PALESTINE’S LEGAL SCENE –Issue.179

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

4 – 10 June 2023

Issued every Sunday by Law for Palestine

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

Translation: Asma Louzon and Ahmad Staitia
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 Ministry of Foreign Affairs: The UN Security Council’s abandonment of its functions towards the Palestinian people and their suffering, as well as failure to implement resolutions constitutes a systematic undermining of the UN’s reliability and the application of international law, as well as enshrines the “law of the jungle.”. (June 4, 2023). For further details, click here
• According to the Commission for Detainees Affairs, the prisoner’s movement announced the creation of a special committee for administrative detainees in order to challenge the unfair practice of administrative detention. They called for solidarity to combat the administrative detention policy. (June 4, 2023). For further details, click here
• According to the Palestinian Minister of Education: “The Palestinian curriculum is an independent sovereign matter because it is linked to identity and to the national narrative, and it will not be the subject of negotiating or swapping.”. (June 4, 2023). For further details, click here
• The governor of Salfit governorate announced a new settlement occupation scheme aimed at seizing more than 10,000 dunums of agricultural land in the governorate in favor of settlement expansion. He also called on the international community to take action in order to put an end to Israel’s settlement policies. (June 4, 2023). For further details, click here
• On the occasion of World Environment Day, the Environmental Quality Authority and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics issued a press release addressing the occupation’s destruction of the Palestinian environment, particularly through the smuggling of hazardous wastes and materials, including plastic waste. (June 5, 2023). For further details, click here
• The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the murder of the child, Mohammed Tamimi, from the village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah, as a horrible act against humanity. The Ministry demanded an immediate international inquiry. (June 5, 2023). For further details, click here
• In an international conference held in the Norwegian Capital, Oslo, the Palestinian Permanent Representative to the United Nations called for the protection of children in armed conflicts. He also called on the UN Secretary-General to blacklist Israel as one of those barbarically violating the rights of children during armed conflicts. (June 6, 2023). For further details, click here
• During his speech at the 111th session of the International Labour Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, the Palestinian Minister of Labour called on the International Labour Organization to form a committee to protect the rights of Palestinian workers accumulated since 1970, and to set up a mechanism to restore it from the Israeli occupation. (June 7, 2023). For further details, click here
• The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the plan proposed by Likud Knesset member Amit Halevi, which provides for the division of Al-Aqsa Mosque between Muslims and Jews. It also condemned the Israeli Knesset’s approval of the preliminary reading of the so-called, Admissions Committees’ Law, which perpetuates settlement and Judaization schemes in all Palestinian places of presence. It stressed that the international community is still silent on the enactment and legislation of more racist colonial laws. It condemned the direct targeting of journalists by the Israeli occupation forces when they stormed the city of Ramallah on the morning of the 18th of June. It called on the international community, led by the Security Council, to transfer its decisions regarding the protection of journalists and the accountability of the attackers into actions.

Judicial decrees, decisions, positions, and orders issued by official Israeli bodies:

• In its preliminary reading, the Knesset approved the Admissions Committees’ Law. This law expands the powers of the Admissions Committees’ allowing towns of up to 1,000 homes to operate admissions committees , which have almost complete discretion over who is allowed to move in there. It also amended the application of the law to include settlements in the occupied West Bank as well. (June 5, 2023). For further details, click here
• A member of the Knesset from the Likud party, Amit Halevi, presented a proposal for a plan that provides for the division of Al-Aqsa Mosque between Muslims and Jews, so that the mosque and its courtyards are divided into two parts. Under the plan, the southern Al-Aqsa Mosque and its annexes are allocated to Muslims, and the central and northern regions are allocated to Jews, including the Dome of the Rock. (June 7, 2023). For further details, click here
• The Israeli occupation army decided to demolish the house of the family of the prisoner, Muhammad Zalbani, who carried out the stabbing attack last February at the Shuafat refugee camp checkpoint. During the operation, one of the occupation soldiers was shot dead by his colleague. (June 9, 2023). For further details, click here
• The Israeli Prime Minister decided to postpone the meeting that was scheduled to discuss the settlement project for construction in the “E1” area that links the occupied city of Jerusalem with the Ma’aleAdumim settlement, under pressure from the American administration. (June 10, 2023). For further details, click here

