Israel and the Occupied Territories
Families torn apart by discriminatory policies
28 July 2005
In a single day, 27 July 2005, the Israeli parliament (Knesset) passed two new laws, the Civil Wrongs/Civil Torts (Liability of the State) Law and the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, whose effect is to take discrimination against Palestinians to a new level.
In their current form both laws violate Israel’s obligations under international law, including human rights treaties to which Israel is a state party and which it is bound to uphold.
According to the new Civil Torts (Liability of the State) Law, some three and a half million Palestinians who live under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are considered “residents of a conflict zone”. As such, they are denied the right to claim compensation for death, injury, or damage to property inflicted on them by Israeli forces.
The law, which applies retroactively to incidents going back to September 2000, applies only to Palestinians – not to Israelis who reside in the Occupied Territories in violation of international law.
Previous amendments to the original Civil Torts law had already significantly restricted the ability of Palestinian victims to claim compensation. To date, the overwhelming majority of the tens of thousands of Palestinians who – through no fault of their own – have been injured, or whose property was destroyed or damaged, or whose relatives were killed as a result of unlawful actions by Israeli forces in the Occupied Territories, have received no reparation. In fact, most cases are not even investigated by the Israeli authorities and Israeli soldiers responsible for killings and other abuses of Palestinians’ rights have not been brought to justice.
The 54 Israeli Knesset members who voted in favour of the new law on 27 July took a deliberate step that discriminates against Palestinian victims. Its effect will be to deny a fundamental right to victims such as the ten children of Noha Maqadmeh, who became orphans and were rendered homeless after their pregnant mother was killed in her bed when her home collapsed as Israeli soldiers blew up a neighbouring house in the al-Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on 3 March 2003. Six nearby houses were also destroyed in the blast, leaving some 90 other people homeless and now with no prospect of any reparation for the wrong done to them.
Amnesty International reiterates its call to the Israeli government to amend both the Civil Wrongs/Civil Torts (Liability of the State) Law and the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law in order to make them non-discriminatory and bring them into line with Israel’s obligations under international law.
- 28 July 2005
AI condemns discriminatory laws passed by the Israeli Knesset MDE 15/042/2005 - 27 May 2005
Israel/Occupied Territories: Letter to Knesset Members: Do not deny redress to victims of human rights violations MDE 15/035/2005
13 July 2004
After 14 years of marriage, my husband and the father of my children has no right to sleep in our home, he has no right to kiss his daughters goodnight, no right to be there if they get sick at night...What logic is there for forcing families to go through such hell every day, year after year.
Thousands of Palestinians are being denied their fundamental right to live as a family by an Israeli law that is due for review at the end of this month. The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law bars Israelis who are married to Palestinians from the Occupied Territories from living with their spouses in Israel.
[...] Amnesty International calls on Israel to repeal the law on family unification, which discriminates against Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza and against the Palestinian citizens of Israel and residents of Jerusalem who marry them. [...]
22 July 2004
Israel/OT: Knesset's approval of discriminatory law unacceptable
Amnesty International condemns the extension by the Israeli Knesset of a law (Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law) which denies thousands of Israeli Arab citizens the right to live as a family.The Knesset's decision came despite calls by Amnesty International in a report published 13 July 2004 to repeal the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law on family unification. The law, initially passed for a one-year-period last year, was extended for six months on Wednesday. It bars Israelis married to Palestinians from the Occupied Territories from living with their spouses in Israel, and forces families to either live apart or leave the country altogether.Israel invokes spurious 'security' justifications for a law which institutionalizes racial discrimination and violates international law,said Amnesty International.The Israeli authorities must repeal this law once and for all, and must put an end to discrimination based on ethnicity or nationality.
source: AI Index MDE 15/078/2004
- Full Report
Torn Apart: Families split by discriminatory policies
AI Index: MDE 15/063/2004 of 13 July 2004 - News report:
Families torn apart by discriminatory policies
AI Index MDE 15/066/2004 of 13 July 2004
Picture caption: A woman and her daughter join a demonstration in July against the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law