As year 57 of Israeli occupation of the territories draws to a close, State of the Occupation – Year 57, a second joint report published by human rights organisations in Israel presents a comprehensive picture of the occupation.

It was a particularly harsh and cruel year:

After the massacre Hamas committed on October 7, Israel launched an unchecked offensive in the Gaza Strip and has since killed tens of thousands of people – including thousands of children, pursuing a policy of starvation, displacement, mass destruction of buildings and infrastructure, and disappearing thousands of people in detention centres without external supervision.

In the West Bank, the government is driving a judicial overhaul to annex the West Bank to Israel and expand the settlement enterprise in an unprecedented fashion. Shadowed by the war, the West Bank is burning: settler violence perpetrated with the army’s backing, expulsion of Palestinian communities, and draconian restrictions imposed on freedom of movement.

In East Jerusalem, accelerated dispossession of Palestinian residents of their lands is underway, alongside discrimination in planning and settlement expansion, and Israel is promoting Judaisation of Jerusalem land beyond the Green Line.

Inside Israel too, freedom of expression, freedom of protest and the judicial system are subject to a growing attack.

We the undersigned organisations are committed to changing the grim reality this report depicts, and hope that a day will come when our work is longer necessary.

 

The Platform – Israeli NGOs for Human Rights

Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research; Association for Civil Rights in Israel; Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights; Breaking the Silence; B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories; Combatants for Peace; Emek Shaveh; Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement; HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual; Haqel – In Defense of Human Rights; Human Rights Defenders Fund; Ir Amim; Machsom Watch; 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