Lift of administrative obstacles to human rights activities

Israel / Occupied Palestinian Territory

March 11, 2010

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has received new information and requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

New information:

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources that at the beginning of March 2010, the Interior Ministry announced it would resume granting work permits to foreigners, resulting in the cancellation of the Israeli restrictive visa policy, which was depriving human rights defenders from carrying through their activities in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and would have probably resulted by closing down international non-governmental offices (INGOs) offices located in East Jerusalem (see background information).

Henceforth, humanitarian INGOs workers will be granted work permits allowing them to work within the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.

The Observatory welcomes the decision of the Israeli authorities and calls upon them to guarantee humanitarian workers unfettered access and movement within the entire OPT, as well as protect their ability to enter, exit and operate in all the Israeli-controlled areas.

The Observatory nonetheless regrets the ongoing restrictions to the work of human rights defenders in Israel and the OPT, and denounces in particular the recently proposed legislation to curtail foreign funding to Israeli NGOs, and other legislative moves that could have an adverse effect on human rights activities[1].

Background information:

In December 2009, the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced the implementation of a new visa policy, which consists in stopping to grant “B1” visas to INGO humanitarian workers[2]. A “B1” visa allows its holder to legally work in the Israeli-controlled areas, i.e. Israel, the OPT and East Jerusalem.

Henceforth, since autumn 2009, INGOs employees have been issued a “B2” tourist visa, which bears the explicit mention “NOT PERMITTED TO WORK” in the Israeli-controlled areas. Humanitarian INGOs workers were therefore no longer be allowed to exercise in Israel, the OPT and East Jerusalem.

This new visa regime would have affected between 140 and 150 INGOs that operate among the Palestinian population. Only 12 organisations, including the Red Cross and several Christian organisations active in the West Bank prior to 1967 and therefore registered with the Jordanian authorities, were not to be submitted to this new regulation.

Actions requested:

Please write to the authorities in Israel urging them to:

1. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of all human rights defenders in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
2. Ensure free and unfettered access, movement and activities of humanitarian workers within all the Israeli-controlled areas;
3. Put an end to any kind of harassment - including administrative - against all human rights defenders in Israel and the OPT and ensure in all circumstances that they are able to carry out their work without unjustified hindrances;
4. Comply with the provisions of the Fourth 1949 Geneva Convention, recognised as norms of customary international law, in particular Article 55, which states “[...] the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate [...]”. as well as Article 59, which states that “if the whole or part of the population of an occupied territory is inadequately supplied, the Occupying Power shall agree to relief schemes on behalf of the said population, and shall facilitate them by all the means at its disposal […]”;
5. Comply with the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, and Article 12(2), which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually or in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the [...] Declaration”;
6. More generally, ensure in all circumstances the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the country and the OPT in accordance with international human rights instruments ratified by Israel.

Addresses:

• Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister, Office of the Prime Minister, 3 Kaplan Street, PO Box 187, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem 91919, Israel. Fax: + 972 2 651 2631 / 02-670-5475, E-mail: rohm@pmo.gov.il, pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
• Mr. Ehud Barak, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Ministry of Defence, 37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya, Tel Aviv 61909, Israel. Fax: +972 3 691 6940, Email: minister@mod.gov.il
• Mr. Avigdor Lieberman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 9 Yitzhak Rabin Boulevard, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem 91035, Israel. Fax: +972 2 628 7757 / +972 2 628 8618 / + 972-2-5303367. Email: sar@mfa.gov.il
• Mr. Yaakov Ne’eman, Minister of Justice, Ministry of Justice, 29 Salah al-Din Street, Jerusalem 91010, Israel. Fax: + 972 2 628 7757 / + 972 2 628 8618 / + 972 2 530 3367. Email: sar@justice.gov.il / tifereth@justice.gov.il
• Ambassador Aharon Leshno-Yaar, Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations in Geneva, Avenue de la Paix 1-3, CH-1202, Geneva, Switzerland, E-mail: mission-israel@geneva.mfa.gov.il, Fax: +41 22 716 05 55
• Embassy of Israel in Brussels, 40 avenue de l’Observatoire, 1180 Uccle, Belgium, Fax: + 32 2 373 56 17, Email: brussels@israel.org

Please also write to the diplomatic mission or embassy of Israel in your respective country as well as to the EU diplomatic missions or embassies in Israel.

Paris-Geneva, March 11, 2010

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need. The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:
E-mail: Appeals@fidh-omct.org
Tel and fax FIDH + 33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 / +33 1 43 55 18 80

Tel and fax OMCT + 41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / + 41 22 809 49 29

[1] See Joint Open Letter to the authorities, March 11, 2010.

[2] A policy change was forthcoming since July 2009. In August 2009, a number of INGO workers found that their application had been submitted to a "special committee", and received a tourist visa.