קווי דמיון ביןמדיניות הקרקעות והדיור המשפיעה על פלסטינים בישראל לביןזוהחלהעל פלסטינים בגדה המערבית
הכבושה מצביעים עלקיומה של מדיניות רחבה יותר ביחס לאוכלוסייה הפלסטינית בכללותה, שנועדה להבטיח רוב יהודי
בכלל האזוריםהמצוייםתחת שליטהישראלית, תוך צמצום האפשרות להגדרה עצמית גיאוגרפית עבור העם הפלסטיני.
בדוח זוהו ששה שרים ישראליים כמי שנושאים ככל הנראה בעיקר האחריותלביצוע פשעים בינלאומיים הנוגעים לקרקעות
ודיור, כמו גם לפשעים אחרים שזוהו על-ידי הוועדה בדוחותיה הקודמים:
•שר הביטחון לשעבריואב גלנטושר הביטחון הנוכחיישראל כץנושאים באחריותלפעולותיהם של כוחות הביטחון
הישראליים בעזה;
•שר האוצרבצלאל סמוטריץ‘ושרת ההתיישבות והמשימות הלאומיותאורית סטרוקנושאים במשותף באחריות
להנעת הקמתן והרחבתן של התנחלויותבגדה המערבית הכבושה, לרבות מזרח ירושלים;
•השר לביטחון לאומיאיתמר בן-גבירנושא באחריות למעשיהתעללותשלרשויות הכליאה הישראליות בעצירים
פלסטיניים, אשר זוהו על-ידי הוועדה בדיווחה הקודםלעצרתהכללית;
•ראש הממשלהבנימין נתניהונושא באחריות הסופית להתנהלותה של ישראל בשטח הפלסטיני הכבוש בכללותו,
ובאחריות ישירהלאור הוראותיו לביצוע מעשיםהמהווים פשעי מלחמה, פשעים נגד האנושות, ופשע השמדת עם;
•ראש הממשלהנתניהוושר הביטחון לשעברגלנטנושאים גם באחריותלפשע ההסתה לביצוע השמדת עם
Archiv: UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem and Israel
Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel
82. Successive Governments of Israel have implemented laws and policies to diminish Palestinian space in Israel, including confining Palestinian localities and hindering Palestinians with Israeli citizenship from moving and integrating into Jewish localities. In addition, informal barriers resulting from wider, primarily socioeconomic, inequalities between the two populations have grown and become entrenched over decades, further preventing integration.
83. Some policies and laws are explicitly discriminatory. Others have a discriminatory impact, resulting in segregation. This is evident from the “admissions committees” policy and law, as well as statements of Israeli officials’ supporting the development of exclusively non-Jewish localities to deter and prevent Palestinians with Israeli citizenship from moving into mixed cities.
84. Such discrimination in laws and policies is a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Specifically, Israel has violated article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which obliges States to ensure adequate standards of living and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions.
85. Land and housing policies impacting Palestinians in Israel are part of a broader policy towards the Palestinian population as a whole, aimed at striving towards a Jewish majority in all areas under Israeli control, reducing the possibility of geographical self-determination for the Palestinian people.
Individual criminal responsibility
86. The Commission has identified several Israeli ministers as likely bearing the most responsibility for the international crimes noted in the present report. The Ministers of Defence since October 2023, Yoav Gallant (until 7 November 2024) and subsequently Israel Katz, are responsible for actions of Israeli security forces in Gaza which amount to international crimes. The Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, and the Minister of Settlements and National Projects, Orit Strock, are jointly responsible for driving settlement construction and expansion in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is responsible for the actions of police and prison authorities noted by the Commission in its previous report to the General Assembly. The Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is ultimately responsibility for the conduct of Israel in the whole of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. All six bear direct individual responsibility for establishing policies and taking actions noted in the present report that have killed and injured Palestinians, deliberately inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part and deepened the unlawful presence of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, including through security operations and channelling funds for settlements, farm outposts and settlement expansion.
Israel seeks permanent Gaza control and Jewish majority in West Bank, UN inquiry says
The Commission also found that since October 2023, Israeli policies have demonstrated clear intent to forcibly transfer Palestinians, expand Jewish settlements, and annex the entire West Bank.
