Submission to the Field Mission of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories
Amman: Monday 14th June 2010
Prepared by the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC)
Contacts
Maha Abu Dayyeh
Director
WCLAC – Ramallah, Jerusalem
Email:
Tel: +972 (0) 2 2956146/7/8
About WCLAC
The Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) was established by a small group of women in Jerusalem in 1991 as a Palestinian, independent, non-governmental, non-profit organisation. The Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling aims to address the causes and consequences of gender-based violence within the community as well as the gender-specific effects of the occupation.
WCLAC provides social and legal counselling, awareness raising programs, offers legal and social support and training, proposes bills and law amendments, and participates in the organization of advocacy and pressure campaigns nationally and internationally on behalf of Palestinian women and the community.
WCLAC’s International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law program was established to monitor and document Israel’s violations of human rights and the impact of these violations on women. WCLAC documents women’s testimonies using the frame-work of international law and human rights, combined with a feminist vision of equality and social justice.
The program seeks to ensure that Palestinian women’s rights violations are effectively monitored, then collected through a process of documentation. The documentation is used to advocate on behalf of women in Palestine, to promote awareness of human rights violations and to work towards accountability for those responsible. The documentation also provides testimony to women’s experiences of war and occupation.
Index
1. Introduction...... 4
2. Right to Freedom of Movement and Freedom to choose one's residence...5
Freedom of Movement...... 5
Family Reunification...... 9
Special Case of Residency Rights in East Jerusalem...... 12
Conclusion...... 13
Recommendations ………………………………………………………….14
3. Violence against Women...... 15
Settler Violence...... 15
Violence from State Actors...... 19
Recommendations...... 21
4. Right to an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing...... 22
Home demolitions...... 22
Forced Evictions...... 26
Recommendations...... 27
5. Concluding Remarks...... 28
Annex
1. Annex A - Records of Interviews
Case 1 - Freedom of Movement...... 3
Case 2 – Freedom of Movement...... 5
Case 3 – Freedom of movement...... 8
Case 4 - Freedom of Movement...... 11
Case 5 – Separated Family...... 15
Case 6 – Separated Family...... 17
Case 7 - Separated Family...... 20
Case 8 – Settler violence……………...... 21
Case 9 - Settler violence...... 22
Case 10 – Settler violence...... 24
Case 11 – Settler violence...... 25
Case 12 – Settler violence...... 26
Case 13 – Settler violence……………………………………………………28
Case 14 - Violence from State Actors………………………………………..29
Case 15 - Violence from State Actors………………………………………..32
Case 16 - Violence from State Actors………………………………………..34
Case 17 – Home Demolition…………………………………………………36
Case 18 - Home Demolition………………………………………………….38
Case 19 – Home Demolition………………………………………………….40
Case 20 – Home Demolition……………………………………………….....43
Case 21 – Home Demolition………………………………………………….45
Case 22 – Forced Eviction…………………………………………………....47
Case 23 – Forced Eviction……………………………………………………51
1. Introduction
1.1 As a leading women's rights organisation based in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, WCLAC wishes to bring certain specific issues relating to Israeli policies and practices affecting Palestinian women in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to the attention of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territory (the Committee).
1.2 The Committee noted in its 2009 report that “Women are reported to be particularly affected by the occupation and Israeli settlement policy”. The report acknowledged the “challenges faced by Palestinian women, who, in fear of harassment at checkpoints or by settlers, increasingly feel unable to provide for their families or are simply too scared to move outside the boundaries of their communities”[1]. The current reporting period has shown this situation to be continuing.
1.3 This submission is limited to issues affecting Palestinian women in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and does not cover the many issues affecting women in Gaza as WCLAC staff do not currently have access to Gaza.[2] The report focuses on the following issues:
1.3.1. The right to freedom of movement and freedom to choose one's residence, particularly how Palestinian women suffer severe problems of freedom of movement as a consequence of the wall and checkpoints, and on other issues concerning residence such as permits and the lack of access for Palestinians to Jerusalem;
1.3.2. Violence from Israeli settlers and Israeli soldiers against Palestinian women, and the impunity for those responsible;
1.3.3. The right to an adequate standard of living, including food, clothing and shelter, focusing on the issue of house demolitions and their impact on Palestinian women.
