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Accessing water in Tel Arad
House demolition in Lod |
Israel
Discriminatory policies impact upon the realisation of rights to land, housing, water and sanitation
In Israel, 93 percent of land is held for the exclusive use and benefit of the Jewish people by the State (including the Development Authority and Israel Land Administration) and para-state agencies (including the World Zionist Organization and Jewish National Fund). Much of this land has been expropriated and confiscated from Palestinians since the creation of the State of Israel, through laws such as the 1950 Absentee Property Law which has been applied to seize land where its owners are displaced. Those displaced by such laws and policies have been denied their right to return and right to restitution and are therefore subject to continuing violation of their human rights. In 2007, there were approximately 7 million Palestinian refugees and around 450,000 Palestinians internally displaced within the State of Israel.
There is a complete lack of parity in the living conditions between Palestinian citizens of Israel (20% of the population) and Jewish citizens of Israel. The 1965 Planning and Construction Law attempted to regulate planning through the development of national and regional master plans and zoning of land for residential, agricultural and industrial use. The Law forbade the construction of any structure without a license; forbade construction in agricultural zones; and prohibited unlicensed structures from being connected to basic services and utilities. The de facto discriminatory application of this law has disproportionately affected Palestinian citizens of Israel; around 84,000 indigenous Bedouin live in 45 ‘unrecognized’ villages in the Negev, and large numbers of Palestinian citizens of Israel live in ‘unrecognized’ neighbourhoods in the Mixed Cities (Acre, Jaffa, Haifa, Ramleh and Lod). The absence of official planning for these areas prevents residents from building legally. In many cases, retroactive application of the Law has rendered historic villages illegal. It excludes residents of these areas from accessing basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity and renders them vulnerable to forced eviction and home demolitions.
In the unrecognized villages of the Negev/Naqab 227 homes were demolished in the unrecognized villages in 2007. There have been more than 100 house demolitions affecting Arab residents in Ramleh, Lod and Acre since 2003. At present there are 500 demolition orders for Lod and about 150 for Ramleh. In Jaffa, 497 eviction orders have been given to Palestinian families in the Ajami and Jabaliya neighbourhoods by Amidar Israel National Housing Company. Racial discrimination in access to housing has prevented Palestinian citizens of Israel from living in a number of Jewish neighbourhoods and in the Mixed Cities physical barriers often divide Arab and Jewish residents.
In the unrecognized villages non-connection to the water network results in consumption levels amongst Bedouin communities often falling below World Health Organization recommended levels, forces them to travel long distances to fetch water, collect water from dubious sources and store it in unhygienic conditions. It further increases the cost of water to ten times that of water piped directly into citizens’ homes. Lack of adequate sanitation facilities leads to open defecation in many areas, consequently negatively impacting upon the Bedouin’s right to health through the spread of water-borne disease. In the Mixed Cities, open streams of sewage run through some Palestinian neighbourhoods. |
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| Fact sheet on the right to water and sanitation in Israel |
Download the fact sheet on the right to water and sanitation in Israel here:
 download pdf [en]
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| Update on OECD/EU initiative |
12 February 2009: For more information on the OECD/EU initiative, including updates on the campaign in the light of Israel's military attack on Gaza beginning on the 27 December 2008, please go to COHRE's occupied Palestinian territory page.
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| Resource pack for lobbying the OECD and EU |
26 October 2008: COHRE calls upon all concerned individuals and organizations to lobby the OECD and EU to place human rights conditionalities on Israel.
Download a resource pack with more information here:
 download doc [en]
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| OECD must place human rights conditionalities on Israel |
25 September 2008: A COHRE- led initiative calling upon the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to place human rights conditionalities on Israel, within the framework of Israel's accession to the OECD, was launched today.
A broad coalition of NGOs jointly signed a letter that was sent to the Secretary General of the OECD and all member country delegations. The letter raises concerns regarding Israel’s non-compliance with international human rights standards, international humanitarian law, the 'fundamental values' of the OECD and the 'Road Map for the accession of Israel to the OECD Convention'. The letter calls upon the OECD to immediately establish a committee to address these concerns within the framework of Israel's accession to the OECD.
download pdf [en]
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| Demolition orders in Wadi Al Na'am |
16 September 2008: COHRE condemns the demolition order for a community mosque and three other residential buildings in Wadi Al Na'am, and unrecognized Bedouin village in the Negev/Naqab.
