April 7, 2005 the United Nations Committee on Human Rights stated it was "deeply concerned at the suffering of the Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan due to the violation of their fundamental and human rights since the Israeli military occupation of 1967...[and] in this connection, deploring the Israeli settlement in the occupied Arab territories, including in the occupied Syrian Golan, and regretting Israel's constant refusal to cooperate with and to receive the Special Committee"
Israeli military strategists defend the occupation of the Golan Heights as necessary to maintain a buffer against future military attacks from Syria. The land was captured in the Six Day War.
by various instances and persons such as the Congress of South African Trade Unions
, Jimmy Carter
, archbishop Desmond Tutu
and Michael Ben-Yair
, attorney-general of Israel. In 2009, South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council released a
300-page study that concluded that Israel practiced colonialism and apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The term apartheid in the context of the West Bank is used in relation to certain Israeli policies in force in the area. These include segregated roads and settlements as well as restrictions placed on movements of Palestinians but not Israelis, in the form of checkpoints and segmentation of the West Bank. The comparison also extends to access to natural resources such as water as well as access to the judicial system.
Those who criticize the analogy argue that Israeli policies have little or no comparison to apartheid South Africa, and that the motivation and historical context of Israel's policies are different. It is argued that Israel itself is a democratic and pluralist state, while the West Bank and Gaza are not part of sovereign Israel and cannot be compared to the internal policies of apartheid South Africa. According to Gerald Steinberg
, the attempt to label Israel an apartheid state is "the embodiment of the new antisemitism that seeks to deny the Jewish people the right of equality and self-determination.". Others say that it is "a foolish and unfair comparison", that Arab citizens of Israel have the same rights as other Israeli citizens and that "full social and political equality of all [Israel's] citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex" is specifically guaranteed by Israeli law. Arab-Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh
says, "Fortunately, Arab citizens can go to the same beaches, restaurants and shopping malls as Jews in this 'apartheid' state. Moreover, they can run in any election and even have a minister in the government (Ghaleb Majadlah) for the first time". Others state that the comparison to apartheid is defamatory and inflammatory, and reflects a double standard when applied to Israel since it does not comment on the human and civil rights in neighboring Arab countries or within the Palestinian territories.
A physical barrier, consisting mainly of fences and trenches, built by the Israeli Government which has been the center of much controversy. It is located partly within the West Bank, partly along the border between the West Bank and Israel proper. The barrier's stated purpose is "to keep the terrorists out and thereby save the lives of Israel's citizens, Jews and Arabs alike."
The barrier is sometimes called a 'wall', mainly by its opponents.
In 2003, the barrier was condemned by a UN Resolution "overwhelmingly" passed by UN General Assembly which also called for all construction to halt. The building of the barrier inside the west bank was also condemned by the International Court of Justice
which stated: "Israel also has an obligation to put an end to the violation of its international obligations flowing from the construction of the wall in Occupied Palestinian Territories...reparation must, as far as possible, wipe out all the consequences of the illegal act.." During 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled, concerning a stretch of the barrier to the north-west of Jerusalem: "The route [of the West Bank Barrier] disrupts the delicate balance between the obligation of the military commander to preserve security and his obligation to provide for the needs of the local inhabitants."
Echoing this sentiment, Amnesty International
issued in a statement in 2005 saying: "Israel built a fence/wall through the West Bank, confining Palestinians in isolated enclaves cut off from their land and essential services in nearby towns and villages."
A UN report released in August 2005 observed that the existence of the barrier "replaced the need for closures: movement within the northern West Bank, for example, is less restrictive where the Barrier has been constructed. Physical obstacles have also been removed in Ramallah and Jerusalem governorates where the Barrier is under construction." The report notes that more freedom of movement in rural areas may ease Palestinian access to hospitals and schools, but also notes that restrictions on movement between urban population centers have not significantly changed.
Gwynne Dyer
, writing about barriers being built around the world, including Israel's barrier with the West Bank, Thailand's 50 miles (80.5 km) security fence with Malaysia, India's 1,800 mile fence with Pakistan
and 1,950 mile barrier with Bangladesh, Morocco's 1600 miles (2,574.9 km) barrier with Algeria, Pakistan's 1500 miles (2,414 km) fence with Afghanistan, Uzbekistan's fence with Tajikistan, Kuwait's wall with Iraq, and Saudi Arabia's efforts to fence the borders with Yemen and Iraq
, in her article A World of Walls, "The majority of the new walls springing up around the world are there to stop either terrorist attacks or illegal immigration
, but sometimes they also serve as a unilateral way of defining a country's desired borders."
accused the IDF of war crimes, including "unlawful killing," "extension and wanton of destruction of property; obstruction of medical assistance and targeting of medical personnel; torture, and the use of Palestinians as 'human shields' They accuse the Israeli army of "reckless" shooting and "excessive use of force" against militants that endanger the lives civilians. They claim Israeli soldiers are rarely punished for human rights violations, and investigations of crimes are not carried out.
Gal Luft has written that Palestinian militants have utilized a tactic of blending among civilian populations, which exacerbates civilian casualties in Israeli attacks. He also claims that an absence of independent "Western media" in the Palestinian territories prevents accurate and reliable reporting on conflicts
. He cites the media coverage of Operation Defensive Shield
as an example. He believes this encourages the militants to use civilians and refugees as "human shields" because they are not held accountable for their actions. The Israeli military has stated it does not target civilians and that critics do not take into account the "realities" of war faced by the IDF.
According to 2010 US State Department Human Rights Report, in 2010,the Military Investigative Police launched 147 investigations with regard to cases of death, violence, and property damage against residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In these cases the military advocate general filed 10 indictments against 12 soldiers suspected of committing criminal offenses against Palestinians. There were three convictions of four soldiers, no acquittals, closure of three cases by the military advocate general, and seven cases pending as of year's end.
reported that Israeli soldiers used 13-year-old Muhammed Badwan as a human shield
during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Biddu, by tying him to the front windscreen of their jeep with the purpose, according to the boy's father, of discouraging Palestinian demonstrators from throwing stones at them. A picture of Badwan tied to the jeep was published in the Daily Mail
. On July 1, 2009, Amnesty International stated that Israeli troops forced Palestinians to stay in one room of their home while turning the rest of the house into a base and sniper position, "effectively using the families, both adults and children, as human shields and putting them at risk," the group said. "Intentionally using civilians to shield a military objective, often referred to as using 'human shields' is a war crime," Amnesty said. Such actions are condemned by human rights groups as violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention
.
The Israeli High Court has issued an injunction against the practice, but human rights groups claim the IDF continues to use it. During the 2008–2009 Gaza invasion known as Operation Cast Shield, Israeli military forces continued using civilians as human shields. According to testimonies, Israeli forces used unarmed Palestinians including children to protect military positions, walk in front of armed soldiers; go into buildings to check for booby traps or gunmen; and inspect suspicious objects for explosives. "You cannot exploit the civilian population for the army's military needs, and you cannot force them to collaborate with the army", said Aharon Barak
, President of the Supreme Court of Israel.
According to testimonies submitted to B'Tselem
during the 2006 war in Gaza, Israel Defense Force
soldiers used six civilians, including two minors, as human shields during an incursion into Beit Hanun. Two boys, one aged 14 and the other 16, were ordered to lead soldiers into an area where a heavy firefight with Palestinian militants had just taken place.
According to testimonies collected by Amnesty International
and Breaking the Silence
Israeli soldiers used Palestinian civilians as human shields during Operation Cast Lead in 2009. IDF says it investigates alleged abuses wherever specific detail is given, and that "dozens" of investigations are currently under way, some involving military police. Judge Goldstone
's 525-page Report on Operation Cast Lead
also concluded that Israel used Palestinians as human shields. The report dismissed Israel's own investigations into the incidents as not credible and called on the UN Security Council to investigate. He later recanted these findings saying, "If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document."
Israel has a policy of targeted killing
s against those it considers proven to have intentions of performing a specific act of terrorism in the very near future or to be linked with several acts of terrorism. In 2006, the Supreme Court of Israel issued it's judgment in a case "The Public Committee against Torture in Israel v. The Government of Israel". The case addressed the issue of whether the state acts illegally in its policy of targeted killings. The court considered that the legal context is a conflict “of an international character (international armed conflict). Therefore, the law that applies to the armed conflict between Israel and the terrorist organizations is the international law of armed conflicts.” The court decided that "members of the terrorist organizations are not combatants", "They do not fulfill the conditions for combatants under international law." and that "they do not comply with the international laws of war." They concluded that "members of terrorist organizations have the status of civilians" but that "the protection accorded by international law to civilians does not apply at the time during which civilians take direct part in hostilities." They ruled that they could not determine whether targeted killings are always legal or always illegal, but the legality must be established on a case by case basis. Their ruling stated “it cannot be determined in advance that every targeted killing is prohibited according to customary international law, just as it cannot be determined in advance that every targeted killing is permissible according to customary international law. The law of targeted killing is determined in the customary international law, and the legality of each individual such act must be determined in light of it.” The judgment included guidelines for permissible and impermissible actions involving targeted killings and provided the conditions for investigating the criminality of some of the actions.
Palestinian militants have planned multiple attacks against Israeli civilians such as suicide bombings while living among non-militant Palestinian civilians, and thwarting such attacks may have saved lives. The Israeli army maintains that it pursues such military operations to prevent imminent attacks when it has no discernible means of making an arrest or foiling such attacks by other methods. Some commentators claim that this practice is in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention
(Part 3, Article 1, Section 28) which reads: “The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.” According to some commentators there may be circumstances when international law gives Israel the right to conduct military operations against civilian targets.
For example, on July, 2002 the Israeli Defense Forces carried out an air strike targeting Salah Shahade
, the commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
, the military wing of Hamas
, in a densely populated residential area of Gaza City. The night time bombimg resulted in the deaths of 15 persons, 9 of whom were children and the injury of 150 others. According to the Israeli Government, Shehade was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israeli civilians, and earlier Israel asked the Palestinian Authority to arrest him, but no action was taken. Israel maintains that Shehade was in the process of preparing another large-scale attack inside Israel and thereby constituted a “ticking bomb”.
On 1 March 2009, The Independent
has obtained an account which, for the first time, details service in one of the Israeli military's assassination squads. A former IDF soldier of an assassination squad in an interview with The Independent has told of his role in a botched ambush that killed two Palestinian bystanders and two militants. According to the interviewer "the source cannot be identified by name, not least because by finally deciding to talk about what happened, he could theoretically be charged abroad for his direct role in an assassination of the sort most Western countries regard as a grave breach of international law
."
Israel maintains that the majority of checkpoints and blockades were erected following the Al-Aqsa Intifada
(October 2000) as security measures against terrorist attacks.
In August 2009, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay criticised Israel for blockading the Gaza strip in a 34-page report, calling it a violation of the rules of war. In September 2009 the UN found in the Goldstone report that the blockade of Gaza amounted to collective punishment and was thus illegal.
. Israel has rejected those accusations and accused Hezbollah of deliberately firing from civilian areas during the fighting.
The report condemns Israel's
actions during the conflict for “the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations". It came "to the conclusion, on the basis of the facts we found, that there was strong evidence to establish that numerous serious violations of international law, both humanitarian law and human rights law, were committed by Israel during the military operations in Gaza”. The report claims that Israel has made disproportionate or excessive use of white phosphorus. Israel has also come under fire from other fact finding missions over the use of white phosphorus – a incendiary weapon which is deemed illegal to use against civilians (already forbidden by the Geneva Conventions
) or in civilian areas by Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
– and depleted uranium
during the conflict.
