Deportation Zehntausender Palaestinenser befuerchtet - israelische Menschenrechtsorganisationen an E. Barak
Hallo Leute,
israelische Menschenrechtsorganisationen schlagen Alarm. Seit gestern,
dem 13.04.2010, ist ein Gesetz der israelischen Militärverwaltung in
Kraft, das die Vertreibung von bis zu 70 000 Palästinensern aus dem
Westjordanland möglich macht.
Weltweit wird der zivilgesellschaftliche Protest gegen Israels Besatzung
vielfältiger und lauter. Vom 21. bis 23. April wird die 5.
internationale Bil'in Konferenz in Palästina stattfinden. Erwartet
werden Hunderte Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten aus aller Welt. Allein aus
Frankreich planen 100 TeilnehmerInnen zu fahren, aus Italien 60 und aus
Spanien ebenso viele. Es wird ein internationales Netzwerk gegründet,
dem wir uns anschließen können.
Nachstehend Informationen über das neue Gesetz der israelischen
Militärverwaltung (Mail von Bernhard Schäfer) und das Schreiben von 10
israelischen Menschenrechtsorganisationen an E. Barak.
Mit Grüßen
Barbara Fuchs
Betreff: Deportationen aufgrund neuer Regelung befürchtet - Israelische
Menschenrechtsorganisationen nehmen Stellung
Datum: Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:29:19 +0200
Von: Bernhard.Schaefer ät eed.de
An: paxchristi ät roesch-metzler.de
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
zur Information finden Sie anbei einen Brief von zehn israelischen
Menschenrechtsorganisationen an den israelischen Verteidigungsminister Ehud
Barak. Unter den Organisationen befinden sich mehrere Partner von EED und
MISEREOR, namentlich HaMoked, B'Tselem und Physicians for Human Rights. Sie
nehmen in dem Schreiben Stellung zu den Änderungen zweier
Militärverordnungen, die heute am 13. April 2010 in Kraft treten sollen.
Durch die Änderungen der Verordnungen betreffend "Prevention of
Infiltration" und "Security Provisions" wird u.a. der Begriff "Infiltrant"
neu definiert. Die neue Definition ist so formuliert, dass letztlich jede
Person von dem Begriff erfasst wird, die sich in der Westbank aufhält und
keine "Erlaubnis" besitzt. Es bleibt jedoch unklar, was unter "Erlaubnis"
genau zu verstehen ist. Durch die neue Regelung werden daher auch
Palästinenser und Palästinenserinnen erfasst, die keine israelische
"Erlaubnis" besitzen, etwa weil sie nie im Besitz einer solchen waren. Es
wird befürchtet, dass es im Westjordanland aufgrund der Neuregelung zu
zahlreichen Verhaftungen und Deportationen von Palästinensern und
Palästinenserinnen durch die israelische Armee kommen könnte.
Weitere Einzelheiten entnehmen Sie bitte dem Schreiben, das zusammen mit
den Verordnungen auch auf folgender Internetseite abrufbar ist:
http://hamoked.org.il/news_main_en.asp?id=904
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https://freemailng6301.web.de/jump.htm?goto=http%3A%2F%2Fhamoked.org.il%2Fnews_main_en.asp%3Fid%3D904>
Auf Deutsch findet sich ein Interview mit Elad Cahana, Rechtsanwalt bei
HaMoked, unter:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5460646,00.html
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https://freemailng6301.web.de/jump.htm?goto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw-world.de%2Fdw%2Farticle%2F0%2C%2C5460646%2C00.html>
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Bernhard Schäfer
............................
Bernhard Schäfer, LL.M.
