Israeli Human Rights organisations reject new military order

Digest of reporting on advocacy against IDF Separation Order

Background

On November 19, OC Central Command Major General Yair Naveh signed an order forbidding Palestinians from traveling in Israeli vehicles. The order, which is supposed to take effect on January 19, 2007, prevents the transport of Palestinian citizens inside the West Bank without permits (except for single exceptions) in Israeli vehicles (defined also as vehicles registered in Israel, even if they do not have Israeli license plates) by Israeli citizens. In his letters to the two figures, Attorney Michael Sfard, Yesh Din's legal advisor, notes that the new order joins a list of orders issued by the OC of the Central Command that create a legal system of separation on the basis of nationality. As such, notes Attorney Sfard, the order is manifestly illegal and falls under the definition of the Crime of Apartheid according to international law. Yesh Din is taking a series of actions, along with a number of other human rights organizations, to lead to the cancellation of the Apartheid order. On December 7, the coalition published an ad on the front-page of Haaretz, announcing their refusal to cooperate with the new order.

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Contents

Maariv op-ed: This is how you create Apartheid
Jerusalem Report: Army Directive lashed as "crime of apartheid"
NFC: “We are going to ignore the General’s order that forbids transporting Palestinians”

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This is how you create Apartheid

The order issued by the CO Central Command, that prohibits transporting Palestinians in vehicles without special permits, is a criminal offence according to international law

Op-ed, Mooky Dagan, Maariv, December 26
The author is a member of Yesh Din’s steering committee.

The order written by OC Central Command Ya’ir Naveh, forbidding Israelis and workers in international organizations from transporting Palestinians throughout the West Bank without special permits, will go into effect on January 19. That order is another escalation in the violation of the basic human rights of the Palestinian population in the occupied territories. The order also indicates that another moral obstacle was broken. It is an order that unequivocally discriminates, on a national basis, against an entire population, because of the fact that its members were born Palestinian and hold Palestinian identity cards.

A series of human rights organizations, such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Hamoked – Center for the Defense of the Individual, Gisha, Machsom Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, Yesh Din and other organizations, are fighting this order because it is manifestly illegal, and in order to erect a moral boundary as a warning sign.

It should be stressed that the order is not directed at people who pose any security danger, but applies to the entire Palestinian civilian population.

Transporting Palestinians is part of the daily work of those organizations, which announced they would not cooperate with the order and would not ask for special permits. It is an unusual public act, where law-abiding human rights organizations are saying openly, “we do not intend to follow the law.”

Yesh Din, for instance, helps Palestinians get to police stations to file complaints. The police stations in the West Bank are located inside settlements. A Palestinian car can not enter them, and for a Palestinian alone, without the escort of an Israeli, it is almost impossible to get to a police station. So each organization has its own activities that help present Israeli society in a different light than what is familiar and common in the daily lives of Palestinians in the West Bank. The order’s taking effect will not only harm the work of the organizations. This sweeping prohibition will also place another obstacle on the path of many Israelis and Palestinians who cultivate ties and cooperation, out of the desire and hope to establish co-existence in our area.

This order is another step in the Apartheid regime Israel is actively creating in the occupied territories of the West Bank. It is a regime that completely depends on permits. This order joins a series of restrictions and regulations that prevent Palestinians from traveling on roads and reaching places designated for Israelis only.

According to international law, such discriminatory laws are considered criminal offences. Who will prevent the next step that can easily be an upgrade of the present regulation? For instance, Palestinians will have to mark themselves in some way, so that they can be identified as Palestinians. Or, an order that allows Palestinians to travel in Israeli cars, but only in the back seat. Is our memory that short?

Next June the state of Israel is going to celebrate 40 years of occupation. 40 years is long enough to identify social changes and processes. Orders, such as the one issued by the OC Central Command, are another step in the slope of corruption of Israeli society, whose impact and consequences are evident inside Israel. We must do all we can to stop this dangerous trend.

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Army Directive lashed as "crime of apartheid"

Zachary Goelman, the Jerusalem Report, December 22

Israeli human rights organization has charged that an army ban on Israel drivers carrying Palestinian passengers in the west bank falls into the category of the "crime of apartheid", as defined by international law.

The order, issued by Maj.Gen. Yair Naveh, the head of the Central Command, becomes effective on January 19. Citing exceptional security considerations, the army claims that Naveh's directive is meant to protect and ensure public order. The Israeli human rights organization is threatening noncompliance with the order.

An employee of the Yesha Council, the settlers' representative body, who insisted on anonymity, said. "The order makes sense. It is meant to prevent Israelis from picking up Palestinian hitchhikers. It's dangerous." Very few Israelis, if any, would pick up Palestinian hitchhikers and thus the order won't cause problems for anyone but the human rights groups, the source remarked

Naveh's order stipulates that Israeli citizens may not transport "non-Israelis" – meaning Palestinians – unless the passenger is a first-degree relative or has a permit for travel and employment in Israel or inside Jewish settlements.

"As soon as the order came out, we announced we simply won't obey,'' says Yossi Wolfson, an attorney at HaMoked, the Center for the Defense of the Individual, a Jerusalem-based NPO offering legal advice to Palestinians who complain their rights have been violated by Israeli policies. Its staff of 30 Israelis and Palestinians deals with every- thing from prohibitions on the movement of individual Palestinians, home demolitions and allegedly arbitrary arrests.

Wolfson argues that Naveh's, order violates the 1973 international convention which defines the crime of apartheid as "similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practiced in southern Africa. Article 3 declares that "international criminal responsibility shall apply ... to individual's members of organization and institutions and representatives of the State," which "directly abet, encourage or cooperate in the commission of the crime of apartheid.

Rights groups say that the order harms their efforts. "We need to transport Palestinians in our cars," Wolfson insists, "when we visit them to take depositions." Another organization Yesh Din sent letters to Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Gen. Naveh, asking what happens when a "volunteer, who as part of her job escorts Palestinians who were attacked by settlers to the nearest police station in order to tile a complaint. Can she now expect on her arrival at the police station to be arrested for driving a Palestinian in a car with Israeli license plates?"

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“We are going to ignore the General’s order that forbids transporting Palestinians”

The human rights organizations announced this in light of the decision of the OC Central Command to forbid Israelis from transporting Palestinians throughout the West Bank.

“The order creates an Apartheid regime and is manifestly illegal”

Nir Yahav, NFC [News First Class; Israeli news portal], December 7

On January 19, an order by OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh will go into effect, forbidding Israelis and workers of international organizations from transporting Palestinians in their vehicles throughout the West Bank. The human rights organizations announced today (Thursday, Dec. 7, 2006), they would not cooperate and ask for permits to transport Palestinians.

Yesh Din and other human rights organizations demand the order be canceled, claiming it is illegal and infringes basic rights on a national basis. The organizations said they would not cooperate with the order, will not ask for special permits and will continue to transport Palestinians who ask for their help. The organizations say “the order creates an Apartheid regime, and is manifestly illegal.”

The announcement that was published is signed by the organizations: Gisha: Center for the Legal Protection of Freedom of Movement, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, HaMoked – Center for the Defense of the Individual, Yesh Din - Organization of Volunteers for Human Rights, Machsom Watch and Physicians for Human Rights.

Attorney Michael Sfard, Yesh Din’s legal advisor, said “it is an order that creates an Apartheid regime. I sincerely hope the General understand it crosses every moral red line and cancels the order before it takes effect, or else we will have to go to court.”

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