1.4 The report covers the period since the Committee last reported, from July 2009 to May 2010.
1
2. Right to Freedom of Movement and Freedom to choose one's residence
Freedom of Movement
2.1 In its 2009 report, the Committee stated in its recommendations to the Government of Israel that it:
“...restore freedom of movement for Palestinians throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory by lifting closures, checkpoints and other obstacles to movement, and stop building roads accessible only to Israeli settlers and preventing access by Palestinians, in particular women and children, to their fields, schools, places of work, hospitals and other health-care facilities, as well as the passage of ambulances.”[3] (Emphasis added)
2.2 The right to freedom of movement in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) continues to be obstructed by physical obstacles, including staffed checkpoints and random, or “flying”, checkpoints, earth mounds, trenches, road blocks, road gates and other kind of obstacles.[4] The number of such obstacles appears to be increasing: the last record, in November 2009, showed that there were 579 physical obstacles, whereas the monthly average in 2008 was 537, whilst in 2007 it was 459. [5] The 2009 report by the Committee commented on “the humiliating procedures at checkpoints”, that “particularly affect women, especially as they fear being subjected to strip searches.”[6] WCLAC has documented cases in which the women interviewed have spoken of harassment and inappropriate comments towards their daughters at checkpoints. In one case this resulted in the daughter being taken out of the school and in another case a daughter was encouraged to leave school early so she doesn’t have to travel through the checkpoint. [7]
2.3 In addition to the checkpoints, the construction of the separation wall significantly impacts on women’s freedom of movement. In its 2009 recommendations, the Committee called on Israel to “cease construction of the wall”.[8] This has not been complied with and the Wall continues to be constructed. In March 2010 for example, the Israeli High Court of Justice approved the original, but contested, route for the construction of the separation wall between Shaikh Sa’ed and Jabal Mukabber, in East Jerusalem.[9]
2.4 A number of cases have come to the attention of WCLAC that involve families that have been almost completely cut off from their local communities, as a result of checkpoints, the separation wall, or both. One such case documented by WCLAC is that of 50 year old JD who is from the village of Al Jib, Ramallah.[10] Since the separation wall has been constructed, her home has been located within the ‘Seam Zone’, that area that is east of the Green Line and in the West Bank but west of the separation wall. Her home is now separated from the West Bank and from the remainder of Al-Jib village by a checkpoint and the separation wall, yet she and her family have Palestinian, or West Bank identification. All aspects of her life are affected and the restrictions on movement have a severe impact on her and her family’s ability to access health services, education, work and other services. She is isolated behind these barriers, and her parents, brothers and sisters, other family and her friends are not allowed to visit her home as their names are not registered at the checkpoint. It is prohibited to bring meat, chicken or eggs through the checkpoint and bringing in gas for cooking and heating is restricted. She and her family, including her disabled son, have experienced considerable difficulty in reaching the hospital; she delayed seeking medical attention because of the difficulty and expense in obtaining medical care, eventually spending ten days receiving treatment and recovering in a Jerusalem hospital without visitors, as her family did not have permits to visit her. On return home, she also could not receive visitors from her siblings and friends. The impact of living in the Seam Zone has resulted in increasing isolation and severe restrictions on her access to her community and social and cultural life.
