Date: 8 February 2022

In September and October 2021, Al-Haq participated in the 48^th session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC), which was virtually held between 13 September and 8 October 2021. In collaboration with Palestinian, regional and international civil society organisations, Al-Haq highlighted Israel’s system of oppression and racism, inherent in its settler colonial and apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole, practiced in the forms of, inter alia, discriminatory water allocation, suppression of freedom of assembly, increased settler violence and expansion of illegal settlements, arbitrary detention and collective punishment against Palestinian prisoners and detainees and human rights defenders. Al-Haq urged the Council and its Member States to take effective measures to ensure justice and accountability for widespread and systematic human rights violations, including suspected international crimes, committed against the Palestinian people, and for inhumane acts of apartheid; ensure the timely 2021 annual update of the UN database of businesses involved in Israel’s illegal settlements enterprise; support the reconstitution of the UN Special Committee against Apartheid and the UN Centre against Apartheid; and adhere to signatories’ obligations under the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (the Apartheid Convention) and for non-signatory states to ratify the Convention.

Engagement Ahead of the Session

On 22 August 2021, prior to the convening of the 48^th session of the HRC, Al-Haq and partner organizations,[1] including Palestinian and regional Civil Society Organizations, submitted five written statements to the HRC highlighting issues of most urgency, under several items, including under item 2 on the Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, and item 7 on the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.

1. Written Submission on Israel’s Systematic Crackdown on Palestinian Civil Society Organisations and Human Rights Defenders Intensifies

Under Item 2, Al-Haq and partners highlighted Israel’s increased crackdown on Palestinian civil society organizations and human rights defenders through intensified office raids, military closure orders, arbitrary detention, such as that of Ms. Shatha Odeh Abu Fannouneh, the 60-year-old Executive Director of the HWC, threat of residency revocation, including that of Mr. Salah Hammouri, the Palestinian-French human rights defender and lawyer with Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, as well as the misuse of terrorism and security-related laws to stifle voices of Palestinian human rights defenders.

The submission emphasized that these retaliatory measures are part of Israel’s institutionalised regime of racial oppression, domination and dispossession of the Palestinian people as a whole, and urged the Council to recognize the nature of such measures, condemn the employment of these measures against Palestinian civil society actors, hold Israel accountable for its systematic violations of its international obligations, and urgently intervene to immediately release Ms. Odeh from arbitrary detention.

2. Written Submission on Palestinian Dispossession and Displacement: The Pressing Cases of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan

Under item 7, Al-Haq and partners tackled Israel’s policies of displacement and dispossession as tools to dominate the Palestinian population as a whole, through employing an array of discriminatory laws, including planning and zoning laws and laws applied to unlawfully annexed East Jerusalem, and enabling settler organizations to claim ownership to Palestinian property. The submission underscored the most pressing cases of dispossession and displacement facing Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, instigated by alleged Jewish ownership claims to Palestinian properties under the 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters Law, placing eight families residing in Karm Al-Ja’ouni area of Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and seven families in Batn Al-Hawa neighbourhood in Silwan at the imminent threat of displacement. Additionally, the submission underlined the imminent threat of demolishing 16 structures in Al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan, one which has already been enforced against the butcher shop of Mr. Harbi al-Rajabi on 29 June 2021, under the pretext of building without permits – a demonstration of Israel’s discriminatory planning and zoning laws and policies.

Overall, the submission urged the Council to call on Israel to cease the application of its domestic laws to annexed East Jerusalem, and consequently, immediately cease legal proceedings and revoke eviction and demolition orders issued against Palestinians facing imminent threat of forcible transfer in Sheikh Jarrah, Batn Al-Hawa, and Al-Bustan neighbourhoods, ensure the return of those evicted and/or the compensation of those whose properties were demolished where restitution is not possible, and pursue international justice and accountability for Israel’s systematic human rights violations against the Palestinian people, including the crime of apartheid, by activating universal jurisdiction mechanisms and supporting a full, thorough, and comprehensive investigation by the ICC into the Situation in Palestine.

