The Israeli Special Appeals Committee for land seizure under emergency law released its verdict last Wednesday 24/04/2013, in the case of the Cremisan Valley against the separation wall. The verdict ruled in favor of the proposed second route which leaves the convent on the Palestinian side of the wall. With this decision the appeals submitted by Advocate Ghayyath Nasser who represented the land owners in the Cremisan Valley and the lawyer of the Society of St. Yves, Advocate Manal Hazzan-Abu Sinni, who represented the nuns of the Salesian Convent, were all together rejected. The decision came out two months after the final hearing on 12th of February and after seven years of proceedings.

We, the undersigned organizations, strongly denounce the decision of the Israeli government to extend the validity of the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law of the year 2003 for one more year. The law puts severe restrictions on the family unification process of Palestinians and totally forbids the application for the citizens of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran for family unification.

Between the 17th and the 20th of March 2013, Advocate Raffoul Rofa, Director of St. Yves, travelled to Geneva along with St. Yves’ client Mr. Atta Jaber to attend the 22nd Human Rights council regular session.

On the 18th of March, the session held under agenda item 7 “the Human Rights Situation in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories” started with a statement by Madame Christine Chanet, Head of the Fact Finding Mission, on Israeli settlements followed by several speeches by different countries and human rights organizations including the representative of the State of Palestine commenting on the FFM. Most of the speeches were in favor of the findings in the report of the FFM, except for UN watch and the association of Jewish lawyers who were not in favor of the report.

18 March 2013
We, the undersigned Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations, state as follows:

1.   In 2012, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Raquel Rolnik and the International Fact-Finding Mission on Israeli Settlements (FFM) conducted independent inquiries into Israeli policies regarding housing and the settlements to be presented during the 22nd session of the UN Human Rights Council. Special Rapporteur Rolnik was granted entry to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), while members of the FFM were not; they held their meetings in Amman. Both reports highlight Israel’s forcible transfer of Palestinians through the implementation of discriminatory policies and practices. Moreover, the two reports underscore Israel’s serious violations of international law, including grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and emphasize Israel’s pervasive violations of the human rights of Palestinians, such as the rights to self-determination, non-discrimination, adequate housing and an adequate standard of living.