PALESTINE’S LEGAL SCENE –Issue.174

Your weekly survey of the most important publications and activities related to Palestine and law, from local and international sources

30 April – 6 May 2023

Issued every Sunday by Law for Palestine

Prepared by: Razwan Issa, Nour Kharouf, Nermin Allawh, Sophia Alisaa

Translation: Asma Louzon and Mays Abu Atwan
Editing: Rachel Marandett

This weekly report reviews the legal dynamics of the Palestine question, and everything related to international law and Palestine. The report includes an account of the most important publications, activities and conferences related to Palestine at the local, regional, international levels. The report further covers decisions, decrees, and judicial orders affecting the Palestinian cause, whether made at the official, academic or public levels. The report aims to be a reference for monitoring, documenting and archiving the latest human rights developments related to Palestine, and to present them to individuals, researchers, study centers, and official, academic and legal institutions concerned.

To view this Volume of Palestine’s Legal Scene, please click here (5 minutes read)

Judicial decrees, decisions, positions, and orders issued by official Palestinian bodies

• The Palestinian Minister of Health condemned the Israeli occupation’s aggression against Beit Jala Governmental Hospital and its firing of gas bombs in its yards, which endangered the lives of patients, especially children and the elderly. (May 1, 2023). For further details, click here.
• The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (PFM) condemned the bloody and barbaric Israeli military incursion into Aqabat Jaber refugee camp in Jericho, resulting in the killing of 17-year-old Jibril Mohammed Al-Ladaa and the injury of others. (May 1, 2023). For further details, click here.
• The Palestinian ambassador in Stockholm urged the Swedish government to review its decision to reduce support for Palestinian civil society organizations during a conference held in Sweden, attended by Swedish officials, politicians, and Palestinian solidarity activists. (May 1, 2023). For further details, click here.
• The PFM held the Israeli occupation government fully responsible for executing prisoner Khader Adnan, who had been on hunger strike for 87 days. The Ministry called on the ongoing UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate the circumstances of this crime as part of the abuse, kidnapping and oppression that prisoners are subjected to. The Ministry further stressed that it would submit the file of this crime to the International Criminal Court (May 2, 2023). For further details, click here.
• The Permanent Representative of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, sent a letter to the President of the Security Council calling for immediate action against the Israeli occupation and settlers’ continuous violence and repression against Palestinians. The letter held Israel fully responsible for the death of Khadr Adnan and called on Israel to release all Palestinians detained by the Israeli occupation. Also, it denounced the malicious smear campaign targeting the UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese. (May 2, 2023). For further details, click here.
• The PFM warned against the dangers of dealing with occupation crimes that “rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” including the blockade imposed upon the Gaza Strip and the routine expansion of settlements “as things that have become normal”. The Minister further demanded the effective implementation of international laws. (May 2, 2023). For further details, click here.

Judicial decrees, decisions, positions, and orders issued by Arab, European, and international bodies

