Israeli persecution of human rights defenders


December 18, 2016
Sarah Benton

The Ma’an news report is followed by the statements from the UN Human Rights Office and Amnesty International

issa_amro
Issa Amro, co-ordinator of Youth Against Settlements and general activist for Palestinian rights. Arrested for taking part in a march commemorating those killed in Baruch Goldstein’s massacre at the Cave of the Patriarchs. The American zealot killed 29 Palestinians and wounded 125 more.

UN warns of increase in ‘arbitrary’ detention of Palestinian activists by Israel

By Ma’an news
December 17/18, 2016

BETHLEHEM — The United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner released a statement on Friday condemning the “daily violations” of human rights and international law faced by human rights defenders in the occupied Palestinian territory.

A “worrying number of complaints” have been filed by human rights activists to the UN in recent months, which have highlighted in particular the Israeli government practice of arbitrarily detaining Palestinian activists “as a direct result of their important work in their communities.”

The statement, which drew from the investigations of two UN “independent experts,” highlighted the cases of Issa Amro, founder of the Hebron-based group Youth Against Settlements, and Hebron-area lawyer Farid al-Atrash, who were both arrested for participating in a peaceful protest in February.

The march commemorated the 22 years since extremist American-born Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Muslim Palestinian worshipers killing 29 and injuring more than 120 in Hebron’s Ibrahimi mosque in 1994.

The demonstration also called for the re-opening of al-Shuhada street, which was shut down soon after the massacre, and called for the removal of discriminatory restrictions on movement placed on Palestinians in the city.

During the protest, Israeli forces threw sound bombs and fired tear gas at the protesters.

Israeli officials later presented al-Atrash to the Ofer military court with charges amounting to “participating in an illegal demonstration” and “attacking soldiers,” according to Amnesty International.

Al-Atrash vehemently denied the charges, with video footage of the arrest corroborating his account, showing that he was standing and holding a poster peacefully in front of Israeli soldiers when he was pushed, dragged, and then violently arrested by a number of soldiers.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities handed Amro 18 charges ranging from “insulting a soldier” to “assault,” and “participation in a rally without a permit,” with some of the charges dating back to 2010.

Throughout tens of years of his activism, Amro has been highly regarded by Palestinian and international activists for his unrelenting commitment to nonviolent peaceful protest.

“This relatively unusual practice of bringing up stale charges, which were not pursued many years ago, strongly suggests that Mr. Amro is being unfairly targeted due to his legitimate and peaceful human rights work,” the UN experts noted in Saturday’s statement.

The UN experts said Amro’s current trial was part of a “concerted pattern of harassment and intimidation by the Israeli authorities aimed at inhibiting his work as a human rights defender.”

“Charges of participation in a rally without a permit are nearly impossible to avoid for Palestinians in the West Bank who peacefully protest and oppose the almost 50 year-old occupation,” the statement said.

The statement went on to mention the cases of Hasan Safadi, media coordinator for prisoners rights group Addameer, whose three-month administrative detention order — Israel’s policy of internment without charge or trial — was renewed for an additional six months in December, as well as Salah Khawaja, a member of the Stop the Wall Campaign, who was arrested in October and remains in detention without charges.

“We call on the Israeli authorities to ensure fair trial guarantees for human rights defenders and respect their unfettered exercise of fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association,” the UN experts said.

“The right of all those who are seeking hope and participation in concrete, nonviolent action must be protected, particularly as we are seeing the deepening entrenchment of the Israeli occupation and the accompanying human rights violations.”


Human rights defenders under growing legal pressure in the OPT – UN rights experts

Statement from UN Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner
December 16, 2016

GENEVA – Human rights activists working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory face daily violations of some of the most fundamental protections afforded by international human rights and humanitarian laws, two United Nations independent experts said today.

“We have received a worrying number of complaints in recent months regarding human rights defenders who are arrested and, in many cases, arbitrarily detained, often apparently as a direct result of their important work in their communities,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on the OPT, Michael Lynk, and the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Michel Forst.

“Human rights work is critical to creating a just society and maintaining peace and security. These are the goals all parties ultimately share,” the experts stressed. “However, it appears that rights defenders are facing ever greater challenges in the OPT.”

The Special Rapporteurs drew special attention to the cases against Issa Amro, founder of the Hebron-based group Youth Against Settlements, and Farid al-Atrash, a lawyer from Hebron, who were arrested due to their participation in a peaceful protest in February of this year. Mr. Amro is currently facing trial in an Israeli military court on 18 charges dating back to 2010, including participation in a rally without a permit.

“This relatively unusual practice of bringing up stale charges, which were not pursued many years ago, strongly suggests that Mr. Amro is being unfairly targeted due to his legitimate and peaceful human rights work,” the experts noted.

“Mr. Amro has been subject to a concerted pattern of harassment and intimidation by the Israeli authorities aimed at inhibiting his work as a human rights defender,” they said recalling previous warnings from UN human rights experts. “This trial appears to form part of this same pattern.”

The two Special Rapporteurs emphasized that charges of participation in a rally without a permit are nearly impossible to avoid for Palestinians in the West Bank who peacefully protest and oppose the almost 50 year-old occupation.

They noted that Israeli Military Order 101 (issued in 1967) effectively prohibits free association and assembly, in clear violation of the basic tenets of international human rights law.

“The right of all those who are seeking hope and participation in concrete, nonviolent action must be protected, particularly as we are seeing the deepening entrenchment of the Israeli occupation and the accompanying human rights violations,” they stressed.

Other cases

The Special Rapporteurs also recalled the case of Hasan Safadi, media coordinator for Addameer human rights organization, whose three-month administrative detention order was renewed for an additional six months on 8 December. And the case of Salah Khawaja, a member of the Stop the Wall Campaign, who was arrested on 26 October and remains in detention without charges.

“We are also troubled by reports of harassment and threats made against groups seeking to promote accountability and engage with the International Criminal Court,” the UN experts said.

“We call on the Israeli authorities to ensure fair trial guarantees for human rights defenders and respect their unfettered exercise of fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association,” they said.

The Special Rapporteurs will continue to follow these cases closely and recalled their outstanding requests to visit the Occupied Palestinian Territory at the earliest opportunity.

This statement has also been endorsed by Mr. Roland Adjovi, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Mr. David Kaye, Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, and Mr. Maina Kiai, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.

In 2016, the UN Human Rights Council designated Mr. Michael Lynk (Canada) as the seventh Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. The mandate was originally established in 1993 by the then UN Commission on Human Rights. Learn more, log on to: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/CountriesMandates/PS/Pages/SRPalestine.aspx

Mr. Michel Forst (France) was appointed by the Human Rights Council as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in 2014. Michel Forst has extensive experience on human rights issues and particularly on the situation of human rights defenders. In particular, he was the Director General of Amnesty International (France) and Secretary General of the first World Summit on Human Rights Defenders in 1998. For more information, log on to: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/SRHRDefendersIndex.aspx

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

For more information and media requests, please contact Katharine Marshall (+41 (0) 22- 917-9695 / kmarshall@ohchr.org) or Kiyohiko Hasegawa (+41 (0) 22-928-9211 / khasegawa@ohchr.org)

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts:
Xabier Celaya, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+41 22 917 9383 / xcelaya@ohchr.org)


Israel/OPT: Drop baseless charges against Palestinian human rights defender

Statement from Amnesty International
November 22, 2016

Israeli authorities must drop all charges against Palestinian human rights defender Issa Amro, who is facing prison time for his internationally recognized peaceful activism against Israel’s illegal settlements in the city of Hebron, Amnesty International said today.

