Recent Developments

In the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in Israel and the OPT

The recent months were challenging for the entire public, but they also presented particular challenges to human rights defenders working in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. During the Coronavirus crisis, HRDF continued to protect human rights defenders’ freedom of speech and right to protest. Here are some of our actions in recent weeks:

  • With the enactment of the Corona Emergency Regulations during the months of March-April, it became clear that the day to day work of human rights defenders in Israel and in the OPT could be restricted. HRDF deemed it necessary to balance between the need to obey the regulations for the sake of public safety and its obligation to safeguard human rights and the increasing need of defenders’ presence on the ground. Therefore, as a prevention measure, HRDF equipped defenders with detailed advisory opinions on behalf of our lawyers, that clearly state to the authorities their rights to carry out human rights activities under the law. Some of the defenders who took part in this initiative include: “Combatants for Peace”, who at the time carried out humanitarian missions in Han El-Ahmar; “Peace Now”, who document human rights violations and settlers’ illegal building in the West Bank; “Torat Tzedek”, who accompanies Palestinian farmers and protects them from settlers, who have been exploiting the situation to take over Palestinian farmland, while increasing their attacks against Palestinians and their property; and activists who regularly protest against the demolitions and evictions in Sheikh Jarrah.

  • Following the declaration of a state of emergency, an unprecedented and disturbing chain of anti-democratic events took place, as the Israeli transition government prevented the parliament from monitoring and supervising the government actions (which include invasive military and technological surveillance methods), ordered to shut down the entire legal system and close the courts (thus, canceling the Prime Minister’s indictment hearing), and caused a constitutional crisis after refusing to follow a binding decision of the High Court of Justice to gather the Parliament. As a result, on 19 March, hundreds of protestors made their way with their vehicles to the Knesset with black flags to protest the destruction of democracy. Although the police blocked the roads leading to Jerusalem, about 300 protestors still managed to make their way to the Knesset where eight of them were arrested and fined for violating Corona emergency regulations. HRDF-funded lawyer, Gaby Lasky, represented the detainees and submitted an appeal after the police imposed unreasonable terms of release. In a hearing held over the phone due to Corona restrictions, Adv. Lasky succeeded in having these unreasonable conditions overturned by the court, who dismissed the police claims and prevented imposing further unreasonable constraints on the right to protest. Adv. Lasky also addressed the Attorney General and requested to dismiss the fines that were imposed on the protestors. The request is still pending. In order to cancel the fines, Adv. Lasky also submitted a request for a court hearing, where she specified the illegality of the fines and the danger of using Public Health Regulations in order to restrict the freedom of speech and protest.

    Photograph by Oren Ziv, 19.3.2020.

  • On 17 April 2020, seven human rights defenders who participated in a demonstration against evictions and settlement plans in the Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah, were fined 5,000 ILS each. The protestors were illegally fined by the police although they conducted themselves in accordance with the Coronavirus emergency regulations which allow demonstrations- they arrived in separate cars, stood in groups of five people, two meters from each other while wearing masks. Their explanations to the police that this was the case were futile. On the fines themselves, the police wrote that the protest was an “illegal assembly, as occurs every Friday”, and did not refer to Coronavirus regulations, nor did it mention any violation of social distancing to the activists on the ground. Only later, when asked for a response by the media, the police first mentioned violations of social distancing regulations.It is therefore clear that the police’s purpose was not safeguarding public health, but rather restricting the work of human rights defenders and their freedom of protest. It should be noted that although the fines given to the protestors deal with an administrative violation, “illegal assembly” is also a criminal offence under the Israeli penal code, which can result in a criminal record and even imprisonment if they wish to file an appeal.HRDF has been supporting the Sheikh Jarrah activists for years, and since the Corona crisis, the fund put an emphasis on making sure that the protestors are informed and able to follow the conditions required for demonstrations under the Corona regulations, as well as document every interaction with the police on the ground. HRDF-funded lawyer Gaby Lasky, who represented the activists, filed a notice before taking legal action to the Attorney General and the Legal Advisor of the police, requesting to cancel the fines, since the dispersal of the demonstration was illegal. Adv. Lasky also attached a video documentation of the demonstration, which shows that contrary to the police’s claims, the demonstration fulfilled all the requirements obliged under the Corona emergency regulations. A petition to the High Court of Justice was prepared and just before it was submitted, the police informed Adv. Lasky that all the fines imposed on the activists were canceled. After the police representatives watched the video and reviewed the claims, they reached the conclusion that the HRDs did not violate the Coronavirus Regulations. One can presume that the police also wanted to avoid the case reaching the Supreme Court.After watching the video and reviewing the claims, the police wrote in a formal decision to Adv. Lasky: “in our examination of the event, we found that the protestors did not commit any substantial violations of the Public Health Order and Regulations. Therefore, all fines are canceled.”
    This case was extremely important to safeguard the work of human rights defenders, to mitigate the chilling effect on their work and to make sure that the authorities do not misuse their power under the current crisis to harm and limit the crucial work of defenders.

