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TWN Info
Service on UN Sustainable Development (Mar21/08) Geneva, 19 Mar (Kanaga Raja) – The expansion of Israeli settlements continued at a rapid pace in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem during the period from 1 November 2019 to 31 October 2020, according to a report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In a report presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council on 18 March, Ms Michelle Bachelet, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that policies and acts contributing to a coercive environment, including demolition of Palestinian property and resulting displacement, reached the highest levels since 2016 despite the COVID-19 pandemic. “High levels of settler violence persisted, as well as a significant lack of accountability for such acts,” said the report. The Human Rights Council is currently holding its 46th regular session, which concludes on 23 March. According to the report (A/HRC/46/65), the establishment and expansion of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to the transfer by Israel of its population into the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), which is prohibited under international humanitarian law. “The transfer of an occupying Power’s population to a territory it occupies amounts to a war crime that may engage the individual criminal responsibility of those involved,” it added. It noted that a number of international bodies have confirmed the illegality of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan, including the International Court of Justice, the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council. In presenting her report to the Council on 18 March, the High Commissioner said that during the reporting period – between 1 November 2019 and 31 October 2020 – plans for new housing units in Israeli settlements advanced at a rapid pace. The announcement of tenders accelerated, including in the strategic area of E-1, which is of particular concern as this would isolate East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and threaten to fragment the contiguity of the West Bank, said Ms Bachelet. “Policies and acts contributing to a coercive environment, including demolition of Palestinian property and the resulting displacement, reached the highest levels since 2016, despite the COVID-19 pandemic,” she added. According to the report by the High Commissioner, the expansion of Israeli settlement activities took place against a backdrop of intensified political rhetoric of annexation. The report noted that following the announcement of the United States of America Peace to Prosperity Vision in January 2020, the Prime Minister of Israel stated that “Israel will apply its laws to the Jordan Valley, to all the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and to other areas that the plan [of the Government of the United States] designates as part of Israel and which the United States has agreed to recognize as part of Israel.” On 20 April 2020, the new coalition Government of Israel agreed to put forward to the Knesset the proposal to annex parts of the occupied West Bank from 1 July 2020. On 22 April 2020, the President of the State of Palestine rejected any annexation and on 19 May 2020, he announced that the State of Palestine was no longer bound by its political agreements with Israel. On 13 August 2020, a joint announcement by Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United States stated that “Israel will suspend declaring sovereignty” over the West Bank, as part of the normalization deal with the United Arab Emirates. According to the report, if implemented, annexation of any part of the West Bank would constitute a most serious violation of international law, including the Charter of the United Nations. It would also severely impede the exercise by the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination. “Such a step, which has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law, would entrench the establishment of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” it said. SETTLEMENT ACTIVITIES According to the report, during the period under review, tenders for settlement construction accelerated, while the advancement of plans and construction starts for settlements slowed. There were 4 new outposts established during the period under review, down from 12 in the previous reporting period. “Policies and acts contributing to a coercive environment, such as demolitions and forced evictions, increased and acts of settler violence continued at a high rate,” said the High Commissioner. Plans for some 9,300 housing units were advanced or approved in West Bank settlements, including approximately 400 in East Jerusalem. The report said that during the previous reporting period, some 13,600 housing units in the West Bank, including, 2,000 in East Jerusalem, were advanced or approved by the Israeli authorities and 6,300 in the period before that. The Israeli authorities announced tenders for a total of 3,200 units, compared with 1,900 units during the previous reporting period, more than half of them in East Jerusalem. They include tenders related to two plans in the strategic area of E-1, which would significantly disrupt the contiguity of territory between East Jerusalem and the West Bank and disconnect Ramallah and the northern West Bank from Bethlehem and the southern West Bank. According to the report, the official data available for the period from 1 