Non-ID Palestinians Look for Basic Refugee Rights

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SIDON, Lebanon– Non-ID Palestinians are those individuals who arrived to Lebanon after the 1967 exodus when Israel invaded the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  Additionally, some of the Non-ID Palestinians are a byproduct of the Black September events in 1970 when clashes between Jordanian forces and Palestinian fighters forced many Palestinians to flee.  Now, over forty years later, many of these Non-ID Palestinians in Lebanon are being denied the most basic of human rights because in the eyes of the Lebanese government they simply do not exist.

The number of Non-ID Palestinians was relatively few just after 1967, but that number in Lebanon today varies between 4,000 and 5,000.

According to Issam Halabi, the director of the Palestinian Union for Refugees, the Lebanese government has refused to treat thousands of Non-ID Palestinians as refugees or even give them the same legal status as illegal aliens.  He further added that the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is the authority responsible for the Non-ID Palestinian caseload, but in his opinion, they have failed to provide suitable living conditions for nearly all of the Non-ID Palestinians.

To many, education, the ability to marry and other freedoms would seem to be basic human rights, yet Halabi says these rights are not being given to the Non-ID Palestinians.  In fact, Halabi has said that the living conditions for the Non-ID Palestinians is so dire because they do not have the right to attend schools or universities, come and go as they please, and possess legal identification or a passport.  The common sentiment is that “the government sees them as illegal.”

In one striking example, sixty-five year old Abu Mohammad Omar, a refugee at Lebanon’s largest Palestinian gathering Ain al-Hillweh, has told of the struggles facing Non-ID Palestinians.  “As if the hardship we face as Palestinian refugees is not enough.  I cannot leave the camp and I cannot work because I have no legal status.  I cannot even guarantee that Lebanese security forces won’t arrest me because I have no proof of existence,” said Omar.

In 2008, the Lebanese General Security began issuing identification papers to undocumented Palestinians, but the documents are no longer valid.  Nonetheless, Non-ID Palestinians are still hoping that talk of issuing new identifications will come true.

For more information, please see:

The Daily Star- Non-ID Palestinians Lack Even Basic Rights of Refugees– 14 December 2009

Relief Web- Lebanon’s ‘Non-ID Palestinians’: No Legal Status, No Hope– 6 December 2009

Tadamon- Lebanon: Palestinians Without Papers– 28 March 2008

Israel Admits Organ Harvesting From Both Palestinians and Israelis

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – Officials admitted on December 21 that Israel harvested organs without family members’ permission from both Palestinians and Israelis throughout the 1990s. The practice reportedly ended in 2000.

 

The admission came after an interview with Jehuda Hiss from 2000 was released after allegations of organ harvesting in Israel appeared in Swedish newspaper during the summer of 2009. The Swedish report had alleged that Israeli soldiers had stolen organs from Palestinian men after killing them; Israel immediately denied the claims, calling them anti-Semitic. Sweden refused to apologize for the article, citing freedom of the press.

 

In the 2000 interview with University of California at Berkeley anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Jehuda Hiss said that the practice began with harvesting corneas for transplants in public hospitals, and spread to harvesting other parts such as skin, heart valves, and bones.

 

“Whatever was done was highly informal,” said Hiss. “No permission was asked from the family.”

 

Hiss said that after getting permission from family members to do an autopsy, “we felt free” to harvest organs. Israel’s health ministry told Israeli television that transplant guidelines during the 1990s were “not clear,” and that since 2000 “Abu Kabir has been working according to ethics and Jewish law.”

 

After she released the interview, Scheper-Hughes said she did not believe that Israel murdered Palestinians for their organs, though the practice had implications that were, at the very least, unsettling.

 

“The symbolism of taking skin out of a population that is considered to be the enemy and using it for skin for the military, that’s something that—just in terms of symbolic weight—has to be reconsidered,” Scheper-Hughes told Israel’s Channel 2.

 

After complaints surfaced at the end of the 1990s about improper practices at Abu Kabir, an investigation was launched and there was a change in institute management.

 

The Palestinian Authority’s Central Council announced after the interview had been aired that its Minister of Prisoner Affairs, Issa Qaraqe, would launch its own investigation and report back to the Palestinian government.

 

For more information, please see:

 

ABC News (Australia) – Israel Admits Organ Harvesting – 21 December 2009

 

Al Jazeera – Israel Admits to Organ Thefts – 21 December 2009

 

CNN – Israel Harvested Organs Without Permission, Officials Say – 21 December 2009

 

Ma’an News Agency – PA to Follow Up on Organ Harvesting Allegations – 21 December 2009

 

Post Chronicle – Israel Organ Harvesting Palestinians and Soldiers; Secrets Revealed – 21 December 2009

Woman Files Human Rights Complaint After Strip Search

21 December 2009

Woman Files Human Rights Complaint After Strip Search

By William Miller

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

Sarah Archer
Charmaine Archer filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission after she was forced to submit to a strip search at an Ottawa Airport (PHOTO: Montreal Gazette)

OTTAWA, Canada – A woman has filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission claiming she was racially profiled when authorities selected her for a strip search at an Ottawa Airport. Charmaine Archer, a duel citizen of both Canada and Jamaica, and her four-year-old son were pulled aside by authorities upon returning from Jamaica.

