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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/17/israel/west-bank-grant-palestinians-equal-rights#">https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/17/israel/west-bank-grant-palestinians-equal-rights#</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Israel/West Bank: Grant Palestinians
Equal Rights</h1>
<p><font size="+1"><b>52 Years into Occupation, Rights
Suspension Unlawful, Unjustifiable</b></font></p>
<div class="credits reader-credits">December 17, 2019 <br>
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<p> (Jerusalem) – <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa/israel/palestine">Israel</a>
should grant Palestinians in the <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa/israel/palestine">West
Bank</a> rights protections at least equal to those
afforded Israeli citizens, Human Rights Watch said in a
report released today, citing Israel’s 52 years of
occupation with no end in sight. The law of occupation
permits occupiers to restrict some civil rights in the
early days of an occupation based on limited security
justifications, but sweeping restrictions are
unjustified and unlawful after five decades. <br>
</p>
<p>The 92-page report, “<a
href="https://www.hrw.org/node/336507/">Born Without
Civil Rights: Israel’s Use of Draconian Military
Orders to Repress Palestinians in the West Bank</a>,”
evaluates Israeli military orders that criminalize
nonviolent political activity, including protesting,
publishing material “having a political significance,”
and joining groups “hostile” to Israel. Human Rights
Watch examined several case studies to show that Israel
unjustifiably relies on these sweeping orders to jail
Palestinians for anti-occupation speech, activism, or
political affiliations; outlaw political and other
nongovernmental organizations; and shut down media
outlets. </p>
<p>“Israel’s efforts to justify depriving Palestinians of
basic civil rights protections for more than half a
century based on the exigencies of its forever military
occupation just don’t fly anymore,” said <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/about/people/sarah-leah-whitson">Sarah
Leah Whitson</a>, executive director of the Middle
East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch.
“Given Israel’s long-term control over Palestinians, it
should at minimum allow them to exercise the same rights
it grants its own citizens, regardless of the political
arrangement in place.”</p>
<p> Human Rights Watch conducted 29 interviews, primarily
with former detainees and lawyers who represented them,
reviewed military court indictments and decisions, and
examined eight illustrative cases of activists,
journalists, and other Palestinians detained under
restrictive Israeli orders in the last five years. The
report also reflects substantive responses to the
findings from the Israeli army and police.</p>
<p> In the lead-up to the report release, the Israeli
government, rather than substantively responding to the
Human Rights Watch report, has chosen instead to impugn
a Human Rights Watch staff member.</p>
<p>Other governments and international organizations
concerned with the rights of Palestinians should endorse
a civil rights framework to highlight the impact of
Israel’s restrictive military orders in the West Bank
and press Israel to grant Palestinians full civil and
other rights at least equal to what it grants Israeli
citizens, Human Rights Watch said. Those should
supplement such protections under the law of occupation
as the prohibition against building settlements, which
remain in place so long as the occupation persists. </p>
<p>The international law governing military occupation
requires Israel as the occupier to restore “public life”
for the occupied Palestinian population. That obligation
increases in a prolonged occupation such as Israel’s, as
the International Committee of the Red Cross and Israeli
Supreme Court have said and the Israeli government
itself has acknowledged. The Palestinian population’s
needs have increased over the decades while Israel has
done far too little to develop more narrowly tailored
responses to countering security threats that minimize
rights restrictions.</p>
<p>Suspending rights for a short period may temporarily
disrupt public life, but long-term, indefinite
suspension cripples a community’s social, political, and
intellectual life. The longer an occupation, the more
military rule should resemble an ordinary governing
system that respects the standards of international
human rights law that apply at all times. In cases of
indefinite occupation, such as Israel’s, the rights
granted to an occupied population should be at least
equal to the rights afforded the occupier’s citizens.</p>
<p>British Mandate-era regulations that remain in force in
the West Bank and military orders that Israel has issued
since it captured the West Bank in 1967 allow the
Israeli army to strip Palestinians of basic civil rights
protections. The regulations, for example, allow Israel
to declare unlawful groups that advocate “bringing into
hatred or contempt, or the exciting of disaffection
against” local authorities and to arrest Palestinians
for affiliation with such groups. </p>
<p>The military orders impose prison terms of up to 10
years on civilians convicted by military courts for
influencing public opinion in a way that could “harm
public peace or public order.” A 10-year sentence can
also be imposed on Palestinians who participate in a
gathering of more than 10 people without a military
permit on any issue “that could be construed as
political” or if they display “flags or political
symbols” without army approval.</p>
<p>These sweeping restrictions apply only to the 2.5
million Palestinian residents of the West Bank,
excluding East Jerusalem, but not to the more than
400,000 Israeli settlers in the same territory who fall
under Israeli civil law. That law, which also applies in
East Jerusalem – annexed by Israel, but still occupied
territory under international law – and in Israel, much
more robustly safeguards the rights to free expression
and assembly.</p>
<p>“Nothing can justify today’s reality where in some
places people on one side of the street enjoy civil
rights, while those on the other side do not,” Whitson
said.</p>
<p>According to data it provided to Human Rights Watch,
the Israeli army between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2019
prosecuted 4,590 Palestinians for entering a “closed
military zone,” a designation it frequently attaches on
the spot to protest sites, 1,704 for “membership and
activity in an unlawful association,” and 358 for
“incitement.”</p>
<p>In one example, the Israeli army detained Farid
al-Atrash, 42, who works for the Independent Commission
of Human Rights, a quasi-official body of the
Palestinian Authority, for participating in a peaceful
demonstration in Hebron in February 2016 that called for
reopening a major downtown street to Palestinians.
