Thread by @AhmedAbofoul

🚨 BREAKING: The Human Rights Committee issues its concluding observation on Israel's 5th periodic report, expressing its deep concerns about Israel's discriminatory laws, policies & practices, including structural discrimination & racial segregation, i.e., APARTHIED.

THREAD 🧵

1. Although the Committee didn't explicitly mention Aparthied, everything in its report did. For example, it reiterated the 2020 recommendations of the Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination. I will provide some highlights here but make sure to read the 11-page doc.

2. The Committee reaffirmed the applicability of the ICCPR on the OPT including in situations of occupation. It further called on Israel to interpret the ICCPR in "good faith" and to review its legal position of non-applicability.

3. The Committee expressed its deep concerns about the "systematic and structural discrimination against non-Jews" and called on Israel to "review and amend [its Basic Law] with a view to eliminating its discriminatory effect [..] and ensuring equal treatment of all persons."

4. The Committee reiterated its position on the continued construction and expansion of the Israeli settlements, the transfer of population into the OPT and the continued construction of the Apartheid wall.

5. The Committee also raised its concern about Israel's Counter-Terrorism Law and its use to criminalise legitimate work of Palestinian CSOs, highlighting the designation of 6 Palestinian CSOs as “terrorists” and the revocation of HRDs' permanent residency.

#StandWithThe6

6. The Committee expressed its regrets concerning the "lack of lack of updated information" on the investigation into previous human rights violations in the Gaza Strip through Israel's successive military offensives. 2008-09, 2012 and 2014.

#EndImpunity

7. The Committee reiterated its concerns regarding the increase in numbers and severity of settler violence, the complicity of Israel's security forces and the very low rate of indictments and convictions, "fostering a general climate of impunity."

8. The Committee expressed its concerns about the "continuing and consistent" excessive use of lethal force against Palestinian civilians, highlighting the killing of 183, incl. children, paramedics, journalists, and persons with disabilities, during the Great March of Return.

9. The committee stressed Israel's continued use of torture and its failure to adopt a "bill on the prohibition of torture," despite indicating in its 2017 report that it was in "the final stage of drafting" the bill.

Israel's delegation was also lying👇

10. The Committee also noted Israel's "widespread and systematic practice of torture and ill-treatment" of Palestinians during detention, including children and detainees with mental or psychosocial disabilities.

11. The committee also highlighted Israel's inhuman policy of withholding Palestinian bodies to be used as a bargaining chip, which amounts to "collective punishment and to torture and ill-treatment."

For more, watch @alhaq_org film "Take me to my Grave":

12. The committee also spotlighted Israel's "widespread practice of arbitrary arrests and detention of Palestinians, including journalists, human rights defenders and children." Highlighting cases of "administrative detention" as the case of human rights defender Salah Hammoudi.

13. The Committee also highlighted Israel's restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement, including its "discriminatory permit regime and designation of access-restricted areas" in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

14. It further highlighted Israel's "long-standing blockade of air, sea and land of the Gaza Strip", which amounts to "collective punishment." In addition to the delays and denials of exit permits for patients in need of medical treatment.

15. Discussing Israel's demolition and forced eviction in the OPT, the Committee emphasised that the "Palestinians have been systematically deprived of their land and housing rights for decades." Further, it concluded that Israel's policies amount to "racial segregation "

16. The Committee reiterated that Israel continues to prohibit family reunification of Palestinian citizens of Israeli with their Palestinian spouses living in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. It further emphasised the effect of Israel's discriminatory policies on Palestinian women.

17. The Committee also expressed its concerns about the effect of Israel's discriminatory legislations (incl. electoral regulations and laws concerning political parties) on the right of its Palestinian citizens to participate in public affairs.

#EndIsraeliApartheid

18. Here is more information on @alhaq_org and partners' engagement with the Human Rights Committee on Israel’s Review.

19. Finally, If it looks like an Apartheid regime, sounds like an Apartheid regime, and operates like an Apartheid regime, then it most definitely is an Apartheid regime.

#EndIsraeliApartheid
#EndIsraelsApartheid

The Human Rights Committee Concluding Observation on Israel's 5th periodic report:

tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/tr…