November 2019 to 31 September 2020 indicate a decrease in the commencement of new settlement construction in Area C (837 units compared with 1,504 during the previous reporting period). It said that with regard to land designations, for the first time in 35 years, the Israeli Civil Administration issued expropriation orders on 4 September 2020 for two archaeological sites in the West Bank, which are on privately owned Palestinian property in Deir Sam’an and Deir Kala’ adjacent to the Leshem and Peduel settlements. The report said under international humanitarian law, cultural property must be protected and its misappropriation is prohibited. Furthermore, private property must be respected and cannot be confiscated, unless the seizure is required by imperative military necessity. According to the latest data available from the Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel, there were 220,000 settlers in East Jerusalem as at 31 December 2018 and 441,600 settlers in the rest of the West Bank as at 31 December 2019. “For decades, Israel has granted benefits and incentives to settlers, which amounts to the transfer by Israel of its population into the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” said the High Commissioner. While the Government of Israel has implemented extensive infrastructure projects to facilitate the movement of settlers, the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank has been restricted in a manner that severely infringes upon their freedom of movement and access to services and livelihoods, said the report. The report noted that on 9 June 2020, the High Court of Justice of Israel struck down as unconstitutional the Judea and Samaria Settlement Regulation Law (the “Regularization Law”), which would have allowed legalization of outposts and settlements on private Palestinian land. The Court found that the law infringed on the right to property, equality and dignity of Palestinians. Despite this positive decision, serious concerns remain due to the existing alternative legal mechanisms available to legalize outposts and settlements, some of which the Attorney-General of Israel has promoted during and after the legal process, said the High Commissioner. In October 2020, as part of the 4,948 units advanced by the Higher Planning Council, 253 units in outposts became retroactively legal under Israeli law – 133 units in Tapuach West, south of Nablus, and 120 units in Pnei Kedem, north east of Hebron, by recognizing the outpost as a “neighbourhood” of the Asfar (Metzad) settlement, despite the two areas of construction being non-contiguous. This is an example of the alternative mechanisms used to retroactively legalize outposts, said the report. IMPACT OF ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS According to the report, incidents of settler violence continued at the high level of the previous reporting period. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there were 339 incidents of settler violence, compared with 325 incidents reported during the previous period and 254 during the period before that. A total of 142 Palestinians were injured during such incidents, including 25 children and 6 women. Moreover, a total of 8,700 trees and 477 vehicles were vandalized. The most affected areas were in and around Nablus, Hebron and Ramallah. Notably, the violence occurred while Israeli and Palestinian authorities had imposed significant restrictions on movement, including full lockdown measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, starting in March 2020. The report said during the reporting period, there were worrying incidents of settler violence targeting persons in vulnerable situations, including children, persons with disabilities and older persons, adding that numerous settler attacks against children monitored by Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) occurred in the presence of Israeli security forces. In the period under review, there were at least seven such attacks targeting children in the H2 area of Hebron. For example, on 23 November 2019, in Wadi al-Hussein, four adult settlers pepper sprayed, kicked and slapped a 9-year-old boy. The boy suffered bruises, burns and psychological distress. Israeli security forces stationed nearby did not take action to prevent the attack. As in previous years, settler violence increased during the olive harvest. In a large number of incidents, groves were damaged and crops stolen, said the High Commissioner. Severe restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities on access to land for Palestinians seeking to harvest remained in place, exacerbated by the halt in coordination between the Palestinian and Israeli authorities and the absence of international protection actors due to the restrictions on travel due to COVID-19. On 17 September 2020, just before the beginning of the olive harvest, 162 military orders were issued declaring 18,048 dunums of agricultural lands in the Governorates of Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, Qalqilya and Ramallah as closed military areas until the end of 2020. “Despite a few high-profile convictions and some steps taken towards accountability, violent settlers and those taking over private Palestinian land enjoyed a general climate of impunity,” said the report. In a report issued in August 2020, the Ministry of Justice of Israel listed 93 investigations into alleged crimes by settlers against Palestinians for the period between January 2019 and July 2020 (compared with 118 in the