• The People’s National Assembly of Algeria (First Chamber of Parliament) announced its withdrawal from the chairmanship of the Inter-Parliamentary Union High-level Advisory Group on Combating Terrorism and Violent Extremism following Israel’s ratification as a member of the Group. (April 30, 2023). For further details, click here.
• The Arab Parliament urged support for the legal and political campaign of the State of Palestine for full membership in the United Nations and international tribunals. It emphasized the need for Palestine’s continuous membership in international organizations and treaties in order to strengthen Palestine’s status. (April 30, 2023). For further details, click here.
• The Organization of Islamic Cooperation held Israel, the occupying power, entirely responsible for the death of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan in their prison as a result of their consistent practice of medical negligence, and condemned all Israeli arbitrary measures and inhumane treatment of Palestinian prisoners. (May 2, 2023). For further details, click here.
• In response to a statement by the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, calling Israel and the United States “the only two countries in history that were conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that we are all equal,” U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said that “Speaker McCarthy wants to rewrite history as apartheid Israel was born out of violence and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians” and, “75 years later, the Nakba continues to this day”. (May 2, 2023). For further details, click here.
• United Nations experts called for the Israeli occupation to be held accountable for the death of Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan, noting that the Israeli mass arbitrary detention of Palestinians is “cruel”, “inhuman” and amounts to a war crime. The UN experts urged the international community to halt the normalization of war crimes against the Palestinians (May 3, 2023). For further details, click here.
• The Arab Parliament condemned the crime committed by the Israeli occupation authorities against Khader Adnan, who was martyred due to the policy of deliberate medical negligence practiced against Palestinian prisoners, and called for an end to it. (May 3, 2023). For further details, click here.
• The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation condemned “the recent Israeli military aggression in Gaza and the horrific crime in Nablus, which resulted in the death of three Palestinians and wounding of dozens of Palestinian citizens,” and held Israel fully responsible for its ongoing crimes and called for international intervention to hold it accountable. (May 4, 2023). For further details, click here.
• The UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People held a virtual meeting with civil society organizations entitled “The Ongoing Nakba in Gaza: Blockade, Dispossession and Denial of Rights.” (May 3, 2023). For further details, click here.
• A report issued by OCHA stated that, in the first quarter of 2023, Israeli authorities demolished and confiscated 290 Palestinian-owned structures throughout the West Bank, displacing 413 people and affecting the livelihoods of more than 11,000 others. The report stated that the number of structures targeted in the first quarter of 2023 has increased by 46% compared to the same period in 2022. (May 3, 2023). For further details, click here.
• For the second year in a row, Berlin police issued a ban on Nakba commemoration demonstrations, citing the “imminent danger” of “inflammatory antisemitic exclamations” and “glorification of violence.” (May 4, 2023). For further details, click here.
• US Congresswoman Betty McCollum with the support of more than 75 organizations and civil society groups, reintroduced a bill that would prohibit the Israeli government from using US taxpayer funds in the occupied West Bank for military detention, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children and the seizure and destruction of Palestinian property. (May 5, 2023). For further details, click here.

Publications of human rights NGOs

• Peace Now said that the Israeli Civil Administration announced this week that, at the beginning of May, drilling and inspection work will begin for the preparation of paving a road between el-Azariya and a-Za’im, near the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. The road is of great importance for the Israeli government to fulfill its intentions to annex Ma’ale Adumim and to promote the construction plan in E1 area. The paving of the road will create a separate road system for Israelis and Palestinians (an “apartheid” road). (April 30, 2023). For further information, click here.
• Palestinian NGOs Network and several human rights organizations called on all sectors of Palestinian society to boycott the European Union’s celebrations of Europe Day and cancel meetings with European Union delegations throughout May 2023 in protest against the offensive statements made by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. (April 30, 2023). For further information, click here.
• On the International Workers’ Day, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights stressed its total support to the struggle of the Palestinian workers in light of the Israeli occupation authorities’ violations of their rights over many years (May 1, 2023). For further information, click here.
• According to Amnesty International, the Israeli authorities are using an experimental facial recognition system known as “Red Wolf” to track Palestinians and automate harsh restrictions on their freedom of movement, which further entrenches apartheid. (May 2, 2023). For further details, click here.
• The International Committee of the Red Cross called on the occupation authorities to hand over the body of martyr Khader Adnan to his family for burial (May 2, 2023). For further details, click here.
• Amnesty International stated that “The death of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan is a reminder of the deadly cost that Palestinians pay for challenging Israel’s apartheid and a military justice system rigged against them,” noting that denying him proper medical treatment was a violation of his right to health and constituted inhuman and degrading treatment. The organization called for an end to Israel’s use of administrative detention, which constitutes a crime against humanity, and demanded the release of Adnan’s body to his family for a dignified burial. (May 3, 2023). For further details, click here.
• An investigation by +972 magazine and Local Call revealed that the Israeli army has been recruiting Israeli settlers from violent outposts for 2.5 years into a new military unit called “Desert Frontier,” which is responsible for severe abuses of Palestinians across the West Bank. (May 3, 2023). For further details, click here.
• Palestine Action said that Leicestershire Police in the UK used disproportionate force, including random arrests, confiscation of property seizure, breaking cars, and intimidation, against individuals who opposed the Israeli arms trade in the siege of the UAV Tactical Systems drone factory. It also noted that 33 individuals were arrested. (May 3, 2023). For further details, click here.
• A report issued by B’Tselem stated that the Israeli government practices discriminatory water management policies that deliberately create a huge disparity in water consumption between Israelis and Palestinians, resulting in Palestinians suffering from chronic water shortages. (May 2023). For further details, click here.
• The Palestinian Center for Human Rights condemned the Israeli occupation forces’ assassination of three Palestinians in Nablus and called on the international community to take action against Israeli war crimes. (May 4, 2023). For further details, click here.
• Médecins Sans Frontières released a documentary entitled “Forced from Home: The daily struggle in Masafer Yatta,” which presents testimonies and sheds light on the daily suffering of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta. (May 4, 2023). For further details, click here.
• 14 Palestinian, Israeli, and international human rights organizations issued a statement criticizing the Israeli authorities for not transferring Khader Adnan to a hospital with adequate medical resources, violating his human rights and the medical ethics. The statement said that the Israeli authorities ignored the warnings of Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHRI), urged the international community to ensure that Adnan’s body is handed over to his family and called for changes to regulations and the issuance of clear guidelines to all hospitals to ensure that individuals on hunger strike are automatically hospitalized after 45 days of strike. (May 4, 2023). For further details, click here.
• Al-Haq welcomed the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions’ unanimous decision for a European Commission response to petition banning illegal settlement trade. (May 5, 2023). For further information, click here.