Download the full statement here:
download pdf [en]
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| Statement on International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples |
9 August 2008, On International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, COHRE and BUSTAN express their grave concern regarding ongoing human rights violations perpetrated against the indigenous Bedouin community of the Negev/Naqab, southern Israel. The Bedouin of the Negev/Naqab are systematically discriminated against by the State of Israel and denied their basic human rights, including rights to adequate housing, land, water and sanitation.
Download the full statement here:
download pdf [en]
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| UPR Israel |
July 2008, COHRE submitted a document reviewing Israeli violations of the rights to housing, land, water and sanitation in both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories for the consideration of the UN Human Rights Council ahead of Israel's Universal Periodic Review to be held in December 2008.
Download COHRE's submission here:
download pdf [en]
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| European Union-Israel relationship must include human rights benchmarks |
June 2008, The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions is deeply concerned about the European Union’s plans to upgrade its political and economic relationship with Israel without making this relationship conditional upon Israel’s compliance with international human rights standards and international humanitarian law, including the human rights to adequate housing, water and sanitation. The decision to upgrade the relationship at this time apparently sends a signal that the European Union does not consider that violations of human rights and humanitarian law can have any consequences. It also calls into questions the European Union’s commitment to the promotion of human rights in its foreign policy.
Download COHRE's full statement here:
download pdf [en]
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| 1503 petition scandalously dismissed by Human Rights Council |
June 2008, a petition brought under ECOSOC Resolution 1503 by COHRE and BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights on behalf of individuals and groups of Palestinian owners of land expropriated by Israel in violation of international law was dismissed by the UN Human Rights Council. This is despite the fact that the petition fulfilled all the criteria of the 1503 procedure. Through its dismissal of the petition the Human Rights Council has failed to allow the petitioners to obtain a fair hearing and authoritative legal conclusions about their property and land rights under international law, because- although citizens of Israel- the petitioners cannot obtain an adequate, fair and effective remedy for violations of their land and property rights under Israel's domestic law. Land confiscation continues in the case of Abdullah Asad Shibli and two other landholders from the village of Shibli, and the ongoing denial of the right to restitution of the people of Kafir Bir'im creates new generations of internally displaced people and refugees.
Download the executive summary of the 1503 petition here:
download pdf [en]
Download the affidavit of Afif Ibrahim Abdallah here:
download pdf [en]
Download a paper by Geremy Forman and Alexandre Kedar on the dispossession of Palestinians from their land following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 here:
download pdf [en]
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| Forced Evictions and Home Demolitions in the Unrecognized Villages |
May 2008, COHRE sent a letter to Prime Minister Olmert protesting on going housing rights violations in the unrecognized villages of the Negev/Naqab.
Download COHRE's letter here:
download pdf [en]
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| Right to Water and Sanitation Workshop in Israel |
On 4 and 5 March 2008 COHRE in conjunction with our partners Shatil and the Coalition of Organizations for the Right to Water held a two-day training The Right to Water and Sanitation in International Law: An International Advocacy Training in Yad Ha'Shmona (near Jerusalem). The workshop aimed to provide local NGOs and others working on water and sanitation issues in both Israel and the oPt with legal training on the right to water and sanitation to increase advocacy capacity in this area.
View the training manual in English or Hebrew:
download doc [en] download doc [he]
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| COHRE Reports |
In February 2008, COHRE submitted a report to the Committee for Policy Recommendations Regarding Bedouin Settlement Arrangements in the Negev (Goldberg Committee) highlighting the lack of access to water and sanitation in the unrecognized villages of the Negev.
download pdf [en]
In 2005, COHRE and BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights jointly published Ruling Palestine: A history of the legally sanctioned Jewish-Israeli seizure of Land and Housing in Palestine. The report contains a chapter on land acquisition, land laws and policies within the State of Israel including the Galilee and Negev.
download pdf [en]
In 2002 COHRE's Women's Housing Rights Project worked on the issue of violence against women within the context of forced evictions. The situation of Bedouin women in the Negev is highlighted as one of three case studies in the report Violence: The Impact of Forced Evictions on Women in Palestine, India and Nigeria.
download pdf [en]
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Sign the petition
On 22 March 2008, World Water Day, COHRE and partners released a petition calling on the Israeli government to stop violating the right to water and sanitation in the unrecognized villages of the Negev and the occupied Palestinian territories. Click here to sign the petition
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| For more information |
Please see COHRE's page on the occupied Palestinian territory for West Bank and Gaza issues. Click on opt
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