The different legal systems under which Israelis and Palestinians are tried apply to children as well. As +972 has consistently documented, Palestinian children arrested by the army are treated by the military court system as “potential terrorists.” The visual below demonstrates what would happen should two 12-year-old boys, one Israeli and one Palestinian, get arrested for fighting. One would swiftly be brought before a judge, given access to a lawyer, tried and spared jail time. The other could face two years in jail without trial. This illustration is the eighth in a series of infographics on Palestinian civilian life under occupation.

By Michal Vexler, with the cooperation of Caabu – The Council for Arab-British Understanding

This graphic has been updated in accordance with amendments on detention practices recently instituted by the Israeli army.

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Michal Vexler is a designer and an activist. This work – part of a series of infographics on the effects of the occupation on Palestinian civilians – is presented here with her permission. See the series, Visualizing Occupation, in full here.

Related:
Report by British jurists details horrors of Israeli child detention
Testimonies by Israeli soldiers detail abuse of Palestinian children
Hope ends here: The children’s court at Ofer Military Prison
When a Palestinian child becomes an enemy

The high rate of unemployment in the Palestinian territories and the gap in wages and quality of life between the Israeli and Palestinian economies have led to a constant supply of Palestinian workers seeking work with Israeli employers, since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip began in 1967. The number of workers has changed over the years in correlation with restrictions Israel has placed on entry into its territories. This Kav Laoved report details the obstacles and forms of exploitation faced by Palestinians on their road to earning a living in Israel and while employed in the country.

Employment of Palestinians in Israel and the Settlements: Restrictive Policies and Abuse of Rights

Kav LaOved is a nonprofit non governmental organization committed to protecting the rights of disadvantaged workers employed in Israel and by Israelis in the Occupied Territories, including Palestinians, migrant workers, subcontracted workers and new immigrants. Noga Kadman researched and wrote this report, and Hanna Zohar, Att. Taghrid Shabita, Abed Dari, Att. Khaled Dukhi, and Hedva Isachar assisted with research. 

Related:
The Wall, 10 years on / part 8: A working class under siege

A new Human Rights Watch report details severe human rights violations in the criminal justice system of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, including arbitrary detention and torture. Several cases detail executions based on confessions obtained through torture. Prisoners are often refused access to a lawyer, abusive security officials are said to enjoy impunity, and families of prisoners often don’t know of their relatives’ whereabouts.

The 43-page report includes testimonies from victims, families, representative of the criminal justice system, and Palestinian human rights organizations. 

Abusive System: Failures of Criminal Justice in Gaza (Human Rights Watch)

Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. The organization stands with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. HRW investigates and exposes human rights violations and holds abusers accountable. 

‘There is no denying that we are a part of Israel’s economy. If Israel raises the price of cigarettes, our cigarette prices go up. If the price of gas goes up, so does ours. If things are expensive in Israel, they are expensive here too.’

Palestinian youth blocked traffic on Hebron Road and marched toward the Old City of Bethlehem in a protest against rising costs of living (photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

In April 1994, Israeli and Palestinian negotiation teams met in Paris to sign one of the most important annexes to the Oslo Accords – the Paris Protocol, the agreement which regulates the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Today, 18 years after the protocol was signed, demonstrations against the agreement have spread across the West Bank. A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip set himself on fire and two Palestinians in the West Bank tried to do the same in protest against the economic situation. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was reported to be considering resignation and Palestinian Authority Minister of Civilian Affairs Hussein a-Sheikh submitted an official request to Israel to review the Paris Protocol. In view of the heated debate, here we provide some general background on the agreement and its implications.

The Paris Protocol?

The protocol defines the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. It was signed for an interim period of five years and was to be implemented gradually. A senior official in the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor told Gisha that the fact that the agreement was due to remain in effect for only five years helped encourage Palestinian negotiators to sign it: “They understood that in order to make progress, they had to agree to some very practical things. It was a five-year agreement so they said ‘let’s take the first step.’”