The UN report also condemned the use of indiscriminate rocket attacks by Palestinian militants
which targeted known civilian areas within Israel, stating that “[t]here’s no question that the firing of rocket
s and mortars
[by armed groups from Gaza] was deliberate and calculated to cause loss of life and injury to civilians and damage to civilian structures. The mission found that these actions also amount to serious war crimes and also possibly crimes against humanity”.
According to the 2010 US State Department Human Rights Report, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Military Advocate General Mandelblit investigated all allegations relating to the 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead military incursion into the Gaza Strip, examining over 150 incidents, including those contained in the UN Human Rights Council's 2009 Goldstone report. In January and July, Mandelblit released updates on the majority of investigations, which included details of indictments against several soldiers for manslaughter, improper use of civilians in wartime, and misconduct. As of July the military advocate general launched 47 military police criminal investigations into IDF conduct during Operation Cast Lead and completed a significant number of them (see annex). On August 1, the IDF issued a new order appointing humanitarian affairs officers to each battalion to provide further protections for civilian populations during wartime planning and combat operations.
John Dugard
has compared Israeli imprisonment of Palestinians to policies of Apartheid-era South Africa, saying "Apartheid's security police practiced torture on a large scale. So do the Israeli security forces. There were many political prisoners on Robben Island but there are more Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails."
is a procedure under which prisoners are held without charge or trial. The sentences are authorized by an administrative order from the Israeli Ministry of Defence or Israeli military commanders. Amnesty International
believes that the practice breaches Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
which "makes clear that no-one should be subjected to arbitrary detention and that deprivation of liberty must be based on grounds and procedures established by law". Amnesty International is also concerned that prisoners of conscience
are being "held solely for the non-violent exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association". According to B'Tselem
there are currently 645 Palestinians being under administrative detention by the Israel Prisons Service and 105 by the IDF
. Most are kept in the West Bank in Ofer Military Camp or in the Ansar 3/Ketziot Military Camp
in the Negev desert.
and the Palestinian Authority began in late 2007 to explore opportunities for joint economic projects and activity, in an effort known as the Peace Valley plan. This would include construction of industrial parks in order to create new local businesses and jobs. Much of this was organized through President Shimon Peres
who had been directly involved since before his assumption of the presidency.
At an economic conference in Bethlehem
in May 2008, various Palestinian businessmen noted that Israel was one of the biggest markets for Palestinian agriculture and other products, but they also noted that some political and security concessions by Israel would be necessary for Palestinian businesses to grow.
In 2009, efforts continued to build Palestinian local institutions and governments from the ground up. Much of this work was done by Tony Blair and U.S. General Keith Dayton
. Some analysts saw this as a more substantial way to lay a groundwork for viable institutions and for local peace.
Joint economic cooperation between Israeli officials in Gilboa
and Palestinian officials
in Jenin
has begun to have major results and benefits. In October 2009, a new project got underway promoting tourism and travel between the two areas. Major new business efforts and tourist attractions have been initiated in Jenin. The two regions are planning a joint industrial zone which would bridge the border. Palestinians would produce locally-made handicrafts and sell them through Gilboa to other regions of the world. Another possible project is a joint language center, where Israelis and Palestinians would teach each other Arabic and Hebrew, as well as aspects of their cultural heritage.
According to Amnesty International report published on 27 October 2009 Israeli restrictions prevent Palestinians from receiving enough water in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip
. The report says Israel's daily water consumption per capita was four times higher than that in the Palestinian territories.
has claimed the United Nations
has a history of negative focus on Israel that is disproportional in respect to other members, including the actions and statements of the United Nations Human Rights Council
and its predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights
Hillel Neuer
of UN Watch
, a group financed by the pro-Israel group the American Jewish Committee
, has described the actions of the UN Commission on Human Rights as a "campaign to demonize Israel". Neuer has stated that an example of bias is that in 2005 the Commission adopted four resolutions against Israel, equaling the combined total of resolutions against all other states in the world. Belarus
, Cuba
, Myanmar
, and North Korea
were the subject of one resolution each.
In addition, according to UN Watch, in 2004–2005 alone the UN General Assembly passed nineteen resolutions concerning Israel, while not passing any resolution concerning Sudan
, which at the time was facing a genocide
in the Darfur
region.
In 2006, the UN General Assembly
voted to replace UNCHR with the UN Human Rights Council. In 2011, Richard Goldstone
publicly regretted appointing the UN Human Rights Council to investigate for Goldstone Report, saying that their "history of bias against Israel cannot be doubted."
has been accused of having a double standard when it comes to its assessment of Israel.
, a program of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
which has a stated objective to stop other NGOs from promoting perceived "ideologically motivated anti-Israel agendas", released a study comparing Amnesty International's response to the twenty years of ethnic, religious and racial violence in Sudan
in which (at that time) 2,000,000 people were killed and 4,000,000 people displaced, to their treatment of Israel. When NGO Monitor focused on 2001, they found that Amnesty International issued seven reports on Sudan, as opposed to 39 reports on Israel. Between 2000–2003, they claimed the imbalance in issued reports to be 52 reports on Sudan and 192 reports on Israel which they call “lack of balance and objectivity and apparent political bias is entirely inconsistent with AI's official stated mission." They further called attention to the difference in both scale and intensity: “While ignoring the large-scale and systematic bombing and destruction of Sudanese villages, AI issued numerous condemnations of the razing of Palestinian houses, most of which were used as sniper nests or belonged to terrorists. Although failing to decry the slaughter of thousands of civilians by Sudanese government and allied troops, AI managed to criticize Israel’s ‘assassinations’ of active terrorist leaders.”
In 2004, Professor Don Habibi of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington lamented the limited reports on Sudan and Darfur, in contrast to reports on Israel. He criticizes Amnesty International, among others, for their “obsession” with Israel, to the exclusion of other human rights violators. Habibi wrote in Human Rights NGOs and the Neglect of Sudan:
, an American legal scholar, is also critical of Amnesty International's perceived bias. Dershowitz analyzed an Amnesty International report on violence, rape
, and murder perpetrated against Palestinian women by Palestinian men in the West Bank and Gaza which placed blame on Israel. Dershowitz points out that Amnesty International ranks the "escalation of the conflict” and “Israel’s policies” higher than the “norms, traditions and laws which treat women as unequal”, implying Israel is more to blame than the Palestinian perpetrators. Dershowitz claims that when he asked Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s researcher on Israel and the Occupied Territories, for sources or statistical data that supported the report’s claims, he was refused anything other than a suggestion to Google "pretty much all the NGOs” in the region. He concluded that Amnesty International's excuses show that it "places its own political biases ahead of the interests of the female victims.”
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
which forms part of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict and Israel internal politics.
When analyzing Israel's human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
records, a distinction between Israel proper and the territories that it currently occupies
Israeli-occupied territories
The Israeli-occupied territories are the territories which have been designated as occupied territory by the United Nations and other international organizations, governments and others to refer to the territory seized by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria...
will be made. Israel proper is a multiparty
Multi-party system
A multi-party system is a system in which multiple political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition, e.g.The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in the United Kingdom formed in 2010. The effective number of parties in a multi-party system is normally...
parliamentary
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system is a system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their democratic legitimacy from the legislature and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined....
democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, and while it is described as a Jewish state in the Declaration of Independence, it includes religious and ethnic minorities. Some of these minorities claim de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
. In the Palestinian territories
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...
, successive Israeli governments have been subject to criticism by other governments and human rights groups inside and outside the country. While Israel does not have a constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
, it has a set of Basic Laws
Basic Laws of Israel
The Basic Laws of Israel are a key component of Israel's constitutional law. These laws deal with the formation and role of the principal state's institutions, and the relations between the state's authorities. Some of them also protect civil rights...
, intended to form the basis of a future constitution. One of those Basic Laws, Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty
Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (Israel)
Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty is a Basic Law, intended to protect main human rights in Israel. The view of most Supreme Court judges, is that the enactment of this law and of Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation began the Constitutional Revolution, due to the fact the Knesset gave these two laws...
, serves as one of the major tools for defending human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and civil liberties
Liberty
Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...
.
Declaration of Independence
Minority Treaties
Minority Treaties refer to the treaties, League of Nations Mandates, and unilateral declarations made by countries applying for membership in the League of Nations and United Nations...
.
It placed minority, women's, and religious rights under the protection of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. The plan provided specific guarantees of fundamental human rights. The new states were to supply a declaration, which according to precedent was tantamount to a treaty.
The resolution stated that "the stipulations contained in the declarations are recognized as fundamental laws of State, and no law, regulation or official action shall conflict or interfere with these stipulations, nor shall any law, regulation or official action prevail over them." The resolution also required that the Constitution of each State embody the rights contained in the Declaration.
During the hearings on Israel's application for membership in the United Nations, Abba Eban said that the rights stipulated in UN resolution 181(II) had been constitutionally embodied as the fundamental law of the state of Israel as required by the resolution. The instruments that he cited during the hearings were the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, and various cables and letters of confirmation addressed to the Secretary General.
Mr. Eban's explanations and Israel's undertakings were noted in the text of General Assembly Resolution 273 (III) Admission of Israel to membership in the United Nations, 11 May 1949.
The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel
Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel
The Israeli Declaration of Independence , made on 14 May 1948 , the day before the British Mandate was due to expire, was the announcement by David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, that the new Jewish state named the...
proclaimed on May 14, 1948 that "the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country" ... "was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and "Eretz-Israel
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
[Land of Israel] and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home." It also declared that the state "...will be open for Jewish immigration
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion
Freedom of religion
Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...
, conscience
Freedom of thought
Freedom of thought is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints....
, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."
Prof. James Crawford, Prof. William Thomas Mallison, and other legal scholars, say that Israel did not comply with its original obligation to constitutionally protect minority rights.
In 1950 Israel said that it had been admitted to the United Nations in accordance with General Assembly resolution 273 (III) of 11 May 1949, without the Declaration having been made. Subsequently, in a series of decisions, the Supreme Court of Israel stated that the Declaration had no constitutional validity, and that it was not a supreme law which may be used to invalidate laws and regulations that contradict it.
Israeli Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, states that fundamental human rights in Israel shall be upheld in the spirit of the principles set forth in the Declaration, but it specifically exempted legislation that was already in force. Israeli legal scholars say that the wording of the law was adopted to avoid the difficulty of giving priority to equality, which was not expressly entrenched. The result is that the principle of equality can be reversed by ordinary legislation, and furthermore will not override statutory or judge-made laws.
The United Nations and its subsidiary organs say that Israel has a binding legal obligation that flows from resolution 181(II) and that the United Nations has a permanent responsibility in the matter.
Rights and liberties ratings by NGOs
| Country / Entity – NGO | Freedom House Freedom House Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights... |
Freedom House Freedom House Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights... |
Freedom House Freedom House Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights... |
Transparency International Transparency International Transparency International is a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development. It publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index, a comparative listing of corruption worldwide... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report-Ranking | Freedom in the World | Freedom in the World | Freedom in the World | Corruption Perceptions Index Corruption Perceptions Index Since 1995, Transparency International publishes the Corruption Perceptions Index annually ranking countries "by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as "the misuse of public power for private... |
| Freedom rating Free, Partly Free, Not Free |
Political rights |
Civil liberties Civil liberties Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right... |
Political corruption Political corruption Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by... perceptions |
|
| Free | 1 | 2 | 6.0 | |
| Israeli occupied territories | Not Free | 6 | 5 | N/A |
| Territories under Palestinian National Authority Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip... |
Not Free | 5 | 6 | N/A |
- (FH): Per Freedom HouseFreedom HouseFreedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
2009 ratings. For indices PR and CL, 1 represents the most free and 7 the least free rating. - (TICP): According to the annual Transparency InternationalTransparency InternationalTransparency International is a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development. It publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index, a comparative listing of corruption worldwide...
Corruption Perceptions IndexCorruption Perceptions IndexSince 1995, Transparency International publishes the Corruption Perceptions Index annually ranking countries "by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as "the misuse of public power for private...
, the score ranges from 10 (squeaky clean) to 0 (highly corrupt).
Elections, political parties, and representation
According to 2005 US Department of State report on Israel, “the law provides citizens with the right to change their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of universal suffrage...The country is a parliamentary democracy with an active multiparty system. Relatively small parties, including those primarily supported by Israeli Arabs, regularly win Knesset seats.” In some instances, however, parties have been disqualified from listing candidates for election.The Kach
Kach and Kahane Chai
Kach was a far-right political party in Israel. Founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in the early 1970s, and following his Jewish nationalist ideology , the party entered the Knesset in 1984 after several electoral failures...
Party had run candidates under a platform which proposed forced population transfer
Population transfer
Population transfer is the movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion...
of Arabs from Israel and establishment of a theocracy
Theocracy
Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
in Israel ruled by traditional Jewish law. This platform was felt to be inciting of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
by the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
and the party was banned from participation in elections. In 1988, the Supreme Court of Israel upheld this Knesset decision. After a member of the Kach party killed 29 Palestinians, the party was outlawed completely. See also Reactions in Israel to the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.
A concurrent 1985 decision by the Central Elections Committee
Israeli Central Elections Committee
The Israeli Central Elections Committee is the body charged under the Knesset Elections Law of 1969 to carry out the elections for the upcoming Knesset. The committee is composed of Knesset members representating various parliamentary groups and is chaired by a Supreme Court Justice...
to disqualify the Progressive List for Peace
Progressive List for Peace
The Progressive List for Peace was a left-wing political party in Israel formed from an alliance of both Arab and Jewish left-wing activists.-History:...
for allegedly threatening the Jewish character of the State of Israel was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1988.
Freedom of religion
Law of Return
The Law of Return is Israeli legislation, passed on 5 July 1950, that gives Jews the right of return and settlement in Israel and gain citizenship...
are not considered Jewish by the Orthodox Rabbinate and therefore cannot be married, divorced, or buried in Jewish cemeteries within the country.
After gaining control of the West Bank in 1967, Israel guaranteed Muslim access to mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
s including the Al-Aqsa Mosque
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Al-Aqsa Mosque also known as al-Aqsa, is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem...
and Christian access to churches. Israel has extended protection to religious sites of non-Jewish religions; most famously the IDF foiled a Kach
Kach
Kach is town and union council of the Ziarat District in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. It is located at 30°26'2N 67°19'27E and has an altitude of 2020m ....
party attempt to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and continue to protect this site from attacks by non-Muslims. At times, the observances of holy days by various religions has the potential to cause conflict; thus Israeli police take measures to avoid friction between communities by issuing temporary restrictions on movement and audible worship. The 1967 Protection of Holy Sites Law protects all holy sites, but the government has implemented regulations only for 137 Jewish sites, leaving many Muslim and Christian sites neglected, inaccessible, or threatened by property development.
The city of Jerusalem has given financial support to Muslim religious activities as well has giving them facilities for their use. Israel does not give funding to some religious communities including Protestants. Proselytising is illegal.
The Bahá'í Faith
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
(in 1960) maintains the seat of their governing bodies, the Universal House of Justice
Universal House of Justice
The Universal House of Justice is the supreme governing institution of the Bahá'í Faith. It is a legislative institution with the authority to supplement and apply the laws of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, and exercises a judicial function as the highest appellate institution in the...
in Haifa. Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
is also active as a religion in Israel.,
According to a 2009 report from the U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Israel falls short of being a tolerant or pluralistic society. According to the report, Israel discriminates against Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Reform Jews, Christians, women and Bedouins. Israel only recognises and protects Jewish holy sites, ignoring and neglecting all Christian and Muslim sites. All 137 official holy sites are Jewish.
Marriage
A major issue is the lack of civil marriageCivil marriage
Civil marriage is marriage performed by a government official and not a religious organization.-History:Every country maintaining a population registry of its residents keeps track of marital status, and most countries believe that it is their responsibility to register married couples. Most...
, as opposed to religious marriage, in Israel. A couple wishing to marry must do so through a religious ceremony, be it Jewish
Jewish view of marriage
In Judaism, marriage is viewed as a contractual bond commanded by God in which a man and a woman come together to create a relationship in which God is directly involved. Though procreation is not the sole purpose, a Jewish marriage is also expected to fulfill the commandment to have children. The...
, Muslim, Christian or other. Non-religious couples must undergo a religious ceremony to marry, as do persons with no recognized religion, such as many of the immigrants from the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, who received citizenship based on a Jewish relative, but who are not recognized as Jews by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel
Chief Rabbinate of Israel
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is recognized by law as the supreme halakhic and spiritual authority for the Jewish people in Israel. The Chief Rabbinate Council assists the two chief rabbis, who alternate in its presidency. It has legal and administrative authority to organize religious...
. As a result couples of mixed religion, for example a Christian and a Jew, or a Muslim and a Jew, cannot legally marry in Israel. Common-law marriage
Common-law marriage
Common-law marriage, sometimes called sui juris marriage, informal marriage or marriage by habit and repute, is a form of interpersonal status that is legally recognized in limited jurisdictions as a marriage even though no legally recognized marriage ceremony is performed or civil marriage...
, which gives couples the same rights married couples enjoy, mitigates this difficulty. Israeli citizens may also travel abroad for a civil marriage, which is then binding under Israeli law.
Judiciary system and criminal justice
Israeli law provides for the right to a fair trial and an independent judiciary. The 2005 US Department of State report on Israel notes that the courts sometimes ruled against the executive branch, including in some security cases. Human Rights Groups believe these requirements are generally respected. As well the system is adversarial and cases are decided by professional judges. Indigent defendants receive mandatory representation. Some areas of the country fall under the separate judicial jurisdiction of military courts. These courts are believed to be in alignment with Israel's other criminal courts on matters pertaining to civilians. Convictions in these courts cannot be based on confession alone.Treatment of prisoners
In 1978, two cableTelegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
messages, Jerusalem 1500 and Jerusalem 3239, sent from the United States Consulate General in Jerusalem to the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, described abusive methods allegedly used by Israeli authorities to interrogate Palestinian
State of Palestine
Palestine , officially declared as the State of Palestine , is a state that was proclaimed in exile in Algiers on 15 November 1988, when the Palestine Liberation Organization's National Council adopted the unilateral Palestinian Declaration of Independence...
detainees in Jerusalem and the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
. Alexandra U. Johnson
Alexandra Uteev Johnson
Alexandra Uteev "Alix" Johnson was a United States Foreign Service Officer from 1972 to 1979. She is notable for the controversy that arose in 1979 over two reports that she wrote alleging that Israeli authorities systematically used physical abuse to interrogate Palestinian detainees.-Early...
, the consular officer who wrote the cables, was terminated from the United States Foreign Service
United States Foreign Service
The United States Foreign Service is a component of the United States federal government under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of approximately 11,500 professionals carrying out the foreign policy of the United States and aiding U.S...
later that year; and the cables became the focus of controversy when their contents became public in 1979. A third report, Jerusalem A-19, sent as an airgram
Airgram
An airgram is a U.S. diplomatic term for a message sent by courier via the diplomatic bag instead of by telegram....
message from the Consulate General in Jerusalem to the Department of State in October 1978, described the military trial of two young American citizens who reported that Israeli authorities used physical coercion to obtain confessions from them. The report concluded that Israeli authorities were aware that "physical coercion and mistreatment" probably had been used to obtain the confessions.
The 1987 Landau Commission
Landau Commission
The Landau Commission was a three-man Commission set up by the Israeli Government in 1987 following a long-running scandal over the deaths of two Palestinian prisoners in custody and the wrongful conviction of a Circassian IDF officer...
, headed by then-Supreme Court Justice Moshe Landau
Moshe Landau
Moshe Landau was an Israeli jurist. He was the fifth President of the Supreme Court of Israel.-Biography:Landau was born in Danzig, Germany to Dr. Isaac Landau and Betty née Eisenstädt...
, was appointed to examine the interrogation methods of the General Security Service and said that "the exertion of a moderate degree of physical pressure cannot be avoided". Nevertheless, the commission condemned a 1982 internal memo that instructed interrogators on the kind of lies they should tell in court when denying they'd used physical force to obtain confessions. It condemned the perjury involved but advised against prosecution of those who'd carried it out. The second part of the Landau report remains secret, it is believed to contain guidelines for permissible interrogation methods.
The Landau Commission resulted in hundreds of petitions of detained Palestinians complaining that force had been used against them during GSS interrogations. In isolated cases, interim orders were issued temporarily prohibiting the GSS from using all or some of the methods, but in September 1999 the High Court refused to rule whether they are legal under Israeli and international law.
In 1991, Israel ratified the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, a measure which states (Article 7) "no one shall be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". Critics say Israel is also in breach of section 2(2) of the Convention against torture which stipulates that, "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."
In 1994 a State Comptroller’s Report (partly released in summary form in February 2000) found that GSS interrogation methods contravened the law, the Landau Commission guidelines and the internal guidelines formulated by the service itself.
In July 2002, Ha’aretz quoted a senior GSS official saying that, since the High Court’s decision, ninety Palestinians had been defined as "ticking bombs" and "extraordinary interrogation methods," i.e. torture, was used against them". Other Israeli interrogators have admitted that the GSS "uses every manipulation possible, up to shaking and beating." Dozens of affidavits from Palestinians also confirm that torture is still part of Israeli interrogations.
Torture is recorded by B'Tselem as having being carried out against individuals not suspected of crime, including religious sages, sheiks and religious leaders, persons active in charitable organizations and Islamic students. Others to be tortured include brothers and other relatives of persons listed as "wanted" and any Palestinians in engineering profession. In some cases, wives of the detained have been arrested and mistreated to further pressure their husbands. GSS agents have sometimes tortured Palestinians in order to recruit them as collaborators.
B'Tselem estimates that the GSS annually interrogates between 1,000 and 1,500 Palestinians and uses methods constituting torture against some 85 percent of them, at least 850 persons a year.
According to a 2011 report by two Israeli human rights organisations, the Public Committee Against Torture (PCAT) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), Israeli doctors fail to report suspected torture and conceal related information, allowing Israeli Security Agency interrogators to use torture against Palestinian detainees.
Freedom of speech and the media
- See also: Media of Israel, Censorship in IsraelCensorship in IsraelLaws on censorship in Israel are based on British emergency regulations from 1945 that apply to domestic media, foreign newspapers and wire service transmissions from or through Israel....
According to the 2005 US Department of State report on Israel, "[t]he law provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the government generally respected these rights in practice subject to restrictions concerning security issues. The law provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the government generally respected these rights in practice.
Some government officials and others have been critical of the freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
rights afforded to Israeli settlers during their forced evacuation from the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
and the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
. This led to the criticism that “the authorities took disproportional steps, unjustifiably infringing on the right to political expression and protest.”
Within Israel, policies of its government are subjected to criticism by its press as well as a variety of political, human rights and watchdog groups such as Association for Civil Rights in Israel
Association for Civil Rights in Israel
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel was created as an independent non-partisan organization to protect human rights and civil rights in Israel and the territories under its control....
, B'Tselem
B'Tselem
B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization . It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories"...
, Machsom Watch
Machsom Watch
Machsom Watch, or Checkpoint Watch is a group of Israeli women who monitor checkpoints in the West Bank and the military courts, out of opposition to the Israeli occupation...
, Women in Black
Women in Black
Women in Black is a women's anti-war movement with an estimated 10,000 activists around the world. The first group was formed by Israeli women in Jerusalem in 1988, following the outbreak of the First intifada.-History:...
, Women for Israel's Tomorrow
Women for Israel's Tomorrow
Women for Israel's Tomorrow is a right-wing political women's group in Israel. It is more commonly known as Women in Green due to its followers' "custom" of wearing green hats, in contrast to the older left-wing anti-war organization Women in Black.WiG is a registered non-profit organization...
, among others. According to the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
, "The Israeli media were once again in 2005 the only ones in the region that had genuine freedom to speak out." However in 2010 human rights groups operating in Israel complained of a hostile environment in the country, and said they were coming under attack for criticising Israeli policies. The groups say that some Israeli leaders see human rights criticism as a threat to Israel's legitimacy, especially following war crimes allegations against the Israeli military over the Gaza war in 2008-9.
In 2009, Israel came 93rd out of 175 in the Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
Press Freedom Index
Press Freedom Index
The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders based upon the organization's assessment of their press freedom records. Small countries, such as Andorra, are excluded from this report...
. This was a nose-dive from the previous year and was mainly due to actions from the government during the Gaza war. The fall have left Israel trailing Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
(ranked 60th), Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
(ranked 61st) and UAE (ranked 86th) in its region. Overall Israel was ranked one behind Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west....
and right before Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
. Freedom House
Freedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
ranked Israel as having a "Partly Free" media climate in 2009. Previously Israel have been the only country in the region with a "Free" media.)
In 2003, Israel's film board banned from commercial screenings (in cinemas) a film about the 2002 Battle of Jenin
Battle of Jenin
The Battle of Jenin took place in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. Israel Defense Forces entered the camp, and other areas under the administration of the Palestinian Authority, during the Second Intifada, as part of Operation Defensive Shield...
. The film, titled "Jenin, Jenin
Jenin, Jenin
Jenin, Jenin is a film directed by Mohammed Bakri, a prominent Arab actor and Israeli citizen, in order to portray what Bakri calls "the Palestinian truth" about the "Battle of Jenin", a clash between the Israeli army and Palestinians in April 2002 which drew Palestinian accounts of a "Jenin...
", was a collection of interviews with residents of the Jenin
Jenin
Jenin is the largest town in the Northern West Bank, and the third largest city overall. It serves as the administrative center of the Jenin Governorate and is a major agricultural center for the surrounding towns. In 2007, the city had a population of 120,004 not including the adjacent refugee...
refugee camp
Refugee camp
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, or NGOs.Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu...
filmed in April 2002, a week after the battle. Mohammad Bakri
Mohammad Bakri
Mohammad Bakri is an Israeli Arab actor and director, known throughout Israel and the Arab world.-Early life:...
, an Israeli Arab, directed the film. The film was banned due to its allegations of war crimes committed by Israeli forces, which the board deemed false and hurtful to the soldiers' families. Following legal proceedings, a petition was filed to the Supreme Court of Israel
Supreme Court of Israel
The Supreme Court is at the head of the court system and highest judicial instance in Israel. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem.The area of its jurisdiction is all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. A ruling of the Supreme Court is binding upon every court, other than the Supreme...
, which unanimously overturned the board's decision, and allowed the movie to be shown in cinemas. However, in a later deposition following a slander lawsuit by Israeli soldiers' families, Bakri admitted to lack of fact checking and fabricating scenes for "artistic purposes" throughout his film. All of this was addressed in Pierre Rehov
Pierre Rehov
Pierre Rehov is the pseudonym of a French film maker and novelist, most known for his movies which are almost exclusively based on the Arab-Israeli conflict....
's counter-film, "The Road to Jenin
The Road to Jenin
The Road to Jenin is a 2003 documentary directed by Pierre Rehov, a French-Algerian film director, whose documentaries mostly deal with the Middle East conflict...
", parts of which were used as testimony in the aforementioned lawsuit.
In January 2011, the Israeli parliament endorsed a right-wing proposal to investigate some of Israel's best-known human rights organisations for "delegitimising" its military. The investigations would entail inquiries into the funding of several human rights groups that have criticised Israeli policies. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel
Association for Civil Rights in Israel
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel was created as an independent non-partisan organization to protect human rights and civil rights in Israel and the territories under its control....
described the parliament's decision as a "severe blow" to Israeli democracy, and critics labeled the policy as "McCarthyist
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
".
Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
publishes an annual report on worldwide press freedom, called the Press Freedom Index
Press Freedom Index
The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders based upon the organization's assessment of their press freedom records. Small countries, such as Andorra, are excluded from this report...
. The first such publication began in 2002. The results for Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and the Palestinian Authority from 2002 to the present are shown below, with lower numbers indicating better treatment of reporters:
| Year | Israel (Israeli territory) | Israel (extraterritorial) | Palestinian Authority | Year's Worst Score | Report URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 92 | Not Specified | 82 | 139 | |
| 2003 | 44 | 146 | 130 | 166 | |
| 2004 | 36 | 115 | 127 | 167 | |
| 2005 | 47 | Not Specified | 132 | 167 | |
| 2006 | 50 | 135 | 134 | 168 | |
| 2007 | 44 | 103 | 158 | 169 | |
| 2008 | 46 | 149 | 163 | 173 | |
| 2009 | 93 | 150 | 161 | 175 |
Right to privacy
According to a 2005 US Department of State report on Israel, “[l]aws and regulations provide for protection of privacy of the individual and the home. In criminal cases the law permits wiretapping under court order; in security cases the defense ministry must issue the order…”Women's rights
Women in Israel have been guaranteed gender equality since the establishment of the state in 1948. This has enabledwomen to actively participate in Israeli life. The Israeli Declaration of Independence states: “The State of Israel (…) will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”
Israel was the third country in the world to be led by a female prime minister, Golda Meir
Golda Meir
Golda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel....
, and in 2010, women's parliamentary representation in Israel was 18 percent, which is above the Arab world's average of 6 percent and equals that of the U.S. Congress. Still, it trails far behind the Scandinavian countries' 40 percent average
The Israeli parliament, The Knesset, has established “The Committee on the Status of Women,” to address women’s rights. The stated objectives of this committee are to prevent discrimination, combat violence against women, and promote equality in politics, lifecycle events and education. In 1998, the Knesset passed a law for "Prevention of Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
".
However, the fact that large parts of Israeli life is governed by religious laws instead of secular, means that many forms of discrimination of women are legally allowed in Israel, which is a continued matter of concern to the U.S. State Department, as described in their annual International Religious Freedom Report, most recently in their 2009 report:
- The Government, through the Chief Rabbinate, discriminates against women in civil status matters related to marriage and divorce. Under the Jewish religious court's interpretation of personal status law, a Jewish woman may not receive a final writ of divorce without her husband's consent. Consequently, thousands of women, so-called agunot--"chained women"--are unable to remarry or have legitimate children because their husbands have either disappeared or refused to grant divorces. Rabbinical tribunals have the authority to impose sanctions on husbands who refuse to divorce their wives or on wives who refuse to accept divorce from their husbands, but they can not grant a divorce without the husband's consent, and women can not seek redress in civil courts.
- The only in-country Jewish marriages the Government recognizes are those performed by the Orthodox Jewish establishment; and the Government does not allow civil marriages (e.g., secular ceremonies performed by state or municipal authorities) or marriages performed by Conservative, Reform or Reconstructionist rabbis. In order to marry in government-recognized ceremonies, Jews have to undergo marriage counseling administered by the Orthodox religious authorities. As part of this counseling, all Jews—including the secular majority and those who practice reform or conservative Judaism—are instructed to respect traditional Orthodox family roles. A brochure used in the counseling during the reporting period compared women to clay and urged the husband to "shape and mold her as he pleases." The husband is also instructed not to become "spineless" or tolerate disrespectful behavior from his wife: "If she is disrespectful you must not give in; you can become angry and stop talking to her until she realizes she is wrong." The husband is also admonished to compliment his wife regularly, "even if it is a lie," because "a woman who has not been complimented is like a fish out of water."
- Governmental authorities prohibit mixed gender prayer services at religious sites in deference to the belief of most Orthodox Jews that such services violate the precepts of Judaism. At the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, men and women must use separate areas to visit and pray. Women also are not allowed to conduct prayers at the Western Wall while wearing prayer shawls, which are typically worn by Jewish men, and are not permitted to read from Torah scrolls.
Muslim women in Israel
According to Shi’ite Pakistani-American scholar Tashbih SayyedTashbih Sayyed
Tashbih Sayyed was a Shia Pakistani-American scholar, journalist, and author and was the Editor in Chief of Our Times, Pakistan Today, and In Review. Tashbih Sayyed worked from 1967-1980 for the Pakistan Television Corporation. In 1981, he emigrated to the United States...
, the Muslim Arab citizens of Israel are afforded all the rights and privileges of Israeli citizenship. He noted that Israel is one of the few countries in the Middle East where Arab women can vote. In contrast to the non-Israeli Arab world, Arab women in Israel enjoy the same status as men. Muslim women have the right to vote and to be elected to public office. Muslim women, according to Sayyed, are more liberated in Israel than in any Muslim country. Israeli law prohibits polygamy, child marriage, and female sexual mutilation.
Arab-Israeli women actively participate in government and public life. Nadia Hilou
Nadia Hilou
Nadia Hilou is an Arab-Israeli politician, who served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party between 2006 and 2009. She was the second female Israeli Arab MK after Hussniya Jabara, and also the first female Christian MK.-Biography:...
was the second Israeli-Arab woman to serve in the Knesset.
LGBT rights
Rights for sexual minorities in Israel are considered to be the most tolerant in the Middle East. While Israel has not legalized same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
, same-sex marriages valid in foreign countries are legally recognized in Israel. Israel guarantees civil rights for its homosexual population, including adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
rights and partner benefits
Civil unions in Israel
Israel has granted unregistered cohabitation for same-sex couples since 1994, in the form of common-law marriage, a status that until then was only extended to opposite-sex couples...
. Israel also grants a common-law marriage
Common-law marriage
Common-law marriage, sometimes called sui juris marriage, informal marriage or marriage by habit and repute, is a form of interpersonal status that is legally recognized in limited jurisdictions as a marriage even though no legally recognized marriage ceremony is performed or civil marriage...
status for same-sex domestic partners. The Sodomy law
Sodomy law
A sodomy law is a law that defines certain sexual acts as crimes. The precise sexual acts meant by the term sodomy are rarely spelled out in the law, but are typically understood by courts to include any sexual act deemed unnatural. It also has a range of similar euphemisms...
inherited from the British Mandate of Palestine was repealed in 1988, though there was an explicit instruction issued in 1953 by the Attorney General of Israel
Attorney General of Israel
The Attorney General of Israel stands at the head of the legal system of the executive branch and the head of the public legal establishment, in charge of protecting the rule of law and as such entrusted with protecting the public interest from possible harm by government authorities...
ordering the police to refrain from enforcing this law, as long as no other offenses were involved. A national gay rights law bans some anti-gay discrimination, including in employment; some exemptions are made for religious organizations. In the past, military service of homosexuals was subject to certain restrictions. These restrictions were lifted in 1993, allowing homosexuals to openly serve in all units of the army.
Ethnic minorities, anti-discrimination and immigration laws
Ethnic and religious minorities have full voting rights in Israel and are entitled to government benefits under various laws. Israeli Employment (Equal Opportunities) Law, 1988Employment (Equal Opportunities) Law, 1988
Employment Law is an Israeli law passed in 1988, that prohibits the employer from discriminating between job applicants or employees on the following criteria:*Sex*Sexual orientation*Pregnancy*Fertility treatment*Parenting*Age*Race...
prohibits discrimination in hiring, working conditions, promotion, professional training or studies, discharge or severance pay and benefits and payments provided for employees in connection with their retirement from employment, because of race, religion, nationality and land of origin, among other reasons.
Prohibition of Discrimination in Products, Services and Entry into Places of Entertainment and Public Places Law, forbid those who operate public places or provide services or products to discriminate because of race, religion, nationality,and land of origin, among other reasons. According to the 2010 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories, Israeli law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, and the government effectively enforced these prohibitions.
Arab citizens of Israel
The 2005 US Department of State report on Israel wrote: "[T]he government generally respected the human rights of its citizens; however, there were problems in some areas, including... institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against the country’s Arab citizens."In a report submitted to the United Nations, Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
claim they face discrimination and are not treated as equal citizens in Israel and that Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
towns are not provided the same level of services or land that Jewish towns of the same size are and they are not given fair access to water. The city of Be'er Sheva refused to recognize a Bedouin holy site, despite a High Court recommendation.
According to the 2004 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories, the Israeli government had done "little to reduce institutional, legal, and societal discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
against the country's Arab citizens." Reports of subsequent years also identified discrimination against Arab citizens as a problem area for Israel, but did not repeat the assertion that Israel had done little to reduce discrimination.
The 2004 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices notes that:
- "Approximately 93 percent of land in the country was public domainPublic domainWorks are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
, including that owned by the state and some 12.5 percent owned by the Jewish National FundJewish National FundThe Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...
(JNF). All public land by law may only be leased, not sold. The JNF's statutes prohibit the sale or lease of land to non-Jews. In October, civil rights groups petitioned the High Court of Justice claiming that a bid announcement by the Israel Land Administration (ILA) involving JNF land was discriminatory in that it banned Arabs from bidding." The 2010 report noted that According to a 2005 attorney general ruling, the government cannot discriminate against Arab citizens in marketing and allocating lands it manages, including those of the JNF. - "Israeli-Arab advocacy organizations have challenged the Government's policy of demolishing illegal buildings in the Arab sector, and claimed that the Government was more restrictive in issuing building permitConstruction permitA construction permit or building permit is a permit required in most jurisdictions for new construction, or adding on to pre-existing structures, and in some cases for major renovations. Generally, the new construction must be inspected during construction and after completion to ensure compliance...
s in Arab communities than in Jewish communities, thereby not accommodating natural growth." - "In June, the Supreme Court ruled that omitting Arab towns from specific government social and economic plans is discriminatory. This judgment builds on previous assessments of disadvantages suffered by Arab Israelis."
- "Israeli-Arab organizations have challenged as discriminatory the 1996 "Master Plan for the Northern Areas of Israel," which listed as priority goals increasing the Galilee's Jewish population and blocking the territorial contiguity of Arab towns."
- "Israeli Arabs were not required to perform mandatory military serviceMilitary serviceMilitary service, in its simplest sense, is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary draft . Some nations require a specific amount of military service from every citizen...
and, in practice, only a small percentage of Israeli Arabs served in the military. Those who did not serve in the army had less access than other citizens to social and economic benefits for which military service was a prerequisite or an advantage, such as housing, new-household subsidiesSubsidyA subsidy is an assistance paid to a business or economic sector. Most subsidies are made by the government to producers or distributors in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry or an increase in the prices of its products or simply to encourage it to hire more labor A subsidy (also...
, and employment, especially government or security-related industrial employment. The Ivri Committee on National Service has issued official recommendations to the Government that Israel Arabs not be compelled to perform national or "civic" service, but be afforded an opportunity to perform such service". - "According to a 2003 Haifa UniversityUniversity of HaifaThe University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.The University of Haifa was founded in 1963 by Haifa mayor Abba Hushi, to operate under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
study, a tendency existed to impose heavier prison terms to Arab citizens than to Jewish citizens. Human rights advocates claimed that Arab citizens were more likely to be convicted of murder and to have been denied bail." - "The Orr Commission of Inquiry's report [...] stated that the 'Government handling of the Arab sector has been primarily neglectful and discriminatory,' that the Government 'did not show sufficient sensitivity to the needs of the Arab population, and did not take enough action to allocate state resources in an equal manner.' As a result, 'serious distress prevailed in the Arab sector in various areas. Evidence of distress included povertyPovertyPoverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, unemploymentUnemploymentUnemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
, a shortage of land, serious problems in the education system, and substantially defective infrastructure.'"
The 2007 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices notes that:
- "According to a 2005 study at Hebrew University, three times more money was invested in education of Jewish children as in Arab children."
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
has charged that cuts in veteran benefits and child allowances based on parents' military service discriminate against Arab children: "The cuts will also affect the children of Jewish ultra-orthodox parents who do not serve in the military, but they are eligible for extra subsidies, including educational supplements, not available to Palestinian Arab children."
Human rights group B'Tselem
B'Tselem
B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization . It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories"...
has claimed that Arabs in Jerusalem are denied residency rights, leading to a housing shortage in the Arab areas of Jerusalem.
In September 2010 Israeli government endorsed an amendment to the country's citizenship laws. The draft law obliges that any person applying for an Israeli citizenship to pledge an oath of allegiance
Oath of allegiance
An oath of allegiance is an oath whereby a subject or citizen acknowledges a duty of allegiance and swears loyalty to monarch or country. In republics, modern oaths specify allegiance to the country's constitution. For example, officials in the United States, a republic, take an oath of office that...
to "Israel as a Jewish and democratic state". The amendment has been strongly criticized by Israeli arabs as well as by Israeli left-wing movements including Kadima
Kadima
Kadima is a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely to support the issue of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and was soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians...
opposition party chief Tzipi Livni
Tzipi Livni
Tzipporah Malkah "Tzipi" Livni is an Israeli lawyer and politician. She is the current Israeli Opposition Leader and leader of Kadima, the largest party in the Knesset. Raised an ardent nationalist, Livni has become one of her nation's leading voices for the two-state solution. In Israel she has...
. Israeli educational psychologist Prof. Gavriel Solomon said that the loyalty oath resembles Nazi racist laws of 1935
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...
. Supporters of the amendment state that non-Jews who become citizens need to fully appreciate that the "State of Israel is the national expression of the self-determination of the Jewish people."
Marriage laws
During the Al-Aqsa IntifadaAl-Aqsa Intifada
The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada and the Oslo War, was the second Palestinian uprising, a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence, which began in late September 2000...
in 2003, the Knesset made a temporary amendment to the Citizenship and Entry into Israel law which prohibited Palestinians married to Israelis from gaining Israeli citizenship or residency. Critics argue that the law is racist because it is targeted at Israeli Arabs who are far more likely to have Palestinian spouses than other Israelis; defenders say the law is aimed at preventing terrorist attacks and preserving the Jewish character of Israel. The United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination unanimously approved a resolution saying that the Israeli law violated an international human rights treaties against racism. The Israeli Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Yaakov Levy, said the resolution was "highly politicized", citing the committee's failure to grant Israel's request to present evidence of the, "legislation's compliance with existing international law and practice', examples of "numerous concrete instances [in which the] granting of a legal status to Palestinian spouses of Israeli residents [was] abused by Palestinian residents of the territories for suicide terrorism", and also ignoring the fact that at the time of the UN resolution the matter was under review by the Israeli High Court of Justice
Israeli judicial system
The Israeli judicial system consists of secular courts and religious courts. The law courts constitute a separate and independent unit of Israel's Ministry of Justice...
.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel
Association for Civil Rights in Israel
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel was created as an independent non-partisan organization to protect human rights and civil rights in Israel and the territories under its control....
filed a petition to have the law struck down but it was upheld by a High Court decision in 2006. In formulating the law, the government cited, "information presented by the security forces, which said that the terrorist organizations try to enlist Palestinians who have already received or will receive Israeli documentation and that the security services have a hard time distinguishing between Palestinians who might help the terrorists and those who will not "
In the Israeli Supreme Court decision on this matter, Deputy Chief Justice Mishael Cheshin argued that, "Israeli citizens [do not]enjoy a constitutional right to bring a foreign national into Israel... and it is the right – moreover, it is the duty – of the state, of any state, to protect its residents from those wishing to harm them. And it derives from this that the state is entitled to prevent the immigration of enemy nationals into it – even if they are spouses of Israeli citizens – while it is waging an armed conflict with that same enemy "
In 2009, the US State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor released a report critical of Israel's tolerance of ethnic and religious minorities. The report claims that 300,000 immigrants who are not considered Jewish under rabbinical law are not allowed to marry and divorce in Israel or be buried in Jewish cemeteries. The report recognizes the 1967 law on the protection of all areas of religious significance but "the government implements regulations only for Jewish sites. Non-Jewish holy sites do not enjoy legal protection under it because the government does not recognize them as official holy sites." All 137 of the recognized holy site are Jewish whilst Muslim and Christian sites are neglected. The report claims that Israel discriminates against Muslims, Jehova's Witnesses, Reform Jews, Christians, women and Bedouin.
Education
Israeli Pupils’ Rights Law of 2000, prohibit discrimination of students for sectarian reasons in admission to or expulsion from an educational institution, in establishment of separate educational curricula or holding of separate classes in the same educational institution, and rights and obligations of pupils. This law has been enforced by the Supreme Court of IsraelSupreme Court of Israel
The Supreme Court is at the head of the court system and highest judicial instance in Israel. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem.The area of its jurisdiction is all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. A ruling of the Supreme Court is binding upon every court, other than the Supreme...
, prompting protests from Orthodox families who objected to sending their children to integrated schools.
An August 2009 study published in Megamot by Sorel Cahan of Hebrew University's School of Education demonstrated that the Israeli Education Ministry's budget for special assistance to students from low socioeconomic backgrounds severely discriminated against Arabs. It also showed that the average per-student allocation at Arab junior high schools was one-fifth the average at Jewish ones. This was the result of the allocation method used – assistance funds were first divided between Arab and Jewish school systems, according to the number of students in each, and then allocated to needy students; however, due to the largest proportion of such students in the Arab system, they received less funds, per student, than Jewish students. The Ministry of Education said that it had already decided to discontinue this allotment method in favor of a uniform index method, without first dividing the funds between the school systems.
Ministry data on what percentage of high school students pass their matriculation exams, broken down by town, showed that most Arab towns were once again the lowest ranked – an exception was Arab Fureidis
Fureidis
Fureidis is an Israeli Arab town in the Haifa District of Israel. It received local council status in 1952.-History:Fureidis was established in the 19th century. The name is believed to come from the Arabic , meaning little Garden of Eden, borrowed from the Persian paradise...
which had the third highest pass rate (75.86 percent) in Israel.
Migrant workers
In 2010, the United States Department of StateUnited States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
issued a report which stated that "the Government of Israel does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking however it is making significant efforts to do so." It noted that Israel continued law enforcement actions against human trafficking, and established a shelter for labor traffic victims,however the government did not identify the victims, and law enforcement and protection efforts diminished since transferring anti-trafficing duties from Immigration police to the Ministry of Interior.
People with disabilities
Israel enacted an Equal Rights for People with Disabilities Law in 1998. Nevertheless, the US Department of State report on Israel stated that “de facto discrimination against persons with disabilities.” exists in Israel.In Israel more than 144,000 people with disabilities rely solely on government allowances as their only means of support. According to Arie Zudkevitch and fellow members of the Israeli Organization of the Disabled: "The amount of money that we get cannot fulfill even the basic needs of people without special needs." In Tel Aviv, more than 10,000 people marched in solidarity with the disabled, demanding increased compensation and recognition from the Israeli Government.
A 2005 report from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel raised the concern: "It was reported this year that the Health Ministry has known for over two years that private psychiatric hospitals are holding 70 individuals who no longer need hospitalization, but continue to be hospitalized to serve the institutions` financial interests." The report suggests that, "the Health Ministry is supposed to supervise the private hospitals, but has been powerless to move these patients into an appropriate community situation." The most recent statistics of the Israeli Health Ministry showed over 18,000 admissions for psychiatric hospital care.