„Increasing violent attacks by settlers have resulted in the forcible displacement of communities and subsequent Judaization of areas of the West Bank,“ the report stated.
It also highlights military operations in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps, which resulted in destruction of homes and infrastructure and displacement of residents – actions the Commission deems unjustified militarily and tantamount to collective punishment.
Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
246. The duty to prevent and punish genocide applies not only to the responsible State but to all States Parties to the Genocide Convention and indeed to all States under customary international law. In the Barcelona Traction case, the International Court of Justice recognised the erga omnes obligation in preventing and punishing genocide487 and held that the Genocide Convention obligates all States Parties to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.488 Even in the absence of an express order by the International Court of Justice, all States have a duty to assess whether a violation of the Genocide Convention has occurred or may occur and take steps to determine their own obligations in preventing and punishing such acts.
247. On 26 January 2024, in its first of three provisional measures orders in the South Africa v. Israel case, the International Court of Justice put all States on notice of the plausibility of the State of Israel committing genocide in its military operations in Gaza since 7 October 2023. The Court said, “at least some of the rights claimed by South Africa and for which it is seeking protection are plausible. This is the case with respect to the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in Article III [of the Genocide Convention].” It found “a real and imminent risk that irreparable prejudice will be caused to the rights found by the Court to be plausible”.
248. It noted, inter alia, the catastrophic living conditions in Gaza. On 24 May 2024, the Court reinforced its earlier order, saying that “the current situation arising from Israel’s military offensive in Rafah entails a further risk of irreparable prejudice to the plausible rights claimed by South Africa and that there is urgency, in the sense that there exists a real and imminent risk that such prejudice will be caused before the Court gives its final decision.“ It ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.492 The Commission emphasises the importance of these provisional measures orders in providing a strong statement to other States of their obligations to prevent and punish genocide.
249. Therefore, the Commission finds that, since at least 26 January 2024, when the International Court of Justice ordered its first provisional measures, all States Parties to the Genocide Convention, and all other States too, have been on notice of a serious risk that genocide was being or would be committed. As such, the duty to prevent genocide was triggered due to the actual or constructive knowledge of the immediate plausibility that genocide was being or was about to be committed. According to the International Court of Justice, where States Parties are able to contribute to the prevention of genocide, they are obligated to “employ all means reasonably available to them, so as to prevent genocide so far as possible.” Responsibility may be incurred if a State Party “manifestly failed to take all measures to prevent genocide which were within its power, and which might have contributed to preventing the genocide.”
250. Consistent with the obligations promulgated under the Genocide Convention, the Commission therefore notes that States are obliged to (i) ensure that Israel implements all orders for provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice; (ii) cooperate to bring to an end all Israeli actions in Gaza that amount to a violation of the Genocide Convention; (iii) take steps to ensure the prevention of conduct that may amount to an act of genocide under the Genocide Convention, including the transfer of weapons that are used or likely to be used by Israel to commit genocidal acts; (iv) not recognise as lawful the military operations in Gaza that led to the violations of peremptory norms (jus cogens), including genocide; and (v) conduct investigations and take steps to ensure the punishment of violations of peremptory norms. The Commission recommends that, in fulfilment of these obligations, States (i) intervene in the International Court of Justice proceedings of South Africa v. Israel; and (ii) support and cooperate fully with the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in its investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine, with the aim of advancing international accountability.
Gaza: Top independent rights probe alleges Israel committed genocide
In a new report published against the backdrop of intensifying Israeli military operations in Gaza City, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, urged Israel and all countries to fulfil their obligations under international law “to end the genocide” and punish those responsible.
“The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,” insisted Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission. “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”
At a press conference in Geneva, the panel’s members – who are not UN staff but instead appointed by the Human Rights Council’s 47 Member States – explained that their investigations into the war in Gaza beginning with Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023 had led to the conclusion that Israeli authorities and security forces “committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.
