The Israeli occupation: Chapter 1,2,&3
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1. Background: The Israeli Occupation
THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION
There are some 3 million Palestinians and around 600,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, an area which includes East Jerusalem.16 Israel captured the West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip, during
a war with its Arab neighbours in 1967.17 These areas are known today as the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
Since the start of the occupation, Israel has administered different parts of the OPT in different ways. In 1967 Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem and included these Palestinian parts of the city, as well as a surrounding area of over 70km2, within the boundaries of the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem.
The Israeli military governed the remainder of the West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip, as occupied territory from 1967 onwards.
This changed in the mid-1990s following the Oslo Accords. These established the Palestinian Authority (the PA, now known as the State of Palestine) and divided the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem into Areas A, B and C. The Oslo Accords transferred partial jurisdiction of some areas to the PA, while overall security remained under Israeli control. As a result, the PA obtained varying amounts of administrative responsibility over Areas A and B. These areas included Palestinian towns and villages where 90% of the Palestinian population lived. Meanwhile, Palestinian rural areas were classified as Area C, where Israel maintained full civil and security authority. A separate agreement saw the division of the city of Hebron into Palestinian and Israeli-administered sectors, known as H1 and H2 respectively.
The Oslo Accords were intended to act as a “transitional arrangement lasting not exceeding five years”. However, its terms and implications remain in force today.
SETTLEMENTS IN THE WEST BANK
Since 1967, it has been Israeli government policy to promote the creation and expansion of Israeli settlements in the OPT. Successive governments have implemented this policy through a combination of legal and administrative measures. They have also provided subsidies, tax incentives and lowcost utilities and resources to encourage Jewish Israelis to live in these places and to support the settlement economy. Israeli settlements in the OPT are meant to be permanent places of residence or economic activity for Jewish Israelis and are built with the sole purpose of serving their needs. There are now approximately 250 settlements. Some have fewer than 100 residents. Others, such as Ma’ale Adumim, which has a population of about 37,000, are well-resourced towns.
Settlements are spread throughout the West Bank, connected by a network of roads. They surround all the major Palestinian cities and many towns and villages. Most settlers live in Area C of the West Bank, but about a third – 200,000 – are in East Jerusalem. Most of those in East Jerusalem live in neighbourhoods and suburbs that Israel constructed after 1967. Others have taken over hundreds of buildings within Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem. Similarly, several hundred Israelis have moved into buildings and homes in the Israeli-administered area of Hebron’s city centre known as H2.
Settlements are much more than residential colonies. The land controlled by settlers covers more than 53,000 hectares – or roughly 60% of Area C. This includes 20 industrial zones and an estimated 9,300 hectares of agricultural land. Movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli military, supposedly for security reasons, mean that over 400km of roads that connect the settlements are not accessible or
are only partially accessible to Palestinians.
The Israeli government has built 85% of its 700km-long “Separation Barrier”, which it presents as separating Israel from the West Bank, within the West Bank. This surrounds many Israeli settlements and effectively bars thousands of Palestinians from their land. It has also designated large chunks of Area C as military zones (30%) or nature reserves and parks (14.5%), further blocking Palestinians’ access to their land.
THE ROLE OF BUSINESSES
An independent fact-finding mission, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate the human rights implications of the Israeli settlements in the OPT, reported in 2013 on how a range of business activities, involving both Israeli and foreign companies, sustains settlements. The report also flagged concerns relating to the impact of these business operations on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the local Palestinian population. Based on this report, the Human Rights Council requested that the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) create a database of business enterprises involved in certain activities in the settlements. A progress report, published in 2018, noted that tourism activities “ensure the sustainability of residential settlement communities” and “contribute to the profitability of the settlements”.
Chapter 2: The Tourism Industry of the Settlements
ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR THE SETTLEMENT TOURISM INDUSTRY
Israel provides a range of financial incentives to businesses operating in settlements as part of its policy to help sustain and expand them. For example, Israel has designated 90 settlements as “national priority areas”, which allows businesses to benefit from reductions in the price of land, grants for the development of infrastructure and preferential tax treatment.
As part of this programme of government support for the settlement economy, Israel has increased support to the tourism industry linked to settlements in recent years. For example, in 2010, it allocated approximately US$110 million to protect and develop visitor infrastructure at historic sites “that reflect the national heritage of the Jewish people” across Israel and the OPT. These sites included 13 in East Jerusalem and 30 in the rest of the West Bank.
