Press Releases

BADIL participates in diplomatic briefing on collective punishment in East Jerusalem
BADIL participates in diplomatic briefing on collective punishment in East Jerusalem

PR/EN/080217/09

On 8 February 2017, BADIL participated in a diplomatic briefing on the impact of Israel’s collective punishment measures on Palestinian women in occupied East Jerusalem.

The briefing took place in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem and was organized by seven Palestinian civil society organizations: BADIL, Community Action Center (Al-Quds University), Al-Haq, St Yves, JLAC, CCPRJ and the Palestinian Counseling Center.

The briefing was attended by numerous diplomatic representatives, international organizations, UN organizations, and other Palestinian civil society organizations as well as several Palestinians from East Jerusalem affected by these recent policies.

The aim of the briefing was to raise awareness of the recent Israeli policy of punitive revocation of residency and family unification, which is being used to forcibly transfer family members of East Jerusalem Palestinians who allegedly committed attacks against Israeli soldiers or citizens. The punitive revocation of family unification permits and East Jerusalem residencies constitutes collective punishment, which is illegal in International Humanitarian Law, and triggers the forcible transfer of those affected out of East Jerusalem. Forcible transfer is a war crime and a crime against humanity.

This most recent policy in East Jerusalem is part of a combination of interrelated policies that Israeli authorities use to create a coercive environment inside the occupied Palestinian territory. These policies include denial of residency, an unlawful and pervasive permit regime, segregation and institutionalized racism, discriminatory zoning and planning, suppression of resistance, settler attacks, and land confiscation, among others.

All participating civil society organizations urged the international community to exert pressure on Israel to put an end to these policies of forcible transfer, to activate universal jurisdiction mechanisms to provide effective penal sanctions to those responsible for these policies of forcible transfer before their own national courts, to cooperate with the International Criminal Court in its preliminary examination and to take practical measures to stop providing assistance or support to Israel until it complies with its obligations under international law.