Gemeinsame Initiative humanitäres Völkerrecht Nahost
Bischöfliches Hilfswerk MISEREOR
EED - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst
Ulrich-von-Hassell-Str. 76
53123 Bonn, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)228 8101-0
Fax: +49 (0)228 8101-160
Mail: bernhard.schaefer ät eed.de
(See attached file: Letter-to-Barak-re-infiltration-order.pdf)
Date: April 11, 2010
In response please cite: 37230
To: Mr. Ehud Barak
*Minister of Defense*
*Via Fax*
*Urgent!*
Dear Sir,
Re: *Order regarding Prevention of Infiltration (Amendment No. 2) and
Order regarding*
*Security Provisions (Amendment No. 112*)
1. I hereby appeal to you on behalf of HaMoked: Center for the Defence
of the Individual, the
Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Bimkom, B'Tselem, Gisha, the
Public Committee Against
Torture in Israel, Yesh Din, Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights and
Rabbis for Human Rights
regarding the orders cited in the heading which were signed on October
13, 2009 and are due to
come into effect in the West Bank in two days, April 13, 2010. We
request that you take action to
have the orders revoked, or at least have their entry into effect
delayed as they are unlawful and
allow extreme and arbitrary injury to a vast number of people.
2. Once the orders enter into effect, every Palestinian in the West Bank
may find him or herself in
danger of being criminally prosecuted and deported or being deported
without a process of appeal
or review as required by law.
3. The wording of the Order regarding Prevention of Infiltration
(Amendment No. 2) (hereinafter:
*the amendment to the infiltration order*) defines anyone present in the
West Bank, regardless
of his status, as an "infiltrator" if they do not possess a permit given
by the military commander
or on his behalf -- a permit whose exact nature is not defined in
military legislation at all. In fact,
the vast majority of individuals now living in the West Bank have never
been required to possess
any sort of permit.
4. Experience with the current conduct of the military commander raises
the concern that at least as
a first phase, the orders will be used against Palestinians in the West
Bank whose registered
address is in the Gaza Strip and against foreign nationals who are in
the process of family
unification. We estimate that this category may include tens of
thousands of people. As stated, the
wording of the order indicates that the definition of infiltrator may
also apply to any other person.
We shall recall that from 2000 to this day -- with the exception of a
onetime gesture at the end of
2007 -- Israel has been implementing a "freeze" policy -- a complete and
blanket refusal to process
applications for renewal of visitor permits for foreign nationals or for
granting permanent status
in the Territories, which were transferred to it from the Palestinian
Authority. This is among the
causes for the fact that many people are currently living in the West
Bank without status. These
are individuals who have been living in the West Bank for many years and
have had families
there, yet, the "freeze" policy has suddenly turned them into "illegal
aliens" in their homes. Now
the order turns them into criminals facing jail terms.
The wording of the order and such a broad definition of "infiltrator"
allows it to be implemented
also to *Palestinian residents of the Territories who hold Palestinian
Authority ID cards and*
*legal status*, particularly those whose registered address is in the
Gaza Strip.
Over the past few years, and more forcefully recently, the military has
taken action to forcibly
remove Palestinians living in the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, relying
exclusively on the fact that
their registered address is in the Gaza Strip. Some were born in the
West Bank. Others lawfully
moved to the West Bank from the Gaza Strip. Not one of them required a
written permit from the
military commander, since, as known, for many years such permits did not
exist at all.
The orders also apply to other groups such as residents of East
Jerusalem. Owing to
circumstances and international law, these residents maintain close ties
with their brethren who
are residents of the West Bank. These orders allow for the abrupt
severing of the fabric of life in
contravention of international law.
5. It is clear that the decision on the aforesaid amendment was not
accompanied by staff work to
examine the situation of a vast number of people who, under existing
military legislation, have
never been required to obtain a written order from the military
commander and will now face
particularly severe sanctions. We shall further note that the order,
which imposes criminal
liability, has also not been properly publicized among the Palestinian
population.
6. It must be noted that despite the fact that the order's wording
requires any person present in the
West Bank to possess a permit, presumably only Palestinians and their
relatives will be
effectively deported from the West Bank and prosecuted for not having a
permit as stated. This,
since even today, the military commander refrains from deporting
Israelis who live in the West
Bank regardless of the legality of their presence therein. It is clear
that applying the order to
protected residents only, will be another improper step toward creating
demographic changes in
the West Bank and entrenching a regime which discriminates between
people on the basis of
religion and nationality.
