Physicians for Human Rights-Israel is a non-party affiliated, non-profit organization, whose goal is the advancement and defense of health-related human rights for all the residents of Israel and the Occupied Territories. This includes residents who lack documents or who are not recognized by the state.
We are honored to present you with PHR-Israel’s 2008 Annual Report.
This year, we received 2,935 new appeals, and treated 13,505 patients at our clinics. PHR-Israel’s volunteer medical staff dedicated 7,480 work hours, providing medical assistance, diagnosis and consultation on individual cases and principle issues. PHR Israel’s administrative volunteers dedicated 527.5 work hours to assisting staff in their ongoing work. This year, 156 new volunteers joined PHR-Israel, 82 of them medical personnel and 61 as members. We would like to thank the following for their support over the years: medical teams, translators, administrative volunteers, photographers and artists – your unique contributions make our work possible, a piece of which we present to you today.
We would like to especially thank all the foundations and donors for their generous support which makes our work possible.
UN Committee Against Torture Found ´Numerous, Ongoing and Consistent Allegations´ of Torture and Ill-treatment by Israeli Interrogators, in particular, against Palestinians and Calls for Independent Investigation 21 May 2009
On 5 and 6 May 2009, the UN Committee Against Torture (the Committee) held hearings in Geneva to review Israel's compliance with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), which it ratified in 1991. During the dialogue with Israel's state representatives, members of the Committee stressed that “there is no balancing act when it comes to torture.” Committee members further asserted that “one’s security should not be built on the insecurity of others.”
On 14 May 2009, the Committee issued its Concluding Observations, which raised many of the issues contained in the oral and written interventions submitted by Adalah, Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, Defence for Children International – Palestine Section, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) on behalf of the United Against Torture Coalition (UAT Coalition) and by PCATI together with the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT). UAT Coalition member Al-Mezan was unable to send representatives to hearings in Geneva due to Israel's total closure of Gaza. In the Concluding Observations, the Committee raised serious questions involving what it categorised as “numerous, ongoing and consistent allegations” of torture and ill-treatment by Israeli interrogators, in particular, against Palestinians.
Among the Committee’s conclusions and recommendations were the following:
Applicability of CAT to the OPT “[…] the obligation to prevent acts of torture or ill-treatment in any territory under its jurisdiction must be interpreted and applied to protect any person, citizen or non-citizen, without discrimination subject to the de jure or de facto control of a State party. […] the Committee further notes (i) that the State party and its personnel have repeatedly entered and established control over the West Bank and Gaza.”
Lack of Accountability “[…] the Committee is concerned that ISA interrogators who use physical pressure in “ticking bomb” cases may not be criminally responsible if they resort to the necessity defense argument.” “[…] the Committee is concerned that none of the over 600 complaints of ill-treatment by ISA interrogators received by the Inspector of Complaints between 2001 and 2008 has resulted in a criminal investigation.” “The State party should also ensure that allegations of torture and ill-treatment are promptly and effectively investigated and perpetrators prosecuted […]”
Safeguards against torture and ill-treatment “The Committee calls upon Israel to examine its legislation and policies in order to ensure that all detainees, without exception, are promptly brought before a judge and have prompt access to a lawyer.” “The Committee recommends that, as a matter of priority, the State party extend the legal requirement of video recording of interviews of detainees accused of security offences as a further means to prevent torture and ill-treatment.” “The State party should prohibit by law that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture cannot be invoked as evidence […]”
Administrative detention and solitary confinement “While the State party explains that this practice [of administrative detention] is used only exceptionally […] the Committee regrets that the number of persons held in administrative detention has risen significantly since its last periodic report.” “The State party should amend current legislation in order to ensure that solitary confinement remains an exceptional measure of limited duration.”
Israel’s secret detention ‘facility 1391’ “The State party should ensure that no one is detained in any secret detention facility under its control in the future, as a secret detention center is per se a breach of the Convention.”
Juvenile Detainees “[Israeli] Military Order 132 [applicable to West Bank child detainees] should be amended to ensure that the definition of minor is set at the age of 18, in line with international standards.” “[The Committee] expresses deep concern at reports […] that Palestinian minors are detained and interrogated in the absence of a lawyer or family member and allegedly subjected to acts in breach of the convention in order to obtain confessions.” “The State party should ensure that juvenile detainees are afforded basic safeguards […] from the outset of their detention.”