According to the same official: “At that point in time, it was the optimal agreement and the Palestinians entered it wholeheartedly. By the way, there are still people today who think it’s a good agreement. Albeit with limitations… as long as people are thinking about what is and isn’t good, you know you have some kind of balance.”

How is the protocol connected to the protests in the West Bank?

According...

In September 2011, the Israeli government approved the Prawer Plan for mass expulsion of the Arab Bedouin community in the Naqab (Negev) desert. If fully implemented, this plan will result in the forced displacement of tens of thousands Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel and the destruction of 35 “unrecognized” villages.

According to Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, ”the Israeli government’s policy is grounded in widespread myths, misconceptions and stereotypes.” The document challenges some of the most widespread myths on which the Prawer Plan relies for legitimacy. 

Adalah – The Arab Bedouin of the Naqab – Myths and Misconceptions

Adalah (“Justice” in Arabic) is an independent human rights organization and legal center. Established in November 1996, it works to promote and defend the rights of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, 1.2 million people, or 20 percent of the population, as well as Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

Related:

‘Algorithm of expropriation’: Plan to uproot 30,000 Bedouin
Photo essay: Al-Araqib Bedouin’s ongoing struggle for their land
Jewish National Fund resumes forestation project in al-Araqib

The following is a compendium of testimonies given by over thirty IDF soldiers who served in the West Bank and in and around the Gaza Strip in the years 2005-2011. Like previous publications by Breaking the Silence, it portrays daily events in the Occupied Territories. The testimonies in this anthology illuminate the realities of everyday life for Palestinian children and youth who live under Israeli occupation. Although the events described here took place after the peak of the Second Intifada, at a time perceived as calm and uneventful from a “security” standpoint, the reality that emerges from the testimonies shows that harsh treatment of Palestinian children continues unabated, and despite the overall security situation. 

To access the report from Breaking the Silence’s website, click here. 

Breaking the Silence: Children and Youth – Soldiers Testimonies, 2005-2011

“Breaking the Silence” is an organization of Israeli veterans who served during the Second Intifada, beginning in 2000. The organization aims to make public the everyday life routine as it exists in the Occupied Territories, a reality that remains voiceless in the media, and to serve as an alternative information conduit for the public at large about the goings-on in the State of Israel’s ‘backyard’. 

The following booklet, published by Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, encompasses a series of reflections by Addameer volunteers and associates who visited Israeli military courts in occupied Palestinian territory between 2009 and 2011. The contributors witnessed hearings for Palestinians accused of stone-throwing, involvement in demonstrations and other political activities deemed an offense according to Israeli military regulations.

Eyes on Israeli Military Court- Impressions

ADDAMEER (Arabic for conscience) Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association is a Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution that works to support Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons. Established in 1992 by a group of activists interested in human rights, the center offers free legal aid to political prisoners, advocates their rights at the national and international level, and works to end torture and other violations of prisoners’ rights through monitoring, legal procedures and solidarity campaigns.

Since a 1979 High Court ruling that prohibited the requisition of private Palestinian land to build civilian settlements, the settlement enterprise has been based on the use of state land. Following the court’s ruling in the Elon Moreh case, and in line with policies of building settlements throughout the West Bank, the State of Israel declared more than 900,000 dunams as state land. This B’Tselem report finds that Israel’s application of its declarations policy was unlawful, since it classified some land as government property even though, under local law, it was private Palestinian property.

Under the Guise of Legality: Israel’s Declarations of State Land in the West Bank

B’TSELEM – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was established in 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists, and Knesset members. It endeavors to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel.

This report investigates the business and trade of Ahava – Dead Sea Laboratories which is a private Israeli cosmetics corporation that operates from the occupied West Bank. 

