JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH, 7 March 2007 — Israel harms Palestinians’ economy and livelihood. It harms the dignities, bodies, and property of Palestinian illegal workers. It abuses them at West Bank checkpoints under security pretext and ignores their complaints. B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights watchdog, said in a report released yesterday that Israel prefers to ignore the abuse and humiliation Palestinian workers undergo in their encounters with Israeli security forces on a daily basis.
The group in defense of human rights in the Palestinian territories accused the Jewish state of aggravating severe economic hardship in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. “Severe economic hardship now prevails in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Poverty is extremely high and many Palestinians have trouble finding work to support themselves and their families,” B’Tselem said in a new report.
“The State of Israel bears a substantial part of the blame for this dismal situation, and, given that it maintains effective control of these areas, it is responsible for rectifying the problems. Not only does Israel do nothing to ease the hardship, it aggravates the situation,” B’Tselem added.
The rights group took issue with a “tight enclosure” imposed by Israel that prevents Palestinians from leaving Gaza and West Bank to enter Israel unless they have permits — granted “sparingly” by the Jewish state. The restrictions mean that many Palestinians who cannot obtain entry permits violate the closure and stay in Israel without a permit, hoping to find work in order to feed their families.
The rights group slammed “a harsh routine of violence and abuse, including the use of illegal force” meted out by police and soldiers against such Palestinians who violate the closure.
The report, titled “Beyond Legal Boundaries,” offered detailed testimonies of Palestinians who claim to have been mistreated by Israeli soldiers and police officers. The report stated that only about 1.5 percent of the complaints filed led to the soldiers being tried in criminal court.
According to B’Tselem, each year Israel places a closure on the West Bank and Gaza for long periods of times, preventing workers to enter its territory, and in 2005, entrance was denied for a total of 132 days of the year. In 2000, 150,000 Palestinians were issued permits to work in Israel; however, the report presented data showing that there has been a continuous drop in this number, to about half in 2006. It was also stated that only a few hundred workers from the Gaza Strip were allowed entrance to Israel.
On the economic aspect, B’Tselem reported that Israel was deliberately implementing an under-development policy in the Palestinian cities in the years preceding the Oslo Accord, causing the Palestinian market to become dependant on Israel. Furthermore, Israel has been preventing investments in the Palestinian market, said the report.
The scope of conditions and agonies a Palestinian must go through in order to file an application for a work permit was also presented in the report: “The (Palestinian) applicant must be married and in his 30s or older, must be a father, and the Israeli employer must also file an application to the Israeli authorities in order for the application to be considered.”
The report widely covered the abuse of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers at checkpoints. According to the report, “The Israeli authorities contribute to the ongoing acts of abuse of Palestinians by not treating them suitably.” The report said that 64.5 percent of the complaints filed by Palestinians were not even investigated.
Thirty-one percent of the complaints were investigated and closed for various reasons and only 3 percent of the Israeli soldiers or police officers complained against by Palestinians stood disciplinary trial.
