Court Watch
|
|
Israeli Case-Law under Scrutiny
|
|
For over forty years, Israel has systematically violated the rights of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and its obligations under international law. Israel has opened the doors of its judicial system to the Palestinian population and entrusted its courts with the role of overseeing the lawfulness of the military administration, the actions of its agents and the bureaucratic products of the occupation. Thousands of petitions and claims have been filed before the Israeli courts over the years. HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual has been taking part in this legal activism and has taken over 3,000 court actions since its inception.
The judicial authority has abandoned the role with which it was entrusted – justices often choose to side with the position of the state, sometimes without criticizing it. Decisions are based on “confidential security material” without providing an opportunity to review it, and, it follows, without the opportunity to challenge it. Through judgments which sanction Israeli aggression, members of the judiciary allow Israel to continue the occupation under the false pretense of safeguarding human rights.
The Israeli courts, whether directly or indirectly, provides a legal seal of approval for the acts of the occupation. Thus, the HCJ has awarded legal and public legitimacy to the establishment of new settlements and the expansion of existing ones; land expropriation; house demolitions; the building of the separation wall deep inside the occupied territory; restrictions on movement inside the Occupied Territories and the prevention of entry into and exit out of them; collective punishment; the siege on Gaza which includes, among other things, the closing of crossing points to people and wares, prevention of patients from exiting the Gaza Strip to receive medical treatment abroad and the entry of patients for treatment inside Israel; administrative detentions; targeted assassinations; non-enforcement of the law on the State of Israel and its agents who constantly violate the rights of Palestinians while causing damage to their property as well as mental and physical harm.
In this section we present judicial critiques of judgment rendered by the HCJ and other Courts, in light of human rights standards.
|
|
|
|
|
|