Human rights in Israel

The State of Israel is a multiparty parliamentary democracy and the world's only Jewish state, though its population includes citizens from many different ethnic and religious backgrounds.

Israel's human rights record has been criticized by various countries, non-governmental organizations and individuals, often in relation to the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In response, it is often stated that anti-Israeli sentiment or anti-Semitic bias plays a part in the attitudes of some of these bodies.

Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel proclaimed on May 14, 1948 that "the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country" ... "was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home." It also declared that the state "...will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."

Status of freedom, political rights and civil liberties in Israel

Rights and liberties ratings

Freedom House rating of Israel compared to Jordan, Egypt, the Israeli-occupied territories and the Palestinian National Authority

Country	Political rights (PR)	Civil liberties (CL)	Freedom rating Free, Partly Free, Not Free
Israel	1	2	Free
Israeli occupied territories	6	5	Not Free
Territories under Palestinian National Authority	5	5	Partly Free
Jordan	5	4	Partly Free
Egypt	6	5	Not Free

Note. For PR and CL, 1 represents the most free and 7 the least free rating. See also Freedom in the World 2006, List of indices of freedom.

Israel was ranked 28 out of 159 countries in the annual Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, ahead of every other country in the region. Its position was immediately after Estonia and before Oman. Israel's geographic neighbors Jordan and Egypt were ranked 38 and 72, respectively.

US State Department report on human rights practices in Israel

According to 2005 US Department of State report on Israel:

"The government generally respected the human rights of its citizens; however, there were problems in some areas, including the following:

• serious abuses by some members of the security forces against Palestinian detainees
• Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers resulted in the death of 29 civilians and an IDF soldier within Israel
• poor conditions in some detention and interrogation facilities
• improper application of security internment procedures
• institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against the country's Arab citizens
• discrimination in personal and civil status matters against non-Orthodox Jews
• societal violence and discrimination against women
• trafficking in and abuse of women and foreign workers
• de facto discrimination against persons with disabilities
• government corruption

Respect for human rights

• The judiciary is independent and sometimes ruled against the executive, including in some security cases...
• Laws, judicial decisions, and administrative regulations prohibit torture and abuse; however, during the year reputable nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) filed numerous credible complaints with the government alleging that security forces tortured and abused Palestinian detainees...
• Conditions in IPS facilities, which house common law criminals and convicted security prisoners...generally met international standards. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had access to these facilities...
• The law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, and the government generally observed these prohibitions for citizens...
• An arrested person is considered innocent until proven guilty, has the right to habeas corpus, to remain silent, to be represented by an attorney, to contact his family without delay, and to a fair trial...
• There were no reports of political prisoners...
• Laws and regulations provide for protection of privacy of the individual and the home. In criminal cases the law permits wiretapping under court order; in security cases the defense ministry must issue the order...
• The law provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the government generally respected these rights in practice subject to restrictions concerning security issues...
• The law provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the government generally respected these rights in practice...
• The law provides for freedom of religion, and the government generally respected this right in practice...
• The law prohibits forced exile of citizens, and the government generally respected this prohibition in practice...
• The law provides citizens with the right to change their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of universal suffrage...
• The country is a parliamentary democracy with an active multiparty system. Relatively small parties, including those primarily supported by Israeli Arabs, regularly win Knesset seats."

Elections, political parties, and representation

Israeli law provides male and female from all ethnic and religious backgrounds with universal suffrage and has an active multiparty system.

In 1985, the Kach Party was disqualified from listing candidates for election by Knesset. Their platform, which 1) proposed forced transfer of Arabs from Israel and 2) establishment of a theocracy in Israel ruled by traditional Jewish law was found to be inciting of racism. In 1988, the Supreme Court of Israel upheld this Knesset decision. A concurrent 1985 decision to disqualify The Progressive List for Peace, a party which was found to negate the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people was overturned by the Supreme court in 1988.

Freedom of religion

All religious groups have freedom of religion in Israel. After the defeat of Jordan by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, Jews again gained access to the Western Wall which had been denied by Jordan in violation of the 1949 armistice agreement. Muslim access to the mosques, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Christian access to Churches, however, was maintained. The IDF foiled a Kach party attempt to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Bahá'í Faith maintains the seat of their governing bodies, the Universal House of Justice in Haifa. Buddhism is also active as a religion in Israel.

