• Gaza / West Bank: Investigate Attacks on Rights Defenders
    Press release
    Jan 19, 2012
    Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) should investigate recent brutal attacks against human rights defenders in Gaza and the West Bank and hold those responsible to account.
  • Record Number of Palestinians Displaced by Demolitions as Quartet Continues to Talk
    Press release
    Dec 13, 2011

    Israeli authorities have stepped up unlawful demolitions in the West Bank including East Jerusalem over the past year, displacing a record number of Palestinian families from their homes, an international coalition of 20 leading aid agencies and human rights groups said today. The statement comes as the Middle East Quartet meets in Jerusalem in its latest effort to revive peace talks. 

  • Israel: Lift Travel Ban on Human Rights Defender
    Press release
    Nov 29, 2011

    Israeli authorities in the West Bank should lift the travel ban imposed since 2006 on West Bank resident Shawan Jabarin, the director of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B’Tselem said today. Israeli authorities violated Jabarin’s due process rights in imposing the ban and have not produced any evidence that would justify continuing to restrict him from travel, the groups said.

  • Israel: New Commander Should Protect Palestinians From Settler Violence
    Press release
    Nov 21, 2011

    The newly-appointed Israeli military commander in the West Bank should end the military’s hands-off approach to settler attacks against Palestinians and Palestinian property. The new commander should end the use of excessive force by security forces against Palestinians responding to settler attacks.

  • Israel: Follow Prisoner Exchange by Ending Blockade
    Press release
    Oct 18, 2011
    Israel and Hamas should follow the announced prisoner exchange with measures to improve human rights. Israel should end its punitive closure of Gaza, which Israeli leaders have said was partly to pressure Hamas to release captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, but which extends far beyond denying military shipments to Hamas. Hamas and Israel should also ensure that everyone in their custody is treated humanely.
  • Israel: Charge or Release Al Jazeera Bureau Chief
    Press release
    Sep 24, 2011
    Israel should immediately release the journalist Samer Allawi or charge him with a criminal offense. The Israeli military arrested Allawi, a Palestinian who heads Al Jazeera’s office in Afghanistan, on August 9, 2011, as he tried to leave the West Bank after visiting his family. Military judges have repeatedly extended Allawi’s detention “for purposes of questioning” on the basis of confidential evidence that he could not see or challenge, and denied him access to his lawyer for 12 days.
  • Israel's Misguided Crackdown Strategy
    Commentary
    Sep 23, 2011
    Contradicting fears of bloodshed around the Palestinian initiative at the United Nations, a recent Israeli intelligence briefing said that while some West Bank Palestinians may protest, they do not want violence, Haaretz reported. But whatever Israeli forces’ views of Palestinian protests, Israel should revoke the military laws and end the prosecutions that penalize Palestinians for holding even peaceful demonstrations, and change Israel’s approach to using force against nonviolent protesters.
  • Israel/Gaza: Unlawful Attacks Kill, Injure Civilians
    Press release
    Sep 11, 2011
    Palestinian armed groups in Gaza and Israeli military forces should end attacks that fail to distinguish civilians from military targets and should limit harm to civilians.
  • Gaza: Stop Harassing Activists
    Press release
    Aug 22, 2011
    Hamas authorities in Gaza should halt their summonses, interrogations, arbitrary detentions, and other harassment apparently aimed at intimidating civil society activists into silence, Human Rights Watch said today. Hamas should respect their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
  • Israel: Attacks in South Unlawfully Target Civilians
    Press release
    Aug 18, 2011
    Attacks by unidentified gunmen that killed at least six Israeli civilians and wounded dozens more in southern Israel on August 18, 2011, were an egregious assault on the right to life.