Human trafficking
Israel has been criticized in the 1990's for its policies and its weak enforcement of laws on human traffickingHuman trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
. Women from the former Soviet Republics
Republics of the Soviet Union
The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically-based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...
were brought into the country by criminal elements for forced labor in the sex industry
Sex industry
The sex industry consists of businesses which either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment...
. In 1998 the Jerusalem Post estimated that pimps engaging in this activity derived on average $50,000 – $100,000 (USD) per prostitute, resulting in a countrywide industry of nearly $450,000,000 annually.
By July 2000, Israel passed the Prohibition on Trafficking Law. In its 2003 report, the Human Rights Committee noted it "welcomes the measures taken by the State party to combat trafficking in women for the purpose of prostitution” . The 2005 US Department of State report on Israel mentioned "societal violence and discrimination against women and trafficking in and abuse of women."
In October 2006, the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
passed a new law outlawing human trade with sentences for human trade offences of up to 16 years, and 20 years when the victim is a minor. The law also addresses forced labor, slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
, organ theft
Organ theft
Organ harvesting refers to the removal, preservation and use of human organs and tissue from the bodies of the recently deceased to be used in surgical transplants on the living...
, and prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
.
The bill also requires compensation of victims of human trade and slavery. Trials will be able to be held behind closed doors to protect the identity of victims. By November, prostitution activity in Israel has become less apparent. Police raided the places that offered sex services, and detained criminals related to prostitution and sex trafficking. However, campaigners say that police action has shifted the industry to private apartments and escort agencies, making the practice more difficult to detect.
Privatization and human rights
The 2005 annual report of the Association for Civil Rights in IsraelAssociation for Civil Rights in Israel
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel was created as an independent non-partisan organization to protect human rights and civil rights in Israel and the territories under its control....
(ACRI) found that "accelerated privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
" is damaging human rights. According to the report, "State economic policy, including cutting stipends, reducing housing assistance, and constantly declining state participation in health-care and education costs, are forcing more elderly, children and whole families into poverty and despair. The increasing damage to citizens' rights to earn a dignified living – both due to low wages and the lack of enforcement of labor laws – is particularly prominent."
Human rights record in the Occupied Territories
Since 1967, Israel has had control over territories which it captured from Egypt, Jordan and Syria during the Six-Day WarSix-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
. According to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, the occupied territories currently include the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
, including East Jerusalem
East Jerusalem
East Jerusalem or Eastern Jerusalem refer to the parts of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Jordan in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and then captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War...
, which is held by the State of Israel in belligerent occupation, and the entire Golan Heights which has been placed under civil administration. Residents of the Golan Heights are entitled to citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
, voting rights and residency that allows them to travel within Israel's borders. Israel no longer exercises military control in the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
, but has subjected it to various measures such as blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
s and other measures it deems necessary to Israeli security. The government of Israel has declared that it observes the international humanitarian laws contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention
Fourth Geneva Convention
The Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, commonly referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention and abbreviated as GCIV, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It was adopted in August 1949, and defines humanitarian protections for civilians...
in the occupied territories. Israel denies that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of which it has signed, are applicable to the occupied Palestinian territory.
During the second Intifada, the UN Commission on Human Rights reported "widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights perpetrated by the Israeli occupying Power, in particular mass killings and collective punishments, such as demolition of houses and closure of the Palestinian territories, measures which constitute war crimes, flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity."
Israel advised the UN treaty monitoring bodies that the Occupied Palestinian territory is not part of its sovereign territory or jurisdiction and that they are part and parcel of an armed conflict. As a result, it has not submitted the periodic reports for the foreign territory under its national control in accordance with the terms of the international human rights covenants. It has explained that the fact that the Palestinian Council does not represent a State, does not, in itself, preclude its responsibility in the sphere of human rights protection. Israel believes that in light of transfer of responsibilities under the Oslo Accords, and the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Council, it cannot be held internationally responsible for the human rights guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in these areas.
In the process of answering the question put by the General Assembly, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined that Israel's territorial jurisdiction as the occupying Power is subject to an obligation not to raise any obstacle to the exercise of the right of self-determination and such rights in those fields where competence had been transferred to Palestinian authorities. The Court said that the human rights covenants are applicable with respect to acts done by a State in the exercise of its jurisdiction as an occupying power outside its own territory. The Court concluded that Israel had breached its obligations under international law by establishing settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and that Israel cannot rely on a right of self-defence or on a state of necessity in order to preclude the wrongfulness of imposing a régime, which is contrary to international law. The Court also concluded that the Israeli régime violates the basic human rights of the Palestinians by impeding the liberty of movement of the inhabitants of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (with the exception of lsraeli citizens) and their exercise of the right to work, to health, to education and to an adequate standard of living.
Persecution of Palestinian Human Rights activists
Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a famous Palestinian human rights activist was arrested by Israeli army in 2009 for participation in the unarmed and largely non violent and peaceful Palestinian demonstrations which take place weekly throughout the West Bank. On 25 August 2010 Israeli Military court under military law found Abu Rahmah guilty of two anti-free speech articles in military legislation: "incitement, and organizing and participating in illegal demonstrations." European UnionEuropean Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
High Representative Catherine Ashton released a statement condemning the verdict against Abu Rahmah calling him a human rights defender. "The EU considers Abdallah Abu Rahmah to be a Human Rights Defender committed to non violent protest against the route of the Israeli separation barrier through his West Bank village of Bil'in."
Settlements
Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination says "States Parties particularly condemn racial segregation and apartheid and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction." A review of Israel's country report by the experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination took issue with the establishment of Jewish-only settlements and stated "The status of the settlements was clearly inconsistent with Article 3 of the Convention which, as noted in the Committee's General Recommendation XIX, prohibited all forms of racial segregation in all countries. There was a consensus among publicists that the prohibition of racial discrimination, irrespective of territories, was an imperative norm of international law.
On April 7, 2005 the United Nations Committee on Human Rights stated it was "deeply concerned at the suffering of the Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan due to the violation of their fundamental and human rights since the Israeli military occupation of 1967...[and] in this connection, deploring the Israeli settlement in the occupied Arab territories, including in the occupied Syrian Golan, and regretting Israel's constant refusal to cooperate with and to receive the Special Committee"
Israeli military strategists defend the occupation of the Golan Heights as necessary to maintain a buffer against future military attacks from Syria. The land was captured in the Six Day War.
Apartheid analogy
Israeli treatment of non-Israelis in territories occupied by Israel for the past forty years, has been compared to South Africa's treatment of non-whites during the apartheid eraHistory of South Africa in the apartheid era
Apartheid was a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party governments of South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority 'non-white' inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained...
by various instances and persons such as the Congress of South African Trade Unions
Congress of South African Trade Unions
The Congress of South African Trade Unions is a trade union federation in South Africa. It was founded in 1985 and is the biggest of the country’s three main trade union federations, with 21 affiliated trade unions, altogether organising 1.8 million workers.-Establishment:COSATU was established in...
, Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
, archbishop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
and Michael Ben-Yair
Michael Ben-Yair
Michael Ben-Yair is a former Attorney-General of Israel.-External links:* - Michael Ben-Yair, Haaretz, 3 March 2002...
, attorney-general of Israel. In 2009, South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council released a
300-page study that concluded that Israel practiced colonialism and apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The term apartheid in the context of the West Bank is used in relation to certain Israeli policies in force in the area. These include segregated roads and settlements as well as restrictions placed on movements of Palestinians but not Israelis, in the form of checkpoints and segmentation of the West Bank. The comparison also extends to access to natural resources such as water as well as access to the judicial system.
Those who criticize the analogy argue that Israeli policies have little or no comparison to apartheid South Africa, and that the motivation and historical context of Israel's policies are different. It is argued that Israel itself is a democratic and pluralist state, while the West Bank and Gaza are not part of sovereign Israel and cannot be compared to the internal policies of apartheid South Africa. According to Gerald Steinberg
Gerald M. Steinberg
Gerald M. Steinberg is an Israeli academic and political scientist.-Biography:Gerald M. Steinberg obtained his doctorate in government from Cornell University, in 1981. M.A. Government Department, Cornell University, 1978. M.Sc. Physics Department, University of California, San Diego, 1975. B.A...
, the attempt to label Israel an apartheid state is "the embodiment of the new antisemitism that seeks to deny the Jewish people the right of equality and self-determination.". Others say that it is "a foolish and unfair comparison", that Arab citizens of Israel have the same rights as other Israeli citizens and that "full social and political equality of all [Israel's] citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex" is specifically guaranteed by Israeli law. Arab-Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh
Khaled Abu Toameh
Khaled Abu Toameh is a Israeli Arab journalist and documentary filmmaker. Abu Toameh is the West Bank and Gaza correspondent for the Jerusalem Post and U.S. News and World Report, and has been the Palestinian affairs producer for NBC News since 1988...
says, "Fortunately, Arab citizens can go to the same beaches, restaurants and shopping malls as Jews in this 'apartheid' state. Moreover, they can run in any election and even have a minister in the government (Ghaleb Majadlah) for the first time". Others state that the comparison to apartheid is defamatory and inflammatory, and reflects a double standard when applied to Israel since it does not comment on the human and civil rights in neighboring Arab countries or within the Palestinian territories.
Israeli West Bank barrier
The barrier is sometimes called a 'wall', mainly by its opponents.
In 2003, the barrier was condemned by a UN Resolution "overwhelmingly" passed by UN General Assembly which also called for all construction to halt. The building of the barrier inside the west bank was also condemned by the International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
which stated: "Israel also has an obligation to put an end to the violation of its international obligations flowing from the construction of the wall in Occupied Palestinian Territories...reparation must, as far as possible, wipe out all the consequences of the illegal act.." During 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled, concerning a stretch of the barrier to the north-west of Jerusalem: "The route [of the West Bank Barrier] disrupts the delicate balance between the obligation of the military commander to preserve security and his obligation to provide for the needs of the local inhabitants."
Echoing this sentiment, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
issued in a statement in 2005 saying: "Israel built a fence/wall through the West Bank, confining Palestinians in isolated enclaves cut off from their land and essential services in nearby towns and villages."
A UN report released in August 2005 observed that the existence of the barrier "replaced the need for closures: movement within the northern West Bank, for example, is less restrictive where the Barrier has been constructed. Physical obstacles have also been removed in Ramallah and Jerusalem governorates where the Barrier is under construction." The report notes that more freedom of movement in rural areas may ease Palestinian access to hospitals and schools, but also notes that restrictions on movement between urban population centers have not significantly changed.
Gwynne Dyer
Gwynne Dyer
Gwynne Dyer, OC is a London-based independent Canadian journalist, syndicated columnist and military historian.Dyer was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and joined the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve at the age of sixteen...
, writing about barriers being built around the world, including Israel's barrier with the West Bank, Thailand's 50 miles (80.5 km) security fence with Malaysia, India's 1,800 mile fence with Pakistan
Line of Control
The term Line of Control refers to the military control line between the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which, to this day, does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary but is the de facto border...
and 1,950 mile barrier with Bangladesh, Morocco's 1600 miles (2,574.9 km) barrier with Algeria, Pakistan's 1500 miles (2,414 km) fence with Afghanistan, Uzbekistan's fence with Tajikistan, Kuwait's wall with Iraq, and Saudi Arabia's efforts to fence the borders with Yemen and Iraq
Saudi-Yemen barrier
The Saudi–Yemen barrier is a physical barrier constructed by Saudi Arabia along part of its border with Yemen. It consists of a network of sandbags and pipelines, three metres high, filled with concrete and fitted with electronic detection equipment.When construction of the barrier began in...
