UN Report charges Israel with "subjugation of humanity"

GENEVA, 22 March. - (ANA) - UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk yesterday delivered a damning report on Israel's "recurring and persistent" violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The report delivered at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) 34th session particularly highlighted the deteriorating situation for human rights defenders in Palestine and Israel.
 
Lynk charged Israel with "subjugation of humanity" in Palestine and stated that the 50 year occupation Israel has inflicted has been "profoundly corrosive of human rights and democratic values".
 
In delivering his first report to the UNHRC since he assumed his mandate on 1st May 2016, Lynk stressed that he was not granted access to the
OPT nor have his request to meet with the permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations accepted. He also highlighted that in addition to the his exclusion from the OPT, human rights defenders faced difficulties to obtain exit permits from the Israeli authorities to meet with him.
 
“As human rights defenders – Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals – persist with their intrepid activism to investigate and oppose the regime of human rights violations that is integral to the occupation. All indications are that they will continue to be the prime targets of those who are intolerant of their criticisms, yet alarmed by their effectiveness,” Mr. Lynk said.
 
This theme of the difficulties human rights defenders face in witnessing and carrying out their work was maintained throughout the report. The reports illustrates that individuals and civil society groups are subject to physical attacks, imprisonment and threats to their lives and safety, as a result of their effective local, regional and international advocacy and litigation. In his report, Lynk refers the human right defenders as witnesses and ambassadors of conscience "reminding the world that the occupation is becoming ever more immutable". 
 
“They have experienced sophisticated interference with their vital work, and have faced toxic denunciations aimed at silencing them and discouraging their supporters,” Lynk continued.
 
“They provide invaluable advocacy, independent and reliable analysis, effective protection, the courage to investigate and protest, and offer both a progressive interpretation of existing rights as well as a vision of new rights in embryo. The work of these human rights defenders animates and enlarges the enjoyment of human rights for the rest of us.”
 
The report references and expands on a 2015 study by the Human Rights Defenders Fund, which found that "the Israeli military and the occupation authorities have employed a promiscuous range of criminal, security and legal tools to harass and constrain the entirely legitimate and peaceful activities of human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territory".
 
It also references examples of both Israeli and Palestinian civil society groups who have been subjected to such attacks.
 
These include threats, cyber-attacks and campaign of attempted interference with the work of Al-Haq, Palestinian human rights organisation; threats to the lives and safety of Al-Mezan employees, the organisation advocating accountability before the International Criminal Court into possible war crimes; and the raiding and closing of Youth Against Settlements on occasions, a Hebron-based human rights organisation.
 
It also gave examples of individual Palestinian human rights defenders who have encountered death threats, arrest and imprisonment, property damage, and "substantive interference" with their right to peacefully protest and other nonviolent activities.
 
One of these cases is Ms. Nada Kiswanson, human rights lawyer in The Hague, Netherlands. She received a series of "sophisticated" death threats and "menacing accusations". She received multiple phone and email messages stating she would be "eliminated", she was "not safe at all and hopefully this would remain", and "honey, you are in grave danger. You have to stop what you are doing."
 
Manal Tamimi, a leader of the protest movement in her village Nabi Saleh, was arrested during a night right for her non violent activities. According to the report, Tamimi stated that during the arrest, she was was physically assaulted , strip searched, subjected to lengthy interrogations and unlawfully transferred to Hasharon and Ramleh prisons. Moreover, her family has been subjected frequent Israeli military raids on their family home, tear gas shot into their home and regular military interference in weekly village protests.
 
On the human rights situation in the OPT, the report draws attention to persistent and increasing violations against Palestinians including the excessive use of force; collective punishment; discrimination; forced displacement; restrictions on freedoms such as freedom of movement, expression and assembly; their right to self-determination; and denied access to basic services including education.
 
Lynk noted with alarm the rapid pace with which the settlement enterprise and annexation of the OPT has advanced since the start of 2017, referencing the announcement of the construction of 6000 new housing units. He also expressed concern about the so-called “Regularization Bill”, noting that “removing one of the only domestic legal barriers to settlement construction moves Israel even further from compliance with international law.”
 
He urged Israel to comply with Security Council Resolution 2334, which reaffirmed that settlements are a "flagrant violation under international
law".
 
Other recommendations made by the report include urging Israel to immediately end it's 50 year occupation of Palestine and 10 year blockade on Gaza; to comply with international law; repeal it's recent legislation which confiscates private Palestinian land; end the use of the criminal, legal and security tools to obstruct the legitimate work of human rights defenders and fully respect the fundamental freedoms of assembly, association, expression and movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/ 22 March 2017 - - -