Israeli Military Operation “Cast Lead” in the Gaza Strip “The State party should conduct an independent inquiry to ensure a prompt, independent and full investigation into the responsibility of state and non-state authorities for the harmful impact on civilians, and make the results public.”
The Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations strongly regret that certain issues raised by the Committee in the dialogue with representative of the State of Israel were not treated in the Concluding Observations. The following issues, in particular, were not included:
impunity for police officers responsible for the October 2000 killing of 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel; the limitations in Israeli law on compensation for acts amounting to torture or ill-treatment for certain categories of persons; the coercion and extortion of Gaza medical patients at the Erez crossing;
Further, the human rights organisations regret that with regard to some issues the Committee’s recommendations are unduly weak. For instance, it only called upon Israel to permit humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip and thus failed to declare that a blockade imposed on the entire population of the Gaza Strip might constitute a violation of the Convention.
All NGO, State party and Committee documents including the submissions by the UAT Coalition and PCATI/OMCT and the Concluding Observations related to the review of Israel are available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/cats42.htm .
Government's Legislation Committee okays motion by Yisrael Beiteinu's Alex Miller to have marking of 'catastrophe of Israel's formation' banned by law, punishable by up to three years in jail. Arab MKs infuriated; call move 'insane'
The Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs on Sunday approved a motion barring the marking of Nakba Day.
"Nakba", or "catastrophe", is the term used to refer to the refugee flight of Palestinian Arabs that followed Israel's inception in 1948.
According to the motion, brought before the committee by Knesset Member Alex Miller (Yisrael Beiteinu), all public events which refer to the establishment of the State of Israel as a calamity will be prohibited by law.
Any infringement on the law would be punishable by up to three years in jail.
Miller's motion followed the violent events which took place during Nakba Day in 2008. It was initially brought before the committee during the last Knesset, but was put aside when the Knesset dispersed and new general elections were called.
"This is the first step in stopping the organized incitement by the Islamist Movement. Every democratic county has the right to defend itself and this is exactly what the State of Israel has chosen to do," Miller said.
Minister Michael Eitan (Likud), who voted against the motion, said that the motion "plays into the hands of our enemies… it will not be able to bar anything. The State of Israel has to be certain of its ability to fight against those who wish to ruin it, not by means of reducing freedom of speech, but by holding on to our beliefs. One has to remembers that the law already makes provision against incitement."
Balad Chairman Jamal Zahalka called the motion "crazy": "This is a crazy law by a crazy government. Passing a law that bans grief and mourning is an international precedent and an Israeli invention which indicates (moral) bankruptcy. We will find way to mark Nakba Day in spite of Netanyahu and Lieberman's insane government."
MK Afu Aghbaria (Hadash) slammed the motion as well: This suggesting is reminiscent of a Third Reich law. The Israeli government has declared a jihad on the Arab community and is slowly turning Israel to an apartheid state. I will not be surprised if the Netanyahu-Lieberman government will impose other restrictions on its Arab citizens, like barring the use of the Arabic language."
The motion will be put before the Knesset for a first reading next week. Should the Knesset decide to mature it into a bill, it would be referred back to the legislation committee for further drafting.
It's said that while the Oslo Accords were being negotiated, the two sides devoted more time to whether the Palestinian Authority would be allowed to issue its own stamps than to questions of human rights. Herein lies the failure of the agreements and the process itself - a failure that occurred even though the promise of a different future had won broad public support on both sides. But Israeli and Palestinian leaders were motivated by layers of goals other than that of improving the lives of their people. Israel was almost single-minded about getting out of the West Bank's major cities - focusing entirely on the creation of Areas A, B and C, which still exist today. And Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had his own standing in Palestinian politics to worry about.
Perhaps these concerns were valid, even urgent, but without making human rights a top priority and taking immediate steps in the process to improve people's lives by safeguarding rights, a peace plan will fall apart as soon as it begins. In the end, people and their leaders determine whether peace is sustainable. If people on either side don't see a tangible improvement in their lives, something that can only happen by addressing human rights, they have the power to unravel even the best diplomatic foray.
