The year 1998 marked Israel's fiftieth jubilee anniversary, the
Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe), and the fiftieth anniversary of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a testimony to humanity
following a war and atrocities that encompassed much of the
globe.
The year 1998 also saw the fifth anniversary of the beginning of
the peace process which sought to resolve the 1948 Arab-Israeli
conflict. Towards the end of the year, the Wye River Memorandum was
signed (October 23, 1998), after almost two years of public
disagreements between the negotiating parties. The striking
characteristic of the memorandum is security: the language of the
agreement, in general, and the security arrangements, in
particular, further consolidated the preponderance of security
concerns and political considerations over human rights in the Oslo
process.
Five years after the signing of the Declaration of Principles in
Washington, D.C., on September 13, 1993, human-rights violations
remain a constant feature of life for the Palestinians in the
occupied territories. Indeed, in some areas, there has even been a
deterioration of the situation. Since the beginning of the Oslo
Accords, there has been a marked increase in the demolition of
Palestinian homes. In the last five years, Israel has, furthermore,
accelerated large-scale land confiscation and settlement activity
with a view to creating facts on the ground before the final-status
negotiations. A blatant violation of human rights, collective
punishment in the form of closures and super-closures continue to
be imposed, sometimes preventing over 50,000 Palestinian laborers
from getting to their places of work in Israel.
In 1998, these policies were subject to scrutiny by U.N.
institutions, including human-rights treaty bodies. In its report
of August 18, 1998, the Human Rights Committee expressed concern
over the demolition of homes, the use of torture and the number of
Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces. The U.N. Committee
against Torture (CAT) rejected Israel's claim that it had special
security obligations that should permit the use of torture and
found Israel's application of "moderate physical pressure" to be in
violation of the Convention. The Committee on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination (CERD) stated the Israeli settlements in the
occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, were illegal.
Killings and Injuries - Violating the Right to
Life
Israeli soldiers or extremist Jewish settlers killed 39
Palestinians during 1998. These deaths were caused either by
shooting, stabbings, torture during interrogation, delays at
checkpoints, refusal to provide necessary treatment to detainees or
denial to Israeli ambulances access into Palestinian territories
within the boundaries of East Jerusalem.
House Demolitions
The Israeli authorities continued their policy of house demolitions
despite the many condemnation campaigns organized by Palestinian
local human-rights organizations (HROs) and Israeli peace groups.
In 1998, at least 163 houses, among which figure some tents and
wooden shacks, were demolished in various districts of the West
Bank. The total number of houses demolished by the Israeli
authorities since the signing of Oslo until the end of 1998 comes
to 702.
The Israeli government continues with its policy of house
demolitions in Arab Jerusalem and the areas surrounding settlements
and bypass roads. The Israeli authorities ordered the evacuation of
35 Jahalin Bedouin families on February 16, 1998, from their
dwellings near the Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. Bedouin
dwellings were attacked several times to force them to leave the
area after the demolition of their tents and shacks. On February
12, 1998, the High Court issued a precautionary order against the
evacuation of 430 Bedouins, including 150 children, from the area
near Ma'ale Adumim.
Settlements
The Israeli government attempts to strengthen its grip over the
occupied territories by seizing land, expanding settlements or
establishing new ones. It is difficult sometimes to determine the
exact land area confiscated, due simply to Israeli unwillingness to
provide accurate data. However, after the signature of the Wye
River Memorandum, land confiscation and settlement activities
increased significantly in the occupied West Bank.
In 1998, the Israeli government submitted detailed plans for 14
projects to expand already existing settlements. Of these, 8 have
already been completed at the expense of 8,460 dunums of
Palestinian land. Expansions led to the establishment of 9,000 new
housing units. In the same period, a total of 11 new settlement
sites were established, 5 of which are in the area surrounding
Nablus, 3 near Ramallah, 1 near Jenin, 1 near Hebron and the last
one near Bethlehem. Three new industrial zones were approved,
involving the confiscation of some 3,500 dunums. A further 2,593
dunums were confiscated for a variety of Israeli projects, ranging
from gas stations to a commercial center. The government also
announced its approval of 29 bypass roads to cut through
Palestinian land throughout the occupied territories.
Bypass Roads
Following the signing of the Wye River Memorandum, large-scale
plans to construct bypass roads on West Bank land began to be
implemented. These roads are intended to link the Israeli
settlements of the occupied territories "by-passing" Arab villages
and neighborhoods. The Israeli government implemented 18
road-construction projects, using its prerogative to seize land
"for military purposes." The area of land seized for these roads is
7,879 dunums. Research shows that the percentage of settlers in the
West Bank and Gaza has risen to 12.4 percent of the total
Palestinian population, i.e., 169,339 settlers, of whom 163,173
live in the West Bank and 6,166 live in the Gaza Strip. The number
of settlers in Jerusalem and its outskirts has risen to
180,000.
