27 nov 2019
Human Rights Watch (HRW) vowed, on Tuesday, to continue documenting Israeli abuses of the Palestinians, despite the deportation of its Palestine director Omar Shakir, according to an HRW statement, saying the deportation “reflects the [Israeli] authorities’ intensifying assault on human rights.”
HRW said Shakir will continue to monitor human rights abuses in the occupied territories, from another HRW office in the region, Days of Palestine reported.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the deportation of Shakir “will not succeed in hiding [Israel’s] human rights abuses.”
He said that this decision “shows why the international community must reboot its approach to Israel’s deteriorating human rights record. A government that expels a leading human rights investigator is not likely to stop its systematic oppression of Palestinians under occupation, without much greater international pressure.”
Israel revoked the work visa of Shakir, a United States citizen, in May 2018 on the asserted grounds that his advocacy violated a 2017 law that bars entry to people who advocate a boycott of Israel or its settlements in the occupied West Bank. A district court, and then the Israeli Supreme Court, found that this position constitutes grounds for deportation, under an expansive reading of the 2017 law.
“Neither Human Rights Watch nor Shakir as its representative has ever called for a boycott of Israel. Human Rights Watch has urged businesses to stop operating in illegal settlements as part of their global duty to avoid complicity in human rights abuses, just as it calls on businesses to comply with this duty in many other countries,” the HRW statement said.
Recently, Israeli authorities have sought to undermine the work of human rights activists, including denying entry to a number of other international rights defenders, maligning Israeli rights advocates, imposing burdensome financial reporting requirements on them, and raiding the offices of and arresting Palestinian rights defenders.
In October, Israeli authorities prevented an Amnesty International staff member from traveling out of the occupied West Bank for undisclosed “security reasons.”
This is the first time the government has used the 2017 law to try to deport someone who is lawfully inside Israel and the first time it has ordered a Human Rights Watch staff member to leave in the organization’s 30 years of working in the country, said HRW.
“Today, Israel deports Shakir because Human Rights Watch urges businesses to shun illegal settlements,” said Roth.
“Who’s next, someone who calls for the International Criminal Court to examine possible crimes in Israel and Palestine or correctly calls the West Bank ‘occupied’ rather than ‘disputed’?”
HRW said Shakir will continue to monitor human rights abuses in the occupied territories, from another HRW office in the region, Days of Palestine reported.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the deportation of Shakir “will not succeed in hiding [Israel’s] human rights abuses.”
He said that this decision “shows why the international community must reboot its approach to Israel’s deteriorating human rights record. A government that expels a leading human rights investigator is not likely to stop its systematic oppression of Palestinians under occupation, without much greater international pressure.”
Israel revoked the work visa of Shakir, a United States citizen, in May 2018 on the asserted grounds that his advocacy violated a 2017 law that bars entry to people who advocate a boycott of Israel or its settlements in the occupied West Bank. A district court, and then the Israeli Supreme Court, found that this position constitutes grounds for deportation, under an expansive reading of the 2017 law.
“Neither Human Rights Watch nor Shakir as its representative has ever called for a boycott of Israel. Human Rights Watch has urged businesses to stop operating in illegal settlements as part of their global duty to avoid complicity in human rights abuses, just as it calls on businesses to comply with this duty in many other countries,” the HRW statement said.
Recently, Israeli authorities have sought to undermine the work of human rights activists, including denying entry to a number of other international rights defenders, maligning Israeli rights advocates, imposing burdensome financial reporting requirements on them, and raiding the offices of and arresting Palestinian rights defenders.
In October, Israeli authorities prevented an Amnesty International staff member from traveling out of the occupied West Bank for undisclosed “security reasons.”
This is the first time the government has used the 2017 law to try to deport someone who is lawfully inside Israel and the first time it has ordered a Human Rights Watch staff member to leave in the organization’s 30 years of working in the country, said HRW.
“Today, Israel deports Shakir because Human Rights Watch urges businesses to shun illegal settlements,” said Roth.
“Who’s next, someone who calls for the International Criminal Court to examine possible crimes in Israel and Palestine or correctly calls the West Bank ‘occupied’ rather than ‘disputed’?”
On Tuesday morning, 26 November 2019, Palestinian prisoner, Sami Abu-Diak, 36, died at al-Ramla prison clinic.
Abu-Diak, from Silat al-Dahr village near Jenin, had spent 17 years in Israeli prison, and was recently transferred to the clinic in Israel due to his deteriorating health condition, having cancer since 2015.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) holds Israeli authorities responsible for Abu-Daik’s death, and expresses its concern that Israeli authorities stalled in providing adequate and timely medical care for the deceased.
PCHR condemns the Israeli neglect of numerous calls for Abu-Diak’s release, as is standard in humanitarian cases like his, despite knowledge of his ailing health, choosing to leave him to die in prison.
Israeli forces refused all calls by human rights groups and others to release Abu-Diak, and kept him in custody at al-Ramla prison clinic, commonly referred to as “the slaughterhouse” in reference to the poor treatment and care provided at it, despite knowledge of his ailing health.