Within East Jerusalem, the government is developing ambitious plans to build tourism infrastructure in Palestinian parts of the city. In May 2018, it announced it would spend US$13 million on excavations at the City of David, a settler-managed archaeological site in the neighbourhood of Silwan. In May 2018, the Israeli government also announced a budget of approximately US$54 million for a controversial cable car project that will connect the visitors’ centre at the City of David to West Jerusalem.
In June 2016, the government announced an additional programme of “special financial aid”, with specific provisions to support the development of the tourism industry in settlements in Area C. This resulted in a grant of US$1.3 million for “public tourism infrastructure”. The Prime Minister’s Office also announced subsidies for the “establishment, conversion and expansion” of hotels, B&Bs and guest rooms in settlements in the West Bank.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TOURISM TO THE SETTLEMENT ECONOMY
Israel’s policy of developing a tourism industry based in and around settlements comes as the country enjoys a boom in visitor numbers. In 2017, tourist arrivals grew by 25% to a record 3.6 million visitors, bringing in US$5.8 billion. In 2018, more than four million visitors were recorded. This growth has brought financial benefits both to Israel and to businesses operating in occupied territory. This is because most foreign visitors also enter the OPT. The top three most visited places by foreign tourists in 2017 were all in Jerusalem’s Old City, which Israel annexed in 1967 along with the rest of East Jerusalem.
Many foreign and Israeli tourists also visit attractions linked to settlements in Area C. According to Israeli Ministry of Tourism figures, 45% of foreign visitors went to the Dead Sea, much of which is in the OPT. The rest of Area C is not well known as a tourist destination and there are no government figures for visitors. However, as an indication of how popular it is becoming, the Yesha Council, an umbrella body for Israeli settlement municipal councils, stated that during the Passover holiday in 2018, some 300,000 people visited various “tourist sites, routes, museums, festivals, wineries and archaeological sites”. There are many of these scattered across Area C. A recent guidebook listed
more than 200 places to visit, stay or eat in settlements.
In addition, gift shops and visitor centres at tourist sites in the OPT sell produce grown and manufactured by Israeli settlers, such as wine, olive oil, handicrafts and cosmetics. Tourists visiting these attractions and spending money in the restaurants and other sites directly contribute to the maintenance and growth of settlements, since businesses are owned or managed by settlers.
LEGITIMIZING OCCUPATION THROUGH TOURISM?
As well as the financial gains, the Israeli government has political and ideological reasons for developing a tourism industry in occupied East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank. Settler groups supported by the Israeli government emphasize the Jewish people’s historic connections to the region. As a spokesperson for settlers in Hebron explained:
“From our perspective, living here is key to giving the modern state of Israel its rooting in Jewish history.”
Israel has constructed many of its settlements close to archaeological sites to make the link between the modern State of Israel and its Jewish history explicit. This is part of an active campaign to normalize and legitimize Israel’s increasing control of the OPT. At the same time, Israel downplays or ignores the significance of non-Jewish periods at archaeological and historic sites. This rewriting of history has the effect of minimizing the Palestinian people’s own historic links to the region.
In addition, websites and visitor maps issued by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and Israel’s Ministry of Tourism do not show the West Bank’s borders. Instead, the area is marked as “Judea” and “Samaria”, a term for the West Bank used by the government and settlers and not by Palestinians. This suggests a deliberate attempt to conceal from tourists that these places are in the OPT.
This is keenly felt by Palestinians living close to archaeological and tourism sites.
“Tourists coming here are brainwashed, they are lied to, they do not know this is our land,” explained Mahmoud Zaki Hassan Abu Shenar, a farmer living next to Shiloh settlement. There, the settlers run and are developing a large visitor centre with Israeli government funding.
The designation of certain locations as tourist sites is also used by the Israeli government to justify the takeover of Palestinian land and homes. For example, by declaring that populated areas of annexed East Jerusalem lie within national parks, the government has limited the ability of Palestinian residents there to construct or expand their homes and exposed them to a risk of house demolitions. It has also limited the ability of Palestinian landowners to farm their land and resulted in expulsions. Nature reserves in Area C are protected by military order, which penalizes Palestinians for attempting to graze their animals and prevents them from establishing or expanding their homes and other structures or using land for agricultural purposes.61 Palestinian communities living next to archaeological sites falling within the jurisdiction of settler regional councils have been evicted from their homes and barred from entering their land.
Chapter 3: Israeli Settlements and International Law
The situation in the OPT is primarily governed by two international legal regimes: international humanitarian law (including the rules of the law of occupation) and international human rights law. International criminal law is also relevant as some serious violations may constitute war crimes.
