On 30 September 2022, as part of its engagement with the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, Al-Haq delivered a joint oral intervention under the general debate on the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.[1] The joint statement critically noted that the daily Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, including the forcible transfer of Palestinians, the expansion of colonial settlements, settler-violence, the closure and blockade of the Gaza Strip, Israel’s ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy and military incursions into Palestinian cities, the withholding of Palestinian bodies killed by Israel, and the targeting of Palestinian human rights defenders, “are not separated or stand-alone violations, but rather a parcel of Israel’s settler-colonialism and apartheid, designed to maintain systematic and institutionalised oppression and domination over the Palestinian people as a whole”. To this end, the joint statement urged the Council and UN Member States to recognise the root causes of the Palestinian struggle; to support the mandate of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the OPT, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, established in May 2021; and to reconstitute the UN Centre Against Apartheid and the UN Special Committee against Apartheid.

The full statement reads as follow:

Mr. President,

As we address this Council, over a thousand Palestinians, including over 560 children, are at imminent threat of being forcibly transferred in Masfer Yatta.

While Israel is attacking Palestinians at al-Aqsa Mosque and in the streets of Jerusalem, it is attacking the Palestinian identity and narrative by imposing its curricula in Jerusalem schools. 

State-sponsored colonial settlements are expanding; triggering daily settler attacks against Palestinians.

30 Palestinian detainees, unlawfully held under administrative detention without charge or trial indefinitely, are on their sixth day of collective hunger strike, in protest of this arbitrary policy.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continue to endure a 15-year-long comprehensive land, sea, and air closure, in what constitutes an unlawful form of collective punishment.

Palestinians continue to endure Israel’s widespread and systematic ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy, with an alarming increase in Israel’s military incursions and raids into Palestinians cities, namely Jenin and Nablus.

Over 100 Palestinian bodies are currently withheld by Israel to be used as bargaining chips, denying their bereaved families from bidding farewell or providing their loved ones with dignified burial.

Palestinian human rights defenders who challenge Israel’s unlawful policies and practices continue to be arbitrarily targeted and harassed.

Mr. President,

It is impossible to list the daily Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, but it is important to understand that these are not separated or stand-alone violations, but rather a parcel of Israel’s settler-colonialism and apartheid, designed to maintain systematic and institutionalised oppression and domination over the Palestinian people as a whole.

We call on this Council and UN Member States to recognise the root causes of the prolonged denial of Palestinian rights inherent in Israeli settler-colonialism, apartheid, and occupation; to support the mandate of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the OPT, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, established in May 2021; and to reconstitute the UN Centre Against Apartheid and the UN Special Committee against Apartheid.

Thank you.