[WCUSP] UN committee urges Israel to revoke the Citizenship law

[yvonne simmons]

+(MUST READ) UN Committee Urges Israel to Revoke the
Citizenship Law, 
Dismantle the Wall, Bind
the Jewish National Fund to Anti-Discrimination
Principles, and
Recognize the Unrecognized Villages
http://www.adalah.org/newsletter/eng/mar07/6.php

Adalah: “The UN Committee, which is composed of legal
experts, reached 
these 
concluding observations based on the principles of
anti-discrimination. 
Therefore the concluding observations constitute an
official statement 
that 
institutionalized discrimination exists in Israel.”

On 9 March 2007, the UN Committee on the Elimination
of Racial 
Discrimination (“the Committee”) issued its Concluding
Observations, 
following its review last month of Israel’s
implementation of the 
International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial 
Discrimination (“ICERD” or “the Convention”). In its
Concluding 
Observations, the Committee emphasized 25 areas of
concern and 
recommendations regarding Israel’s compliance with the
Convention 
concerning 
the rights of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel and
Palestinians 
living in 
the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
Representatives of Adalah, 
Attorney Sawsan Zaher and Rina Rosenberg, Esq., and
other Palestinian, 
Israeli and international human rights organizations
participated in 
the UN 
sessions held on 22-23 February 2007 in Geneva.

The Concluding Observations reflected numerous issues
highlighted by 
Adalah 
in its reports to the Committee noting Israel’s
violations of the 
ICERD.

A high-level delegation of 13 state representatives,
headed by Israeli 
Ambassador to the UN, Yitzhak Levanon, also
participated in the 
Committee’s 
sessions. Nevertheless, many of the questions sent in
advance to Israel 
remained unanswered, as the Committee noted at the
outset.

The main concerns and recommendations adopted by the
Committee, which 
is 
composed of eighteen independent experts including law
professors, 
lawyers 
and former judges, included:

1) The right to equality and a prohibition on racial
discrimination 
should 
be explicitly included in the Basic Law: Human Dignity
and Liberty.

2) Israel should ensure that the definition of the
state as a Jewish 
state 
does not result in any systemic distinction,
exclusion, restriction or 
preference based on race, colour, descent, or national
or ethnic origin 
in 
the enjoyment of human rights.

3) Israel should ensure “equality in the right to
return to one’s 
country 
and in the possession of property”.

4) Israel should ensure that the World Zionist
Organization, the Jewish 
Agency and the Jewish National Fund, which manage
land, housing and 
services 
exclusively for the Jewish population, are “bound by
the principle of 
non-discrimination in the exercise of their
functions.”

5) Israel should revoke the Citizenship and Entry into
Israel Law 
(Temporary 
Order) – 2003, and “ensure that restrictions on family
reunification 
are 
strictly necessary and limited in scope, and are not
applied on the 
basis of 
nationality, residency or membership of a particular
community.”

6) Israel’s policy of affording highly advantageous
benefits, 
particularly 
for housing and education, to those who perform
military service is 
incompatible with the Convention, bearing in mind that
most Arab 
citizens do 
not perform national service.

7) Israel should assess the significance and impact of
Israel Land 
Administration’s “social suitability” admission
criterion to small 
communities, as it may allow in practice for the
exclusion of Arab 
citizens 
from some State-controlled land. The Committee
recommended that Israel 
take 
all measures to ensure that State land is allocated
without 
discrimination, 
direct or indirect, based on race, colour, descent, or
national or 
ethnic 
origin.

8) Israel should assess the extent to which
discriminatory attitudes by 
employers against Arabs, scarcity of jobs near Arab
communities, and 
lack of 
daycare centers in Arab villages are a cause of high
unemployment 
rates, 
particularly for Arab women.

9) Israel should enquire into possible alternatives to
the relocation 
of 
inhabitants of unrecognized Bedouin villages in the
Negev/Naqab to 
planned 
towns, in particular through the recognition of these
villages and the 
recognition of the rights of the Bedouin to own,
develop, control and 
use 
their communal lands, territories and resources
traditionally owned or 
otherwise inhabited or used by them.

10) Israel should address concerns that the
psychometric examinations 
used 
to test aptitudes, ability and personality indirectly
discriminates 
against 
Arab citizens in accessing higher education.

11) Israel should ensure that laws and programmes be
equally devoted to 
the 
promotion of cultural institutions and the protection
of holy sites of 
both 
Jewish and other religious communities.

12) Israel should increase its efforts to prevent
racially motivated 
offences and hate speech, and ensure that relevant
criminal law 
provisions 
are effectively implemented by prosecuting
politicians, government 
officials 
and other public figures for hate speech against the
Arab minority.

13) “A high number of complaints filed by Arab
citizens against law 
enforcement officers are not properly and effectively
investigated and 
that 
the Ministry of Justice’s Police Investigations Unit
(Mahash) lacks 
independence.” The Committee regretted that Israel
provided no comments 
in 
this regard as requested or information as to whether
the persons 
responsible for the October 2000 killings have been
prosecuted and 
sentenced.

14) Israel’s position that the ICERD does not apply in
the OPT “cannot 
be 
sustained under the letter and spirit of the
Convention, or under 
international law as also affirmed by the
International Court of 
Justice.” 
Moreover “the Israeli settlements are illegal under
international law.”

15) Israel should cease the construction of the Wall
in the OPT, 
including 
in and around East Jerusalem, dismantle the structure,
and make 
reparation 
for all damage. Israel should also “give full effect”
to the 2004 
Advisory 
Opinion of the International Court of Justice.

16) Severe restrictions on the freedom of movement in
the OPT targeting 
a 
particular national or ethnic group, especially
through the wall, 
checkpoints, restricted roads and permit system, have
created hardship 
and 
have had a highly detrimental impact on the enjoyment
of human rights 
by 
Palestinians, in particular their rights to freedom of
movement, family 
life, work, education and health.

17) Different laws and practices apply to Palestinians
and to Israelis 
in 
the OPT, in particular the unequal distribution of
water resources to 
the 
detriment of Palestinians, the disproportionate
targeting of 
Palestinians in 
house demolitions, and different criminal laws leading
to prolonged 
detention and harsher punishments for Palestinians for
the same 
offences.

18) While stressing that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is an
important cultural 
and 
religious site for people living in the OPT, the
Committee urged Israel 
to 
ensure that the excavations in no way endanger the
Mosque and impede 
access 
to it.

19) Israel should increase its efforts to protect
Palestinians against 
violence perpetuated by Jewish settlers, particularly
in Hebron, and 
ensure 
that such incidents are investigated in a prompt,
transparent and 
independent manner, are prosecuted and sentenced, and
that avenues for 
redress are offered to the victims.

The Committee also recommended that Israel make its
reports and the 
Committee’s concluding observations readily available
to the public in 
both 
Hebrew and Arabic.

Israel should submit answers to questions not provided
in its 
submission and 
representations within one year, together with
information on any first 
steps taken towards implementing the Committee’s
recommendations. 
Israel 
should submit its next periodic reports and address
all points raised 
in the 
concluding observations in February 2010.

For more information, see Adalah’s Special Report on
UN CERD available 
at: 
http://www.adalah.org/eng/cerd.php

Mazin Qumsiyeh
http://qumsiyeh.org




 
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