STATUS OF SETTLEMENTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW
Israel’s policy of settling its civilians in occupied Palestinian territory and displacing the local population contravenes fundamental rules of international humanitarian law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
The extensive appropriation of land and the appropriation and destruction of property required to build and expand settlements also breach other rules of international humanitarian law. Under the Hague Regulations of 1907, the public property of the occupied population (such as lands, forests and agricultural estates) is subject to the laws of usufruct. This means that an occupying state is only allowed a very limited use of this property. This limitation is derived from the notion that occupation is temporary, the core idea of the law of occupation. In the words of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the occupying power “has a duty to ensure the protection, security, and welfare of the people living under occupation and to guarantee that they can live as normal a life as possible, in accordance with their own laws, culture, and traditions.”
The Hague Regulations prohibit the confiscation of private property. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the destruction of private or state property, “except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations”.
As the occupier, Israel is therefore forbidden from using state land and natural resources for purposes other than military or security needs or for the benefit of the local population. The unlawful appropriation of property by an occupying power amounts to “pillage”, which is prohibited by both the Hague Regulations and Fourth Geneva Convention and is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and many national laws.
Israel’s building of settlements in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, does not respect any of these rules and exceptions. Transferring the occupying power’s civilians into the occupied territory is prohibited without exception. Furthermore, as explained earlier, the settlements and associated infrastructure are not temporary, do not benefit Palestinians and do not serve the legitimate security needs of the occupying power. Settlements entirely depend on the large-scale appropriation and/or destruction of Palestinian private and state property which are not militarily necessary. They are created with the sole purpose of permanently establishing Jewish Israelis on occupied land.
In addition to being violations of international humanitarian law, key acts required for the establishment of settlements amount to war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Under this body of law, the “extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” and the “transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory” constitute war crimes. As stated above, “pillage” is also a war crime under the Rome Statute.
Israel’s settlement policy also violates a special category of obligations entitled peremptory norms of international law (jus cogens) from which no derogation is permitted. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) affirmed that the rules of the Geneva Conventions constitute “intransgressible principles of international customary law”. Only a limited number of international norms acquire this status, which is a reflection of the seriousness and importance with which the international community views them. Breaches of these norms give rise to certain obligations on all other states, or “third states”, which are explained below.
SETTLEMENTS, DISCRIMINATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
States have a duty to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of people under their jurisdiction, including people living in territory that is outside national borders but under the effective control of the state. The ICJ confirmed that Israel is obliged to extend the application of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other treaties to which it is a state party to people in the OPT. Israel is a state party to numerous international human rights treaties and, as the occupying power, it has well defined obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of Palestinians.
However, as has been well documented for many years by the UN, Amnesty International and other NGOs, Israel’s settlement policy is one of the main driving forces behind the mass human rights violations resulting from the occupation. These include:
Violations of the right to life: Israeli soldiers, police and security guards have unlawfully killed and injured many Palestinian civilians in the OPT, including during protests against the confiscation of land and the construction of settlements. UN agencies and fact-finding missions have also expressed concern about violence perpetrated by a minority of Israeli settlers aimed at intimidating Palestinian populations.
Violations of the rights to liberty, security of the person and equal treatment before the law: Amnesty International has documented how Palestinians in the OPT are routinely subjected to arbitrary detention, including through administrative detention. Whereas settlers are subject to Israeli civil and criminal law, Palestinians are subject to a military court system which falls short of international standards for the fair conduct of trials and administration of justice.
Violations of the right to access an effective remedy for acts violating fundamental rights: Israel’s failure to adequately investigate and enforce the law for acts of violence against Palestinians, together with the multiple legal, financial and procedural barriers faced by Palestinians in accessing the court system, severely limit Palestinians’ ability to seek legal redress. The Israeli High Court of Justice has failed to rule on the legality of settlements, as it considered the settlements to be a political issue that that it is not competent to hear.
Violations of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly: Amnesty International has documented Israel’s use of military orders to prohibit peaceful protest and criminalize freedom of expression in the West Bank. Israeli forces have used tear gas, rubber bullets and occasionally live rounds to suppress peaceful protests.