UN Watch Hails Resignation of Entire UN’s Anti-Israel Inquiry: “This is All Due to U.S. Sanctions on Albanese, Dominoes Are Falling”
(July 14, 2025)
“This week, the dominoes are falling,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “First, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the historic decision to sanction Francesca Albanese, the UN’s pro-Hamas rapporteur, in wake of a massive campaign led by UN Watch. Now the architects of the UN’s anti-Israel inquisition are fleeing the ship. The tide is turning.”
UN commission quits Israel investigation
(July 16, 2025)
The letters were posted on a back-end Human Rights Council website and first publicised by UN Watch, a nonprofit monitoring group.
The commission will continue to exist once new members are appointed. Jürg Lauber, head of the Human Rights Council, has asked member states to propose replacements by 31 August.
Kifeya Khraim & Witness #3 | Public Hearings, COI Palestine, East Jerusalem & Israel, 11/03/2025
Mar 12, 2025
Kifeya Khraim, International Advocacy Officer, Women‘s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling, and Witness #3, Women Human Rights Defender, give testimony during Public Hearings organized by the UN Commission of Inquiry Palestine, East Jerusalem & Israel, on 3 March 2025. The Commission of Inquiry held its third round of Public Hearings to gather testimony from victims of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence committed by the Israeli Security Forces and Israeli settlers.
Mohamed Hassan Matar Matar | Public Hearings, COI Palestine, East Jerusalem & Israel, 11/03/2025
Mar 12, 2025
Mohamed Hassan Matar Matar, a resident of the West Bank, gives testimony during Public Hearings organized by the UN Commission of Inquiry Palestine, East Jerusalem & Israel, on 3 March 2025. The Commission of Inquiry held its third round of Public Hearings to gather testimony from victims of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence committed by the Israeli Security Forces and Israeli settlers.
“More than a human can bear”: Israel‘s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since October 2023
“The evidence collected by the Commission reveals a deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence,” said Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission. “There is no escape from the conclusion that Israel has employed sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians to terrorise them and perpetuate a system of oppression that undermines their right to self-determination.”
The release of the report was accompanied by two days of public hearings held in Geneva on 11-12 March, during which the Commission heard from victims and witnesses of sexual and reproductive violence and medical personnel who assisted them, as well as representatives from civil society, academics, lawyers and medical experts.
The report found that sexual and gender-based violence – which has risen in frequency and severity – is being perpetrated across the Occupied Palestinian Territory as a strategy of war for Israel to dominate and destroy the Palestinian people.
Specific forms of sexual and gender-based violence – such as forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment including threats of rape, as well as sexual assault – comprise part of the Israeli Security Forces’ standard operating procedures toward Palestinians.
Other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including rape and violence to the genitals, were committed either under explicit orders or with implicit encouragement by Israel’s top civilian and military leadership, the report said.
U.N. report accuses Israel of sexual violence, ‘genocidal acts’ in Gaza
A U.N. report released Thursday accused Israel of carrying out “systematic” gender-based violence during its 17-month war in the Gaza Strip, including by shelling fertility clinics and hospital maternity wards, causing maternal deaths by blocking aid deliveries, and subjecting male and female detainees to sexual humiliation or abuse.
The 49-page report, by a U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry, said that “Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births, one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention.”
United Nations Charter (full text)
Article 7
1. There are established as principal organs of the United Nations: a General Assembly, a Security Council, an Economic and Social Council, a Trusteeship Council, an International Court of Justice and a Secretariat.
(…)
Article 94
1. Each Member of the United Nations undertakes to comply with the decision of the International Court of Justice in any case to which it is a party.
2. If any party to a case fails to perform the obligations incumbent upon it under a judgment rendered by the Court, the other party may have recourse to the Security Council, which may, if it deems necessary, make recommendations or decide upon measures to be taken to give effect to the judgment.
(…)
Article 96
– The General Assembly or the Security Council may request the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on any legal question.
– Other organs of the United Nations and specialized agencies, which may at any time be so authorized by the General Assembly, may also request advisory opinions of the Court on legal questions arising within the scope of their activities.
Gaza: Unlawful Israeli Hospital Strikes Worsen Health Crisis
– The Israeli military’s repeated, apparently unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel, and transport are further destroying Gaza’s healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes.