Military prosecutors cited provisions of military law
that prohibit political gatherings, pointing to his
“waving Palestinian Authority flags” and holding a sign
that read “Open Shuhada Street.”</p>
<p>They also accused him of entering a “closed military
zone,” and “assault of a solider,” but furnished no
evidence of this offense. The authorities released him
after five days, but continue to prosecute him more than
three years later.</p>
<p>Israeli authorities also rely on military orders to ban
411 organizations, including all the major Palestinian
political movements, and to detain people affiliated
with them. Israel’s association-based claims against one
banned organization, al-Hirak al-Shababi, appear to
focus on its protests against the Palestinian Authority,
based on a review of an indictment against Hafez Omar,
an artist in Israeli detention since March 2019.
Military law affords no appeal of such bans.</p>
<p>Prosecutors have cited the broad definition of
incitement under Israeli military law to criminalize
speech advocating resistance to the occupation, even
when it does not call for violence. For example, they
used the charge to justify detaining a 43-year-old
activist, Nariman Tamimi, over a livestream she posted
to Facebook of an encounter between her then-16-year-old
daughter Ahed and Israeli soldiers in her front yard in
December 2017.</p>
<p>“Israeli military law in place for 52 years bars
Palestinians in the West Bank from such basic freedoms
as waving flags, peacefully protesting the occupation,
joining all major political movements, and publishing
political material,” Whitson said. “These orders give
the army carte blanche to prosecute anyone who organizes
politically, speaks out, or even reports the news in
ways that displease the army.”</p>
<p><strong>Excerpts from Selected Israeli Military Orders</strong></p>
<p>“A person who organizes a procession, assembly or vigil
without a permit, calls for or instigates their being
held or encourages them or participates in them in any
way … shall be liable for imprisonment for ten years or
a fine of ten thousand liras, or both.” <em>Military
Order 101</em></p>
<p>“It is forbidden to hold, wave, display, or affix flags
or political symbols, except in accordance with a permit
from the military commander.” <em>Military Order 101</em></p>
<p>“It is forbidden to print or publicize in the region
any publication of notice, poster, photo, pamphlet or
other document containing material having a political
significance, unless a license is previously obtained
from the military commander of the place in which it is
intended to execute the printing or publication.” <em>Military
Order 101</em></p>
<p>“[T]he expression ‘unlawful associations’ means any
body of persons … which by its constitution or
propaganda or otherwise advocates, incites or encourages
… the bringing into hatred or contempt of, or the
exciting of disaffection against [local authorities].” <em>Defense
(Emergency) Regulations of 1945 (enforced by the
Israeli army)</em></p>
<p>“A person who [a]ttempts, orally or otherwise, to
influence public opinion in the Area in a manner which
may harm public peace or public order, or … [c]arries
out an action expressing identification with a hostile
organization, with its actions or its objectives or
sympathy for them, by flying a flag, displaying a symbol
or slogan or playing an anthem or voicing a slogan, or
any similar explicit action clearly expressing such
identification or sympathy, and all in a public place or
in a manner that persons in a public place are able to
see or hear such expression of identification or
sympathy – shall be sentenced to ten years
imprisonment.” <em>Military Order 1651</em></p>
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