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

• Irish Member of the European Parliament Clare Daly attacked the European Union for its support for the Israeli occupation despite its continuous violations against the Palestinian people. She criticized the silence of the Union in light of the Israeli demolition of the houses and facilities built by the Union, stressing that the EU cannot be considered a union of values while continuing to call Israel “our friend”. (June 1, 2023). For further details, click here
• On the 56th anniversary of the Palestinian Naksa (setback), the Arab League and Arab Parliament called on the Security Council to provide international protection for the Palestinian people, oblige Israel to end the occupation, completely evacuate all Palestinian and Arab territories that had been occupied since June 5, 1967, and necessarily hold the Israeli occupation accountable for its crimes. The League Secretary General affirmed the importance of mobilizing support between international friend countries to recognize the state of Palestine. (June 5, 2023). For further details, click here
• In a remark at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the US Secretary of State pledged continued U.S. commitment to both Israel’s security and a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. He warned against the Israeli moves towards annexation of the Israeli-occupied West Bank or that disruption of the status quo at the holy sites. (June 5, 2023). For further details, click here
• Minister of State Foreign for the Middle East and North Africa, Lord Tariq Ahmad, expressed his shock to learn about the tragic death of 2-year-old Mohammed al-Tamimi after being shot by Israeli security forces. He tweeted, “The UK calls on Israel to complete a swift and transparent investigation.” (June 5, 2023). For further details, click here
• The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Arab League have condemned the continuing crimes perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces, the latest of which was the heinous crime that claimed the life of the two-year-old Palestinian child, Mohammed Al-Tamimi. They also called for conducting an independent international investigation into this crime which amounts to a war crime. (June 6, 2023).
• During the fifth meeting within the third session of the Arab Parliament’s third legislative term, the Palestine Committee of the Arab Parliament concurred on several decisions to be submitted to the Arab Parliament in its upcoming session. These decisions regard the support for Palestine and issues of prisoners and detainees, growing settlements, and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. (June 8, 2023). For further details, click here

Publications of human rights NGOs:

• In a new position paper, Adalah analyzes a series of recent measures by the current Israeli government which constitute annexation of the West Bank and a clear policy to extend the regime of Jewish supremacy and deepen the apartheid in the West Bank that has been established for generations. (June 9, 2023). For further details, click here
• According to the Palestinian Journalists’ Union, the German Foreign Ministry’s “fellowship” program (International Middle East Press Programme) has a normalization scheme, and urged Palestinian and Arab journalists to boycott it. (June 5, 2023). For further details, click here
• In commemoration of the 56th anniversary of the occupation in 1967, 17 Israeli non-governmental organizations (NGOs) released a joint situation report, highlighting 4 worrying trends: increased violence, expedited annexation of the West Bank, forced displacement & attacks on human rights organizations. (June 5, 2023). For further details, click here
• Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights published an article on the occasion of World Environment Day, in which it points out the lack of a safe, clean and sustainable environment in Gaza. (June 5, 2023). For further details, click here
• The “Peace Now” movement reported that the Israeli Higher Planning Committee (HPC) had deposited a plan for the “Sha’arShomron” industrial zone, south of the city of Qalqilya in the West Bank. It is expected that the industrial zone will become the largest in the West Bank with an area of 2 million square meters for industrial use. The plan aims to create a “settlement continuum” between the settlements in the area. (June 6, 2023). For further details, click here
• Leaders from major Jewish organizations in France balked at meeting with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday night during Smotrich’s visit to Paris for an OECD conference. This was due to his extremist positions during the previous visit, when he denied the existence of the Palestinian people. (June 7, 2023). For further details, click here
• 11 human rights organizations in Israel have called on the United Nations not to validate & promote the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism in the upcoming Action Plan on Monitoring Anti Semitism. (June 7, 2023). For further details, click here
• The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) has published a report entitled “Suppressing Palestinian Rights Advocacy through the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism – Violating the Rights to Freedom of Expression and Assembly in the European Union and the UK”. The report is the first case-based account of human rights violations resulting from the institutionalization and application of the controversial IHRA definition by the European Union and the UK. (June 6, 2023). For further details, click here

Research and academic studies (in Arabic and English):

• Researchers AbdelrahmanAlasttal, Abdul MaasbaMagassing, MaskunMaskun and IinKarita published a new article titled: “The role of the United Nations in protecting the right to development in occupied Palestine”. (May 22, 2023). To read more about this, clickhere 

Upcoming human rights opportunities and events:

• The Middle East Institute, the Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs, announced its intention to hold a virtual webinar entitled “The Growing Specter of Israeli Settler Violence and Extremism”. (June 9, 2023). To register and attend, click here