Opinion Pieces and features

• Board member of Law for Palestine Hassan Ben Imran alongside assistant professor in International Relations at the University of Edinburgh Nicola Perugini published an article on Aljazeera titled “The UN must not adopt the IHRA definition.” (May 2, 2023). For further details, click here.
• Emile Badarine published an article on Middle East Eye titled “‘Making the desert bloom’: Why Europe clings to the colonial mindset.” (May 5, 2023). For further details, click here.

 Legal Achievements/Impacts for Palestine

• The Center for Constitutional Rights announced that the US D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the Jewish National Fund, which charged United States Campaign for Palestinian Rights of providing “material support” for terrorism through its support for the BDS movement, stating that the call to boycott Israel is not unlawful. (May 3, 2023). For further details, click here.
• Judith Bernstein, a German-Jewish activist and journalist, won her lawsuit against Frankfurt city and its former mayor Uwe Becker, who falsely smeared her as anti-Semitic for supporting the BDS movement. (May 4, 2023). For further details, click here.

Human rights conferences and events

• The Palestine Solidarity Campaign called on people in the UK to write to their local councilors to demand that they raise the issue of the Local Government Pension Scheme of $4.6 billion investment in companies complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses and illegal settlements. (May 2023). For further details, click here.
• Amnesty International is calling on people to send emails to businesses selling facial recognition products to Israel and demand the immediate cessation of the production of facial recognition and biometric technologies as a tool to restrict the basic rights of Palestinians and perpetuate Israel’s apartheid system. (May 4, 2023). For further details, click here.

Upcoming human rights opportunities and events

• The United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People announced its intention to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba at the UN Headquarters in New York on May 15, 2023. The event will highlight that the noble goals of justice and peace require recognizing the reality and history of the Palestinian people’s plight and ensuring the fulfillment of their inalienable rights. The event will be broadcasted live on United Nations TV online. For the latest developments, click here.
• The Jerusalem Fund announced it is hosting of an event titled Dispatches from the Homeland: A Conversation with Fayrouz Sharqawi on May 11th. Sharqawi is a Palestinian activist and the co-founder and former director of Grassroots Al-Quds. At the event, she will shed light on the challenges Palestinians face and the ways they overcome fragmentation, isolation, and Israel’s relentless attacks on their lives and dignity. For further information, click here.
• 7amleh, the Arab Center for Advancement of Social Media, launched the Palestine Digital Activism Forum and opened it for registration. This year, the forum will be held in a hybrid format (online and offline) over three days from May 23 to May 25, 2023. The Forum boasts cooperation with 45 partner institutions, hosting more than 90 speakers and trainers locally, regionally, and internationally, including the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese. Major social media companies, including Meta, Zoom, Google and Wikimedia, will also participate in the forum. For further information, click here