– Concerns about disproportionate attacks are magnified for hospitals. Even the threat of an attack or minor damage can have massive life-or-death implications for patients and caregivers.
– The Israeli government should end attacks on hospitals. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the ICC should investigate.
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese
9. In recent years, a number of reputable scholars and organizations have concluded that systemic and widespread discriminatory Israeli policies and practices against the Palestinians amount to the crime of apartheid under international law. While the international community has not fully acted upon it, the concept that Israeli occupation meets the legal threshold of apartheid is gaining traction. This may help overcome a certain tendency to scrutinize Israeli violations, often individual and
decontextualized, under specific bodies of international law rather than the very system through which Israel rules over the Palestinians.
10. At the same time, if considered alone and not as part of a holistic examination of the experience of the Palestinian people as a whole, the apartheid framework presents some limitations:
(a) First, with few exceptions, the scope of recent reports on Israeli apartheid is primarily “territorial” and excludes the experience of Palestinian refugees. The recognition of Israeli apartheid must address the experience of the Palestinian people in its entirety and in their unity as a people, including those who were displaced, denationalized and dispossessed in 1947–1949 (many of whom live in the occupied Palestinian territory);
(b) Second, a focus on Israeli apartheid alone misses the inherent illegality of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. The Israeli occupation is illegal because it has proven not to be temporary, is deliberately administered against the best interests of the occupied population and has resulted in the annexation of occupied territory, breaching most obligations imposed on the occupying Power. Its illegality also stems from its systematic violation of at least three peremptory norms of international law: the prohibition on the acquisition of territory through the use of force; the prohibition on imposing regimes of alien subjugation, domination and exploitation, including racial discrimination and apartheid; and the obligation of States to respect the right of peoples to self-determination. By the same token, Israeli occupation constitutes an unjustified use of force and an act of aggression.9 Such an occupation is unequivocally prohibited under international law and contrary to the values, purposes and principles of the United Nations as enshrined in its Charter;
(c) Third, the apartheid framework does not address the “root causes” of the web of racially discriminatory laws, orders and policies that have regulated daily life in the occupied Palestinian territory since 1967 and Israeli animus (intention) in seizing land while subjugating and displacing its indigenous people and replacing them with its nationals. This is the hallmark of settler-colonialism, and a war crime
under the Rome Statute.
11. In essence, the limitations of the apartheid framework as currently applied bypass the critical issue of the recognition of the Palestinian people’s fundamental right to determine their political, social and economic status and develop as a people, free from foreign occupation, rule and exploitation. Dismantling the Israeli apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory in particular, while necessary, will not
automatically address the question of Israeli domination over the Palestinians, restore permanent sovereignty over the lands Israel occupies and the natural resources therein, nor, on its own, fulfil Palestinian political aspirations.
UN commission says it will investigate ‘apartheid’ charges against Israel
Israel has adamantly denied apartheid accusations, saying its Arab minority enjoys full civil rights, while most Palestinians, who live outside Israel’s sovereign territory, are subject to Palestinian Authority rule under the Oslo Accords.
It also bristles at the term “occupation” to describe its activities in the West Bank and Gaza. It views Gaza, from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005, as a hostile entity ruled by the Islamic terror group Hamas, and it considers the West Bank to be disputed territory subject to peace negotiations — which collapsed nearly a decade ago.
Commission of Inquiry finds that the Israeli occupation is unlawful under international law
New York (20 October 2022) — There are reasonable grounds to conclude that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is now unlawful under international law due to its permanence and the Israeli Government’s de-facto annexation policies, according to the first report to the General Assembly issued today by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.
Underlining that under international humanitarian law the occupation of territory in wartime is a temporary situation and does not deprive the occupied Power of its statehood nor its sovereignty, the three-person Commission called on the General Assembly to request an urgent Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Israel’s continued refusal to end its occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“Recent statements by the Secretary-General and numerous member States have clearly indicated that any attempt at unilateral annexation of a State’s territory by another State is a violation of international law and is null and void; 143 member States including Israel last week voted in favour of a General Assembly resolution reaffirming this”, stated Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission. “Unless universally applied, including to the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, this core principle of the United Nations Charter will become meaningless”, she added.