3. Written Submission on Alarming Numbers of Palestinian Prisoners Taking on Hunger Strike Against Israel’s Increase and Systematic Reliance on Administrative Detention

Al-Haq and partners summitted under item 7 a written statement covering Israel’s wide-scale arbitrary arrest campaigns during the Unity Uprising of Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line in May 2021, and practices of arbitrary detention and ill-treatment against Palestinian prisoners and detainees. On 12 May alone, nearly 60 Palestinians had their homes stormed, and were arrested. Additionally, during the first half of 2021, the Occupying Power issued over 856 administrative detention orders, which entails holding detainees indefinitely without charge or trial based on secret material inaccessible to detainees or their lawyers; revealing an increased and systematic reliance on administrative detention as a mean of collective punishment against Palestinians, including men, women, children and Palestinian Legislative Council members.

The submission further brought the Council’s attention to the retaliatory ill-treatment practices undertaken by Israeli Prison Services against prisoners and detainees who decide to go on hunger strikes in protest of their arbitrary detention and ill-treatment. Importantly, the submission addresses the complicity of the Israeli military judicial system in Israel’s illegal practice of arbitrary detention, as integral in sustaining Israel’s apartheid system over the Palestinian people as a whole, thereby denying Palestinian prisoners their right to a fair and regular trial, which is tantamount to the war crime of intentional denial of fair trial rights under Article 8(2)(a)(6) of the Rome Statute of the ICC.

Al-Haq and partners called on the Council and Member States in their submission to urge Israel to cease its illegal practices of arbitrary arrests and detention of Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line, and recognize these practices as a core component of Israel’s institutionalised and systemic racial discrimination and oppression over the Palestinian people as a whole.

4. Written Submission on the Price of Resisting Settlement Expansion: the Case of Jabal Sbeih

Amidst violent Israeli suppression of the Unity Uprising in May 2021, Palestinian residents of villages surrounding Jabal (Mountain) Sbeih were resisting the establishing of the Israeli colonial outpost ‘Evyatar’ on Jabal Sbeih, southeast of Nablus city. In their statement, Al-Haq and partners focused on the outpost’s expansion on Jabal Sbeih and Israeli authorities’ involvement in settlement expansion, and Israel’s violent suppression of Palestinian protests opposing the appropriation of their land for the establishment of the colonial outpost. This included the Israeli occupying forces (IOF)’s use of collective punishment measures against the residents, as well as disproportionate, indiscriminate and excessive force against protesters, reflected in Israel’s ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy, killing six Palestinians, including two children, and injuring thousands. Al-Haq and partners confirmed that, since 1948, Israel has always systematically suppressed opposition to its widespread violations, as means to maintain its apartheid regime.

Consequently, Al-Haq and partners urged the Council and Member States to call on the Israeli authorities to immediately bring their rules of engagement for the use of live fire in line with international law, and reminded third States of their responsibilities under international law and to refrain from rendering aid or assistance towards its maintenance, and to cooperate to bring the illegal situation to an end.

Read the full joint written submissions submitted jointly by Al-Haq and partners to the UN Human Rights Council at its 48th Regular Session here:

1. Written Submission on “Israel’s Systematic Crackdown on Palestinian Civil Society Organisations and Human Rights Defenders Intensifies” under item 2.
2. Written Submission on “Palestinian Dispossession and Displacement: The Pressing Cases of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan” under item 7.
3. Written Submission on “Alarming Numbers of Palestinian Prisoners Taking on Hunger Strike Against Israel’s Increase and Systematic Reliance on Administrative Detention” under item 7.
4. Written Submission on “The Price of Resisting Settlement Expansion: the Case of Jabal Sbeih” under item 7.

Additionally, Al-Haq joined written statements submitted by Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, titled “Israel’s Increase in Prohibited Restrictions following the 11-Day Military Assault on Gaza” in May 2021 that killed 261 Palestinians and destroyed around 720 housing units, and infrastructure. Those restrictions include the closure of land crossings, reducing fishing zone, restricting entry of construction material, thereby hampering the provision of medical care and risking the lives of patients – all amidst the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak without sufficient vaccines. The organizations urged the Council to call on Israel to open crossings and lift its illegal blockade on Gaza, hold Israel accountable to its latest full-scale military assault, and urge Israel to respect its international obligations concerning the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health of Palestinians, especially during the global pandemic.

Engagement During the HRC 48^th Session

During this session, Al-Haq delivered and joined 6 oral interventions, including under Item 3 on the promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, under item 4 on human rights situations that require the Council’s attention, under Item 7 on the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories, and under Item 9 on racism, racial discrimination, and related forms of intolerance.

