Adalah's Statement to UN Human Rights
Commission
February 14,
2001
Statement of Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab
Minority Rights in Israel
To the UN Human Rights
Commission
14
February 2001
Professor John Dugard
Professor Richard Falk
Dr. Kamal Hossein
UN Human Rights Inquiry
Commission
Dear
Members of the Commission:
We
would like to thank the UN Human Rights Inquiry Commission (“the UN Commission”)
for meeting today with NGOs in Israel. We understand that you are visiting
Israel and the Occupied Territories pursuant to the 19 October 2000 resolution
of the UN Commission on Human Rights establishing an inquiry commission to
investigate the abuses by the Israeli security forces against Palestinians in
the Occupied Territories from 28 September. While we welcome you in this
capacity, we deeply regret the fact that the mandate of the UN Commission
excludes an investigation of human rights abuses against the Palestinian
minority within Israel.
There
are a number of issues we would like to bring before you today which we have
outlined below.
Unlawful killing and
injury of Palestinian citizens
During
street demonstrations in early October, Israeli police shot 13 Palestinian
citizens of Israel to death and injured hundreds more using live ammunition,
rubber-coated steel bullets (‘rubber bullets’), and tear gas. Adalah
presented a well-documented report of our findings of human rights abuses to the
UN Commission on Human Rights Emergency Session on Israel/Palestine on 17-18
October 2000. Adalah’s further investigation indicates that there was a
predetermined plan to respond violently toward any expression of solidarity by
Palestinian citizens with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories (see “Police
had trained for riots in Galilee,” Ze’ev Schiff, Ha’aretz, 6 October 2000), and
that this plan was consistent with Prime Minister Barak’s declaration that
security forces had a green light to do whatever was necessary to break up the
demonstrations. Related situations such as those in Nazareth, in which
police looked on while hundreds of Jewish citizens chanted “Death to Arabs” and
tens attacked Palestinian citizens, make it clear that this was a policy based
not on fear, but on racial discrimination.
Based
on the eyewitness testimonies, photos, maps and other information Adalah has
collected, it is clear that the police faced no threat to life which would
require opening fire with live ammunition. It appears that the shooting
was to inflict serious injury, as most of the Palestinian citizens killed or
injured were hit in the upper parts of the body – in the head or the
chest. In some instances, the security forces went so far as to prevent
ambulances from providing aid to the injured and attacking emergency medical
personnel. There were also reports on police snipers opening fire with
live ammunition against Palestinian citizens. One of the gravest concerns
is that Mahash (the Ministry of Justice Police Investigation Unit) never opened
investigations into the circumstances of the killings, and in some instances,
the police deliberately prevented autopsies from being performed.
Detention of
Palestinian citizens
In
October and November, as a result of the clashes, police arrested more than a
thousand citizens, the vast majority of whom were Palestinian. Statistics
obtained by Adalah from the Israeli Ministry of Justice indicate that between 28
September and 30 October, Israeli police arrested about 660 Palestinian citizens
of Israel, both demonstrators and passersby. During that same period, 248
Palestinian citizens of Israel – adults and minors – were indicted, and the
courts, accepting the prosecutors’ recommendations, ordered 126 of these
individuals detained without bond until the end of trial. No distinction
was made between the adult detainees and the minors. Several Palestinian
citizens detained were also prohibited access to counsel. By contrast, of
340 Jewish citizens arrested during this timeframe, only 66 were indicted and 29
detained without bond until the end of trial. Palestinian citizens were
arrested, mostly for stone-throwing, during nighttime raids and at internal
checkpoints set up at village entrances. While in detention, many
Palestinian citizens reported being beaten by security forces.
Palestinian citizen
detainees were also denied their rights to due process. In response to the
large number of arrests, the State Prosecutor’s office issued a policy document
on 10 October instructing all district prosecutors to request both detention
without bond until the end of their trials and maximum punishment for all of
those already indicted, “Arabs and Jews alike.” The stated purpose was
deterrence, an illegal consideration under the Israeli criminal detention
statute. This same office required all prosecutors to appeal every
decision of the lower courts ordering the release of Palestinian detainees, a
policy not uniformly followed for Jewish Israeli detainees.
The
Israeli courts adopted a blanket policy of detention. The Supreme Court
accepted the prosecutors’ requests, and in appeals heard by the Court in October
and November, held that only when the country returns to calm would it consider
the release of the detainees. The Court refused to consider alternatives
to detention, legally mandated by the Detentions Law (1996). In one
instance, a political activist was sentenced to a six-month administrative
detention order based on secret evidence to which neither the defendant nor his
attorney was granted access.
The Israeli Commission of
Inquiry
The
Israeli Commission of Inquiry (“the Israeli Commission”) will have its opening
session on Monday, 19 February 2001. Adalah, along with the Palestinian
leadership and the Palestinian community in Israel as a whole, had struggled
with the Israeli government to form a legally-sanctioned Commission of Inquiry
to investigate human rights abuses on a national scale. Prime Minister
Ehud Barak had initially announced the establishment of a Committee of
Examination to investigate “the clashes with the security forces in the state,
in which Arabs and Jews were involved, since 29 September 2000.” Such a
committee would have had limited powers, and although the Attorney General
expanded its powers, concern was raised that such an expansion would not
withstand judicial review.
The
efforts of the Palestinian community proved successful, and on 8 November 2000,
Prime Minister Ehud Barak announced the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry
in accordance with the 1968 law of Commissions of Inquiry. Headed by
Justice Theodor Or, the Israeli Commission was established “to investigate the
clashes, which involved security forces and Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel”
during early October 2000.
While
Adalah welcomed Prime Minister Barak’s announcement, and submitted extensive
materials to the Israeli Commission on behalf of the High Follow-up Committee
for the Arab Citizens in Israel, the establishment alone of the Israeli
Commission is not enough to ensure that justice will be served, as there are
numerous procedural matters which are of serious concern. For example, the
mandate of the Israeli Commission presently includes investigating the “behavior
of the inciters,” and as a result there are questions about its ability to act
as an impartial professional body with discretion over its findings. The
terms of reference and procedures of work remain unknown. There is no
right of representation and associated funding thereof for the family members of
those who were killed in the first week of October, nor is there a right to full
disclosure of documents obtained by the Israeli Commission from police and
government sources. There is also no right to cross-examination. In
addition, although the Israeli Commission has begun a series of preparatory
meetings during which we understand that key members of the security forces have
been questioned, these sessions remain closed. Adalah remains concerned
that such denial of legal rights may prejudice the outcome of the Israeli
Commission. We have raised these concerns with Justice Or, and if
required, will bring them before the Supreme Court.
We have
attached extensive documentation of the human rights concerns which we have
outlined above, including: Adalah’s submission to the UN Commission on Human
Rights in October; the report on our January 2001 submission to the Israeli
Commission of Inquiry; and associated statements and press releases. We
hope that the Human Rights Inquiry Commission will consider our submission,
recommend an expansion of its mandate to include an investigation of human
rights abuses against the Palestinian minority in Israel, and report on and
strongly condemn Israeli human rights violations committed against Palestinian
citizens.
Sincerely,
Hassan Jabareen, Advocate
General
Director