  • We have also provided legal representation to the NGO “Parents against Child Detention”, which sought to join a High Court petition challenging a new Coronavirus policy that violates the rights of Palestinian detainees to communicate with the outside world, underscoring the emotional state of minors who are denied telephone calls to lawyers and family members (HCJ 2280/20). The organization indeed joined as a petitioner, with the representation of HRDF-funded lawyer, Gaby Lasky, and submitted to the court a professional opinion regarding the devastating ramifications of the new policy on the welfare of Palestinian minors. Soon after the petition was submitted on 26.3.2020, the State notified the court and the petitioners that Palestinian minor detainees will be allowed to call their families. However, the state failed to fulfill its obligation, which was recognized in a court decision, and the petitioners may now have to turn to the court once again to make sure its decision is enforced by the State.

Other Developments in the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in Israel and the OPT

Criminalization of Human Rights Defenders in the Military Courts:

  • In a victory rarely seen, on 12 January 2020, the Military Court acquitted human rights defender Mohammed Khatib of all charges against him, after the prosecution decided to dismiss the indictment on the basis of a video, taken at the protest by another HRD- Haitham Khatib, proving he was falsely accused by the army of assaulting a soldier. The incident happened in 2015, when Khatib was arrested during a demonstration at which the army made unreasonable use of riot control measures, including tear gas and pepper spray. Three years later, Khatib was indicted for assaulting a soldier, participating in an unlicensed march, and disrupting a soldier. In October 2019, Khatib’s counsel, HRDF-funded lawyer, Gaby Lasky, submitted a video to the court that proved without a doubt that the soldiers who arrested Khatib and then falsely accused him of assault and resisting arrest had lied in their reports to the police and to the court in order to justify their excessive use of pepper spray. After watching the video, the judge recommended that the prosecution “rely on the objective evidence laid before it”. Indeed, over two months later and after negotiations with Adv. Lasky, who refused any other outcome or settlement other than a full acquittal, the prosecution decided to heed the judge’s advice and withdraw all charges against Khatib.

    HRD Mohammed Khatib stands in front of Israeli soldiers during a protest against the wall in Bil’in, 17.4.2015, photograph by Oren Ziv.

  • On March 24th, 2020, following a five-year legal battle, all criminal proceedings against human rights defender Ziad Mahamra were suspended. Mahamra, 69 years old, lives with his family in the village of Bir Al-Id in the South Hebron Hills. In 1999 the Palestinian residents of the area were banished from their village by violent Israeli settlers who took over their lands to build illegal outposts. During the attacks, Mahamra was severely wounded after being shot in the head and was hospitalized for months. His shooter’s identity remains unknown.Following a petition that was submitted to the HCJ in 2006, the army permitted the Palestinian residents of the region to return to their village. Their return increased the hostility of the settlers who continued to harass, threaten, and attack the Palestinian residents in an effort to take over their lands. According to human rights defenders and the local Palestinian community, many complaints were submitted to the police throughout the years against the violent settlers and particularly against Yakob Talia who built an illegal outpost on the village lands and led the attacks against the Palestinian residents. With lack of law enforcement by the police or the army, the settlers have consistently continued to trespass, destroy crop and property and violently attack Mahamra and his family – who refused to give up and persisted to defend the rights to their lands. Today, Mahamra and his family are the only ones left in Bir Al-Id, protecting the village’s lands and water sources, after all the other families have fled.In November 2015, Mahamra was indicted after he was falsely accused of assaulting Talia back in 2013. In his police testimony, Mahamra claimed that he was documenting Talia’s trespassing and was then assaulted by Talia and his friends and tied down with his hands behind his back until the army arrived and released him. Although Talia was investigated on suspicion of assault and trespassing to private Palestinian land, Mahamra was the only one indicted. In an unrelated event, Yakob Talia died in an accident two years after the incident. The military prosecution then insisted on proceeding to a full criminal trial although the main witness and alleged victim had died and refused Mahamra’s requests to drop the charges or reach a plea bargain.Left with no other choice, HRDF-funded lawyer, Gaby Lasky, who represented Mahamra, submitted the court with a motion to suspend the proceedings. In the motion, Adv. Lasky repeated the claims dismissed by the prosecution, according to which the proceedings should be suspended due to: the unreasonable delay in the submission of the indictment, which was submitted two and a half years after the event and a year after the investigation ended; the passing away of the main witness, Talia; the lack of evidence presented by the prosecution; and selective enforcement, as only Mahamra was charged, despite repeated complaints to the police by him against Talia and his family. The negligent investigation coupled with the passing of the main witness, claimed Adv. Lasky, harms the effectiveness and fairness of the criminal proceedings and the ability of the defendant to defend himself.The motion was approved, and after five long years of unnecessary criminal proceedings in the Military Court, the prosecution finally suspended all proceedings against Mahamra.