2.5 The ongoing existence of the Seam Zone is in defiance of the Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee, in 2003. The Committee then stated that it was “concerned that the construction of the "Seam Zone", by means of a fence and, in part, of a wall, beyond the Green Line, imposes additional and unjustifiably severe restrictions on the right to freedom of movement of, in particular, Palestinians within the Occupied Territories. The "Seam Zone" has adverse repercussions on nearly all walks of Palestinian life; in particular, the wide-ranging restrictions on freedom of movement disrupt access to health care, including emergency medical services, and access to water.” The Committee urged Israel to:
“... respect the right to freedom of movement guaranteed under article 12. The construction of a "Seam Zone" within the Occupied Territories should be stopped.”[11]
2.6 It is not only checkpoints and the wall but also a complex permit system that separates families from each other, limiting and preventing access to Jerusalem for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza and between the West Bank and Gaza, meaning families can go for years without seeing each other, unable to get permits to travel. The issues of freedom of movement and residency rights are inextricably linked and all part of a system that controls the movement and restricts the rights and freedoms of Palestinians. WCLAC believes that women are severely affected by these restrictions on freedom of movement. Women are less likely to work outside the home and are therefore more confined to their homes resulting in isolation and increased vulnerability. Women have expressed feelings to WCLAC of feeling ‘imprisoned’ by the restrictions they face.
2.7 WCLAC has recorded the stories of women affected by restrictions on their movement and upon whom the impact has been particularly severe:
Case Number 1Name / Location / Date of Interview
Jamila Dieb Misbeh / Al-Khalayleh, Al-Jib, Ramallah / 13.05.10
Summary of Situation
· House located on Jerusalem side of wall
· Walking checkpoint restricts access to West Bank
· Access to Jerusalem forbidden
Impact of situation
· Family and friends cannot visit
Family occasions, such as weddings and funerals have been severely affected.
· No construction or renovations allowed
· Humiliation at checkpoints
Interviewee limits her own visits to West Bank to reduce exposure to checkpoints.
Some of the interviewee’s children have been re-schooled so that the girls do not have to travel through the checkpoint and interact with the soldiers.
· Restricted food access
Eggs, meat and chicken prohibited from being taken through the checkpoint.
Gas for cooking and heating restricted.
Case Number 2
Name / Location / Date of Interview
JD / Al-Khalyaleh, Al-Jib, Ramallah / 13.05.10
Summary of situation
· House on Jerusalem side of wall
· Separated from Al-Jib village by checkpoint and wall
· Separated from West Bank by checkpoint
· Prohibited from going to Jerusalem
Impact of situation
· Family and friends cannot visit
Only registered family members can pass through the checkpoint.
· Difficulty in reaching healthcare
Interviewee delayed her own visit to hospital to avoid travelling through the checkpoint.
When she did go to hospital for an operation she did so alone, without any family members being able to support her.
· Construction prohibited
Interviewee’s son’s house was demolished.
Living in overcrowded conditions.
· Restricted food access
Eggs, meat and chicken prohibited from being taken through the checkpoint.
Gas for cooking and heating restricted.
Case Number 3
Name / Location / Date of Interview
Hekmat Bessiso-Naji / Ramallah / 09.03.10
Summary of situation
· Interviewee has Gaza ID but is living in Ramallah
· Children have Gaza ID
· Extended family, including one of her sons, lives in Gaza
Impact of situation
· Living in West Bank illegally
Risks being deported to Gaza at any point.
· Restricted travel
If the interviewee leaves Ramallah she risks her Gaza ID being exposed at a checkpoint.
· Family divided
Cannot see son, family or friends who live in Gaza.
Could not visit her mother when she was dying; could not attend her funeral and cannot visit her grave.
Family could not attend her second marriage.
Interviewee’s first husband could not attend his daughter’s marriage in the West Bank.
Case Number 4
Name / Location / Date of Interview
Mounira Amir / Mas’ha, near Bedya / 22.04.10
Summary of situation
· House located between the wall and settlement
· 9 metre wall and military road directly in front of home separating her home from rest of village.
· Key required to access home through gate in the wall
Impact of situation
· Economically and financially affected
Small business ran from home before wall built closed
Her small business producing tomato paste limited because of difficulties bringing produce through the gate.
Value of home now minimal
· Normal access to work, education, livelihood impossible
Children have to shout to mother to be allowed back through gate after school
All access monitored by cameras on the gate and wall
· Socially isolated from the rest of community.
Friends of her and her children reluctant to visit
Events such as weddings and celebrations cannot be held in the house
· Harassment from
· nearby settlement
· Building/renovation work on house prohibited
Family Unification