|
B’Tselem began to prepare for this crisis back in February. When the forecasts became ominous and movement restrictions were imposed in Israel and the Occupied Territories, we adjusted quickly to the new reality and implemented safety measures to ensure that we could continue our reporting work: our field researchers are now carrying out their complicated, sensitive work from home and provide updates to the world about their reality.
While people all over the world are facing significant movement restrictions for the first time, for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, restrictions of movement have long been the rule, rather than the exception. As we all look forward to the end of this crisis, we know that for the Palestinians, it will not mean renewed freedom of movement but rather its deprivation for the old unacceptable reasons.
Here is some of what B’Tselem has been covering in recent weeks:
- On 26 March, at 7:30 A.M. representatives of the Civil Administration, with military jeeps, a bulldozer and trucks appeared at Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley and confiscated poles and sheeting that were meant to form tents for a clinic and an emergency response center for the community. As the world battles an unprecedented and paralyzing healthcare crisis, Israel’s military is devoting time and resources to harassing the most vulnerable Palestinian communities in the West Bank, that Israel has attempted to drive out of the area for decades. This pandemic does not discriminate based on nationality, religion or ethnicity, and even now – and especially now – Israel is responsible for the health and wellbeing of the five million Palestinians who live under its control. The Civil Administration announced that for the time being it would not carry out demolition orders against populated structures. However, this commitment (assuming it will be kept) is far from the minimal requirement for an occupying power during a pandemic. It is horrifying that even under the present circumstances, Israel does not stop all demolitions and acknowledge its responsibility for providing the people under its care with housing, water, electricity and healthcare services.
- Breaking windows of homes in the middle of the night, violently invading a residential tent, attacking passersby and trying to snatch a toddler from his grandfather, vandalizing crops, slashing tires and spraying hate slogans – these are only some examples of violent acts recently committed by settlers, who continue to attack Palestinians and damage their property through the West Bank, as if there were no coronavirus. See our special blog, devoted to these acts of violence at this time. As we have repeatedly documented over the years, such attacks are backed and encouraged by Israel’s authorities.
- Despite the unprecedented health crisis requiring residents of Israel and the Occupied Territories to practice extreme social distancing, Israeli Police continued its harassment “operation" in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of al-’Esawiyah, day and night.The nightly raids, which include false arrests of minors, have been going on for a year. The “operation” entails Border Police and Special Patrol Units entering the crowded neighborhood for no reason and creating – at their initiative and by their very presence – friction with the residents. They use the clashes that ensue to justify committing further acts of violence.
- Shocking video footage published online drew harsh reactions and clarified the lows to which Israel is willing to stoop to carry out its policy of snatching Palestinian bodies as bargaining chips. Muhammad a-Na’am, a 27-year-old Islamic Jihad operative, was killed by an Israeli missile near the Gaza perimeter fence on the morning of 23 February 2020. What followed was captured on camera: like a chilling videogame taken out of the chaotic Gaza reality, a bloody struggle ensued between a bulldozer, a tank, armed soldiers, Islamic Jihad operatives, paramedics, and innocent residents. In the middle lay the dead body of a-Na’am, whose evacuation was prevented by Israeli soldiers who shot live fire at the feet of anyone who tried to approach it. The result was harsh and predictable: two Palestinians shot in their limbs and one dead, his body mutilated and carried by a bulldozer into Israel to serve as a bargaining chip in future deals.
- Four boys went for a drive. They ended their outing huddled in a car, bullets whistling past them, and then were interrogated for two hours on suspicion of an “attempted car-ramming attack.” The Israeli army announced that it launched a military criminal investigation into the soldiers who ran the car off the road and shot at it for no reason, but there is little cause for optimism: in the realm of the occupation, such investigations are no more than a sophisticated whitewash mechanism.
- Bader Nafle, a 19-year-old Palestinian, was killed this month during demonstrations against the Trump plan near the Separation Barrier. The bullet was shot by a soldier who opened the door of the fortified jeep he was in while Nafle was dozens of meters away. See our investigation into the circumstances of Nafle’s death here.
In the media:
Can Gaza cope with Covid-19 after years under lockdown?, Hazem Balousha & Oliver Holmes on The Guardian.
Coronavirus would be catastrophic for us in the Gaza Strip, Olfat al-Kurd, B’Tselem’s field researcher in the Gaza Strip, on The Times of Israel.
Even under pandemic, Israel can’t treat its subjects as equals, Hagai El-Ad, executive director of B'Tselem, on +972 Magazine.
Israeli demolitions and police raids on Palestinian towns ‘threaten public health’ as coronavirus cases soar, Bel Trew on Independent.
Israel’s coronavirus lockdown is blocking human rights work, but not abuses, Judith Sudilovsky on +972 Magazine.
Only the International Criminal Court in The Hague Can Restrain Israel, an Op-Ed by Hagai El-Ad, executive director of B'Tselem on Haaretz.
B'Tselem Team
|
