Israel’s Human Rights Behaviour, July 2004 – July 2005

The report “Israel’s Human Rights Behaviour, July 2004 – July 2005” by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network summarises humanitarian law and human rights violations committed by Israel against residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and against Palestinian minority citizens of Israel between July 2004 and July 2005.

Respect and promotion of human rights and democratisation have become a central pillar of international relations, as manifested in international law and custom and in the bilateral treaties between the EU and Israel. With the launch of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, or “the Barcelona Process”, in 1995, 27 countries including Israel agreed that their cooperation should be based upon the respect for human rights and democratic principles.

However, Israel continued its grave violations of international humanitarian law and human rights against Palestinian residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Palestinian citizens of Israel in 2004 and 2005. Israel abuses its right to defend its citizens and territory by applying state security measures that either lack correlation to the stated security risks or that are carried out in a disproportionate manner.

While the geographical scope of this report includes both Israel and the OPT, the report will focus only on Israel as a state actor subject to the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Human rights violations committed by the Palestinian Authority and other non-state actors are not a topic of this report.

This is not to say that the latter violations are not of concern. Indeed, they are and they must be addressed. Yet, in the current situation this report focuses on Israel’s human rights behaviour in the light of four factors:

1. the gravity of Israel’s violations of international humanitarian and human rights law and their serious humanitarian and political impact,
2. Israel’s clear legal obligations as the Occupying Power in the OPT and the other obligations it has subscribed to as a state actor,
3. the exercise of jurisdiction by Israel in both Israel and the OPT, and
4. the absence of effective international intervention to date, aimed at bringing to an end violations by Israel of international humanitarian and human rights law.

Read the full report here.

To read the 2005 – 2006 report, click here.