For a moment, in the 1990s, both Israelis and Palestinians believed in the possibility of a different future. Oslo's failure should reverberate in the minds of both U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they prepare to meet next week, so they remember that any solution must clearly change people's everyday lives -- among both Palestinians and Israelis. The only way to accomplish this is by reserving a place for human rights at the negotiating table from the start of the process. The sides must be ready to address the always-changing situation on the ground as they tackle the details of a better future. It is incumbent on them to deal with the worst violations first, not last.
Human rights aren't merely a sideshow or afterthought -- the principles and practices of respecting human rights on both sides are prerequisites to a just and secure peace agreement. People see the conflict as a defining reality in their lives. In the same way, they must experience the solution in the most tangible ways. Imagine how that would look: Palestinians would get proper treatment at medical facilities without being humiliated and extorted at checkpoints, farmers would have access to their land, students would get to their studies, and the Palestinian economy would not face unemployment of around 60 percent.
Most important, Palestinians would be able to define their own future. Israelis would finally live without an existential crisis informing their every deed. We would have the right to freedom of thought, to imagine an alternative to "the situation," something other than an existence controlled by fears and threats. And of course, we would be more secure physically. This image of lasting peace is at least as important as a framed photo of our leaders shaking hands.
Perhaps it is the comfortably sterile separation between human rights and diplomacy that allows for the construction of Israeli settlements and other irreversible and counterproductive projects. This divide places all the emphasis on what is said - in Washington, Jerusalem and Ramallah. But when we dream about peace, aren't we dreaming about something concrete - about actions, not just words? These actions - which one by one can improve the lives of Palestinians and Israelis - must begin with the signing of the first documents.
If we Israelis seek a chance for peace with our Palestinian neighbors, we must acknowledge the central role of human rights in such an agreement. When the U.S. president asks Netanyahu whether he favors two states for two peoples, he should also ask what he considers the first steps in reaching that dream. No less important, he should ask whether people's lives will improve, whether human rights will be upheld more consistently, and if so, when and how. We all know that peace will not be reached by waving a magic wand or signing a magic document. It will be reached when all our shared interests - livelihoods, equality and mutual respect - are there in front of us and not a forgotten hope lost beyond another horizon.
Hadas Ziv is the director of Physicians for Human Rights - Israel.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai has begun the process of revoking the citizenship of four Israeli Arabs who left Israel to live in states defined by Israel as "enemies" in the 1970s, his ministry announced Tuesday.
An Interior Ministry statement said the head of the Population Directorate, Yaakov Ganot, had requested that Yishai consider taking the rare step against the four, who were involved in activities that endangered Israel's security.
Ganot told Lieberman that while the four were abroad they were involved, directly and indirectly, in a large number of activities hostile to the State of Israel। After decades of residing outside of the country, they have recently requested to return to Israel. Yishai said he intends to study the documents presented to him and start the process of revoking the Israeli Arabs' citizenship.
The minister also announced that he will order their immediate arrest should they come to Israel.
MK Tibi: Why not revoke Yigal Amir's citizenship? MK Ahmed Tibi on Tuesday issued a harsh criticism of Yishai's ruling, and questioned why Israel hadn't taken steps to revoke the citizenship of Yigal Amir ? the assassin of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
The Israeli-Arab MK and deputy speaker of the Knesset said that the incident shows Israel has "an itchy trigger finger when it comes to revoking Israeli Arabs' citizenship", adding that when Arabs break the law "they are punished twice."
Legal Counsel for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel Dan Yakir called the revocation of citizenship "extreme and inappropriate", even when the person in question has been convicted of a serious crime. Yakir added that it is a measure not undertaken by democratic countries.
The police have been hassling the residents of Amra Tarabin village for the last week and a half, in order to “convince” them to leave their village to a new location. the measures they have been using are astounding.
Pini Badash, the head of the municipal council of the affluent Jewish town of Omer, a suburb of Beer Sheva, wants to enlarge the town, and build a new neighborhood. The government approved the new municipal boundaries, the plans are completed, there is only one problem: there is a Bedouin village in that spot, the unrecognized village of Amra Tarabin, one of the 45 unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Israeli Negev.
So far Badash has succeeded in convincing 60% of the village residents to relocate. The methods he used are sufficiently questionable, that the process is being deliberated in the Israeli courts. But Badash is not waiting for the court verdicts, he is using all means of “legal” measures to convince the remaining residents to leave. Such as using the police for the last couple of weeks.
