A new report published by B’Tselem to mark 46 years since Israel occupied the West Bank reveals how the Civil Administration has violated its obligation to administer the area for the benefit of the Palestinian population. Contrary to its legal obligations, the Civil Administration, the body responsible for implementing Israeli government policy in Area C (60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli control), implements exactly the opposite policy.

The Civil Administration consistently prefers Israeli and settlements’ interests while displacing Palestinians, exploiting the area’s resources to benefit Israelis, and bringing about a permanent situation in which Israeli settlements thrive and Palestinian presence is negligible.

By Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel

A new Adalah report documents the parallels between two Palestinian villages, Al-Araqib in Israel and Susiya in the West Bank, which share a single story of struggle against home demolitions and forced displacement. The report sets out the methods of displacement used by Israel to expel Palestinian communities from their land on both sides of the Green Line, and examines the legal context in which it takes place.

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Human rights organization B’Tselem published a report reviewing harm to civilians in Operation Pillar of Defense. The report provides statistics on the numbers of Palestinians and Israelis killed over the course of the operation, which lasted from November 14 to 21, 2012. The report challenges the common perception in the Israeli public and media that the operation was ‘surgical’ and caused practically no fatalities among uninvolved Palestinian civilians. Furthermore, the report finds that there was a significant difference between the first and the final days of the operation: of the uninvolved Palestinian fatalities, 80 percent were killed in the last four days of the operation.

According to B’Tselem’s investigation, 167 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military during the operation. This number includes 62 Palestinians who took part in the hostilities and seven other who were targets of assassination. Of the remaining fatalities, 87 did not take part in the hostilities. With regard to 11 fatalities B’Tselem was unable to determine whether or not they had taken part in the hostilities.

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.

A new Yesh Din report examines the use of outposts as a means for seizing control of Palestinian land. The report uses the outpost of Adei Ad as a case study to illustrate the manner in which the establishment and growth of an outpost prevent Palestinian farmers from working their land. 

Between 1998 and 2011, the Civil Administration issued 81 demolition orders against buildings and construction work in the outpost. The vast majority of the orders have not been enforced and the outpost remains intact. Yesh Din has documented 96 separate incidents involving criminal offenses committed in the vicinity of Adei Ad. Approximately 92 percent of the files were closed due to failings on the part of the investigators.

The report highlights the connection between the failure of the bodies responsible for enforcing the law and protecting Palestinian persons and property and the seizure of Palestinian land. This process begins with the failure to ensure effective law enforcement against Israeli civilians in the criminal and administrative spheres, and ends when Palestinian landowners are no longer able to farm their land and make a living from its fruit.

Check out the interactive website explaining how illegal outposts are born: here

Yesh Din is a volunteer organization working to defend the human rights of the Palestinian civilian population under Israeli occupation.

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Following an increasing number of allegations of ill-treatment of children in Israeli military detention, UNICEF conducted a review of practices related to children who come into contact with the military detention system, from apprehension, to court proceedings and outcome. The report gives 38 recommendations for improving the protection of children.

The report has been assigned extra weight in the Israeli media because UNICEF is not one of the UN bodies regularly dismissed as having an anti-Israel bias.

Prepared by the European Union heads of mission to the Palestinian Authority, the report is a strongly-worded and very critical of Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The draft, obtained by +972 Magazine and published here in full, is to be presented to the EU’s Political Security Committee (PSC/COPPS). Among its recommendations are preventing financial transactions that support settlements and informing EU companies of the legal and financial risks of doing business with and in Israeli settlements. The report was prepared in January 2013 and covers 2012.

Read a news report based on the document here and an analysis of it here.

In the second half of January at least five unarmed Palestinian civilians were shot and killed by IDF fire in the West Bank and Gaza. The following report shows a dramatic downward trend in the rate of indictments served against IDF soldiers for alleged offenses in 2012, a year in which only one indictment was served against a soldier accused of abusing a Palestinian.

By Yesh Din

In the wake of recent events, Yesh Din has published a new data sheet about criminal accountability of IDF soldiers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The data indicates a clear downward trend in the rate of indictments served: in the years 2009-2011 indictments were served following 2.5% of the investigations opened into alleged offenses committed by Israeli soldiers while in 2012 not a single Military Police Criminal Investigations Division (MPCID) investigation resulted in an indictment.

The data sheet, based on information provided to Yesh Din by the IDF spokesperson, as well as the organization’s ongoing research, shows the following:

• In 2012 the MPCID received 240 complaints and various reports of suspected crimes allegedly committed by IDF soldiers against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
• The MPCID opened criminal investigations into 78 of the 240 reports it received. Another 25 investigation files were opened that year into reports received in 2011. The MPCID opened a total of 103 criminal investigations in 2012.
• Data for the last years indicates a significant drop in the rate of indictments served. The data for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 shows that 14 investigation files out of the 534 opened during those three years produced indictments; i.e., only 2.62%.
• Not a single investigation file opened by MPCID in 2012 yielded an indictment. Only one indictment was served in 2012 against an IDF soldier accused of hurting a Palestinian, and that followed an investigation that had opened in 2011.
• The absence of an MPCID base in the West Bank led to only six Palestinians managing to submit their complaints directly to the MPCID in 2012. The others had to seek the help of various intermediaries such as human rights organizations and the Israel Police.

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.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) has released its annual assessment of the state of human rights in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian Territories. The 2012 report includes chapters on house demolitions in Palestinian and Bedouin villages, the occupation of the West Bank and the regime of discrimination, the persecution of asylum seekers, the lack of affordable housing, and the privatization of the police and the judiciary. 

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. 

A breakdown of the myriad of settlement plans being aggressively pursued in recent weeks.

By Hagit Ofran and Lior Amihai

The past few weeks may have been confusing for those who try to keep track of Israeli settlement activity. So many plans and approvals, some of which are lethal for the two-state solution, make it clear that the Netanyahu government has decided to push forward as many plans as possible in order to determine facts on the ground before the elections in Israel, as long as there is no “threat” of any renewal of the peace process.

Following are the details of the recent developments in settlements:

1. E1 and 3,000 new tenders
2. Plans for 6,600 units in East Jerusalem
3. Givat Hamatos
4. Tenders in Efrat, Karnei Shomron and Givat Ze’ev
5. A Palestinian family is threatened with eviction in Sheikh Jarrah

1. E1 and 3,000 new tenders – Following the UN resolution on a Palestinian state, the government of Netanyahu announced the intention to promote planning in E1 and to issue 3,000 tenders in settlements in East Jerusalem. On December 5, the plans for the construction of 3,426 units in E1 were approved for depositing.

See more here: Everything you need to know about E1

2. Plans for 6,600 units in East Jerusalem – in parallel, almost all of the main pending plans for East Jerusalem were promoted. Using a fast track planning process, the planning committee in Jerusalem is approving plans in Givat Hamatos, Ramat Shlomo and Gilo.

See more details here.

3. Givat Hamatos – Givat Hamatos is a plan that, if built, could prevent territorial continuity between Bethlehem and the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Zafafa in South Jerusalem, and could thus prevent the possibility for a two-state solution with a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.

The plan in Givat Hamatos is divided into four plans (A, B, C and D). The largest and the most lethal of them is Givat Hamatos A, for 2,610 units, which was approved by the local planning committee this past week. The regional planning committee surprisingly rejected plan C. However, the rejection unfortunately does not prevent the damage from the other plans.

See more here.

4. Tenders in Efrat,...

Who are the leading Arab candidates in the upcoming Knesset elections? Who is trying to ban them from running, and how? How did such attempts end in previous elections? How many Palestinian citizens can vote in the Knesset elections, and how many are expected to vote? A Q&A by the human rights organization Adalah answers those questions, and more.

By Adalah

MK Hanin Zoabi (photo: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org)

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Questions and Answers Israeli Elections Arab Parliamentarians 2012

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).

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Twenty-five years ago this past weekend, a large-scale popular uprising by Palestinians began against Israel’s then 20-year-old military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Sparked by an incident in which four Palestinians were hit and killed by an Israeli driving in Gaza on December 8, 1987, Palestinian frustration at living under repressive Israeli military rule and Israel’s growing colonial settlement enterprise erupted, grabbing international headlines and drawing attention to the plight of Palestinians living in the occupied territories. On this 25th anniversary, the IMEU offers the following fact sheet on the First Intifada.

By The Institute for Middle East Understanding

Palestinian women at the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip confront Israeli soldiers over the mistreatment and arrest of Palestinian youths. (photo: flickr / Robert Croma CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Facts and figures

During the First Intifada, Palestinians employ tactics such as unarmed demonstrations, including rock throwing against soldiers, commercial strikes, a refusal to pay taxes to Israeli authorities, and other acts of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. They are coordinated largely by grassroots ad hoc committees of Palestinians in the occupied territories rather than the PLO leadership abroad.

In response, Israeli soldiers use brutal force to repress the mostly unarmed popular rebellion. Then Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin implements the infamous “broken bones” policy, ordering security forces to break the limbs [WARNING: Graphic video] of rock-throwing Palestinians and other demonstrators.

More than 1000 Palestinians are killed by Israeli forces during the First Intifada, including 237 children under the age of 17. Many tens of thousands more are injured.

According to an estimate by the Swedish branch of Save the Children, as many as 29,900 children require medical treatment for injuries caused by beatings from Israeli soldiers during the first two years of the Intifada alone. Nearly a third of them are aged ten or under. Save the Children also estimates that between 6500-8500 Palestinian minors are wounded by Israeli gunfire in the first two years of...

In response to the Palestinian statehood bid, the Israeli government has decided to promote zoning plans for the area known as E1, northeast of Jerusalem. The project is intended to link annexed East Jerusalem with the mega-settlement of Ma’aleh Adumin, thus finally making the creation of a contiguous Palestinian State impossible. 

By Ir Amim

E1 (derived from “East 1”) is a term applied by the Ministry of Housing to an area located just east of the Jerusalem municipal boundary, on the hills between Ma’aleh Adummim and Jerusalem. It lies north of the Jerusalem-Ma’aleh Adummim road and edges the Palestinian towns of Anata, Abu Dis, Azariya and A-Zayim. E1, which covers some 12,000 dunams (12 sq. kilometers), is part of the planning area of Ma’aleh Adummim. The main artery between the northern and southern West Bank runs through E1.

In recent years, Israel has begun building and settling the area. The development plan for E1 includes the transfer of the West Bank (Judea & Samaria) Police Headquarters from its present location, and the construction of at least 3,500 residential units, a large commercial center, and more. Plans for the E1 area make no reference whatsoever to the local Palestinian population.

Construction in the E1 area commenced in 2004 under the direction of Housing Minister Efi Eitam. The work was illegal because no building permit had been issued. As a result of international pressure, construction was halted a short time after it began.

At the beginning of 2005, the Ma’aleh Adummim municipality approved two detailed urban plans for the development of the area, as mentioned above: one for approximately 3,500 housing units (apartment buildings and villas), and the second for the transfer of the police headquarters. The plan generated harsh criticism from the American government and the European Union. Both demanded that the plan be frozen, on the grounds that it violated Israel’s commitments according to the ‘Road Map.’ Instead, they maintained that the future of this territory be decided upon by a final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Following this pressure, the Israeli government froze the project in 2004. However, building of the police headquarters was continued on the grounds that, like army bases, the police station would not be seen as creating...