Gender equality

Israeli law promotes gender equality. The Israeli Governemnt has enacted the following laws and legistative measures for the protection of women:

• Equal Rights for Women Law (2000)
• Employment of Women Law (Amendment 19)
• Sexual Harassment Law (1998)
• Prevention of Stalking Law (2001)
• Rights of Victims of an Offence Law (2001)

Status of rights of people with disabilities

Israel enacted an Equal Rights for People with Disabilities Law in 1998.

In Israel more than 144,000 people with disabilities rely solely on government allowances as their only means of support. According to Arie Zudkevitch and fellow members of the Israeli Organization of the Disabled: "The amount of money that we get cannot fulfill even the basic needs of people without special needs." In Tel Aviv, more than 10,000 people marched in solidarity with the disabled, demanding increased compensation and recognition from the Israeli Government.

A 2005 report of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel raised concern regarding the ability of the Israeli government to properly provide oversight in the content of privatizaton: "It was reported this year that the Health Ministry has known for over two years that private psychiatric hospitals are holding 70 individuals who no longer need hospitalization, but continue to be hospitalized to serve the institutions` financial interests." The report suggests that, "the Health Ministry is supposed to supervise the private hospitals, but has been powerless to move these patients into an appropriate community situation." For context, the most recent statistics of the Israeli Health Ministry showed over 18,000 admissions for psychiatric hospital care.

Freedom of speech

Media in Israel is independent and not under governmental control. Individuals and groups have the right to assemble and protest government actions.

Many Government officials and others have been critical of the freedom of speech rights given to settlers during their forced evacuation from Gaza and the West Bank. This led to the criticism that "the authorities took disproportional steps, unjustifiably infringing on the right to political expression and protest."

Sexual minorities

Main article: Gay rights in Israel

Israel is the only country in the Middle East that guarantees equality and full civil rights for its LGBT population, including adoption rights and partner benefits.

Israeli law does not recognize same-sex marriages, but it does grant a common-law marriage status for same-sex domestic partners. The Sodomy law inherited from Britain was repelled in 1988. A national gay rights law that bans some anti-gay discrimination, including employment; some exemptions are made for religious organizations. Since 1993, homosexuals have been allowed to openly serve in the military, including special units.

Human rights violations

Privatization and human rights

The 2005 annual report of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) found that "accelerated privatization" is damaging human rights. According to the report, "State economic policy, including cutting stipends, reducing housing assistance, and constantly declining state participation in health-care and education costs, are forcing more elderly, children and whole families into poverty and despair. The increasing damage to citizens' rights to earn a dignified living - both due to low wages and the lack of enforcement of labor laws - is particularly prominent."

Sex Trafficking/Slavery

Historically, many women have been brought into Israel annually, primarily from the former Soviet Republics, for forced labor in the sex industry. In July, 2000, Israel passed the Prohibition on Trafficking Law. In its 2003 report, the Human Rights Committee noted it "welcomes the measures taken by the State party to combat trafficking in women for the purpose of prostitution, in particular the Prohibition on Trafficking Law enacted in July 2000 and the prosecution of traffickers since that date.”

In June 2006, the United States Department of State issued a report which placed Israel on a special watchlist for "failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to address trafficking in human beings." The report also states, "the Government of Israel does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and has failed to show efforts to address conditions of involuntary servitude allegedly facing thousands of foreign migrant workers."'

Settlements

On April 7, 2005 the United Nations Committee on Human Rights stated it was "deeply concerned at the suffering of the Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan due to the violation of their fundamental and human rights since the Israeli military occupation of 1967...[and] in this connection, deploring the Israeli settlement in the occupied Arab territories, including in the occupied Syrian Golan, and regretting Israel's constant refusal to cooperate with and to receive the Special Committee"

Military Activity

In a 2004 report on Israel, Amnesty International stated:

"abuses committed by the Israeli army constituted crimes against humanity and war crimes, including unlawful killings; extensive and wanton destruction of property; obstruction of medical assistance and targeting of medical personnel; torture; and the use of Palestinians as human shields."

"The Israeli army killed more than 700 Palestinians, including some 150 children. Most were killed unlawfully — in reckless shooting, shelling and air strikes in civilian residential areas; in extrajudicial executions; and as a result of excessive use of force."

"Most members of the Israeli army and security forces continued to enjoy impunity. Investigations, prosecutions and convictions for human rights violations were rare. In the overwhelming majority of the thousands of cases of unlawful killings and other grave human rights violations committed by Israeli soldiers in the previous four years, no investigations were known to have been carried out."

