Updates

On Wednesday, 20 June 2012, the Israeli government’s Ministerial Committee on Settlement Affairs approved an agreement to evacuate five buildings in Ulpana Hill, a neighborhood of the Beit El settlement. Following the approval, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the significance of the agreement is in “safeguarding the law.” The precise law to which the Prime Minister is referring, however, is unclear, and the agreement that was signed is not legal -- neither in light of High Court rulings nor under international law.

In light of the escalation in violence around the Gaza Strip, the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem has repeated its demand that all parties to the conflict take all feasible measures to protect civilians from the impact of the fighting.

The rules of war obligate all parties to a conflict to do their utmost to prevent harm to civilians. Deliberate targeting of civilians is expressly prohibited.

On Tuesday, 12 June 2012, Israel’s Civil Administration distributed demolition orders to over 50 temporary structures in the Palestinian village of Susiya in the South Hebron Hills. Residents were given three days, until 15 June 2012, to appeal the orders through the Civil Administration’s Supreme Planning Council. Residents are planning to submit their opposition today (14 June 2012).If the demolition orders are carried out, this will be the third time that Israel has tried to expel the residents of Susiya from their lands.

Mahmoud a-Sarsak, age 25, a resident of the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, has been imprisoned by Israel for the last three years under the Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law of 2002. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel report that a-Sarsak, who has been on a hunger strike for some 80 days, has lost a great deal of weight and that his life is in imminent danger.

On Saturday (26 May 2012) dozens of Israeli settlers from the Yitzhar settlement invaded lands of the Palestinian village, ‘Urif in the northern West Bank. According to video documentation and field observations, the settlers threw stones and set fire to wheat fields and olive groves in a number of locations, causing large fires that burned wheat and olive groves. Youths from the Palestinian village came to put out the fires, and some of them also threw stones at the settlers. Some twenty settlers accompanied by about five armed members of the Yitzhar settlement security squad charged a group of Palestinian youths who had confronted them. The settlers fired live ammunition injuring a Palestinian man. All of these events took place in the presence of dozens of Israeli soldiers.

B’Tselem USA Director Uri Zaki joined fellow experts on policy in Syria, Libya, Israel, and the occupied territories this week on a panel at the “Enriching the Middle East’s Economic Future Conference,” also known as the 12th Doha Forum. The panel addressed minority affairs in Middle Eastern countries.

On 16 May 2012, on behalf of B’Tselem, Attorney Gabi Lasky filed an appeal with the State Attorney against the decision by the Central District Attorney’s Office to close the file on the fatal shooting of Firas Qasqas by reserve-duty soldiers some four years ago. The appeal was submitted after an examination of the material from the investigation into this case revealed concrete evidence that necessitates an indictment for the negligent shooting of Qasqas, and that therefore, the decision to close the case is unreasonable and should be reversed.

In June 2011, B’Tselem and the Guardian produced "East Jerusalem: Six Voices". A project in which six Palestinians and Israelis were given cameras to create video diaries of their lives, under the shadow of the settlement enterprise in occupied East Jerusalem. The diaries offer a glimpse into the impact of the volatile reality on their lives.

This morning (15 May 2012), the media reported that an agreement was reached between Israel and representatives of the Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, following a hunger strike that lasted some six weeks. One of the demands of the strikers was the resumption of family visits for the prisoners from Gaza, which were stopped in 2007. The ongoing denial of the rights of prisoners and detainees from Gaza to received family visits is a very serious blow to their right to family life.