Violations of the rights to equality and non-discrimination: Systematic discrimination against Palestinians is inherent in virtually all aspects of Israel’s administration of the OPT. Palestinians are also specifically targeted for a range of actions that constitute human rights violations. The Israeli government allows settlers to exploit land and natural resources that belong to Palestinians. Israel provides preferential treatment to Israeli businesses operating in the OPT while putting up barriers to, or simply blocking, Palestinian ones. Israeli citizens receive entitlements and Palestinians face restrictions on the grounds of nationality, ethnicity and religion, in contravention of international standards.
The Israeli authorities have created a discriminatory urban planning and zoning system. Within Area C, where most settlement construction is based, Israel has allocated 70% of the land to settlements and only 1% to Palestinians. In East Jerusalem, Israel has expropriated 35% of the city for the construction of settlements, while restricting Palestinians to construct on only 13% of the land. These figures clearly illustrate Israel’s use of regulatory measures to discriminate against Palestinian residents in Area C.
The UN has also pointed to discrimination against Palestinians in the way in which the criminal law is enforced. While prosecution rates for settler attacks against Palestinians are low, suggesting a lack of enforcement, most cases of violence against Israeli settlers are investigated and proceed to court.
Violations of the right to adequate housing: Since 1967, Israel has constructed tens of thousands of homes on Palestinian land to accommodate settlers while, at the same time, demolishing an estimated 50,000 Palestinian homes and other structures, such as farm buildings and water tanks. Israel also carries out demolitions as a form of collective punishment against the families of individuals accused of attacks on Israelis. In East Jerusalem, about 800 houses have been demolished since 2004 for lack of permits. Israel also confiscates houses inhabited by Palestinians in the city to allocate them to settlers. By forcibly evicting and/or demolishing their homes without providing adequate alternative accommodation, Israel has failed in its duty to respect the right to adequate housing of thousands of Palestinians.
Violations of the right to freedom of movement: Many restrictions on freedom of movement for Palestinian residents are directly linked to the settlements, including restrictions aimed at protecting the settlements and maintaining “buffer zones”. Restrictions include checkpoints, settler-only roads and physical impediments created by walls and gates.
Violations of the rights of the child: Every year, 500-700 Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank are prosecuted in Israeli juvenile military courts under Israeli military orders. They are often arrested in night raids and systematically ill-treated. Some of these children serve their sentences within Israel, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The UN has also documented that many children have been killed or injured in settler attacks.
Violations of the right to enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health: Restrictions on movement limit Palestinians’ access to health care. Specialists working with Palestinian populations have also documented a range of serious mental health conditions that stem from exposure to violence and abuse in the OPT.
Violations of the right to water: Most Palestinian communities in Area C are not connected to the water network and are prevented from repairing or constructing wells or water cisterns that hold rainwater. Water consumption in some Area C communities is reported by the UN to be 20% of the minimum recommended standard. Israel’s failure to ensure Palestinian residents have a sufficient supply of clean, safe water for drinking and other domestic uses constitutes a violation of its obligations to respect and fulfil the right to water.
Violations of the right to education: Palestinian students face numerous obstacles in accessing education, including forced displacement, demolitions, restrictions on movement and a shortage of school places. An independent fact-finding mission in 2012 noted an “upward trend” of cases of settler attacks on Palestinian schools and harassment of Palestinian children on their way to and from school. Such problems can result in children not attending school and in a deterioration in the quality of learning.
Violations of the right to earn a decent living through work: The expansion of settlements has reduced the amount of land available to Palestinians for herding and agriculture, increasing the dependency of rural communities on humanitarian assistance. Settler violence and the destruction of Palestinian-owned crops and olive trees have damaged the livelihoods of farmers. The UN has reported that in Hebron city centre, the Israeli military has forced 512 Palestinian businesses to close, while more than 1,000 others have shut down due to restricted access for customers and suppliers.
SUSTAINED INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION
Most states and international bodies have long recognized that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The European Union (EU) has clearly stated that: “settlement building anywhere in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, is illegal under international law, constitutes an obstacle to peace and threatens to make a two-state solution impossible.”
The settlements have been condemned as illegal in many UN Security Council and other UN resolutions. As early as 1980, UN Security Council Resolution 465 called on Israel “to dismantle the existing settlements and, in particular, to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.” The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention have reaffirmed that settlements violate international humanitarian law. The illegality of the settlements was recently reaffirmed by UN Security Council Resolution 2334, passed in
December 2016, which reiterates the Security Council’s call on Israel to cease all settlement activities in the OPT. The serious human rights violations that stem from Israeli settlements have also been repeatedly raised and condemned by international bodies and experts.
Source: Amnesty International under Creative Commons License
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