Abu-Diak’s legs and arms were cuffed to his bed. Israeli forces had scheduled a hearing for his release request on 02 December 2019; unfortunately, Abu-Diak did not survive.
Abu-Diak is the 4th Palestinian prisoner to die in Israeli prisons in 2019. On 06 February, Fares Mohammed Baroud, 51, who spent 28 years in the Israeli jails, from al-Shati’ refugee camp in western Gaza City, died only hours after being transferred from “Ramon” Prison to “Soroka” Hospital in circumstances raising suspicions of deliberate medical negligence by the Israeli authorities.
Also on 16 July, Nassar Majed Taqatqah, 31, from Beit Fajjar village, south of Bethlehem, died while in solitary confinement in “Nitzan” Prison (al-Ramlah) in Israel. Israeli forces arrested the late Nassar from his house on 09 June 2019 and investigated him.
While Bassam al-Sayeh, 47, from Nablus, died on 08 September 2019, under circumstances that are suspicious of an intentional medical neglect by the Israeli authorities, especially that the deceased suffered from bone cancer before his arrest and his condition deteriorated while in custody. His condition further deteriorated and he was pronounced dead at Assaf Harofeh medical centre in Israel.
PCHR holds the Israeli government fully responsible for the death of Abu-Diak, and for the lives of dozens of sick prisoners who would face the same fate if the policy of deliberate medical negligence continues, especially under the inhumane imprisonment conditions in which prisoners are subject to physical and psychological torture in addition to the denial of healthcare.
Additionally, PCHR
Abu-Diak, from Silat al-Dahr village near Jenin, had spent 17 years in Israeli prison, and was recently transferred to the clinic in Israel due to his deteriorating health condition, having cancer since 2015.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) holds Israeli authorities responsible for Abu-Daik’s death, and expresses its concern that Israeli authorities stalled in providing adequate and timely medical care for the deceased.
PCHR condemns the Israeli neglect of numerous calls for Abu-Diak’s release, as is standard in humanitarian cases like his, despite knowledge of his ailing health, choosing to leave him to die in prison.
Israeli forces refused all calls by human rights groups and others to release Abu-Diak, and kept him in custody at al-Ramla prison clinic, commonly referred to as “the slaughterhouse” in reference to the poor treatment and care provided at it, despite knowledge of his ailing health.
Abu-Diak’s legs and arms were cuffed to his bed. Israeli forces had scheduled a hearing for his release request on 02 December 2019; unfortunately, Abu-Diak did not survive.
Abu-Diak is the 4th Palestinian prisoner to die in Israeli prisons in 2019. On 06 February, Fares Mohammed Baroud, 51, who spent 28 years in the Israeli jails, from al-Shati’ refugee camp in western Gaza City, died only hours after being transferred from “Ramon” Prison to “Soroka” Hospital in circumstances raising suspicions of deliberate medical negligence by the Israeli authorities.
Also on 16 July, Nassar Majed Taqatqah, 31, from Beit Fajjar village, south of Bethlehem, died while in solitary confinement in “Nitzan” Prison (al-Ramlah) in Israel. Israeli forces arrested the late Nassar from his house on 09 June 2019 and investigated him.
While Bassam al-Sayeh, 47, from Nablus, died on 08 September 2019, under circumstances that are suspicious of an intentional medical neglect by the Israeli authorities, especially that the deceased suffered from bone cancer before his arrest and his condition deteriorated while in custody. His condition further deteriorated and he was pronounced dead at Assaf Harofeh medical centre in Israel.
PCHR holds the Israeli government fully responsible for the death of Abu-Diak, and for the lives of dozens of sick prisoners who would face the same fate if the policy of deliberate medical negligence continues, especially under the inhumane imprisonment conditions in which prisoners are subject to physical and psychological torture in addition to the denial of healthcare.
Additionally, PCHR
- Stresses the general deterioration of imprisonment conditions of at least 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, as Israel exercises punitive measures against them, including, but not limited to, medical neglect and inadequate treatment provided to at least 150 prisoners with chronic and serious illnesses.
- Calls upon the international community to compel Israel to respect international law and international humanitarian law, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
26 nov 2019
Human Rights Watch will keep documenting abuses despite the Israeli government’s expulsion of the Israel and Palestine director of Human Rights Watch on November 25, 2019.
The deportation reflects the authorities’ intensifying assault on human rights. The director, Omar Shakir, will depart tonight after Israel’s Supreme Court upheld the government’s deportation order on November 5 and gave him until November 25 to leave.
Human Rights Watch’s work on human rights abuses committed by Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas will continue under Shakir’s direction. He will be based in another Human Rights Watch office in the region, PNN reports.
“Israel today joins the likes of Venezuela, Iran, and Egypt in barring Human Rights Watch researchers, but it, too, will not succeed in hiding its human rights abuses,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, who will accompany Shakir as he leaves Israel.
“This decision shows why the international community must reboot its approach to Israel’s deteriorating human rights record. A government that expels a leading human rights investigator is not likely to stop its systematic oppression of Palestinians under occupation without much greater international pressure.”
