The fifth of June 2007 marks the 40 years of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, which started in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967.
It also marks an unprecedented deterioration of the human rights in this territory.
For four decades, the human rights Palestinian population of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip have been systematically violated.
The regime of occupation continues to deny return to those who fled their homes in 1947-48 war and the 967 war owing to the denial of Palestinians right to self-determination and enforcement of military orders and laws to the same effect.
Israel's occupation has been unique in terms of its duration, being the longest in modern history, its nature, by bearing characteristics of permanence and state-backed settlement in the occupied territory, and its brutality, being maintained by a series of policies and measures that contradict the minimal requirements of international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights standards.
For forty years the Palestinian population has been exposed to ill treatment and abuse.
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) - to give a few documented examples - killed, maimed and imprisoned, destroyed the homes of, robbed or bulldozed cultivated lands owned by, and forcibly displaced Palestinians.
This day also reminds of the persistent appalling failure of the international community to attend to its legal and moral duties and protect civilians and their property and bring an end to the occupation.
This despite the innumerous body of international resolutions of the United Nations different bodies; including the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning the legal consequences of the construction of the wall inside the West Bank in July 2004.
The statistics of Al Mezan and other Human Rights indicate that IOF has killed 4,358 Palestinians (mainly civilians and about one fourth of whom were children), destroyed 8,833 homes and 1,237 businesses, and bulldozed 31,338 dunams(One dunam equals 1,000 square meters), of land in the OPT only since the commencement of the second intifada on 28 September 2000.
Sources at the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners reported that some 60,000 Palestinians have been arrested by IOF during the same period.
Over 400,000 Palestinians were arrested since the start of the occupation.
There are now approximately 11,000 Palestinians held prisoners by Israel, compared to 553 in the even of September 28, 2000.
Most of those are held in prisons inside Israel, contrary to the relevant provisions of IHL.
The construction of the wall by Israel in the West Bank, and the concurrent discriminatory policies of the IOF, continues under flagrant disregard of the ruling of the highest international legal authority and despite the explicit opposition of the international community.
This wall is destructive to the prospects of Palestinians self-determination and to the quality of their life.
It has had a devastating impact on their rights given the restrictions it creates on mobility and access and the isolation of communities which has pushed thousands outside their homes and lands.
Since the commencement of its construction, some 2,448 families (14,364 people) have been forcibly evicted from the areas designated for the wall's route.
The wall has had serious impacts on civilians' access to education and medical assistance as 320 schools have been separated from residents and some 220,000 people have been deprived of easy access to health services.
Further more, the IOF have uprooted some 100,000 olive trees, confiscated 165,000 dunams, leveled 230,000 dunams of agricultural land and isolated 238,000 dunams.
As a result, Palestinian farmers in 71 villages have been denied access to their lands behind the wall.
The wall has also led to the closure of 1,702 private businesses, 1,330 of which are in the northern West Bank, 245 in its center, and 127 in its southern parts.
It is also being used as a tool to maintain exploitation of Palestinian natural resources, especially underground water.
It further has caused much damage to the environment.
This wall should be viewed in line with the other forms of restriction of Palestinians movement in OPT.
While Gaza is almost completely closed and isolated from the West Bank and the rest of the world, IOF has erected over 500 checkpoints and roadblocks around the West Bank splitting it into seven separate cantons.
It also designates roads as Jewish-settler only; a form of discrimination against the people living in their own land.
These features are indicative of new trends to impose new “facts on the ground” to the effect of irreversible, colonial land grab and an immutable reality of discrimination and control, which is directly attached to a rapidly emerging regime of apartheid.
Under this regime, the security and wellbeing of one ethnic group (illegally deployed Israeli settlers) are being served at the expense of the human rights and security of another ethnic majority (the Palestinian residents).
After four decades of occupation, statistics show a severe decline of the socio-economic conditions owing to the above mentioned restrictions on mobility, which have been couples with a financial and economic blockade imposed on the PNA.
The rates of poverty and unemployment have scored unprecedented highs.
The sanctions rendered the government unable to attend to the basic health, education, housing, labor and sanitation needs.
The impacts of these procedures on the human rights situation are grave.
Al Mezan Center, while condemns the 40-year-old occupation and violation of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, asserts that the gross violation of human rights in OPT could not have been possible without the international community's failure to uphold its responsibilities towards the respect of international law, protection of Palestinian civilians, and its direct actions that violated the human rights of the Palestinian population in OPT.
Al Mezan therefore calls for: End the chronic sacrificing of human rights for security and political gains.
While the maintenance of security is a priority for all, it must be pursued in such a way that human rights are not systematically and intentionally abused; Due recognition of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people as an inalienable human right that lays out an adequate threshold to the resolution of the conflict.
End the occupation and concurrent exploitation of Palestinian natural resources and abuses of human rights.
Upholding the provisions of international law and human rights standards.
End the sanctions by Israel and the international community, especially the United Nations, which must not act in violation of the obligations assumed by its own human rights system.
The international community to observe its positive obligation of ensuring that commissions do not violate internationally guaranteed human rights.
The United Nations General Assembly to respond to the recommendations of the ICJ and take measures eliminating the wall, its political consequences, and the human rights violations it has incurred.
The UN to dispatch a monitoring mission to the OPT to observe the compliance by the obligations of all states and actors by IHL and IHRL and to report to the UN to take adequate actions to eliminate the reasons that make human rights violations possible.
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