Adalah to UN Human Rights Council: Israel created legal ‘blackhole’ in Gaza; int’l community must intervene to ensure accountability and justice for Palestinian victims

26/07/2020

UN Special Rapporteur Prof. Michael Lynk highlights Israel’s illegal policies and practices of collective punishment targeting the Palestinian people.

Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, together with partner Palestinian and international human rights organizations, participated virtually in the 44th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on 16-17 July 2020 and called on the international community to step in to ensure accountability and justice for Palestinians victims of suspected Israeli crimes in Gaza.

Item 7 of the session focused on the annual report of the UN Special Rapporteur Prof. Michael Lynk on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 (OPT). His report highlighted Israel’s illegal policies and practices of collective punishment targeting the Palestinian people.

Professor Lynk called on Israel, to “end all measures amounting to collective punishment, including an end to the closure of Gaza, all restrictions on freedom of movement across the OPT, the punitive demolitions of homes, the punitive residency revocations, the cutting of benefits, the punitive closures of towns and all delays in returning bodies for burial.” He further urged that “accountability and an end to impunity must become an immediate priority for the international community”

CLICK HERE to read the full report of the UN Special Rapporteur

In the interactive NGO dialogue with the special rapporteur, Adalah’s International Advocacy Coordinator, Ms. Soheir Asaad made a joint oral intervention, broadcast via video, which emphasized the specific case of Gaza. She stressed that Israel has created a legal “blackhole” regarding Gaza, where a policy of total impunity and lack of accountability prevails both in civil and criminal law.

CLICK HERE to read Adalah’s statement to the 44 th session Human Rights Council

CLICK HERE or below to watch Soheir Asaad’s video broadcast

This joint oral intervention was supported by Adalah, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq, and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

In addition, Adalah joined two other oral interventions, delivered by Al Mezan and Al-Haq, which addressed the practices and policies of collective punishment targeting the Palestinian people, and the extrajudicial killing and holding of the body of Ahmed Erekat. Adalah is representing the family of Ahmad Erekat before the Israeli Supreme Court arguing that the military is illegally holding his body and demanding that it be released to his family for proper burial (HCJ 4462/20, case pending)

Further, Adalah participated in a webinar for diplomats organized by Palestinian, regional and international human rights organizations, on “Collective Punishment in Gaza: 13 years of Illegal Closure with Impunity”.

CLICK HERE or below to watch the webinar

During this webinar, Ms. Asaad presented Adalah’s extensive legal work before Israeli courts over the years in seeking both criminal investigations and sanction, as well as civil remedies for Palestinian civilians killed or wounded by the Israeli military in Gaza. She emphasized the interaction between the Israeli military, the legislature and the courts – including the Israeli Supreme Court – and their role in shielding Israeli perpetrators from accountability and enabling policies of collective punishment against Palestinians. She further stressed that the Israeli domestic system, in all aspects, is unwilling to genuinely take action against soldiers, commanders, and officials for suspected crimes committed against Palestinians. Accordingly, she called on the international community to pursue accountability measures to ensure justice for Palestinian victims.

CLICK HERE or below to read Adalah’s new report responding to the Israeli attorney general’s memorandum on the International Criminal Court and the ‘Situation of Palestine”, which includes an analysis of the lack of accountability in the case of Gaza.