, in her article A World of Walls, "The majority of the new walls springing up around the world are there to stop either terrorist attacks or illegal immigration
Illegal immigration
Illegal immigration is the migration into a nation in violation of the immigration laws of that jurisdiction. Illegal immigration raises many political, economical and social issues and has become a source of major controversy in developed countries and the more successful developing countries.In...
, but sometimes they also serve as a unilateral way of defining a country's desired borders."
Military and security-related activity
In a report on Israel for 2004, Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
accused the IDF of war crimes, including "unlawful killing," "extension and wanton of destruction of property; obstruction of medical assistance and targeting of medical personnel; torture, and the use of Palestinians as 'human shields' They accuse the Israeli army of "reckless" shooting and "excessive use of force" against militants that endanger the lives civilians. They claim Israeli soldiers are rarely punished for human rights violations, and investigations of crimes are not carried out.
Gal Luft has written that Palestinian militants have utilized a tactic of blending among civilian populations, which exacerbates civilian casualties in Israeli attacks. He also claims that an absence of independent "Western media" in the Palestinian territories prevents accurate and reliable reporting on conflicts
Pallywood
Pallywood, a portmanteau of "Palestinian" and "Hollywood", is a coinage that has been used by some pro-Israeli media watchdog advocates, among others, to describe alleged "media manipulation, distortion and outright fraud by the Palestinians and other Arabs .....
. He cites the media coverage of Operation Defensive Shield
Operation Defensive Shield
Operation Defensive Shield was a large-scale military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in 2002, during the course of the Second Intifada. It was the largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. The operation was an attempt by the Israeli army to stop the...
as an example. He believes this encourages the militants to use civilians and refugees as "human shields" because they are not held accountable for their actions. The Israeli military has stated it does not target civilians and that critics do not take into account the "realities" of war faced by the IDF.
According to 2010 US State Department Human Rights Report, in 2010,the Military Investigative Police launched 147 investigations with regard to cases of death, violence, and property damage against residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In these cases the military advocate general filed 10 indictments against 12 soldiers suspected of committing criminal offenses against Palestinians. There were three convictions of four soldiers, no acquittals, closure of three cases by the military advocate general, and seven cases pending as of year's end.
Human shields
In April 2004, human rights activists from Rabbis for Human RightsRabbis for Human Rights
Rabbis for Human Rights-Israel is an Israeli human rights organisation describing itself as "the rabbinic voice of conscience in Israel, giving voice to the Jewish tradition of human rights"....
reported that Israeli soldiers used 13-year-old Muhammed Badwan as a human shield
Human shield
Human shield is a military and political term describing the deliberate placement of civilians in or around combat targets to deter an enemy from attacking those targets. It may also refer to the use of civilians to literally shield combatants during attacks, by forcing the civilians to march in...
during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Biddu, by tying him to the front windscreen of their jeep with the purpose, according to the boy's father, of discouraging Palestinian demonstrators from throwing stones at them. A picture of Badwan tied to the jeep was published in the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
. On July 1, 2009, Amnesty International stated that Israeli troops forced Palestinians to stay in one room of their home while turning the rest of the house into a base and sniper position, "effectively using the families, both adults and children, as human shields and putting them at risk," the group said. "Intentionally using civilians to shield a military objective, often referred to as using 'human shields' is a war crime," Amnesty said. Such actions are condemned by human rights groups as violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention
Fourth Geneva Convention
The Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, commonly referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention and abbreviated as GCIV, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It was adopted in August 1949, and defines humanitarian protections for civilians...
.
The Israeli High Court has issued an injunction against the practice, but human rights groups claim the IDF continues to use it. During the 2008–2009 Gaza invasion known as Operation Cast Shield, Israeli military forces continued using civilians as human shields. According to testimonies, Israeli forces used unarmed Palestinians including children to protect military positions, walk in front of armed soldiers; go into buildings to check for booby traps or gunmen; and inspect suspicious objects for explosives. "You cannot exploit the civilian population for the army's military needs, and you cannot force them to collaborate with the army", said Aharon Barak
Aharon Barak
Aharon Barak is a Professor of Law at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a lecturer in law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Yale Law School, and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law....
, President of the Supreme Court of Israel.
According to testimonies submitted to B'Tselem
B'Tselem
B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization . It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories"...
during the 2006 war in Gaza, Israel Defense Force
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
soldiers used six civilians, including two minors, as human shields during an incursion into Beit Hanun. Two boys, one aged 14 and the other 16, were ordered to lead soldiers into an area where a heavy firefight with Palestinian militants had just taken place.
According to testimonies collected by Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and Breaking the Silence
Breaking the Silence
- Films :*Breaking the Silence a 1992 made-for-TV film.* Breaking the Silence , a 2000 Chinese film* Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror, a 2003 documentary film...
Israeli soldiers used Palestinian civilians as human shields during Operation Cast Lead in 2009. IDF says it investigates alleged abuses wherever specific detail is given, and that "dozens" of investigations are currently under way, some involving military police. Judge Goldstone
Richard Goldstone
Richard Joseph Goldstone is a South African former judge. After working for 17 years as a commercial lawyer, he was appointed by the South African government to serve on the Transvaal Supreme Court from 1980 to 1989 and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa from 1990 to 1994...
's 525-page Report on Operation Cast Lead
United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict
The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, known as the Goldstone Report, was a team established in April 2009 by the United Nations Human Rights Council during the Gaza War as an independent international fact-finding mission to investigate alleged violations of international...
also concluded that Israel used Palestinians as human shields. The report dismissed Israel's own investigations into the incidents as not credible and called on the UN Security Council to investigate. He later recanted these findings saying, "If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document."
Targeted killing
- See also IDF: Code of Conduct against militants and Palestinian civilians.
- See also Israeli targeted killingsIsraeli targeted killingsIn the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israel Defense Forces use the term "focused foiling" against those it considers proven to have intentions of performing a specific act of violence in the very near future or to be linked indirectly with several acts of violence , thus raising...
. - See also Targeted killingTargeted killingTargeted killing is the deliberate, specific targeting and killing, by a government or its agents, of a supposed terrorist or of a supposed "unlawful combatant" who is not in that government's custody...
.
Israel has a policy of targeted killing
Targeted killing
Targeted killing is the deliberate, specific targeting and killing, by a government or its agents, of a supposed terrorist or of a supposed "unlawful combatant" who is not in that government's custody...
s against those it considers proven to have intentions of performing a specific act of terrorism in the very near future or to be linked with several acts of terrorism. In 2006, the Supreme Court of Israel issued it's judgment in a case "The Public Committee against Torture in Israel v. The Government of Israel". The case addressed the issue of whether the state acts illegally in its policy of targeted killings. The court considered that the legal context is a conflict “of an international character (international armed conflict). Therefore, the law that applies to the armed conflict between Israel and the terrorist organizations is the international law of armed conflicts.” The court decided that "members of the terrorist organizations are not combatants", "They do not fulfill the conditions for combatants under international law." and that "they do not comply with the international laws of war." They concluded that "members of terrorist organizations have the status of civilians" but that "the protection accorded by international law to civilians does not apply at the time during which civilians take direct part in hostilities." They ruled that they could not determine whether targeted killings are always legal or always illegal, but the legality must be established on a case by case basis. Their ruling stated “it cannot be determined in advance that every targeted killing is prohibited according to customary international law, just as it cannot be determined in advance that every targeted killing is permissible according to customary international law. The law of targeted killing is determined in the customary international law, and the legality of each individual such act must be determined in light of it.” The judgment included guidelines for permissible and impermissible actions involving targeted killings and provided the conditions for investigating the criminality of some of the actions.
Palestinian militants have planned multiple attacks against Israeli civilians such as suicide bombings while living among non-militant Palestinian civilians, and thwarting such attacks may have saved lives. The Israeli army maintains that it pursues such military operations to prevent imminent attacks when it has no discernible means of making an arrest or foiling such attacks by other methods. Some commentators claim that this practice is in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention
Fourth Geneva Convention
The Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, commonly referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention and abbreviated as GCIV, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It was adopted in August 1949, and defines humanitarian protections for civilians...
(Part 3, Article 1, Section 28) which reads: “The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.” According to some commentators there may be circumstances when international law gives Israel the right to conduct military operations against civilian targets.
For example, on July, 2002 the Israeli Defense Forces carried out an air strike targeting Salah Shahade
Salah Shahade
Salah Mustafa Muhammad Shehade , was a member of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas...
, the commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades is the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist fundamentalist socio-political organisation Hamas. Created in 1992, under the direction of Yahya Ayyash, the primary objective of the group was to build a coherent military organisation to support the goals of...
, the military wing of Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
, in a densely populated residential area of Gaza City. The night time bombimg resulted in the deaths of 15 persons, 9 of whom were children and the injury of 150 others. According to the Israeli Government, Shehade was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israeli civilians, and earlier Israel asked the Palestinian Authority to arrest him, but no action was taken. Israel maintains that Shehade was in the process of preparing another large-scale attack inside Israel and thereby constituted a “ticking bomb”.
On 1 March 2009, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
has obtained an account which, for the first time, details service in one of the Israeli military's assassination squads. A former IDF soldier of an assassination squad in an interview with The Independent has told of his role in a botched ambush that killed two Palestinian bystanders and two militants. According to the interviewer "the source cannot be identified by name, not least because by finally deciding to talk about what happened, he could theoretically be charged abroad for his direct role in an assassination of the sort most Western countries regard as a grave breach of international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
."
Blockades
According to Amnesty International: "Military checkpoints and blockades around Palestinian towns and villages hindered or prevented access to work, education and medical facilities and other crucial services. Restrictions on the movement of Palestinians remained the key cause of high rates of unemployment and poverty. More than half of the Palestinian population lived below the poverty line, with increasing numbers suffering from malnutrition and other health problems."Israel maintains that the majority of checkpoints and blockades were erected following the Al-Aqsa Intifada
Al-Aqsa Intifada
The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada and the Oslo War, was the second Palestinian uprising, a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence, which began in late September 2000...
(October 2000) as security measures against terrorist attacks.
In August 2009, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay criticised Israel for blockading the Gaza strip in a 34-page report, calling it a violation of the rules of war. In September 2009 the UN found in the Goldstone report that the blockade of Gaza amounted to collective punishment and was thus illegal.
2006 Lebanon war
The human rights watch and other organizations have accused Israel of committing war crimes in the 2006 Lebanon warAllegations of war crimes in the 2006 Lebanon War
Various groups and individuals, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and United Nations officials, accused both Israel and Hezbollah of violating international humanitarian law during the 2006 Lebanon War, and warned of possible war crimes...
. Israel has rejected those accusations and accused Hezbollah of deliberately firing from civilian areas during the fighting.
2009 Gaza War
The UN fact finding mission published a 575 page report on September 15, 2009 stating it had found that war crimes were committed by both sides involved in the Gaza War.The report condemns Israel's
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
actions during the conflict for “the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations". It came "to the conclusion, on the basis of the facts we found, that there was strong evidence to establish that numerous serious violations of international law, both humanitarian law and human rights law, were committed by Israel during the military operations in Gaza”. The report claims that Israel has made disproportionate or excessive use of white phosphorus. Israel has also come under fire from other fact finding missions over the use of white phosphorus – a incendiary weapon which is deemed illegal to use against civilians (already forbidden by the Geneva Conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
) or in civilian areas by Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
The United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons , concluded at Geneva on October 10, 1980 and entered into force in December 1983, seeks to prohibit or restrict the use of certain conventional weapons which are considered excessively injurious or whose effects are indiscriminate.The...
– and depleted uranium
Depleted uranium
Depleted uranium is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope U-235 than natural uranium . Uses of DU take advantage of its very high density of 19.1 g/cm3...
during the conflict.
