B'Tselem Report: Israel's Violations of Human Rights in Gaza and the West Bank

B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, has released its 2008 annual report regarding the human rights violations took place in Palestinian lands and Israel. (The report, unfortunately, was compiled before Operation Cast Lead started in Gaza on 27 December.)

Since 2000, Israeli security forces in the Occupied Territories have killed more than 2,200 Palestinians who were not taking part in the hostilities and have wounded thousands more....

At the beginning of the second intifada, however, the Judge Advocate General’s Office stopped automatically opening investigations into cases of death and injury of Palestinians who were not involved in the hostilities, other than in exceptional cases. Between 2000 and the end of 2008, only 287 Military Police investigations were opened into cases of firing in the Occupied Territories, including cases that did not result in death or injury. In addition, in 2002, the Knesset passed a law denying Palestinians the possibility of obtaining compensation in most cases in which they have suffered injury as a result of illegal acts by security forces. Thus, Israel has almost completely blocked the two principal ways to ensure accountability.

The report offers significant points regarding casualties caused by the Israeli security forces:

Throughout 2008, until 26 December, Israeli security forces killed 455 Palestinians, 87 of them minors. Of the total, 413 (more than 90 percent) were residents of the Gaza Strip; the other 42 (less than 10 percent) were residents of the West Bank....At least 175 of the Palestinians killed in 2008 (approximately 38 percent) did not take part in the hostilities.

The report evaluates the frequently use of ‘security’ discourse by the Israeli officials:

Israel justifies many of its actions in the Occupied Territories on grounds of security. Over the years, the army has demolished hundreds of houses "for imperative military needs", has held thousands of Palestinians in administrative detention for allegedly "endangering the security of the region", and has declared thousands of acres of land a "special security area" in which Palestinian entry is forbidden, claiming the measure is necessary to protect settlements.

And, despite its completion before the recent war, the report gives important information about "the siege on Gaza":

In 2008, Israel continued its closure on the Gaza Strip, placing extreme restrictions on the Strip’s foreign trade. The closure began in June 2007, following Hamas’s takeover of the area. At the time, Israel closed the crossings into Gaza and placed major restrictions on the entry of goods into it, including fuel, medical equipment, and replacement parts. Israel allowed in only goods it deemed “humanitarian,” such as food, sugar, cooking oil, rice, and salt. In November 2007, the government of Israel declared Gaza a “hostile entity” and intensified its siege policy.

In 2008, the tunnel economy between southern Gaza and Egyptian Rafah greatly expanded. Many goods of various kinds were brought into Gaza through the tunnels, with Hamas supervising the movement and collecting taxes from tunnel operators. In addition to consumption goods, Palestinians smuggled in weapons, including rockets.

Unemployment in the Gaza Strip continued to rise in 2008. In the second quarter of the year, it reached 50 percent. 79 percent of Gazan households live under the poverty line and 70 percent live in deep poverty. 80 percent of the water supplied to Gazans this year did not meet the drinking-water standard of the World Health Organization.

The report assesses the restrictions on movement in West Bank:

2008 saw a rise in the number of flying checkpoints, which the army set up between permanent checkpoints. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), flying checkpoints averaged at 89 per week from the end of April to September 2008, compared to an average of 66 a week from September 2007 to the end of April 2008.

Finally, the report gives information about the Palestinians held in administrative detention:

In January 2009, the Israeli Prison Service informed B'Tselem that out of 548 administrative detainees being held by the army, 42 have been in prison for more than two years.

The Latest on Israel-Gaza-Palestine (7 February): Edging to a Settlement?

Latest Post: Israel’s Violations of Human Rights in Gaza and the West Bank
Latest Post: Dead is Dead - Propaganda and the Jabaliya Mass Killing in Gaza

7:20 p.m. Desperate Words in a Desperate Position. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas may be pushing hard for a new arrangement with Tel Aviv, but present/former West Bank Prime Minister Salam Fayyad sees no hope:

I do not know of a single Israeli politician from any party who I would expect to offer a reasonable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All of them want a partial solution, or they aim to improve the face and the conditions of the occupation while the settlements continue.

Actually Abbas, with Israel holding Palestinian Authority aid and payments to Gaza hostage, is sounding desperate as well:

The Palestinian people suffered from the most ruthless and barbaric onslaught for three weeks. We want aid shipments to speedily reach the Palestinian people who are in dire need. So far, the shipments have met just 20 percent of the actual need.

6:30 p.m. It Had to Happen. Egypt is alleging that the $11 million confiscated from Hamas delegates, seized as they returned to Gaza from the Cairo talks, was provided by Tehran. It is "only a small portion of the large amounts of money Iran has funneled to Hamas over the last week".

No evidence was provided for the claim.



1:15 p.m. There are reports, from Hamas sources and witnesses, that Hamas military leader Mahmoud az-Zahar is part of the delegation en route to Egypt. If true, this would point to the possibility of a critical point in the talks; it is the first time that az-Zahar has been seen in public since the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the attempt on his life by Israeli forces.

11:20 a.m. Ali Yenidunya has posted separately on the report of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem on Israel's human rights violations in Gaza and the West Bank.

10 a.m. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday and will meet other Turkish officials today. The statements on the talks was anodyne: "The latest efforts to secure unity among Palestinian groups were reviewed thoroughly."

9:30 a.m. We've posted separately on what, in our view, is a deplorable attempt to play down civilian deaths from Israeli fire. Israel did not directly hit a school/shelter; it just hit the civilians killed outside it.

Morning Update (9 a.m. GMT; 11 a.m. Israel/Palestine): We ended last evening on a pessimistic note about any Israel-Gaza settlement but there are a couple of interesting, more optimistic twists this morning.

Some Israeli officials are putting out the confirmation that Hamas is not responsible for the recent firings of rockets into southern Israel; instead, the launches are being carried out by Islamic Jihad, Popular Resistance Committees, and, yes, Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah.

We already reported this. The significance is that Israeli officials will give up the public, inaccurate line blaming Hamas. This opens up some space for continuing discussions.

Which, in turn, points to the report in Israeli media that Hamas officials are returning to Cairo for talks on Sunday. A spokesman told YNet News, "The issues still being debated are fundamental but small, and...the organization would strive to prevent a relapse into fighting."

CNN-Turk also reports that Turkey is holding talks in Damascus with Hamas officials on a prisoner swap releasing the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.