Publications

The report surveys the broad spectrum of issues regarding the Israeli authorities' human rights record in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the past year, the 44th year of the Israeli occupation. An interactive version of the report is available online and distributed through social media. The report documents a sharp increase in the number of uninvolved Palestinians killed by the Israeli security forces in the Gaza Strip in 2011. There was also an increase in the number of Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians, compared to 2010.

The report documents how security forces have denied residents of a-Nabi Saleh their right to protest and have prohibited demonstrations. In dispersing the demonstrations, the forces use tear gas and other means inside the village itself, harming the villagers. With demonstrations likely to occur following the declaration of a Palestinian state, B'Tselem calls on Israel’s security forces to respect the Palestinians’ right to protest.

A report analyzing the mechanisms Israel uses to gain control of West Bank land for building settlements. The report, which is based on official state information, shows that one-fifth of the settlements' built-up area is private Palestinian land and that the settlements control 42 percent of West Bank land.

The report reveals that as far back as the 1970s, Israel planned to annex Ma’ale Adummim. To do this, it expropriated over the years tens of thousands of dunams of Palestinian land and expelled hundreds of Beduin who were living there. Implementation of plans to expand the settlement will destroy north-south territorial contiguity in the West Bank and impede realization of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

The report reveals that, based on the Sasson report criteria that the government adopted, Ofra is an illegal outpost. 58% of the settlement's built-up area is registered under the names of Palestinians in the Land Registrar. Also, no area of jurisdiction has ever been defined for the settlement, and no outline plan has ever been approved for it, making the hundreds of houses built there illegal.

Israel's policy of segregation in the center of Hebron led to the closing of at least 1,014 commercial establishments during the Intifada. At least 659 Palestinian families had to leave their homes. These are the finding of a new report issued today by B'Tselem and The Association for civil rights in Israel.

The report deals with the route of the separation barrier showing that the route was based on considerations relating to settlement expansion and control of land, and not on security reasons, as the government has continuously claimed.