Israel revoked the work visa of Shakir, a United States citizen, in May 2018 on the asserted grounds that his advocacy violated a 2017 law that bars entry to people who advocate a boycott of Israel or its settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Neither Human Rights Watch nor Shakir as its representative has ever called for a boycott of Israel.
Human Rights Watch has urged businesses to stop operating in illegal settlements as part of their global duty to avoid complicity in human rights abuses – just as it calls on businesses to comply with this duty in many other countries.
A district court in April, and then the Israeli Supreme Court, found that this position constitutes grounds for deportation under an expansive reading of the 2017 law.
The Supreme Court did not address Human Rights Watch’s challenge to the constitutionality of that law, including the implications that it will chill the speech of those who disagree with government policies.
Recently, Israeli authorities have sought to undermine the work of human rights activists, including denying entry to a number of other international rights defenders, maligning Israeli rights advocates, imposing burdensome financial reporting requirements on them, and raiding the offices of and arresting Palestinian rights defenders.
In October, Israeli authorities prevented an Amnesty International staff member from traveling out of the occupied West Bank for undisclosed “security reasons.”
This is the first time the government has used the 2017 law to try to deport someone who is lawfully inside Israel and the first time it has ordered a Human Rights Watch staff member to leave in the organization’s 30 years of working in the country.
“Today, Israel deports Shakir because Human Rights Watch urges businesses to shun illegal settlements,” said Roth. “Who’s next – someone who calls for the International Criminal Court to examine possible crimes in Israel and Palestine or correctly calls the West Bank ‘occupied’ rather than ‘disputed’?”
The deportation reflects the authorities’ intensifying assault on human rights. The director, Omar Shakir, will depart tonight after Israel’s Supreme Court upheld the government’s deportation order on November 5 and gave him until November 25 to leave.
Human Rights Watch’s work on human rights abuses committed by Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas will continue under Shakir’s direction. He will be based in another Human Rights Watch office in the region, PNN reports.
“Israel today joins the likes of Venezuela, Iran, and Egypt in barring Human Rights Watch researchers, but it, too, will not succeed in hiding its human rights abuses,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, who will accompany Shakir as he leaves Israel.
“This decision shows why the international community must reboot its approach to Israel’s deteriorating human rights record. A government that expels a leading human rights investigator is not likely to stop its systematic oppression of Palestinians under occupation without much greater international pressure.”
Israel revoked the work visa of Shakir, a United States citizen, in May 2018 on the asserted grounds that his advocacy violated a 2017 law that bars entry to people who advocate a boycott of Israel or its settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Neither Human Rights Watch nor Shakir as its representative has ever called for a boycott of Israel.
Human Rights Watch has urged businesses to stop operating in illegal settlements as part of their global duty to avoid complicity in human rights abuses – just as it calls on businesses to comply with this duty in many other countries.
A district court in April, and then the Israeli Supreme Court, found that this position constitutes grounds for deportation under an expansive reading of the 2017 law.
The Supreme Court did not address Human Rights Watch’s challenge to the constitutionality of that law, including the implications that it will chill the speech of those who disagree with government policies.
Recently, Israeli authorities have sought to undermine the work of human rights activists, including denying entry to a number of other international rights defenders, maligning Israeli rights advocates, imposing burdensome financial reporting requirements on them, and raiding the offices of and arresting Palestinian rights defenders.
In October, Israeli authorities prevented an Amnesty International staff member from traveling out of the occupied West Bank for undisclosed “security reasons.”
This is the first time the government has used the 2017 law to try to deport someone who is lawfully inside Israel and the first time it has ordered a Human Rights Watch staff member to leave in the organization’s 30 years of working in the country.
“Today, Israel deports Shakir because Human Rights Watch urges businesses to shun illegal settlements,” said Roth. “Who’s next – someone who calls for the International Criminal Court to examine possible crimes in Israel and Palestine or correctly calls the West Bank ‘occupied’ rather than ‘disputed’?”
Many were unable to do so within the tight deadline, which required producing notarised copies of land title deeds, and the additional expense of hiring a lawyer to represent them.
Based on bitter past experience the majority of residents, however, chose not to register appeals, as the Israeli courts have proven themselves to be completely unwilling previously to overturn any order raised by the military that cite ‘security concerns’.
Despite some appeals having been lodged with the court, the Israeli Army has nonetheless continued to occupy the confiscated land in question, and erected fences and other barriers on the disputed new land.
Residents can now only gain access to tend crops or pick olives if they apply to the Israeli Army for a permit to enter their own land. This still means they have to pass through checkpoints and face humiliating delays, ID checks, bag searches and body searches.
Visit the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
Based on bitter past experience the majority of residents, however, chose not to register appeals, as the Israeli courts have proven themselves to be completely unwilling previously to overturn any order raised by the military that cite ‘security concerns’.
Despite some appeals having been lodged with the court, the Israeli Army has nonetheless continued to occupy the confiscated land in question, and erected fences and other barriers on the disputed new land.
Residents can now only gain access to tend crops or pick olives if they apply to the Israeli Army for a permit to enter their own land. This still means they have to pass through checkpoints and face humiliating delays, ID checks, bag searches and body searches.
Visit the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
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