Geneva, 29 September 2022
In the 29th Meeting of the 51st Regular Session of the Human Rights Council, Ghada Alrayan, Law for Palestine’s Geneva coordinator, delivered the first ever oral statement of the organisation at the council, in partnership with the Human Rights and Democracy Media Center “Shams”.
This is the full statement text:
Mr. President,
This statement is on behalf of Human Rights and Democracy Center SHAMS and Law for Palestine.
The 1.5 million indigenous Palestinians living in Israel today are experiencing an ongoing, unprecedented deterioration of their rights with the Nation-State Bill voted in 2018, enshrining Jewish superiority, racial segregation, and apartheid as fundamental features of the state.
The discrimination against Arab citizens of Israel takes place across all spheres of public life, including jobs, education, housing, litigation, and allocation of government resources. The presence of Israeli security forces in Arab neighborhoods is of an aggressive nature.
Furthermore, Israeli practices of forced displacement and dispossession of Palestinian Bedouin citizens from the Negev are increasing and, at this very moment, are ongoing in al-Araqib, which is one of the 51 unrecognized Arab villages in the area, rendering the Bedouin communities at risk of forcible displacement. This policy comes as a part of plans to Judaize the Negev by building new Jewish communities.
As such, Israel violates the freedom of choice of place of residence, and the prohibition of discrimination. Thus, we call on all member states to do their part to hold Israel accountable and help enshrine the human rights guaranteed to all indigenous Palestinians. Thank you
End