During 1998, Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers uprooted and
burnt around 16,780 trees, most of which were olive trees. Three
thousand two hundred of them were uprooted and burnt by the
settlers and 13,580 by the Israeli army.
The Israeli authorities burnt land by using toxic pesticides to
kill plants and trees on thousands of dunums of Palestinian land.
Besides being a blatant violation of international law and
human-rights principles, these actions inflicted severe damage on
the environment and Palestinian lands and properties, which
represent the main source of income for hundreds of Palestinian
families.
Jerusalem
Israeli measures against occupied Arab Jerusalem continue in order
to expel Palestinians from Jerusalem and to replace them with
Jewish inhabitants. The policy applied includes confiscation of ID
cards, removal of residency rights, an unjust tax and social
benefit system, denial of building permits, and the demolition of
houses. In 1998, the Israeli authorities demolished 43 Palestinian
houses in Jerusalem. The purpose of this policy is to secure
territorial and demographic control of the city and to formalize
the Israeli occupation.
As part of its official policy to Judaize the eastern side of
Jerusalem, the Israeli municipality began digging a long tunnel
linking West Jerusalem with one of the biggest Jewish settlements,
Ma'ale Adumim, south of Arab East Jerusalem. An estimated $20
million have been allocated for the completion of this project. The
Israeli authorities have already confiscated more than 4,000 dunums
of land from nearby villages.
Hebron
In 1998, settlers and Israeli forces continued their violations
against the 140,000 Palestinian residents of the city of Hebron.
Armed Jewish settlers have been terrorizing Hebronites: 448
assaults by soldiers and settlers are said to have taken place
throughout the year, of which 13 were directed at schools and 6 at
places of worship. Ten Palestinians were shot dead in Hebron; 414
were injured and 243 detained. Twenty-one homes were demolished.
Curfews and closures have been imposed as a measure of collective
punishment, without the least consideration of the residents' basic
needs and rights, such as access to medical treatment, water, food
and education. In their policy of collective punishment, the
Israeli authorities imposed 18 such measures, of which 5 were
blockades; 5 were curfews on the southern side of the city, over a
period of 51 days; and 8 were closures on parts of the city.
Schools were closed, hospitals in the city suffered from a lack of
medicaments and water, and had to function with only 50 percent of
their usual work force, ambulances were required to obtain special
permits for the transfer of emergency cases, and pregnant women
have often been forced to travel by foot across the mountains to
reach hospitals so as to deliver their babies.
Prisoners
The year 1998 ended with 2,200 Palestinian political prisoners
still in Israeli jails, of whom 97 are administrative detainees
still incarcerated in 12 Israeli prisons, and 130 are from 8 other
Arab countries (Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Sudan
and Algeria). Despite the bilateral agreements that stipulated the
release of political prisoners, Israel continues to hold them in
custody. The Wye Memorandum provided for the release of 750
prisoners in three stages, but only 100 among the first 250
prisoners released were political prisoners. An estimated 200
detainees have been in these prisons for longer than 10 years, 10
of whom have served more than 20 years. By the end of 1998, there
were eight women detainees. These prisoners have complained about
not being held separately from common-law prisoners and have
requested better medical treatment. There are currently
approximately 350 detainees suffering from different diseases, and
who are in urgent need of intensive medical care. Seventy prisoners
are in need of surgery.
Torture
On Sunday, January 11, 1998, in an exceptional hearing with a panel
of nine judges, in a five to four vote, the Israeli High Court
again postponed its decision to ban the use of torture. The Court
heard the case of Abdel Rahman Ismail, who has been held and
interrogated since November 13, 1997. They refused to give a
temporary injunction against the use of torture during his ongoing
interrogation and decided to rule later on the general use of
torture.
Lawyers stated that hooding, shackling in painful positions on a
very small slanted stool, sleep deprivation and constant blaring
music for periods of up to five days constituted torture, forbidden
by international law. In December 1997, the Israeli intelligence
services had admitted to routinely using these methods during
interrogations, to extract confessions.
Violation of the Right to Freedom of Expression and
Opinion
Many Palestinian journalists have been prevented from carrying out
their work, while others have been prevented from moving freely. In
many cases, their equipment has been confiscated or broken. Some
have been shot. At least 18 reporters are known to have been
injured in attacks by Israeli security forces in 1998.