Publications

The Separation Barrier causes severe violations of human rights, and gave rise to popular Palestinian resistance. In a new position paper, B'Tselem examines the army's increased efforts to quell these demonstrations, in light of the right to demonstrate.

A report analyzing the mechanisms Israel uses to gain control of West Bank land for building settlements. The report, which is based on official state information, shows that one-fifth of the settlements' built-up area is private Palestinian land and that the settlements control 42 percent of West Bank land.

B'Tselem's annual report on human rights in the Occupied Territories, covering the 16-month period from January 2009 to April 2010. The report surveys the events since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead. One and a half years after the operation, the allegations regarding breaches of international humanitarian law by Israel and Hamas have yet to be properly investigated.

The report reveals that as far back as the 1970s, Israel planned to annex Ma’ale Adummim. To do this, it expropriated over the years tens of thousands of dunams of Palestinian land and expelled hundreds of Beduin who were living there. Implementation of plans to expand the settlement will destroy north-south territorial contiguity in the West Bank and impede realization of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

According to the report Israel is holding 335 Palestinians in lengthy administrative detention. Nine Gazans are being held pursuant to the Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law. The organizations call on Israel to release the administrative detainees or prosecute them in accord with due process.

The report warns about the danger inherent in neglecting wastewater treatment in the West Bank. The report criticizes both Israel and the Palestinian Authority for their failures, which have harmed the health and future water supply of all residents of Israel and the West Bank.

B'Tselem issued a position paper detailing the guidelines of the necessary Israeli investigation of its conduct during the operation in Gaza. B'Tselem's initial survey of the military operation calls into question Israeli statements that the military acted according to International Humanitarian Law and that responsibility for the harm to the civilian population rests exclusively with Hamas.

B'Tselem's annual report surveys a wide range of Israeli human rights violations in the OPT in 2008, until Operation Cast Lead. As house demolition and lack of law enforcement on violent settlers continued, Israel largely refrained from holding members of the security forces accountable for their actions.

The report reveals that, based on the Sasson report criteria that the government adopted, Ofra is an illegal outpost. 58% of the settlement's built-up area is registered under the names of Palestinians in the Land Registrar. Also, no area of jurisdiction has ever been defined for the settlement, and no outline plan has ever been approved for it, making the hundreds of houses built there illegal.

A report on Israel's blocking of Palestinian access to land around settlements lying east of the Separation Barrier. The report reveals that state authorities and settlers have de-facto annexed rings of land amounting to tens of thousands of dunams to these settlements.

Israel is taking unilateral measures to institutionalize and perpetuate a new factual and legal reality of separation between residents of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, while severing the interdependent social, economic and cultural ties between the two groups,1 infringing their rights and impeding the possibility that the Palestinian people will realize their right to self determination.

According to the report, the number of Israelis and Palestinians killed in clashes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip dropped. However, there has been deterioration in many other measures of the human rights situation in the Occupied Territories.

Since the beginning of the second intifada, in September 2000, Israel has imposed restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank that are unprecedented in scope and time. As a result, the fundamental right of West Bank Palestinians to freedom of movement, their exercise of which was limited in any event, has become a privilege that Israel extends to them as it deems fit. Indeed, Palestinian travel in the West Bank is now an exception, which must be justified to the Israeli authorities, and almost every trip entails uncertainty, friction with soldiers, much waiting, and often great expense.

Israel's policy of segregation in the center of Hebron led to the closing of at least 1,014 commercial establishments during the Intifada. At least 659 Palestinian families had to leave their homes. These are the finding of a new report issued today by B'Tselem and The Association for civil rights in Israel.

Despite the so-called “disengagement” in August 2005 and the recent internal violence, the Gaza Strip remains subject to Israeli control. This publication surveys the
various spheres of Israeli control in the Gaza Strip, and the implications
of this control. So long as Israel retains extensive control over Gaza, it cannot disengage from its responsibility.