Item 3: Arbitrary detention, freedom of peaceful assembly and expression

On 20 September 2021, Al-Haq, together with partners, delivered a statement during the interactive dialogue with working group on arbitrary detention under item 3. The statement addressed Israel’s use of arbitrary detention, ill-treatment practices and collective punishment as means to suppress Palestinians opposing its settler-colonialism and apartheid, including Palestinian civil society and human rights defenders, such 60-year-old Executive Director of the Health Work Committees Ms. Shatha Odeh, and Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including the 6 Palestinian prisoners who escaped Gilboa prison early September 2021. Following their escape, the statement highlights the collective punishment measures employed by Israel against over 4,700 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including forcible transfer, interrogation, presumably under torture, and denial of family and attorney visits.

On 22 September 2021, Al-Haq, together with Human Rights Watch, joined a statement delivered by Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) during the general debate under item 3. The statement shed light on the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) violent disperse of popular protests that erupted following the killing of Palestinian activist and PA critic Nizar Banat. Against these protests demanding justice for Banat’s death, the PA and its security forces rounded up scores of Palestinians protesters, holding them on political charges that effectively criminalize peaceful assembly and expression. The statement urged Member States to “ensure that their engagement with the PA, including the Palestinian security forces, be reevaluated in a manner that supports and feeds into the fulfilment of Palestinians’ fundamental rights,” while reminding the Council that the West Bank remains under Israel’s effective control, apartheid and occupation.

Item 4: The urgent situation in Beita village amidst Israeli violent suppression of peaceful protests

Under item 4, Al-Haq, together with partners, submitted a statement delivered by Mr. Said Hamayel, father of Mohammad Hamayel, 16, who was killed by the Israeli occupying forces on 11 June 2021 in the context of a peaceful protest against settlement expansion. Mr. Hamayel’s statement aimed to draw the Council’s attention to Israel’s ongoing human rights abuses and crimes since the day he was born, and to its illegal ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy, which took away his son’s life, who did not pose any imminent threat to the Israeli occupying forces. Mr. Hamayel urged the Council and the international community to provide real protection for the residents of Beita, who have been resisting the appropriation of their land by the establishment of an illegal colonial outpost on Jabal (Mountain) Sbeih, southeast of Nablus city.

Item 7: discriminatory water allocation, targeting of Palestinian civil society organisations and human rights defenders

On 1 October 2021, during the general debate under item 7 following the submission of the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the allocation of water resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem , Al-Haq, along with partners, delivered a statement, and similarly joined a statement delivered by Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, stressing the discriminatory nature of Israel’s water allocation policy, based on racial grounds, and the appropriation of Palestinian water resources, which serves to maintain Israel’s apartheid regime. The statement further urged the Council and Member States to acknowledge Israel’s discriminatory water allocation policy and settlement enterprise as part of its apartheid regime, and to call on Israel to cease such practices that impede Palestinians’ enjoyment of their rights to water and sanitation and self-determination, and to hold involved corporate actors criminally accountable for their actions, and provide effective remedy to the affected Palestinian population.

On the same day, Al-Haq, joined the statement delivered by CIHRS, which drew the Council’s attention to Israel’s systematic and ongoing targeting of Palestinian civil society organisations and human rights defenders, through interrogations, arrests and detention to maintain its apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole.

Item 9: Policies of discrimination - settler violence and Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise

On 4 October 2021, Al-Haq, along with partner organisations, delivered a statement on the increased settler violence against Palestinians induced by Israeli settlement enterprise and the coercive environment Israel has created to drive Palestinians out of their lands. Settler violence is carried out in the presence and protection of the Israeli authorities, who have systematically proven their failure to protect Palestinians. Such contrast in treatment is motivated by institutionalized racial discrimination and domination for the purpose of maintaining its apartheid. The statement urged the Council to “undertake necessary measures that guarantee Israel’s genuine law enforcement and investigation into settler violence.”

Side Event Parallel to HRC 48: ‘Palestine: Restricting Civic Space’

On 4 October 2021, together with CIHRS, Addameer, Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, Al Mezan and DCI-P, Al-Haq organized and participated in a side event parallel to general debate under item 7, titled “Palestine: restricting civic space.” The side event, which was held in the participation of UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, as well as speakers representing Addameer, Al-Haq, DCI-P and CIHRS, aimed to address Israel’s systematic targeting and escalation of attacks on Palestinian civil society organisations and human rights defenders. The side event called for urgent action to be taken to address Israel’s escalation of attacks, and stressed on the need to end Israel’s long-enjoyed cycle of impunity.