Adalah's Response to the Israeli Government's new Collective Punishment Plan
Today, 26 November 2014, the Chairman of the Knesset, MK Yariv Levin (Likud) announced a government proposal of severe “temporary measures” aimed at "ending terror attacks" and suppressing Palestinian protest. The principles set forth by MK Levin defy basic norms of criminal law and contradict fundamental human rights values. The law comes at a time where dangerous and discriminatory state practices are increasing in Jerusalem, including home demolitions, arbitrary arrests, and restricting access to Palestinian neighborhoods. The proposed new legislation aims to legitimize these illegal tactics of collective punishment against Palestinians.
Included in Levin’s plan are a series of sanctions against family members of individuals who are accused of committing various attacks, such as demolishing the family’s home within 24 hours, without time or right to appeal. The proposed law undermines citizenship and residency rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel and residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territory by granting authority to the state to revoke citizenship or residency if the individual commits certain acts. Individuals convicted of terrorism, for such crimes as “inciting” or stone throwing, will lose their national insurance benefits as well as their drivers licenses for 10 years. MK Levin’s plan also addresses a case where the accused individual is killed by security forces, and proposes that proper funerals and burials be denied.
The proposed law is especially repressive with regard to freedom of expression and mandates the closure of any printing presses that publish materials that "support terror or terrorists". For an individual who raises the Palestinian flag at a protest, the law permits extended pre-trial detention without the possibility of bail.
Adalah believes that “such legislation proposing the suspension of constitutional protections for Palestinians and undermining the rule of law clearly reflects the very serious deterioration of human rights in Israel and should invite scrutiny and condemnation not only of the law itself, but of the discriminatory system, structures and practices from which the law emerges.”
For more information, see:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4596305,00.html
