Press Releases

BADIL’s engagement with UN Treaty Bodies through the International Committee on Civil and Political Rights
PR/EN/050717/44

As part of the Fourth Periodic Review of Israel, BADIL responded in mid-June 2017 to Israel’s response to recommendations and concluding remarks given by the International Committee on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). BADIL’s response addressed punitive demolitions, and discriminatory zoning and planning as Israeli policies creating coercive environment and causing forcible transfer. 

BADIL’s report focuses on a number of recommendations imposed on Israel by the Committee. Namely, Israel should end its policy of punitive demolitions and provide effective remedies to victims; refrain from administrative demolitions and evictions carried out on the basis of discriminatory zoning and planning legislation; and cease discriminatory zoning and planning practices. The Committee also recommended that Israel desist from actions that facilitate or result in forcible transfer and forced evictions; and ensure that Bedouins in the Naqab and Area C are guaranteed procedural protection, participation and due process in regard to their relocation. BADIL’s response highlights how Israel’s response to the Committee’s recommendations proves its unwillingness to implement the ICCPR through demonstrating the ways in which Israel has circumvented or excused itself from the Covenant’s requirements.

BADIL responded to all points and highlighted that the coercive environment leading to forcible transfer in Area C could render valueless the consent of Bedouins in that area to be relocated, due to the fear and coercion they are faced with. Furthermore, BADIL emphasized that the ICCPR does apply in the occupied territory and that Israel’s statement otherwise reflects a lack of political will to comply with the Committee’s recommendations. For further information on the applicability of the ICCPR to occupied territory see BADIL’s Written Report of 2010 in Response to Israel’s Fourth Periodic Report to the Human Rights Committee.