The President of the UN Human Rights Council, Shameem Khan, has announced the appointment of three members of the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, to investigate “alleged violations” in international humanitarian and human rights law since April.

The commission has been formed according to the Human Rights Council resolution dated 27 May. The resolution was issued at an emergency special session in response to the violence that saw scores of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces, including Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem.

The three members include former South African judge Navi Pillay, who was the UN High Commissioner for human rights between 2008 and 2014; she will lead the commission. The other members are India’s Miloon Kothari and Australian Chris Sidoti.

The commission will report on its main activities on an annual basis to the Human Rights Council. Its first report is scheduled to be presented at the council’s 50th session in June next year.

As per the resolution, the commission is tasked with probing “all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.”

Israel rejected the 27 May resolution. Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, described it as “anti-Semitic” and the commission as “outrageous”.

READ: Israel’s colonial expansion does not happen in a political vacuum

(Source / 23.07.2021)

Ben & Jerry’s decision to end sales of its ice cream in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has been welcomed by many, with supporters of the Palestinian cause announcing on social media their decision to increase consumption of the household brand’s product. Israeli officials, however, have blasted the move denouncing it as no less than a “new form of terrorism,” highlighting further what is being mocked as a hysterical reaction by leaders of the occupation state.

Newly sworn in Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, who is supposed to represent Israel’s so called moderate camp, having served as chairman of the Labor Party, joined the chorus of outrage. “The boycott of Israel is a new sort of terrorism, economic terrorism,” Herzog is reported saying by Haaretz at a ceremony commemorating prime ministers and presidents of Israel who have passed away. “Terrorism tries to harm the citizens of Israel and the economy of Israel. We must oppose this boycott and terrorism in any form.”

Herzog added that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel “does not seek peace, and wishes to undermine the very existence of the State of Israel. It takes aim at the Israeli economy.”

Founded in 2005 following the 2004 International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling on the Separation Wall, which was declared illegal by the world body, the Palestinian led BDS movement undertook the campaign to end Israel’s occupation and its apartheid regime. Since its founding, BDS has gone from strength to strength especially as Israel’s status as a state practicing apartheid has become impossible to dispute following the publication of several high-profile reports.

READ: Don’t look away from Palestine

In April, the pre-eminent human rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) joined a host of other prominent groups to declare that Israel is committing the crimes of apartheid and persecution.

Prior to HRW’s report, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem branded Israel an “apartheid” state that “promotes and perpetuates Jewish supremacy between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.” Echoing the UN’s 2017 report which concluded that Israel was practising apartheid, B’Tselem dismissed the popular misconception that it is a democracy within the Green (1949 Armistice) Line.

In an article last month, two former Israeli ambassadors to South Africa also denounced Israel as an apartheid state by drawing parallels with the system of racial segregation in South Africa which ended in 1994.

The message has also been embraced by American Jews, a quarter of whom believe Israel is an apartheid state, according to a recent report.

Herzog’s declaration of a peaceful protest against Israel’s occupation as a form of terrorism highlighted what’s seen as growing hysteria in the occupation state over BDS. On Monday, a furious Israeli foreign Minister Yair Lapid weighed in on the decision, taking to Twitter to accuse the popular ice cream outlet of “surrendering to anti-semitism”, and said he would be asking 30 US states — which have passed anti-BDS legislation — to act against Ben & Jerry’s. Some of his Twitter followers pointed out how Israel telling the US what to do was not a good look for the occupation state.

(Source / 23.07.2021)

The Israeli Ministry of the Interior is refusing to process family unification applications submitted by Palestinian men married to Israeli citizens, although the occupation authorities are required by law to consider these requests after the expiration of the extended Citizenship and Entry to Israel Law.

According to Haaretz, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked directed the Population and Immigration Authority not to process applications pending the formulation of a policy to handle this file. This follows the failure of the coalition government to extend the temporary law regulating the ban on family unification requests.

The temporary order, which denies Palestinians married to Israeli women the right to obtain civil status, was enacted as a provisional amendment to the citizenship law during the second Intifada in 2003, since when it has been extended every year. However, the term of the law expired about two weeks ago, after the government failed to obtain a majority in the Knesset to extend it.

READ: The law has failed but the war on Palestinian love continues

The amendment of the Family Reunification Law restricted the right of concerned families to be unified, only allowing them at most to obtain a temporary residence permit in Israel in accordance with their work authorisations. In any case, Palestinians cannot apply for family unification before the age of 35, with Israel arguing that there are “security” considerations given the allegations that many Palestinians took part in “terrorist activities” after obtaining a family unification permit.

According to Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, “The law is one of the tools designed to ensure a Jewish majority in the State of Israel, which should not be hidden in its essence.”

As long as the temporary order is in effect, any request submitted to the Israeli interior ministry will be automatically rejected, unless the minister decides otherwise. Once the unification laissez-passer expires, the situation must be reversed, as each request must be examined separately by the domestic security agency. In the event that the request does not generate any security concerns, it is approved automatically unless the interior minister decides otherwise.

Many Palestinian families have asked the Population and Immigration Authority to upgrade their authorisations to full citizenship for those under 35. However, they have not received any responses. The families have threatened to take the authority to court.

(Source / 23.07.2021)