Articles for Palestine

Two UN human rights experts called on Israel to immediately stop using military security tools to "obstruct the legitimate work of human rights defenders". This follows a decision by the Israeli military court on January 6, 2021 to convict Palestinian human rights activist Issa Amro on six counts related to his human rights activities between 2010 and 2016.

On July 23, 2019, Alkarama wrote to the UN Special Rapporteur on Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 and the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing to ask them to urge the Israeli authorities to call on the Israeli authorities to immediately halt the destruction of houses near the Annexation Wall.

(Geneva, September 20, 2018) – On September 20, 2018, Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour was released from Damoun prison after serving a five-month sentence for “incitement to violence” and “support for terror organisations” in relation to her poetry and social media activity.

(Geneva, August 3, 2018) – On July 31, 2018, Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour was sentenced by an Israeli court to five months in prison with an additional six-month suspended sentence on charges of “incitement to violence” and “support for terror organisations” as a result of her poetry and social media activity.

(Geneva, July 6, 2018) – On June 29, 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) met to adopt the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) outcome of Israel following the state’s review on January 23, 2018.

 

“A poem stands accused,

my poem morphs into a crime.

In the land of freedom,

the artist’s fate is prison.”

 

Extract from “A Poet Behind Bars” by Dareen Tatour, translated by Tariq al Haydar

On October 17, 2017, Palestinian lawyer and human rights defender, Shireen Issawi, was released from an Israeli prison after being arbitrarily detained for over three and a half years.

Issawi was arrested along with her brothers, Shadi and Medhat, in March 2014, and accused of “cooperating with actors working against Israel.” Her arrest came as part of a crackdown by the Israeli authorities on lawyers who had defended Palestinian prisoners.

After nearly two years in an Israeli prison without charge or trial, 26-year-old Palestinian circus performer Mohammed Abu Sakha was released on August 31, 2017.

Between 12 and 15 June 2017, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Public Prosecutor issued orders to block access within the West Bank to at least 12 news websites*. Since then, people in the West Bank have been unable to access them. All targeted news agencies websites are believed to convey voices critical to the Palestinian Authority, raising concerns that this measure aims at restricting free speech.

Based on solid documentation Palestinian’s human rights abuses collected along the past four years, on 29 June 2017, Alkarama submitted its report in view of Israel's third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before the Human Rights Council (HRC), which will take place in