Press ReleaseAl-Haq, Addameer & Habitat Send a Joint Submission on
Apartheid to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights
in the OPT
*Press Release*
*Al-Haq, Addameer and Habitat Send a Joint Submission on Apartheid to
the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory*
*Date: 19 January 2022*
In response to a call from the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Mr
Michael Lynk, for his final thematic report on the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, Al-Haq, Addameer, Prisoner Support and Human Rights
Association, and Habitat International Coalition – Housing and Land
Rights Network have submitted a joint report on the question
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=73be40b9e0&e=08c14cf485>
of whether Israel’s conduct of its occupation is in breach of the
prohibition of apartheid under international law. The report details
that Israel has been entrenching and maintaining an apartheid regime
over the Palestinian people as a whole, through its laws, policies and
practices since 1948, and since 1967 has extended the apartheid regime
into the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, through
its occupation.
The 40-page submission explained that “since its inception, the
centrality of the racial dimension of Zionism has formed the foundation
of Israel’s ever-lasting institutionalised racial discrimination and
apartheid regime”. It further illustrated that Israel has been
strategically using the fragmentation of the Palestinian people as the
principal tool to establish, entrench, and operationalise its apartheid
regime in Palestine: “[c]ontrary to the claim that Israel’s prolonged
occupation has turned into apartheid, Israel’s occupation is, in fact,
part and parcel of the overarching settler colonial and apartheid regime
that Israel always intended –and continues– to impose on the Palestinian
people as a whole.”
The organisations asserted that the prohibition of apartheid applies
extraterritorially, particularly in situations of occupation and that
International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is not the only relevant and
applicable legal framework in situations of occupation. It added that
IHL “applies concomitantly with international human rights law (IHRL) as
well as other rules of international law, including the prohibition of
apartheid”. Furthermore, it explained how “for example, Israel as an
Occupying Power in the OPT has been adopting a policy akin to that of
pick-and-choose of the rules of international (humanitarian) law. For
instance, while it accepts the applicability of IHL provisions that
entail different treatment (which, in a way, rationalise and downsize
its apartheid practices), it rejects the applicability of other IHL
provisions that do not serve its apartheid regime’s settler-colonial
ambition in Palestine, e.g., provisions prohibiting transferring its own
population to the territory it occupies, i.e., its colonial settlements
activities and expansion in the OPT”.
It further reiterated that “although the law of occupation may entail
different treatment of the two groups, it also entails an absolute
prohibition of any inhuman acts against the protected persons” and that
Article 84(5) of 1977 Additional Protocol I explicitly prohibits
apartheid. It concluded that “the commission of inhuman acts –with the
purpose of establishing and maintaining domination and systematic
oppression by one racial group over another– in the context of
occupation incontrovertibly violates the prohibition of apartheid under
international law and constitutes a crime against humanity pursuant to
Article 7(j) of the Rome Statute” of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The submission also explained in details the legal architecture of the
Israeli apartheid and how Israel has been maintaining its apartheid
through its occupation. In doing so, it outlined that Israel apartheid
laws, policies and practices revolve around two main pillars. The first
concerns its land and property discriminatory policies and practices,
and the second concerns its residency and nationality discriminatory
policies and practices.
The organisations concluded that “for decades, Palestinian civil society
and human rights organisations have been accurately characterising the
Israeli occupation practices in the OPT as that of apartheid.” It adds
that there has been “a growing recognition and condemnation of Israeli
apartheid, including reports by prominent international institutions as
well as, by Israeli, regional, and international human rights
organisations.” It further asserted that Israel’s latest designations of
Palestinian civil society and human rights organisations as “terrorist
organisations” shows that Israel is willing to do anything to silence
those who expose the war crimes and crimes against humanity of its
apartheid regime”.
In addition, it concluded that “it is time that the international
community hold Israel accountable for its apartheid. It is time that
the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 recognises the apartheid
regime on both sides of the Green Line, in violation of the prohibition
against apartheid under the rules of international law”.
*Finally, the organisations provided the following recommendation to the
international community, the United Nations and the ICC:*
* Recognize and condemn Israeli apartheid against the Palestinian
people; discharge their duty of nonrecognition and take effective
measures, including stopping arms trade (among the many options
already adopted in S/465 (1980) A/RES/37/123, A/RES/39/146 and those
proposed in the NGOs’ joint letter of 2009 in the Goldstone follow-up)
* Ensure that Israel dismantles its regime of institutional
discrimination, oppression, and apartheid against the Palestinian
people and ends the occupation of Palestine;
* Ensure that Israel fulfils and facilitates Palestinian refugees’
right to return
* Ensure that Israel immediately, fully, and unconditionally lifts its
illegal closure and blockade on the Gaza Strip;
* Ensure accountability and justice for widespread, gross, and
systemic violations against the Palestinian people, including for
the crime of apartheid;
* States which have not already done so must ratify the 1973 Apartheid
Convention;
* Support the independence of the International Criminal Court and
protect the Court against attacks or political pressure as it
conducts its investigation into the Situation in Palestine,
including the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people;
* Support the mandate of the UN Independent International Commission
of Inquiry on the OPT, including East Jerusalem, and Israel,
established in May 2021.
* Reconstitute the UN Centre Against Apartheid and the UN Special
Committee against Apartheid;
* Expanding mandate of Special Rapporteur to include the Palestinian
people as a whole on both sides of the Green Line and abroad;
* For the International Criminal Court to conduct a prompt, thorough,
and comprehensive investigation of the crimes of apartheid and
persecution, and other associated crimes that fall within the
jurisdiction of the Court concerning the Situation in Palestine, and
accordingly prosecute relevant perpetrators.
Please find submission attached here
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=0e74946bfc&e=08c14cf485>.
https://twitter.com/alhaq_org/status/1483538008615927816
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=8bf73d92dc&e=08c14cf485>
https://twitter.com/alhaq_org/status/1483538008615927816
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=2f4ded42d1&e=08c14cf485>
https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/19408.html
<http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=fb105d3545&e=08c14cf485>
https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/19408.html
<http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=fb105d3545&e=08c14cf485>
www.PalCivilSociety.com
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=a9a4e618d4&e=08c14cf485>
Twitter
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=311be5e748&e=08c14cf485>
Facebook
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=b94050758a&e=08c14cf485>
Website
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=f5d962391a&e=08c14cf485>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20220119/ffa7fbb5/attachment.htm>