3. STATE-SPONSORED REPRESSION
(A) Unjust Incarceration
Since 1967, roughly 800,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel. Almost every family in the Occupied Territories has been impacted by this system of mass incarceration.
Israel uses administrative detention unlawfully to detain Palestinians without charge or trial for extended periods. This practice is often used as a tool of political repression.
Israel held 560 Palestinians under administrative detention in 2014, the highest in five years.
Since 1967, roughly 800,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel. Almost every family in the Occupied Territories has been impacted by this system of mass incarceration.
Israel uses administrative detention unlawfully to detain Palestinians without charge or trial for extended periods. This practice is often used as a tool of political repression.
Israel held 560 Palestinians under administrative detention in 2014, the highest in five years.
Most prisoners from the Occupied Territories are moved and held outside of the Occupied Territories, in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention:
"Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein."
Israel routinely arrests Palestinian children in nighttime raids, subjects them to military tribunals, holds them in solitary confinement, and commits other abuses.
“Since 2000, an estimated 8,000 Palestinian children have been detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system," Defense for Children International reported in 2014. According to UNICEF, children “are overwhelmingly accused of throwing stones, an offense that can potentially lead to a sentence of up to 20 years depending on a child’s age.” |
Connections to the United States
In the United States communities of color are disproportionately imprisoned in the country’s system of mass incarceration. African Americans constitute 12% of the American population, but 38% of people in jail. Native Americans are arrested at 1.5 times the rates of white people. Operation Streamline criminalizes all undocumented immigrants by requiring a criminal (instead of civil) prosecution for them all.
Private prison and security companies such as G4S make profits off the systemic discrimination and disenfranchisement of Palestinian and American prisoners. G4S is part of the global prison industrial complex, operating youth prisons in the US, facilities where prisoners have been tortured in South Africa, immigrant detention buses along the US/Mexico border, and asylum facilities in the UK and Australia where migrants have been killed by G4S workers. G4S was the successful target of a boycott campaign against the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, waged in 2014 by Stanford students and the Palestine solidarity movement. |
(B) Brutality of Security Forces
The Israeli military regularly uses tear gas, rubber-coated bullets, bean-bag shotguns, and live ammunition against Palestinian demonstrators opposing the separation wall, protesting Israeli land seizures, and blocking the demolition of Palestinian homes.
Human rights organizations condemn the excessive force used against Palestinians:
Human rights organizations condemn the excessive force used against Palestinians:
"Israeli forces have a long record of using excessive force against Palestinian demonstrators in the West Bank. Since the beginning of the first Intifada in 1987, Amnesty International and other local and international human rights organizations have documented a pattern of excessive force by the Israeli army and Border Police against Palestinian civilians, including men, women and children, which has resulted in hundreds of deaths and the wounding of thousands more. Israeli forces perpetrating these human rights violations have enjoyed widespread impunity."
Trigger Happy: Israel's Excessive Use of Force in the West Bank - Amnesty International (2014)
Here are three recent examples of excessive force cases:
Nadeem Nurawa and Mohammad Odeh
16 year old Muhammad Mahmoud Odeh Abu Al-Thahir and Nadeem Siam Nuwara, 17 years old, were shot and killed by the Israeli military during Nakba Day protests on May 15, 2014 in the West Bank town of Betunia. The two boys were participating Israeli’s use of administrative detention, in a demonstration near Ofer military prison, when they were shot.
"'The willful killing of civilians by Israeli security forces as part of the occupation is a war crime,' said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. 'Israel has a responsibility to prosecute the forces who targeted these teens, and also those responsible for assigning the use of live ammunition to police a demonstration.'
"“The Israeli military’s claim that its forces didn’t shoot any live ammunition on May 15 does not stand up to scrutiny,” Whitson said. “To end the impunity that this latest incident exemplifies, Israel’s allies should apply serious and sustained pressure on Israel, and Palestine should seek the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.”
"“The Israeli military’s claim that its forces didn’t shoot any live ammunition on May 15 does not stand up to scrutiny,” Whitson said. “To end the impunity that this latest incident exemplifies, Israel’s allies should apply serious and sustained pressure on Israel, and Palestine should seek the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.”
Ziad Abu Ein
"The death of a Palestinian minister during a protest against land confiscations in the West Bank may have resulted from arbitrary and abusive force by Israeli forces against demonstrators, said Amnesty International.
Ziad Abu Ein, who headed a committee that opposed the West Bank wall and Israeli settlements, died after a confrontation with Israeli forces in the village of Turmus'ayya. Photographs posted online showed Israeli forces grabbing his throat. “This appears to be a tragedy that could have been avoided. The Israeli forces have an abysmal track record when it comes to policing protests and have frequently resorted to the unnecessary or excessive use of force against protesters in the West Bank, resulting in numerous unlawful killings. And they continue to do so with impunity,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International. |
Shortly before his death Ziad Abu Ein told news reporters the protest had been peaceful. "We came to plant trees on Palestinian land, and they launched into an attack on us from the first moment. Nobody threw a single stone," he said."
Death of Palestinian minister highlights excessive force by Israeli army - Amnesty International (2014)
Connections to the United States
Corporations such as Combined Tactical Systems and Defense Technology provide tear gas canisters used to suppress protesters in occupied Palestine as well as in Ferguson and Oakland.
About 9,500 US law enforcement officials have participated in trainings conducted through the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs Law Enforcement Exchange Program. Among the participants are St. Louis Police Chief Joseph Mokwa. |
Implicated Companies:
- Profit from unjust political imprisonment in Israel-Palestine and mass incarceration in the United States
- Supply military-grade weaponry to the IDF for use against civilians in Israel-Palestine and U.S. police departments for use against demonstrators in Ferguson and Oakland
G4S:
Provides security services and equipment in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip for: military checkpoints, terminals, prisons, detention and interrogation facilities, businesses in settlements, armored cars, security patrol units, police headquarters. Defense Technology Corporation: Provides the tear gas used against protesters in the West Bank and Oakland. Part of an umbrella company called Safariland, which manufactures handcuffs used on Palestinian protesters and prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Combined Tactical Systems: Provides a wide range of crowd-dispersal munitions for use against Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, and U.S. police departments for use against demonstrators in Oakland and Ferguson/St.Louis. Products include high-velocity projectiles, flash bangs and stingball grenades; the use of CSI’s tear gas canisters (several of whose primary function is to shatter barriers like walls - releasing tear gas is a secondary feature) has led to the deaths of peaceful protesters on several occasions. |