Since October 7, 2023, the entire world has followed the course of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and the resulting death of tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of thousands of wounded, in addition to the very widespread destruction of buildings and infrastructure, while the attention and follow-up of opinion focused on The Arab and international public focused on the human cost of the war and its political and military developments. There was much less attention paid to the efforts of Palestinian human rights organizations aimed at exposing what the occupation committed to international organizations, whether Governmental or non-governmental.
In this report, Tel Aviv Tribune Net monitors the most prominent results of the efforts of Palestinian human rights organizations in international forums, and the difficulties and obstacles these organizations faced.
Documentation and follow-up
Palestinian human rights institutions have worked extensively to document violations and follow up on their files in international arenas. Shawan Jabarin, General Director of Al-Haq, headquartered in Ramallah, says that his organization’s efforts focused on documenting crimes committed in Gaza and supporting the Palestinian cause at international legal and legal levels.
Jabareen added in a statement to Tel Aviv Tribune Net that Al-Haq Foundation’s efforts began since October 7 of last year by monitoring official Israeli statements, collecting and analyzing information using scientific methodologies through the Engineering Investigation Unit. According to the same speaker, there was cooperation with experts in international law, and a working group specialized in genocide was established, which included more than 110 members, which contributed to formulating the legal understanding of Israeli crimes.
Al-Haq Foundation communicated – Jabareen adds – with United Nations rapporteurs and submitted reports to the International Criminal Court, including accurate information about Israel’s killing of Palestinians and statistics related to these crimes. The Foundation filed cases against countries such as Britain and the United States regarding supplying weapons to Israel, and accused the authorities of the two countries of complicity in Genocide crimes. The Palestinian Association also participated in international cases filed in Australia and the Netherlands aimed at delegitimizing the occupation, in addition to calls to stop supplying weapons to Israel.
Jabareen says that his organization contributed to 9 lawsuits in which the organization contributed, whether with information, legal position, or analysis. Among these cases was a case in which Al-Haq cooperated with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, and the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, against the Dutch government, where the latter was sued. Stop supplying weapons to Israel.
According to the same spokesman, efforts were focused on strengthening the Palestinian human rights narrative and providing various parties with the necessary documents, including the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, to ensure the continuity of legal and human rights work.
Protection of civilians
On the other hand, Salah Abdel Ati, director of the Hashd Foundation – based in the Gaza Strip – made a number of important efforts to support human rights and protect Palestinian civilians, which included the following:
- Sending 165 international letters to 315 international and regional organizations and figures urging them to carry out their duties towards the rights and protection of Palestinian civilians.
- Sending 145 reports to the relevant international authorities to warn of the worsening pattern of Israeli violations and crimes in the Gaza Strip.
- Preparing 48 legal files and reviewing them before the International Criminal Court’s investigation team and providing it with all documents and evidence of violations.
- Sending a list of names of Israeli officials who should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.
Abdel Ati adds that there are “growing positive repercussions represented by the escalation of the human rights movement and public and societal activities that confront the narrative of the occupation.” In addition, according to the same speaker, pressures to boycott Israel are increasing in multiple areas, although some of them are not yet complete. In this context, work is being done to form an international human rights coalition that will add the director of the Hashd Foundation, in addition to efforts to establish a global court to prosecute Israeli war criminals, to be later approved by the United Nations General Assembly.
In a related context, Alaa Badraneh, the legal advisor to the Center for Defending Civil Liberties and Civil Rights – based in Ramallah – believes that the efforts of civil society institutions, especially the Boycott Israel Movement (BDS), had a prominent role in promoting the boycott of Israeli occupation products and companies. Supporting the construction of illegal settlements, in line with international legitimacy resolutions.
Challenges and obstacles
Badraneh warns that Palestinian human rights institutions have been subjected to major attacks by the occupation authorities, including the imposition of a financial blockade, which has led to difficulty in opening bank accounts for Palestinian human rights institutions, as Palestinian banks operate within a framework managed by Israeli banks, which control financial transfers and the process of opening bank accounts. . The legal advisor adds that these Israeli restrictions indicate the great impact that Palestinian human rights institutions have in exposing the occupation’s violations and its threat to their interests.
Abdel Ati points out another aspect of the difficulties faced by the work of Palestinian non-governmental organizations, which is that “the Palestinian Authority suffers from a strategic weakness in pursuing cases related to the Gaza Strip before the International Criminal Court, in addition to its lack of seriousness in pursuing files with the International Court of Justice, which reflects “A clear failure in dealing with genocide issues,” and the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian human rights activist added, was late in joining the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel, despite the fact that the Palestinian Authority is a party to the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide.
The Hashd Foundation says that it has filed 16 lawsuits in various countries, including France, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, the United States, Britain, Belgium, Norway, and Spain. But many of these lawsuits were rejected in Germany, Italy, as well as France and the United States.
Abdel Ati mentioned in his statements to Tel Aviv Tribune Net that he and his team were subjected to obstacles and penalties because of their human rights work in Italy, as one of the Italian judges fined Hashd an amount of 5 thousand euros due to the lawsuit filed by the Palestinian organization to stop Rome’s arms exports to Israel.
Future plans
Al-Haq and Hashd officials say that their plans in the future are to continue holding Israeli war criminals accountable using the principle of international jurisdiction, and also to put pressure on the International Criminal Court to complete investigations and hold Israeli officials accountable.
These Palestinian institutions also aim to extract a historic ruling holding Israel responsible and approve compensation for the Palestinians, while escalating international solidarity, activating the boycott and sanctions, and ensuring that international organizations fulfill their responsibilities towards the crimes of the occupation and support the Palestinian people.
In addition, the two aforementioned organizations will focus on strengthening efforts to support victims of the crimes of the Israeli occupation through legal, psychological and social support, and organizing mass events and campaigns to raise global awareness of the suffering of the Palestinians and enhance international solidarity with them.