Israel has for too long been allowed to violate the rights of human rights defenders and activists. As an occupying power and State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Israel is obliged to respect the rights of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) as guaranteed under the ICCPR. Palestinian human rights defenders must be guaranteed their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and their right to liberty and security of person.

 

Since September 2009, Israel has intensified a repression campaign against Palestinian human rights defenders, activists and demonstrators protesting against the Annexation Wall. As part of their repression campaign, which coincided with the release of the Goldstone Report, the Israeli forces have re-launched daily dawn raids in villages affected by the Wall, arresting youths and children, for the purpose of extracting confessions about prominent community leaders advocating against the Wall, and continued to intimidate activists by destroying their private property and threatening them with detention. Finally, Israel has directly targeted the Grassroots “Stop the Wall” Campaign by arresting and intimidating its leaders.

 

With the recent arrests of Jamal Juma’, a prominent Palestinian human rights defender and coordinator of the “Stop the Wall” Campaign, Abdallah Abu Rahma, the Head of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in and the administrative detention of Mohammad Othman, a youth coordinator with “Stop the Wall”, it became increasingly clear that Israel is seeking to hinder human rights defenders from carrying out their peaceful work, exercised within the framework of international humanitarian and human rights law.

 

Additionally, in the villages of Bil’in, Ni’ilin, Beit Duqqu, Jayyous and Al-Ma’sara, Israeli soldiers have been reported to throw stones at activists’ houses, storm their homes in the middle of the night, fire tear gas at them and destroy their personal belongings. Seemingly, these measures are implemented to deter Palestinian activists from attending weekly demonstrations against the Annexation Wall. The Israeli authorities have also summoned for interrogation a number of youth activists engaged in organizing peaceful demonstrations and solidarity events involving international supporters. Similarly, they launched an intimidation campaign against witnesses of human rights violations. On 17 December, for example, the Israeli soldiers raided the family house of eighteen-year old Salam Kanaan in Ni’lin, who became famous after she filmed an Israeli soldier shooting blindfolded and handcuffed Ashraf Abu Rahma in the foot and released it through the Israeli NGO’s, B’Tselem’s “Shooting Back” project. The soldiers came looking for the tape and when they did not find it, they left a notice, in which they summoned Salam’s family members for interrogation. In Al-Ma’sara, members of the Popular Committee Against the Wall, including Mohammad Birjiyah, Hassan Birjiyah and Mahmoud Zawahreh, who were arrested in May 2009 for their participation in demonstrations and subsequently released on bail, now face not only restrictions on their community work, but are also subject to constant delays and humiliation at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank.

 

It is common Israeli practice to interrogate and detain Palestinians without charge and prevent lawyers from visiting their clients. Arbitrary detention violates the rights of human rights defenders and Israel must stop these illegal practices. Israel’s history of subjecting detained Palestinians to torture, inhumane and cruel treatment must also be noted. As Palestinian human rights organizations we demand that such practices are not used against any detained Palestinian, including Jamal Juma’, Mohammad Othman and Abdallah Abu Rahma. Importantly, tarrest of Jamal Juma’, Mohammad Othman and Abdallah Abu Rahma constitutes a violation of various international human rights instruments, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. The Declaration provides for the right of everyone to meet or assemble peacefully, which includes the right to form, join and communicate with non-governmental organizations, associations or groups. The Declaration further emphasizes the right of an individual to the lawful exercise of his or her profession, to participate in peaceful activities against violations of human rights and to solicit, receive and utilize resources for the purpose of protecting human rights. Additionally, the Declaration declares that people have the right to express concern about the policies and actions of individual officials and governmental bodies with regard to violations of human rights. Although not legally binding, the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders served as a basis for the drafting of the EU and Norwegian Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders, which follow the Declaration in recognizing everyone’s right to promote and strive for the protections and realization of human rights, both individually and collectively.

 

protection of human rights defenders has thus been recognized not only a moral obligation, but also as a social, individual and collective right and responsibility and became an important element of the European Union’s human rights external policy.

 

As Palestinian human rights organizations, we call upon the international community, including diplomatic missions in the occupied Palestinian territory and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to intervene with Israel for:

In addition, we call upon members of the European Union and Norway to fully comply with the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders and the Norwegian Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders; develop and adopt an effective strategy aiming to provide protection to Palestinian human rights defenders working in the OPT and Israel, by: