Christian Peacemaker T eams - Palestine Incident Report April - September 2017 • CHILDREN UNDER OCCUPATION • ADULTS UNDER OCCUPATION • USE OF FORCE • SETTLER VIOLENCE • Christian Peacemaker Teams Palestine is a faith-based organization that supports Palestinian-led, non-violent, grassroots resistance to the Israeli occupation and the unjust structures that uphold it. By working with local Palestinian and Israeli peacemakers and educating people in our home communities we strive to help create a space for justice and peace. MARCH 2015 REPORT: USE OF FORCE Christian Peacemaker Teams APR. – SEP. 2017 INCIDENT REPORT christian peacemaker teams DEFINITIONS & CONSIDERATIONS This incident report contains data put a premium on making it difficult to This is home to approximately 37,000 collected over six months in al- tabulate accurate information. It’s Palestinians and 750 Israeli settlers. Khalil/Hebron from April through important to review how these dynamics These areas were decided upon within September 2017. The report is broken shape our work and how we report. the 1997 Hebron Protocol. down into five main sections: Children Israeli laws and definitions are Under Occupation, Adults Under manipulated, changed and created by In addition to the basic restriction of Occupation, Checkpoint Activity, Settler the state of Israel to maintain a moral movement imposed by the Israeli military Violence, and Human Rights Observers. façade, to perpetuate claims such as the installations, Israeli forces violate the “only democracy in the Middle East,” and rights of Palestinians on a daily basis. These data sets are not interpretative or as having “the most moral army in the These violations include unwarranted analytical, as each instance represents a world.” bag and body searches, detention, arrest, violation of human rights. Nor do we use of force, and injuries. necessarily find it helpful to demonstrate For instance, while Israeli military law mathematical linkages between variables regards ‘children’ as only those under the The data substantiates extensive to demonstrate trends: all of these age of 12, CPT defines a ‘child’ as a person anecdotal testimony from Palestinians of figures are the product of a system of under the age of 18, in accordance with all ages and walks of life, which asserts violence and oppression that shapes the international legal frameworks. that Palestinians face daily systemic and contours of life in al-Khalil. Linking spikes structural oppression in everyday life. and drops in oppression to holidays and CPT rejects the judicial frameworks of the the political environment is useful in Israeli state, which consistently ID checks are instances in which Israeli providing context, but it does not provide disregards international law. Please note military force Palestinians to submit their a comprehensive analysis of data. It is the that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is a identification cards and inspect their simple documentation of routine human name not used by CPT due to the misuse records within a twenty-minute time rights abuse and the real stories of of the word ‘defense.’ CPT refers to them frame. Many Palestinians are verbally families’ suffering that will ultimately as the Israeli military or occupation and physically harassed during these force people to demand change and take forces. checks. Body searches are incidents in action. which Israeli soldiers arbitrarily force The information provided is the Palestinians to expose their bodies In composing these reports, the reader documentation of each instance of a without their consent. This often includes must be aware of CPT’s limitations in human rights violation by the Israeli lifting up their shirt, turning around in a developing and maintaining military and Israeli settlers, witnessed by circle, lifting up their pant legs to expose comprehensive data. Several dynamics CPT or through direct testimonies. These their ankles, and other times it includes come into play: (1) CPT has limited staff violations took place in two different being pushed up against a wall as an and resources to document all the areas within al-Khalil: Israeli soldier kicks their legs apart and human rights infractions; (2) not all the pats down their whole body. Detentions institutions that compile data use H1: Under the control of the Palestinian are understood as moments in which the international law as the basis for Authority and home to approximately Israeli military stops Palestinians and documentation; CPT uses international 120,000 Palestinians. delays their movement for longer than law as well as knowledge of current H2: Under Israeli military control due to twenty minutes. CPT considers a child conditions to develop definitions that can the proximity of illegal Israeli settlements detained if their movement is stopped most clearly represent the reality on the to Palestinian neighbourhoods. for more than 5 minutes. CPT defines ground; and (3) CPT is also operating in arrest as occurring when a person is the context of a military regime that has seized and taken into custody. APR. – SEP. REPORT: DEFINTIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS Christian Peacemaker Teams This systematic and structural oppression is marked by Israel’s consistent violation of at least five of the basic rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ❖ Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. ❖ Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. ❖ Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. ❖ Article 13: Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State. ❖ Article 17: Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. The following information highlights the breaches of these articles and the systematic oppression of the Palestinian people. Christian Peacemaker Teams APR. – SEP. 2017 INCIDENT REPORT CHILDREN UNDER OCCUPATION Children under occupation in al-Khalil Article 2 (b) No child shall be deprived of his or her face the daily threat of detainment and 1. States Parties shall respect and ensure liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, which remains a tactic of the rights set forth in the present arrest, detention or imprisonment of a collective punishment and restriction of Convention to each child within their child shall be in conformity with the law movement by the Israeli forces. In this jurisdiction without discrimination of any and shall be used only as a measure of reporting period, CPT witnessed children kind, irrespective of the child's or his or last resort and for the shortest from 11 to 17 years old taken from their her parent's or legal guardian's race, appropriate period of time; (c) Every homes, from the streets, as well as from colour, sex, language, religion, political or child deprived of liberty shall be treated incidents such as clashes, where Israeli other opinion, national, ethnic or social with humanity and respect for the forces advance into Palestinian origin, property, disability, birth or other inherent dignity of the human person, controlled areas and ambush and arrest status. and in a manner which takes into account several children at once. The physical and 2. States Parties shall take all appropriate the needs of persons of his or her age. In psychological violence that children measures to ensure that the child is particular, every child deprived of liberty experience under the circumstances of protected against all forms of shall be separated from adults unless it is detainment and arrest, as well as their discrimination or punishment on the considered in the child's best interest not treatment within the Israeli military basis of the status, activities, expressed to do so and shall have the right to court system result in violations of many opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, maintain contact with his or her family protections provided in the Convention legal guardians, or family members. through correspondence and visits, save on the Rights of the Child. This Article 37 in exceptional circumstances; (d) Every Convention was ratified by the United States Parties shall ensure that: (a) No child deprived of his or her liberty shall Nations General Assembly in November child shall be subjected to torture or have the right to prompt access to legal 1989, and by Israel itself in 1991. Israeli other cruel, inhuman or degrading and other appropriate assistance, as well forces’ treatment of children violates treatment or punishment. Neither as the right to challenge the legality of basic human rights as well as specific capital punishment nor life the deprivation of his or her liberty protections in relation to inhuman imprisonment without possibility of before a court or other competent, treatment and torture, as found in the release shall be imposed for offences independent and impartial authority, following articles: committed by persons below eighteen and to a prompt decision on any such years of age; action. APR. – SEP. REPORT: CHILDREN UNDER OCCUPATION Christian Peacemaker Teams and frustration When reasons are given for detainment through abuse of children, the most common and control. For accusations are stone throwing and example, on 23 possession of weapons, although these April 2017 at claims are often false, based on 11:45am, Israeli generalized evidence, and consistently soldiers detained