{"id":239627,"date":"2023-07-24T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=239627"},"modified":"2023-07-19T05:09:56","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T04:09:56","slug":"un-special-rapporteur-on-palestine-israel-has-turned-all-of-palestine-into-an-open-air-prison-to-further-annexation-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/07\/un-special-rapporteur-on-palestine-israel-has-turned-all-of-palestine-into-an-open-air-prison-to-further-annexation-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine: Israel Has Turned All of Palestine into \u2018An Open-Air Prison\u2019 to Further Annexation Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Francesca Albanese’s June report to the UN Human Rights Council says Israel uses physical, bureaucratic, military, and surveillance means to “de-Palestinianize” the occupied territory, threatening “the existence of the Palestinians as a people.”<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese addresses the UN, October 2022.\u00a0 Image: Screenshot YouTube<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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16 Jul 2023 – <\/em>In her June report to the UN Human Rights Council<\/a>, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, details how, through \u201ca system of control composed of multiple and interrelated levels of confinement,\u201d Israel \u201chas turned Palestinian life into a carceral continuum<\/em>\u201d\u2014amounting, as she writes, to a constantly surveilled open-air prison.<\/p>\n

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Her report documents the many physical, bureaucratic, military, and surveillance means which enable Israel\u2019s \u201carbitrary seizure of land and Palestinians\u2019 forcible displacement\u201d\u2014features, she writes, of settler colonialism.<\/p>\n

In her presentation of the report<\/a> to the UN Human Rights Council Monday, Albanese said, \u201cThese offenses appear to be part of a plan to de-Palestinianize the territory. They threaten the existence of the Palestinians as a people, as a national cohesive group.\u201d<\/p>\n

An expert in international law, Albanese takes the reader into the weeds to describe the relevant international humanitarian, human rights, and criminal laws, which, taken together, clearly point to the illegality of Israel\u2019s actions related to Palestinians in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is critical,\u201d she told members of the Human Rights Council, \u201cthat the international community recognizes the illegality of Israel\u2019s occupation naturally leading to apartheid. This cannot be rectified. This cannot be made more humane by merely addressing some of its most severe consequences. It is to be brought to an end, to restore the rule of law and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel has always denied that international law applies to its actions in the occupied territory, maintaining that the territory is disputed<\/em>, not occupied. Israel\u2019s rejection of the applicability of international law, the Special Rapporteur reports, \u201chas led to violations of fundamental principles governing situations of occupation, including the non-acquisition of sovereignty, duties to administer the occupied territory for the benefit of the protected population, and temporariness.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a press conference that followed the release of the 21-page report, Albenese said that she wrote her report on the theme of arbitrary deprivation of liberty \u201cbecause of the magnitude of the situation on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her report updates the UN\u2019s documentation of Israeli policies and practices familiar to many: arbitrary detention and arrest without warrants; night raids apprehending children; the two-tiered legal system in the West Bank, one for Israeli citizens living in illegal settlements administered in civil courts, the other for Palestinians created, administered and adjudicated by the occupation forces; the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip; an arbitrary permit system lacking transparency; 270 colonies and military bases encircling Palestinian cities, towns and villages, preventing expansion; the Wall, checkpoints, roadblocks and segregated roads; and the fragmentation of Palestinians into separate areas with varying laws governing almost every aspect of their lives. \u201cThe multi-layered architecture of confinement,\u201d she calls it in her report.<\/p>\n

One of the significant contributions of the Special Rapporteur\u2019s report is her description of Israel\u2019s digital surveillance. Interference with the right to privacy, such as the use of surveillance technologies, is prescribed by international law and is to be used only when strictly necessary.<\/p>\n

Albanese writes,<\/p>\n

Instead, digital surveillance pervasively entrenches Israel forces\u2019 control over the space and life of the occupied population. Palestinians are constantly monitored through CCTV and other devices at checkpoints, in public places, social gatherings and protests. Their private spaces are often intruded without their knowledge, through monitoring of online platforms like Facebook, calls, and online conversations considered \u201cthreatening,\u201d and tracking the location and connections of mobile phones to establish networks and potential associations, or even through their medical records.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe occupation,\u201d Albanese reports, \u201chas advanced Israel\u2019s development of powerful surveillance technologies, including facial recognition, drones, and social media monitoring.\u201d She describes the use of Israeli systems\u2014such as Blue Wolf, Red Wolf, and Wolf Pack\u2014that contribute to Israel\u2019s database of imagery, personal information, and security rating of West Bank Palestinians, including those in Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah. They have \u201ccreated a \u2018gamified surveillance\u2019,\u201d Albanese writes, \u201cwhereby Israeli military units photograph Palestinians without consent and even engage in disturbing competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDigital surveillance ultimately serves to facilitate colonization,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n

Charged in her mandate to document \u201cthe situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories,\u201d Albanese also lists violations of international law by Palestinian authorities that \u201ccontribute to tightening the grip of the regime imposed by the occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cArbitrary arrests and detention carried out by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the de facto <\/em>authorities in the Gaza Strip have contributed to stifling Palestinians\u2019 rights and freedoms,\u201d she writes. \u201cHuman rights groups have documented abusive practices, taunts, solitary confinement and beatings often to elicit confessions, punish and intimidate activists,\u201d she reports.<\/p>\n

Albanese describes how the security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel \u201chas pioneered a direct connection between Palestinian and Israeli detention apparatuses.\u201d Palestinian victims, she writes, refer to a \u201crevolving door policy\u201d\u2014a cycle in which \u201cPalestinians are first arrested, interrogated, detained and often subjected to ill-treatment by the Palestinian Authority and then, upon release, by the occupation forces, or vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Palestinian Basic Law, amended in 2003, is expected to protect fundamental rights and freedoms, Albanese writes that other Palestinian laws still \u201cdefine some crimes broadly [and] may include insulting or slandering a public official or a higher authority, libel in print, or establishing \u2018sectarian strife\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPalestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel face even more severe treatment,\u201d she writes, \u201cand in the Gaza Strip they can be punished with the death sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Special Rapporteur points as well to how the Palestinian Authority has mirrored Israel\u2019s repression of students on Palestinian campuses, \u201cdetaining students and others for dissenting political opinions, including those shared on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the conclusions in her report:<\/p>\n