  • In another case, on 20 November 2019, Muhammad Amirah, a school teacher and one of the members of the Popular Committee of the West Bank village of Nil’in, was forced to accept plea bargain in his prosecution for participating in a non-violent protest against the separation wall.In April 2017, a border police officer shot Amirah with a sponge-tipped bullet from a short distance, from behind, in violation of the army firing regulations. He was then arrested under the made-up pretext that he allegedly threw stones and insulted a soldier during the demonstration. Amirah was brought to an Israeli hospital and was handcuffed to his bed. HRDF – funded lawyer, Adv. Gaby Lasky claimed that the case poses substantial evidential difficulties, as the main evidence against Amirah was the testimony of the soldier who shot him while he was trying to leave the demonstration, which raises concerns that he was charged as an attempt to justify the illegal shooting. During the hearings it became clear that contrary to the shooting soldier’s testimony, the demonstration was peaceful. Therefore, the prosecution and the defense reached a plea bargain according to which, the charge of stone throwing was reduced to a charge of “offence against public order”.

These cases may be portrayed as “victories”. However, in Khatib’s case, if not for the video, it is nearly inevitable that he would have been convicted and sentenced to years of imprisonment for a crime he did not commit – a scenario which, in our experience, is not uncommon in the military judicial system in the OPT. The court’s decision includes a clause which prohibits Khatib from suing any compensation from the state for damages caused by his illegal arrest, indictment and three years of unnecessary trial. In addition, the court did not address the false testimonies given by the soldiers, who will not be held accountable for misleading the court and attacking Khatib. The same applies for Amirah, who was shot in the back and falsely accused of throwing stones, as well as Mahamra who had to defend himself in the Military Court for 5 long years due to selective enforcement. Yet and again, we see that the Military Courts’ impaired proceedings, which are bluntly incompatible with international standards, lead to severe violations of the rights of Palestinians to a fair trial, liberty, and dignity. The military judicial system remains successful in efficiently restricting the work of many Palestinian human rights defenders who are left completely exposed to criminalization solely due to their work promoting human rights in the OPT. HRDF is proud to support and provide the finest legal aid to Palestinian defenders who dedicate their lives to the non-violent struggle against the occupation, whilst making sure that even in this immoral and discriminating system, some justice is still achieved.

In recent months, HRDF funded-lawyer, Gaby Lasky, kept battling extreme-right NGO “Ad-Kan”, which continued its political persecution against HRDs, and successfully deflected its latest attack:

On 19 February 2020, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced that he was staying the private criminal proceedings initiated by extreme right-wing NGO, Ad-Kan, against three human rights activists, including prominent activist Jonathan Pollack, who has been under arrest for nearly two months. The decision came six months after Adv. Lasky, who was representing the activists, filed a request for a stay of proceedings to the Attorney General, and three days after she filed a petition to the High Court of Justice, due to the Attorney General’s lack of response. In response to the decision, Ad-Kan attacked the State’s Attorney’s Office, accusing it of “aiding the architects of terror in their war against soldiers”, although the private prosecution did not attribute any violent acts to the activists.

The private criminal prosecution against the three Israeli human rights defenders was initiated by Ad-Kan in December 2018. In the complaint filed to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, Ad-Kan claimed that the three anti-occupation activists participated in violent protests against the separation wall in the village of Bilin since 2013 and asked the court to convict them of assaulting IDF soldiers. The complaint did not mention any specific dates, incidents, nor victims of the alleged assaults, and all “investigation materials” were gathered as a part of Ad-Kan’s spying and infiltration project against HR organizations, and not by an official and impartial state body such as the police. Nevertheless, the court did not dismiss the proceeding from the start and even issued an arrest warrant against the activist Jonathan Pollak, after he refused to appear in court in protest of the inherent injustice of the procedure and in solidarity with Palestinians who don’t have a right to a fair trial in the Military Courts. He also claimed that the Israeli Court does not have moral mandate to trial those who oppose the Israeli occupation. Pollak was under arrest for nearly two months before he was released.

It is unfortunate that the court chose to cooperate with Ad-Kan’s political prosecution and insisted on continuing a baseless and legally flawed proceeding completely lacking evidence. Even more unfortunate, that three innocent activists had to defend themselves in a legal battle for over a year, one of whom was arrested for nearly two months, and entire communities of human rights defenders were harmed by the chilling effect of the proceeding. The Attorney General’s decision proves that the court should have dismissed the entire proceeding from the start. Yet, it is highly disturbing that the Attorney General waited over six months to give his decision and was only inclined to do so after a petition was submitted to the High Court of Justice, leaving him no choice.

The HRDF foresees that these attempts to harm HRDs by anti-democratic NGOs will continue. Therefore, we are relentlessly working to ensure the well-being and ability of HRDs to safely continue their work in defending human rights.

Activist Jonathan Pollak walks out of Abu-Kabir detention center following his release, 20.2.2020, photograph by Oren Ziv.

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Written by the Human Rights Defenders Fund’s legal advisor, Adv. Michael Sfard.
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