7. The new orders make the right of those individuals -- *protected
residents under international*
*law *-- to live in their homes, in their land, subject to a vague
permit regime which relies on the
will of the military commander. They create an alleged "legal"
infrastructure for the deportation
of protected residents from the occupied territory and enshrine a
systematic regime of
discrimination. *Enshrining these legal provisions in the security
legislation of the Area *thus
entirely contradicts the duties of the military commander under
international humanitarian and
human rights law *and is blatantly beyond his powers:*
As is well known, a military commander in an occupied territory has
*powers to act to further*
*two purposes and two purposes only: securing the legitimate security
interests of the entity*
*holding the occupied territory *and securing the needs of protected
persons. In this case too, the
military commander's legislation was published without any accompanying
explanation as
regards the motives and purposes behind it and which it is alleged to
advance. However, a reading
of the order itself and experience with the current conduct of the
military commander indicates
that the new powers enshrined in the amendment to the infiltration order
do not come under the
terms of either one of these two purposes. It is clear that they do not
serve the benefit of the
protected population but will rather injure it severely. They do not
stem from the security needs
of the occupying power. Both the order and the military commander's
conduct /vis-à-vis /the
deportation of Palestinians from the West Bank to date point to the fact
that extraneous
considerations are behind the order.
The amendment to the order also enshrines in security legislation the
authority to deport from the
occupied territory, or alternatively to forcibly remove from one part of
the occupied territory to
the other, people who are "protected residents" under the Geneva
Convention and as such
contravenes a strict ban under international law (Article 49 of the
Geneva Convention).
8. In addition, amendment no. 112 to the Order regarding Security
Provisions indicates that
challenging deportation orders issued pursuant to the Order regarding
Prevention of Infiltration
shall be carried out before a Committee for Examining Deportation Orders
(as opposed to
deportation orders issued in Israel which may be challenged in the
courts at any given time). If
this were not grave enough, the candidate for removal must wait until he
is brought before the
committee and may not contact it itself. The combination of the Order
regarding Prevention of
Infiltration and the Order regarding Security Provisions indicates that
candidates for removal will
not even be brought before the committee: the deportation may be carried
out within 72 hours
while a person can be brought before the committee up to 8 days from
issuance of a deportation
order. With no ability to initiate an appeal to the committee, a person
is thus dependant on the
mercy of the military commander not to remove him without judicial
review. We have not found
a provision in the legislation which clarifies that the deportation
cannot take place before the
candidate for deportation has the opportunity to exhaust his right to
plead his case (on this
obligation see HCJ 5973/92 *The Association for Civil Rights in Israel
v. Minister of Defense*,
/Piskey Din /47(1) 267).
9. In light of the above, HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the
Individual wrote to the GOC
Central Command on March 25, 2010 requesting to delay the entry into
effect of the orders. The
letter to the GOC Central Command is attached to this letter.
10. We shall also refer to the arguments made in the letter sent to the
GOC Central Command
regarding the strict arrangements pertaining to "infiltrators" in the
orders compared to the
arrangements which apply to infiltrators (those unlawfully entering
Israel from enemy states) and
illegal aliens in Israel. This rigorousness is expressed both in far
harsher penalties and in the
curtailment of many procedural rights, as detailed therein.
11. Despite the urgency of the matter, no response to the letter has yet
been received. Due to the lack
of time and the dramatic implications of the aforesaid orders on the
lives of a vast number of
people, we appeal to you with a request to take urgent action to have
the orders revoked, or at
least have their entry into effect delayed in order to perform a serious
and in-depth reexamination
of the issue in light of our comments.
Respectfully,
Dalia Kerstein
Executive Director
Copies:
Attorney General, Mr. Yehuda Weinstein
Deputy Defense Minister, Mr. Matan Vilnai
GOC Central Command, Major General Avi Mizrahi
Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Major General
Eitan Dangot
Military Advocate General, Major General Avihai Mandelblit
Head of the Civil Administration, Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai
Legal Advisor for the West Bank, Colonel Eli Bar-On
Head of International Law Department at the Military Advocate General's
Office, Colonel Liron Libman
President of the Military Court of Appeals, Colonel Aharon Mishnayot
Vice President of the Military Court of Appeals, Lieutanant Colonel
Netanel Benisho