The UN report also condemned the use of indiscriminate rocket attacks by Palestinian militants
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
which targeted known civilian areas within Israel, stating that “[t]here’s no question that the firing of rocket
Rocket
A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
s and mortars
Mortar (weapon)
A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
[by armed groups from Gaza] was deliberate and calculated to cause loss of life and injury to civilians and damage to civilian structures. The mission found that these actions also amount to serious war crimes and also possibly crimes against humanity”.
According to the 2010 US State Department Human Rights Report, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Military Advocate General Mandelblit investigated all allegations relating to the 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead military incursion into the Gaza Strip, examining over 150 incidents, including those contained in the UN Human Rights Council's 2009 Goldstone report. In January and July, Mandelblit released updates on the majority of investigations, which included details of indictments against several soldiers for manslaughter, improper use of civilians in wartime, and misconduct. As of July the military advocate general launched 47 military police criminal investigations into IDF conduct during Operation Cast Lead and completed a significant number of them (see annex). On August 1, the IDF issued a new order appointing humanitarian affairs officers to each battalion to provide further protections for civilian populations during wartime planning and combat operations.
Imprisonments
In 2011, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Israel held thousands of Palestinians as political prisoners, and called on Israel to release them. Ban said the release of political prisoners would "serve as a significant confidence-building measure" and boost prospects of peace in the region. Also Amnesty International has called on Israel to release political prisoners, saying "all political prisoners held without charge or trial should be tried in fair trials or immediately released".John Dugard
John Dugard
John Dugard is a South African professor of international law. He has served as Judge ad hoc on the International Court of Justice and as a Special Rapporteur for both the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the International Law Commission...
has compared Israeli imprisonment of Palestinians to policies of Apartheid-era South Africa, saying "Apartheid's security police practiced torture on a large scale. So do the Israeli security forces. There were many political prisoners on Robben Island but there are more Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails."
Administrative Detention
Administrative detentionAdministrative detention
Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial, usually for security reasons. A large number of countries, both democratic and undemocratic, resort to administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism, control illegal immigration, or to protect the...
is a procedure under which prisoners are held without charge or trial. The sentences are authorized by an administrative order from the Israeli Ministry of Defence or Israeli military commanders. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
believes that the practice breaches Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976...
which "makes clear that no-one should be subjected to arbitrary detention and that deprivation of liberty must be based on grounds and procedures established by law". Amnesty International is also concerned that prisoners of conscience
Prisoner of conscience
Prisoner of conscience is a term defined in Peter Benenson's 1961 article "The Forgotten Prisoners" often used by the human rights group Amnesty International. It can refer to anyone imprisoned because of their race, religion, or political views...
are being "held solely for the non-violent exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association". According to B'Tselem
B'Tselem
B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization . It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories"...
there are currently 645 Palestinians being under administrative detention by the Israel Prisons Service and 105 by the IDF
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
. Most are kept in the West Bank in Ofer Military Camp or in the Ansar 3/Ketziot Military Camp
Ktzi'ot Prison
Ktzi'ot Prison is an Israeli detention facility located in the Haluza sand dunes region. It is Israel's largest detention facility in terms of land area, encompassing ....
in the Negev desert.
Economic development
IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and the Palestinian Authority began in late 2007 to explore opportunities for joint economic projects and activity, in an effort known as the Peace Valley plan. This would include construction of industrial parks in order to create new local businesses and jobs. Much of this was organized through President Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres
GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...
who had been directly involved since before his assumption of the presidency.
At an economic conference in Bethlehem
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
in May 2008, various Palestinian businessmen noted that Israel was one of the biggest markets for Palestinian agriculture and other products, but they also noted that some political and security concessions by Israel would be necessary for Palestinian businesses to grow.
In 2009, efforts continued to build Palestinian local institutions and governments from the ground up. Much of this work was done by Tony Blair and U.S. General Keith Dayton
Keith Dayton
Lieutenant General Keith W. Dayton, United States Army, is the director of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. He completed his term as the U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel-Palestinian Authority in Tel Aviv, Israel in October 2010...
. Some analysts saw this as a more substantial way to lay a groundwork for viable institutions and for local peace.
Joint economic cooperation between Israeli officials in Gilboa
Gilboa
Gilboa is a Hebrew word and the name of several places:*Mount Gilboa, a biblical locale in Israel, where king saul's sons were killed by the philistines, and saul took his own life...
and Palestinian officials
PNA
Peptide nucleic acid is an artificially synthesized polymer similar to DNA or RNA invented by Peter E. Nielsen , Michael Egholm , Rolf H. Berg , and Ole Buchardt Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is an artificially synthesized polymer similar to DNA or RNA invented by Peter E. Nielsen (Univ. Copenhagen),...
in Jenin
Jenin
Jenin is the largest town in the Northern West Bank, and the third largest city overall. It serves as the administrative center of the Jenin Governorate and is a major agricultural center for the surrounding towns. In 2007, the city had a population of 120,004 not including the adjacent refugee...
has begun to have major results and benefits. In October 2009, a new project got underway promoting tourism and travel between the two areas. Major new business efforts and tourist attractions have been initiated in Jenin. The two regions are planning a joint industrial zone which would bridge the border. Palestinians would produce locally-made handicrafts and sell them through Gilboa to other regions of the world. Another possible project is a joint language center, where Israelis and Palestinians would teach each other Arabic and Hebrew, as well as aspects of their cultural heritage.
According to Amnesty International report published on 27 October 2009 Israeli restrictions prevent Palestinians from receiving enough water in the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
and Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
. The report says Israel's daily water consumption per capita was four times higher than that in the Palestinian territories.
United Nations
Freedom HouseFreedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
has claimed the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
has a history of negative focus on Israel that is disproportional in respect to other members, including the actions and statements of the United Nations Human Rights Council
United Nations Human Rights Council
The United Nations Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations System. The UNHRC is the successor to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights , and is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly...
and its predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights
Hillel Neuer
Hillel Neuer
Hillel C. Neuer is executive director of UN Watch, a human rights NGO in Geneva, Switzerland.Originally from Montreal, Neuer has written on law, politics and international affairs for publications such as the International Herald Tribune, Juriste International, Commentary, The New Republic Online...
of UN Watch
UN Watch
UN Watch is a Geneva-based NGO whose stated mission is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter". It is an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and Social Council and an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information...
, a group financed by the pro-Israel group the American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee was "founded in 1906 with the aim of rallying all sections of American Jewry to defend the rights of Jews all over the world...
, has described the actions of the UN Commission on Human Rights as a "campaign to demonize Israel". Neuer has stated that an example of bias is that in 2005 the Commission adopted four resolutions against Israel, equaling the combined total of resolutions against all other states in the world. Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
, and North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
were the subject of one resolution each.
In addition, according to UN Watch, in 2004–2005 alone the UN General Assembly passed nineteen resolutions concerning Israel, while not passing any resolution concerning Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, which at the time was facing a genocide
War in Darfur
The Darfur Conflict was a guerrilla conflict or civil war centered on the Darfur region of Sudan. It began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Justice and Equality Movement groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing non-Arab Sudanese in...
in the Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
region.
In 2006, the UN General Assembly
United Nations General Assembly
For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...
voted to replace UNCHR with the UN Human Rights Council. In 2011, Richard Goldstone
Richard Goldstone
Richard Joseph Goldstone is a South African former judge. After working for 17 years as a commercial lawyer, he was appointed by the South African government to serve on the Transvaal Supreme Court from 1980 to 1989 and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa from 1990 to 1994...
publicly regretted appointing the UN Human Rights Council to investigate for Goldstone Report, saying that their "history of bias against Israel cannot be doubted."
Amnesty International
Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
has been accused of having a double standard when it comes to its assessment of Israel.
Claims of disproportionate attention to Israel
In 2004, the NGO MonitorNGO Monitor
NGO Monitor is a non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem, Israel whose stated aim is to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community for the benefit of government policy makers, journalists, philanthropic organizations and the...
, a program of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a public policy think tank devoted to research and analysis of critical issues facing the Middle East. The center is located in Jerusalem, Israel...
which has a stated objective to stop other NGOs from promoting perceived "ideologically motivated anti-Israel agendas", released a study comparing Amnesty International's response to the twenty years of ethnic, religious and racial violence in Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
in which (at that time) 2,000,000 people were killed and 4,000,000 people displaced, to their treatment of Israel. When NGO Monitor focused on 2001, they found that Amnesty International issued seven reports on Sudan, as opposed to 39 reports on Israel. Between 2000–2003, they claimed the imbalance in issued reports to be 52 reports on Sudan and 192 reports on Israel which they call “lack of balance and objectivity and apparent political bias is entirely inconsistent with AI's official stated mission." They further called attention to the difference in both scale and intensity: “While ignoring the large-scale and systematic bombing and destruction of Sudanese villages, AI issued numerous condemnations of the razing of Palestinian houses, most of which were used as sniper nests or belonged to terrorists. Although failing to decry the slaughter of thousands of civilians by Sudanese government and allied troops, AI managed to criticize Israel’s ‘assassinations’ of active terrorist leaders.”
In 2004, Professor Don Habibi of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington lamented the limited reports on Sudan and Darfur, in contrast to reports on Israel. He criticizes Amnesty International, among others, for their “obsession” with Israel, to the exclusion of other human rights violators. Habibi wrote in Human Rights NGOs and the Neglect of Sudan:
Alan Dershowitz's claims
Professor Alan DershowitzAlan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
, an American legal scholar, is also critical of Amnesty International's perceived bias. Dershowitz analyzed an Amnesty International report on violence, rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, and murder perpetrated against Palestinian women by Palestinian men in the West Bank and Gaza which placed blame on Israel. Dershowitz points out that Amnesty International ranks the "escalation of the conflict” and “Israel’s policies” higher than the “norms, traditions and laws which treat women as unequal”, implying Israel is more to blame than the Palestinian perpetrators. Dershowitz claims that when he asked Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s researcher on Israel and the Occupied Territories, for sources or statistical data that supported the report’s claims, he was refused anything other than a suggestion to Google "pretty much all the NGOs” in the region. He concluded that Amnesty International's excuses show that it "places its own political biases ahead of the interests of the female victims.”
See also
- Criticism of Israeli government
- Israel and the apartheid analogy
- Human rights in the Palestinian National AuthorityHuman rights in the Palestinian National AuthorityHuman rights in the Palestinian National Authority refers to the human rights record of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza. Since Israel's implementation of its unilateral disengagement plan in 2005 and the evacuation of all Jewish settlements from Gaza Strip, the Palestinian...
- Human rights in EgyptHuman rights in EgyptThe state of human rights in Egypt remains poor due to repressive government policies and brutal government crackdowns.-Rights and liberties ratings:...
- Human rights in SyriaHuman rights in SyriaHuman rights in Syria have been described as "poor". Since 1963, emergency rule has remained in effect which gives security forces sweeping powers of arrest and detention....
- Human rights in LebanonHuman rights in LebanonThe record of Human rights in Lebanon is a matter of concern for many national and international human rights groups. According to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices , Lebanon's overall human rights record is poor. There are reports that security forces abuse detainees and use torture...
- Human rights in JordanHuman rights in JordanHuman rights in Jordan continues to be a matter of concern for many in and outside of the country, including international human rights groups.-Overview:...
External links
- The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) – State of Human Rights Report 2009
- Amnesty International Report 2009 – Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
- Human Rights Watch – Israel and the Occupied Territories
- Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Human Rights: Israel's Human Rights and Rule of Law
- U.S. State Department – 2009 Human Rights Report: Israel and the occupied territories
- A rough guide to Hebron: The world's strangest guided tour highlights the abuse of Palestinians The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, 26 January 2008