Ahava Report – Who Profits

Who Profits from the Occupation is a research project of the Coalition of Women for Peace. Initiated with relation to the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel, Who Profits is dedicated to exposing the commercial involvement of Israeli and international companies in the continuing Israeli control over Palestinian and Syrian land. The project publishes information about these companies on its website, produces in-depth reports and serves as an information center.

Following publications on the preparation of Israeli security forces ahead the anticipated protests during the Palestinian statehood bid at the UN, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel prepared a “Know Your Rights” fact sheet about freedom of protest in the Occupied Territories. The purpose of this fact sheet is to clarify the rights of demonstrators in the Occupied Territories according to the current system of law, and to explain how to deal with violations of these rights.

Rights of Demonstrators in the Occupied Territories (Informational Pamphlet)

Established in 1972, ACRI is Israel’s oldest and largest human rights organization and the only one dealing with the entire spectrum of rights and civil liberties issues in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Read more about ACRI here. 

Despite sharing a national identity, the Palestinian people are parceled into differential categories along geographical, socioeconomic, humanitarian, political and civilian lines determined by Israel: Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship, residents of East Jerusalem, those living in the West Bank, those in the Gaza Strip, and the refugees.  In this seventh illustration in a series of infographics on Palestinian civilian life under occupation, see the divisions that dictate Palestinian existence.

By Michal Vexler

Sources:
Palestinians living within 1948 borders of Israel
Demography of the West Bank
UNRWA statistics on refugees
B’Tselem: Fishing restrictions in Gaza Strip

Michal Vexler is a designer and an activist. This work – a part of a series of infographics regarding the effect of the occupation on the Palestinian civilian population – is presented here with her permission.

Previous posts in this series:
Visualizing Occupation: Distribution of water
Visualizing Occupation: Who profits, and who pays?
Visualizing Occupation: Freedom of movement
Visualizing Occupation: Palestinian Prisoners’ Day – the numbers
Visualizing Occupation: Ethnic cleansing
Visualizing Occupation: The right (or privilege) to protest?

Israel controls the access to water from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Its disproportionate allocation of water, the settlements’ takeover of natural springs, and the prohibition against maintaining and constructing water cisterns in the West Bank without Israeli permits make water a sparse commodity for Palestinians. This illustration is the sixth in a series of infographics on Palestinian civilian life under occupation.

By Michael Vexler

Sources:
B’Tselem: The Shared Water Sources and the Control Over Them 
Amnesty International: Troubled Waters:  Palestinians Denies Fair Access to Water
United Nations OCHA: The Humanitarian Impact of the Takeover of Palestinian Water Springs by Israeli Settlers

Michal Vexler is a designer and an activist. This work – a part of a series of infographics regarding the effect of the occupation on the Palestinian civilian population – is presented here with her permission.

Previous posts in this series:
Visualizing Occupation: Who profits, and who pays?
Visualizing Occupation: Freedom of movement
Visualizing Occupation: Palestinian Prisoners’ Day – the numbers
Visualizing Occupation: Ethnic cleansing
Visualizing Occupation: The right (or privilege) to protest?

American tax dollars go a long way in sustaining West Bank settlements, the Israeli army and corporations profiting from the occupation. This illustration is the fifth in a series of infographics on the effect of the occupation on the Palestinian civilian population.

By Michal Vexler

Sources:
Who Profits
Why is the U.S. delaying $3 billion in military aid to Israel? (Hebrew – Globes)
U.S. approves $205 million in aid for Iron Dome (Hebrew – nrg)
A Conservative Estimate of Total Direct U.S. Aid to Israel: Almost $114 Billion (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs)
Exported Israeli settlement products (Innovative Minds)

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Michal Vexler is a designer and an activist. This work – a part of a series of infographics regarding the effect of the occupation on the Palestinian civilian population – is presented here with her permission.

Previous posts in this series:
Visualizing Occupation: Palestinian Prisoners’ Day – the numbers
Visualizing Occupation: Ethnic cleansing
Visualizing Occupation: The right (or privilege) to protest?
Visualizing Occupation: Freedom of movement