Following are some of the persuasion tactics. In order to understand the atrociousness of these tactics, imagine the village: 60 families, each with many young children, a very traditional society, in which the tradition demands that the women stay protected. The village space is their space, and most if not all, do not even speak Hebrew. The village is unrecognized, meaning there is no infrastructure, no roads.Entering the village is like entering someone’s home. And yet:
·Every day during the last week and a half, the policemen enter the village for the duration of hours. They stop people in the village, photograph them, record their dress, even the color of their shoes. They demand the names and other identifying information. When the police are in the village, the women hide in their homes. All this for no given reason.
·The police managed to secure search warrants to two homes. They turned the house upside down. The police explained: we have complaints about someone phoning and harassing people. We are searching for the phones. And indeed, during the search the police took the (broken) phone of a 3-year-old boy as evidence. The man of the house was in the hospital at the time, as his brother was undergoing an operation. So after the police finished “searching” his home, scaring the wife and children, he was requested to come to the police station for investigation. At the station the police showed him a list of phone numbers and asked, “Do you recognized these phone numbers?” Shocked he answered “No”, so they fingerprinted him, photographed him (again…), and sent him home.
·One evening the police entered a home and arrested an eight-year-old. They said he is suspected of stealing. They took him to the police station for investigation, not allowing his parents or anyone else to be there with him. Two hours later he was released to the anxiously waiting parents.
·Late one night, when everyone was asleep, a police car drove around the village, with the sirens blaring. It was a desperate attempt to provoke the residents.
·On Saturday a slightly retarded 16-year-old village boy walked around, and the police came to catch him. Scared he started running and the police chased him with their car, almost running him over. He was taken to the police station and left overnight in custody. The next day the judge released him to house arrest. The allegation: he was walking towards the tractors (that are there to build the infrastructure of the new neighborhood of Omer, and are protected around the clock by police.)
·His father was at the trial. At the completion of the trial the police asked the father to come to the station. There for two hours they tried to convince him that it would be good for him if he left the village…
·Najib Tarabin is a paramedic that works in the city of Rahat. On his way home the police stopped him and searched his car, as part of the harassment treatment. They found medicines in his car. “Aha!” they thought, this must be illegal, good! However, after 30 minutes of inquiry, it turns out everything was legal, these were emergency supplies intended for the people of Trabin. So the police then asked Najib “Why don’t you leave the village?” …
·The police placed a checkpoint at the entrance to the village. Any vehicle entering or exiting the village must go through a thorough check of the car and all its paperwork, a check that takes up to 20 minutes. There are about 20 vehicles in the village. Each one has gone through this check at least 10 times in the past 10 days…
·But not everyone needs to go through these checks – only Arabs. I came to visit Monday morning. I passed the police-border patrol car, and stopped just passed it to look at the barbed wire surrounding the Omer construction in the village of Tarabin. Then I continued to visit Anwar Tarabin in the village. the village people were surprised that I had not been stopped. So we experimented, and I sent an Arab in my car. Not surprisingly, this time my car was stopped… as was every other car entering or exiting the village with an Arab driver. Even member of Knesset Taleb a-Sana was stopped… he is Arab too!
·When the police finish checking the car, they ask the driver: “Why don’t you leave the village?” …
·The last few days the surveyors measured the village (or rather the location of the infrastructure for the planned Omer neighborhood.) When asked “What are you doing?” Their answer was “We are only measuring.” Do they not understand that “only measuring” while there are still people around indicates these people are insignificant?
There are many more anecdotes from the past 10 days. It is unbelievable.
The ability of Pini Badash to bring the police in order to harass the villagers and make their lives unbearable so that they will leave and allow Badash to build his new neighborhood, while the villagers are powerless, is very annoying. How far has this country degenerated?
Please do all you can to stop this abuse. Please find your friends that have as much power and Badash and ask them for their help. If you are in the vicinity, come and sit by the police in the entrance to the village, take pictures, ask questions. Maybe your presence will force the commanding officers to come. Maybe enough harassment of the officers will bring about a lessening of the harassment of the people of Tarabin.
For more information: Dr. Yeela Raanan, RCUV. +972 45 7487005. yallylivnat@gmail.com
There is a lot to do in this world and in each specific society, time is running out to bring clear change, which is so desperately needed. This blog focuses on a very small, but very troubled region. Even if its seems to be without hope, never give up, we do not have another planet. Each of us can make a difference.