Archer went to Jamaica for four days to attend her grandmother’s funeral. She was stopped after exiting a plane coming from Philadelphia to the Ottawa airport.

Authorities claim that they selected her for screening because of her short stay in Jamaica and because she purchased her ticket at the last minute. She however claims that her selection was racially motivated. As archer points out, “I was the only black person on that flight and I was the only one in there being searched. I have all reason to assume it was racial profiling.”

Authorities unpacked her suitcase and tested her belongings for the presence of drugs. They claimed that her tooth brush tested positive for Marijuana and heroin during the search. Archer maintains that this was a lie: “I don’t do drugs, I don’t know anybody that does drugs and I wasn’t around drugs when I was in Jamaica. … I come from an upstanding family and nobody touched that toothbrush but me.”

Archer complied with the guards when they first pulled her aside and continued to cooperate as they searched her belongings. It was not until they told her she would have to be strip searched that she protested saying she would rather be arrested. She was handcuffed and forced to comply with a full cavity search despite her protest. She has now decided to file a complaint. No drugs were found during the strip search.

Archer says that her goal is to show that authorities faked the presence of drugs on her toothbrush and to make sure the video tape goes public so people will know she was compliant up until she was strip searched. She has contacted the Human Rights Commission and expects to hear back from them next week.

For more information, please see:

Winnipeg Free Press – Strip Search Criticized – 21 December 2009

Montreal Gazette – Woman to File Human Rights Complaint after Airport Strip Search – 20 December 2009

Montreal Gazette – Woman Claims Profiling Following Strip Search – 19 December 2009

Spanish Legislation Takes First Step Towards Easing Ban on Abortion

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MADRID, Spain – The lower-house of the Spanish parliament voted on Thursday to approve a bill that would legalize access to abortion.  Abortion has in almost all cases been categorizes as an illegal act.  This new legalization would all abortions to be legally carried out for the first fourteen weeks of the pregnancy without any government restrictions.

Currently in Spain abortions are only legal in cases of rape or out of concern for the health of the mother.  And while as a matter of law abortions are very difficult to obtain, in practice many of the 100,000 abortions that are legally performed in Spain are carried out under the mother’s health exception.  The bill will now be presented in the upper-house.  If it is approved there, this legislation will face a final vote by the whole parliament.

Legalizing a broader right to access to abortion has been a leading domestic priority for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.  The current Socialist government under Zapatero was able to gather 184 votes in the lower house, Congress of Deputies, by eliminating the most controversial provision of the bill, which would have allowed any woman over the age of 15 the right to have an abortion without their parent’s consent.  In reaching the necessary number of votes, the Socialist government joined forces with smaller political parties in the lower house.

The movement towards legalization has been described by its leaders as a fight for women’s rights.  The Socialist Party’s spokeswoman Carmen Monton declared that this movement is about “…legislating women’s right to decide whether to be mothers.”

The Catholic Church and Popular Party (PP) have led the opposition to this legislation.  A leader of the PP noted at a rally outside the parliament that the legislation would “[banalize] the meaning of human life.”  The Catholic Church has declared that if abortion is legalized, anyone who participates in assisting abortion procedures may face excommunication.

A vote on this bill in the upper house of the parliament is expected to take place in early 2010.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Spanish lawmakers vote to legalise abortion – 18 December 2009

AP – Spanish lawyers vote to ease abortion law – 18 December 2009

EARTHTIMES – Spanish parliament approves liberalization of abortion – 17 December 2009

Forced Eviction Leads Man to Set Himself on Fire

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Xi Xinzhu, set himself ablaze when a demolition crew arrived at his home to move him out to begin tearing down his home. He is being hospitalized for the burns he suffered.

As striking as Xi Xinzhu’s actions may have been, he is not alone in those who set themselves on fire to protest the Chinese government mandating that civilians abandon their homes. Last month a woman died after setting herself alight in a similar protest. Analysts say the incident will add to already intense pressure to reform China’s rules on forced eviction.

The protest is just one of a series in a country where land is effectively controlled by the state. The law currently allows local governments to claim land and confiscate homes for urban development projects: a system which critics say is open to abuse. It is reported that residents often complain that the amount of compensation offered is far below the real value of their homes.

According to Beijing Times, Xi had already suffered from a leg fracture when he was beaten by “unidentified men.” It is said that violence is a form of intimidation commonly used in China. Despite his condition, Xi poured gasoline on himself, and proceeded to show a lighter, and threatened to ignite himself. “Neglecting his warning, the relocation people even said ‘go ahead, light up,’ his wife told Beijing Times.

Even though the flames were promptly put out, Xi suffered 10 per cent burns to his face, hands and body and is in a critical condition in a Beijing hospital.

Chinese legal experts have called for major changes, and in a sign that the government may be seeking to ease public anger, officials met nine of them recently to discuss the issue.  

When asked about his brother’s protest and the situation generally, Xi Xinqiang said, “We tried everything to raise legal questions about this demolition through normal channels, but nobody would do anything, although there are plainly problems.”

For more information, please see:

BBC World News – Chinese man sets himself on fire in Beijing – December 17, 20009 

Huffington Post – Chinese Man Sets Himself On Fire To Protest Demolition Of Home – December 20, 2009  

China News – Chinese Man Sets Himself on Fire to Protest Eviction – December 2009