• Manal Alsaafin holds a photograph of her and her husband, Abdullah, whom Israeli authorities have prevented from returning to his home in the West Bank since 2009 on the basis that they have “registered” him as a resident of the Gaza Strip, not the West Bank.
    © 2012 Bill Van Esveld/Human Rights Watch
    Israel: End Restrictions on Palestinian Residency
    Israeli policies on Palestinian residency have arbitrarily denied thousands of Palestinians the ability to live in, and travel to and from, the West Bank and Gaza. Israel should immediately stop denying or cancelling the residency of Palestinians and close family members with deep ties to the West Bank and Gaza, and end blanket bans on processing their applications for residency.
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Israel and the Occupied Territories

  • Israel: End Restrictions on Palestinian Residency
    Feb 5, 2012
    Israeli policies on Palestinian residency have arbitrarily denied thousands of Palestinians the ability to live in, and travel to and from, the West Bank and Gaza. Israel should immediately stop denying or cancelling the residency of Palestinians and close family members with deep ties to the West Bank and Gaza, and end blanket bans on processing their applications for residency.
  • Israel: High Court Rulings Undermine Human Rights
    Jan 30, 2012

    Recent decisions by Israel’s high court aim to legitimize clear violations of Israel’s international legal obligations. In one decision, the court disregarded international law prohibiting discrimination, and in another, it ignored international law on the use of resources in an occupied territory. Israel should annul a law preventing Israeli citizens from living with their Palestinian spouses and end policies that permit private Israeli companies to strip rocks and other construction materials from quarries in the occupied West Bank for their own economic gain.

  • Gaza / West Bank: Investigate Attacks on Rights Defenders
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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.
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