56 years have passed since Israel occupied the oPt. On this regrettable anniversary, 17 human rights organizations have come together to present a unified situation report on four themes: Israeli security forces’ violence, annexation, displacement, and the attack on NGOs. These four themes feed into each other, comprising the critical interlocking elements of the current Israeli policy of occupation.

The following joint situation report is the product of an ongoing and intolerable situation, and of an escalation that has reached boiling point in the last months. On the one hand, 56 years have already passed since Israel occupied the oPt. The lack of accountability, the displacement of Palestinians, and complete disregard for international law are not new phenomena; but their longevity cannot and should not make them acceptable. In addition, since the last Israeli elections in November 2022, a concerted political attack has been launched against critical or independent bodies within the Israeli system. With the installation of the 37th government, a tsunami of legislative ventures has threatened to overwhelm the already precarious existing checks and balances, and provide the executive branch with almost unlimited powers.

These radical new steps, coming as they do against the background of increased violence, accelerated annexation, apartheid, displacement, and a decade-long attack on NGOs, have led the undersigned organizations to adopt this new instrument of a joint situation report. Since all aspects of the occupation and control of the Palestinian population are interlinked, the work of the various organizations on the ground has always been interwoven. This report reflects both this cooperation and the repercussions of the elements of the occupation on each other: the   intertwining of the permit regime and the dispossession and displacement of Palestinians, access to healthcare and violence of the security forces, lack of accountability for abuses of human rights and attacks on human rights defenders. In this joint situation report we have chosen to focus on four prominent themes that we view as most urgent. Our intention is that readers will perceive the holistic nature of the different components of the occupation and resist the tendency to compartmentalize the oPt and its challenges into discrete bureaucratic agendas. Our hope is that readers will be impelled to take action – because we are certain: concerted international action can change the reality on the ground.

 

THE PLATFORM – ISRAELI NGOS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Participating organizations:

Association for Civil Rights in Israel; Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights; Breaking the Silence; HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual; Combatants for Peace; Emek Shaveh; Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement; Human Rights Defenders Fund; Ir Amim; Parents Against Child Detention; Peace Now; Physicians for Human Rights Israel; Rabbis for Human Rights; The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel; Torah of Justice; Yesh Din; Zazim – Community Action