Human Shields

In April 2004, Israeli soldiers used 13-year-old Muhammed Badwan as a human shield during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Biddu. The soldiers tied Badwan to the front windscreen of their jeep to discourage Palestinian demonstrators from throwing stones in their direction. The use of human shields continues despite the Israeli High Court issuing an injunction against the practice. "You cannot exploit the civilian population for the army's military needs, and you cannot force them to collaborate with the army," said Aharon Barak, President of the Supreme Court of Israel. On July 17, 2006 Israel Defense Force soldiers seized six civilians, two of whom were minors, and used them as human shields during an incursion into Beit Hanun. The two boys, one aged 14 and the other 16, were ordered to lead soldiers into an area where a heavy firefight with Palestinian militants had just taken place.

Such actions are condemned by human rights groups as violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 27 states: "civilians who find themselves in the hands of one of the parties are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect...They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof." In Article 28 of the Convention, the official commentary refers to this practice, which was used during World War II, as "cruel and barbaric." Articles 31 and 51 also prohibit the use of physical or moral coercion on civilians or forcing them to carry out military tasks.

Extrajudicial Killings

On July, 2002 the Israeli Defense Forces carried out an air strike targeting the Hamas leader Salah Shehada in a densely populated residential area of Gaza City. The bombings resulted in the deaths of 15 persons, 9 of whom were children and the injury of 150 others.

Alleged Anti-Israel bias by Human rights Organizations

United Nations

Main article: Israel and the United Nations § Anti-Israel bias

The United Nations has a history of negative focus on Israel, disproportional in respect to other members, as was evident in the case of UN Commission on Human Rights. Some examples of this bias include that in 2005 the Commission adopted four resolutions against Israel, equaling the combined total of resolutions against all other states in the world. Belarus, Cuba, Myanmar, and North Korea were the subject of one resolution each.

In 2006, the UN General Assembly voted to replace UNCHR with the UN Human Rights Council.

Amnesty International

Main article: Amnesty International § Alleged Selection Bias

Amnesty International has been accused of having a double standard when it comes to its assessment of Israel.

Sudan

In 2004, the NGO Monitor, a program of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, released a study comparing Amnesty International's response to the twenty years of ethnic, religious and racial violence in Sudan in which (at that time) 2,000,000 people were killed and 4,000,000 people displaced, to their treatment of Israel. When NGO Monitor focused on 2001, they found that Amnesty International issued seven reports on Sudan, as opposed to 39 reports on Israel. They further called attention to the difference in both scale and intensity: “While ignoring the large-scale and systematic bombing and destruction of Sudanese villages, AI issued numerous condemnations of the razing of Palestinian houses, most of which were used as sniper nests or belonged to terrorists. Although failing to decry the slaughter of thousands of civilians by Sudanese government and allied troops, AI managed to criticize Israel’s ‘assassinations’ of active terrorist leaders.”

Expanding their investigation to include the years 2000–2003, they found the imbalance in issued reports to be 52 reports on Sudan and 192 reports on Israel. They call “this lack of balance and objectivity and apparent political bias is entirely inconsistent with AI's official stated mission.”

In 2004, Professor Don Habibi of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington lamented the limited reports on Sudan and Darfur, in contrast to reports on Israel. He criticizes Amnesty International, among others, for their “obsession” with Israel, to the exclusion of other human rights violators. Habibi wrote:

This obsession would make sense if Israel was among the worst human rights offenders in the world. But by any objective measure this is not the case. Even with the harshest interpretation of Israeli’s policies, which takes no account of cause and effect, and Israel’s predicament of facing existential war, there can be no comparison to the civil wars in Sudan, Algeria, or Congo. Like the UN, the policies of AI and HRW have more to do with politics than human rights.

— Human Rights NGOs and the Neglect of Sudan, Don Habibi

Palestinian violence against women

American legal academic, Professor Alan Dershowitz, is also critical of Amnesty International's perceived bias. Dershowitz analyzed an AI report on violence, rape, and murder perpetrated against Palestinian women by Palestinian men in the West Bank and Gaza which placed blame on Israel. Dershowitz points out that AI ranks the "escalation of the conflict” and “Israel’s policies” higher than the “norms, traditions and laws which treat women as unequal”, implying Israel is more to blame than the Palestinian perpetrators.Dershowitz claims that when he asked Donatella Rovera, AI’s researcher on Israel and the Occupied Territories, for sources or statistical data that supported the report’s claims, he was refused anything other than a suggestion to Google "pretty much all the NGOs” in the region. He concluded that AI's excuses show that it "places its own political biases ahead of the interests of the female victims.”

See also

• Human rights in the Palestinian National Authority