Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

In February, the UN Human Rights Council released a long-awaited list of 112 companies actively involved in business activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The list of 112 companies contained within the report refers to a wide range of sectors including construction, food, banks, retail and transport. Most are headquartered in Israel with more than a dozen headquartered internationally.

“The publication of this list is a timely reminder that settlements are illegal and must never be normalized. Listed businesses have no excuse; to continue their involvement in Israeli settlements is to knowingly breach their international obligations,” said Saleh Higazi, Amnesty International’s Middle East Deputy director.

The Trump administration’s dismal package of proposals to violate international law and further strip Palestinians of their rights is a handbook for more suffering and abuses in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Amnesty International said today.

The organization urged the international community to reject measures contravening international law that are set out in President Donald Trump’s so-called “deal of the century”. These include a formal extension of Israel’s sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the vast majority of the illegal settlements in the rest of the occupied West Bank in exchange for land currently inside Israel.

15 August 2019

The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor
Minister of Health
The Honourable James Carr 
Minister of International Trade Diversification
The Honourable David Lametti
Minister of Justice and Attorney-General

Re: Kattenburg v. Canada (Attorney General) – Israeli settlement products – Canada Israel Free Trade Agreement

Dear Ministers Petitpas Taylor, Carr and Lametti:

We write with an urgent request that the Canadian government not appeal the recent, important Federal Court decision – in Kattenburg v. Canada (Attorney General) – that goods imported into Canada from the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem must not be identified as “Products of Israel.” The ruling provides important human rights safeguards which we call on the government to accept and respect.

By Laith Abu Zeyad, Amnesty International campaigner on Israel/ Palestine

On June 20, World Refugee Day, TripAdvisor CEO Stephen Kaufer published an op-ed urging businesses to help address the global refugee crisis and pledging to donate millions of dollars to humanitarian organisations "to support and help refugees rebuild their lives and reclaim their futures".

This is, of course, a commendable initiative, if only it did not contradict in spirit other practices of the company. While TripAdvisor has decided to help refugees in certain parts of the world, elsewhere - namely in the occupied Palestinian territories - it is contributing to the suffering of the local population, which itself is the source of one of the world's largest refugee communities.

Amnesty International has joined a legal case brought by Human Rights Watch (HRW) to challenge the legality of the Israeli government’s decision to revoke the work permit of its Israel and Palestine Director, the organization said today. is

A ruling by the Jerusalem District Court confirming the authorities’ decision to expel Omar Shakir is an unreasonable and disproportionate restriction on the rights to freedom of expression and association, Amnesty International is arguing in an amicus curia briefing submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem today. The court is scheduled to hear the case on 25 July 2019.

“The Israeli authorities’ decision to deport Omar Shakir is a crushing blow to freedom of expression in the country and sends an alarming signal to human rights activists and civil society in general of the extent they are willing to go in their attempt to silence those who defend human rights.” said Saleh Higazi, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.

June 2019 marks the 52nd anniversary of Israel’s capture of the West Bank and Gaza Strip during a war with its neighbours, and the beginning of its occupation of Palestinian territory. Today, over 600,000 Jewish-Israeli settlers are living on occupied Palestinian land and are afforded protections and benefits, of which over 4.9 million Palestinians living in the same territory do not have access to. This is the direct result of a discriminatory system of laws and policies that ensure that Palestinians are not afforded the same rights or services as Israeli settlers.

For 52 years, hundreds of thousands of hectares of Palestinian land have been appropriated and exploited by Israel. For 52 years, tens of thousands of Palestinian homes and structures have been demolished in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), resulting in the displacement of thousands of Palestinians. The wanton destruction of property and the forcible transfer of civilians in the occupied territory are both war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. 

Danna Ingleton is Deputy Director of Amnesty Tech 

In June last year, one of my colleagues at Amnesty International received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number. It contained details about a protest supposedly taking place at the Saudi embassy in Washington DC, and my colleague was instantly suspicious. The message came at a time when Amnesty International was campaigning for the release of six jailed activists in Saudi Arabia, and something didn’t feel right.

An analysis of the links in the message proved these suspicions to be well-founded. Amnesty’s Tech team found that clicking the link would have secretly installed potent spyware on the phone, obtaining total access to calls, messages, photos and GPS location. A closer look enabled us to trace the attack back to a secretive Israeli company: NSO Group.