previous 18-month period). Two indictments were filed, including for cases opened in previous years, and five defendants were convicted, all for incidents that had taken place in 2014 and 2015. Between January 2019 and July 2020, OCHA recorded 341 incidents of settler attacks against Palestinians, including 2 killings and 113 injuries. The report said that in January 2020, the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din published a data sheet on law enforcement regarding ideologically motivated crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank based on data provided by Israeli authorities. Yesh Din’s monitoring of investigation files opened by the Judea and Samaria District Police (the Israel Police district for the West Bank) between 2005 and 2019 shows that 91 per cent had been closed without indictments and that the Israel Police had failed in the investigation of 82 per cent of the files opened. According to OCHA, during the period under review, 726 Palestinian-owned structures were demolished, including 131 donor-funded structures and 70 water and sanitation structures in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. These demolitions led to the displacement of 1,028 persons – 523 children, 255 women and 250 men – which is a significant increase from the 599 structures demolished and the displacement of 756 persons during the previous reporting period, said the High Commissioner. Approximately 75 per cent of the structures demolished were in Area C and 23 per cent in East Jerusalem. Demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures increased by 27 per cent during the reporting period, despite a state of emergency having been declared across the West Bank since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The demolition of residential homes, water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, as well as health facilities, during a public health crisis further exposed many Palestinians to risks associated with the pandemic, said the report. “Palestinian communities across Area C remain at risk of forcible transfer as a result of a coercive environment, as reflected in the publicly stated intention of the Government of Israel to relocate thousands of Palestinians residing in Area C.” At particular risk are Bedouin and herder communities, including 18 communities in and around East Jerusalem, communities in the Jordan Valley and those located in lands designated by Israel as closed military zones. “International humanitarian law prohibits the occupying Power from deporting or transferring parts of its own population into the territory it occupies,” said the report. The settlements and related Israeli policies have had a serious negative impact on the human rights of Palestinians, including their personal security, freedom of movement, access to livelihood, education, health and justice, as well as their right to family life. These conditions have created an environment for many Palestinians that coerces them to leave their homes, it added. During the reporting period, Israeli authorities undertook or ordered 165 demolitions in East Jerusalem, resulting in the displacement of 415 Palestinians, including 214 children, 94 women and 96 men, compared with the 230 structures demolished during the previous reporting period that resulted in 323 Palestinians being displaced. Notably, while the overall number of demolitions decreased, the number of inhabited structures demolished increased. The number of self-demolitions almost doubled to 46 per cent from 26 per cent during the previous reporting period. Palestinians in East Jerusalem are forced to carry out self-demolitions, as it is almost impossible for them to obtain building permits due to the discriminatory Israeli zoning and planning regime and the imposition of large fines and charges should the municipality carry out the demolition instead, said the report. Demolitions of private property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including those conducted in the context of an ultra vires and discriminatory planning system, are unlawful and amount to forced evictions, said the report. “They may also result in violations of the rights to an adequate standard of living and to adequate housing and have a negative impact on the enjoyment of the right to education,” it added. In her report, the High Commissioner recommended that the Israeli authorities: (a) Halt immediately and reverse all settlement development and related activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions, including Security Council resolutions 497 (1981) and 2334 (2016); (b) Rescind all policies and practices contributing to the creation of a coercive environment and/or increasing the risk of forcible transfer; (c) Review planning laws and policies to ensure that they are compliant with the obligations of Israel under international human rights law and international humanitarian law; (d) Refrain from implementing evictions and demolition orders on the basis of discriminatory and unlawful planning policies and practices that may lead to forcible transfer, including of Bedouin and herder communities; (e) Take all steps necessary to protect the Palestinian population, including to prevent attacks by settlers, and ensure accountability in cases of settler violence against Palestinians and their property; and (f) End policies and practices within the occupied Syrian Golan that may lead to discrimination against protected persons.
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