The deluge of charges against Issa Amro does not stand up to any scrutiny
Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

Issa Amro’s trial is due to begin on 23 November at Ofer Military Court in the occupied West Bank.

“The deluge of charges against Issa Amro does not stand up to any scrutiny. In their determination to silence him and stifle his human rights work, the Israeli authorities have apparently even reopened a closed case file. If he is convicted we will consider Issa Amro a prisoner of conscience,” said Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

“As well as dropping the baseless and politically motivated charges against Issa Amro, the Israeli authorities should investigate his allegations of beatings in custody, and the physical and verbal abuse hurled at him by settlers, the army and the police. People who speak out about human rights abuses should be protected, not assaulted and harassed.”

Issa Amro is a Palestinian human rights defender who runs the Youth Against Settlements group in Hebron. He and his group are committed to non-violent activism against the illegal settlements in Hebron and the discriminatory restrictions placed on Palestinians by the Israeli authorities in the city.

Issa Amro documents human rights violations in the city, organizes peaceful protests and distributes information about the settlements and the Israeli military occupation to visitors, journalists and diplomats.

On 7 June 2016, 18 charges were levelled against Issa Amro at Ofer Military Court, some going back as far as 2010. They range from “insulting a soldier” to “assault”.

Some of the charges, such as “participating in a march without a permit”, are not internationally recognizable criminal offences.

One of the charges of assault refers to an incident in a protest on 20 March 2013 that took place after Issa Amro had already been arrested and was therefore not present. A video from the scene clearly shows another man was responsible for the incident, in which a settler’s camera was broken.

The protest was a peaceful one that coincided with US President Barack Obama’s visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Protesters wore masks of Obama’s face, wore T-shirts with “I have a dream” written on them, and waved the Palestinian flag – actions that the authorities considered political, and therefore criminal.

Issa Amro told Amnesty International that he immediately realized that the charges were solely motivated by his activism, especially as many were from so long ago, and one case had previously been closed. His lawyer, Gaby Lasky, said that it was extremely unusual for cases to be re-opened in this way, and that the proper procedures to do so had not been followed by the police.

A charge from 8 July 2013 relates to a conversation with a border policeman in which Issa Amro asked to be given back his ID after the border policeman took it for an ID check and kept Issa Amro waiting for half an hour. He said he told the policeman:

“I want my ID back, I am not wanted, and if you had called to check you would know this. But you have not called, I know, I am not stupid.”

Issa Amro has faced a sustained campaign of harassment and assault at the hands of the Israeli military and settlers because of his activism
Magdalena Mughrabi

According to Issa Amro the policeman appeared to mishear this as “you are stupid”, resulting in a further charge of “insulting a soldier”. Issa Amro said that he was then taken to the police station and hit so hard in the back by a police officer that he still has to take medication.

He said the officers would not let him go to hospital for three hours, and that they ensured he went to a Palestinian facility so that news of his beating would not be reported in Israel.

“Issa Amro has faced a sustained campaign of harassment and assault at the hands of the Israeli military and settlers because of his activism. His case is emblematic of the climate of increasing hostility towards activists who protest the settlements, which are illegal under international law,” said Magdalena Mughrabi.

“We believe that he is facing trial solely for the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression and assembly. Imprisoning Issa Amro would be a travesty of justice and would silence yet another important critical voice in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Background

Amnesty International has documented a pattern of attacks on Palestinian human rights defenders, including Issa Amro, in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). An escalation of acts of intimidation by the government and attacks and threats by settlers and other non-state actors have created an increasingly dangerous environment for activists in Israel and in the OPT.

Hebron is one of two Palestinian cities in the OPT that have illegal Israeli settlements inside them. The Israeli authorities have long imposed a set of severe and deeply discriminatory restrictions on movement on Palestinian residents of Hebron that have amounted to collective punishment. Israeli forces in Hebron frequently fail to prevent attacks on Palestinians by settlers, and almost never hold those responsible to account.

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