The latest crackdown on Palestinians in ‘48, the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and Gaza clearly demonstrates Israel’s institutionalized policy aimed at maintaining its settler colonial and apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole.

Palestinians have been resisting forced displacement, dispossession, and ethnic cleansing in various cities and neighborhoods since 1948. Today, families in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and in Silwan are fighting to save their homes from being stolen by the occupation and Israeli settlers. In Sheik Jarrah and Silwan, around 7,850 Palestinians remain under threat of forced displacement from their homes and land. Forcible transfer of the occupied population is prohibited under international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Nahalat Shimon International, a settler organization based in the United States, filed lawsuits to seize the homes of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah using inherently discriminatory laws, such as the Legal and Administrative Matter Laws and the Absentee Property Law of 1950, to forcibly displace Palestinians and confiscate their land or property and transfer their land to Israeli settlers with the support of the Israeli authorities and the judicial system.

Israeli forces systematically deploy disproportionate and unlawful force to disperse protesters during violent raids on Al Aqsa mosque and Church of the Holy Sepulcher and carry out attacks on peaceful protestors in Sheikh Jarrah and other neighborhoods around Jerusalem. After 30 days of repression, 1,000 Palestinians were injured and more than 600 Palestinians were arrested in Jerusalem alone. The total number of arrests is 2650 including Jerusalem, 1948 territories and the West Bank.

We call on the Council to adopt the resolution establishing the Commission of Inquiry addressing the root causes of Israel’s settler colonialism and apartheid as a first step to accountability and justice.

Signatories:

• The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy- MIFTAH
• Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling
• Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
• Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies (RCHRS)
• The Community Action Center
• Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies