Israel’s Human Rights Behaviour July 2005 – July 2006: Towards Greater Accountability

The State of Israel is obliged to respect human rights, democratic principles and international humanitarian law because it is a signatory to a number of international conventions and covenants in addition to bilateral agreements. However, this has not put an end to the country’s continued blatant violation of international humanitarian and human rights law directed against the Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
(OPT) and the Palestinian Arabs inside Israel.

This report studies the period July 2005 – July 2006 and was preceded by a study of Israeli violations between 2004 and 2005. In relation to the previous study, the current report does not identify any significant improvement of Israel’s human rights behaviour.

As in 2005, this report focuses on the human rights behaviour of the state of Israel. Human rights violations committed by the Palestinian Authority and other non-state actors are not a topic of this report. This focus
is the consequence of,

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.

This is not to say that violations by the Palestinian Authority and other non-state actors are not of concern. Indeed, they are and they must be addressed as well.

Israeli violations of Palestinians’ rights can be related to three core problematic issues, namely:

1. non-negotiated illegal actions;
2. widespread lack of accountability on the side of Israel; and
3. the institutionalised discrimination of Palestinian Arab minority citizens.

The core issues relate to the ongoing construction of the Wall in the West Bank; the continued widespread control of the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank; and the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip completed by Israel in September 2005, a unilateral, non-negotiated move which Israel refers to as ‘disengagement’. Furthermore, they relate to the disproportionate use of force by the Israeli military forces, their inability to distinguish between civilian and military targets, and the lack of access to legal remedies for Palestinians in the OPT vis-à-vis the State of Israel. Finally they relate to a range of discriminatory measures taken against the Palestinian Arab minority inside Israel.

These three core problematic issues are highly relevant to the European Neighbourhood Policy’s Action Plan with Israel, an initiative aimed at enhancing relations between the EU, its member states and Israel.

Hence, at a time when the European Commission is working to evaluate the EU/Israel Action Plan, this report provides an analysis of how the patterns of Israeli violations of the rights of the Palestinian Arabs within Israel and the OPT can be related to the priorities set forth in the joint Action Plan. In this regard, the report has translated some of the violations against human rights and humanitarian law by the State of Israel during the time period in question into a set of human rights indicators.

The report concludes by presenting a set of recommendations for actions to be taken by the EU and EU member states, in order to ensure that the Union and its members effectively contribute to the respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights, democratic principles and international humanitarian law of all people, citizens and non-citizens who are directly and indirectly affected by the discriminatory and occupation policies of the State of Israel.

Read the full report here.

To read the 2004 – 2005 report, click here.