UNHRC

Eritreans rally outside the European Union Embassy in Ramat Gan, Israel. (photo: Iasso Buletch)

Asylum seekers call on Europe to try Eritrean leader for crimes against humanity

Thousands of Eritrean asylum seekers demonstrate in front of the European Union Embassy in support of a UN Commission of Inquiry to examine human rights abuses by the Eritrean dictatorship. By Inbal Ben Yehuda Over 2,000 Eritrean asylum seekers demonstrated in front of the European Union Embassy in Ramat Gan on Tuesday in support a…

By +972 Magazine June 23, 2016

Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Makarim Wibisono, 23 July 2014. (UN Photo/Violaine Martin)

How to foil a human rights probe: Keep the investigator out

Makarim Wibisono resigns as UN special rapporteur to the occupied Palestinian territories — because Israel never allowed him to visit Palestine. The UN special rapporteur charged with monitoring and investigating Israeli human rights violations in the occupied territories resigned Monday in protest of Israel’s consistent refusal to give him access to said occupied territories. Refusing access…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man January 5, 2016

Thousands of African asylum seekers leave Holot detention center without intention to come, June 25, 2014. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

The farce of Israel’s ‘voluntary deportation’ policy

After fleeing Eritrea and being tortured in Egypt, the Israeli government gave Daniel two choices: either voluntarily deport yourself to Rwanda or go to prison. By Sigal Rozen “You see this one? When they’ll come to take everybody, this one I’ll hide in my home!” told me Yossi, owner of a shop in south Tel…

By +972 Magazine September 9, 2015

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Relatives walk amidst the rubble of the home of Zaki Wahdan in the city of Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza City, November 10, 2014. Eight members of the Wahdan family, mostly women and children were killed. (Photo by Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

The oddity of finding hope while investigating war crimes

+972 speaks with Mary McGowan Davis and Doudou Diène, authors of the UNHRC report on potential war crimes in Gaza. The pair discuss possible consequences of the report, and why their investigation gave them hope. By Dahlia Scheindlin and Natasha Roth The main reaction in Israel to the findings of the United Nation’s commission of…

By Dahlia Scheindlin July 1, 2015

Palestinian school girls walk across a destroyed part of Shujayea neighborhood, Gaza city, November 4th, 2014. (Photo by Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

Lessons from the UN Gaza report: Next stop, ICC?

The Human Rights Council’s independent inquiry is full of suspicions of war crimes. More important is what it has to say about how Israel investigates those allegations, and what that means for the International Criminal Court. To the relief of Israel and the chagrin of many others, the UN report into last summer’s war in…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man June 22, 2015

A Palestinian girl cries after an Israeli attack on Beit Hanoun elementary schools mourn in Kamal Edwan Hospital, Jabalyia, Gaza Strip, July 24. The school was being used as a shelter by 800 people. The attack killed at least 17 and injured more than 200 of the displaced civilians. Israeli attacks have killed 788 Palestinians and injured around 5,000 in the current offensive, most of them civilians. (photo: Anne Paq/Activestills)

Israeli, Hamas war crimes becoming increasingly hard to distinguish

Both sides are guilty of violating international law but the source of an attack on a Gaza UN school could be a game changer. By Lolita Brayman An attack on a United Nations-run facility in northern Gaza sheltering displaced Palestinians left at least 15 civilians killed and many more wounded on Thursday morning, reports indicate. Israel…

By +972 Magazine July 25, 2014

Israeli ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor (UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

Israeli exceptionalism at the United Nations

Israeli officials mistakenly dismiss criticism as the product of an ‘anti-Israel bias.’ But when a state agrees to uphold certain universal human rights and then fails to do so in practice, it would be unfair for the international community to not criticize that state. Last month, Israel ended a 20-month boycott of the United Nations Human…

By Brad Parker November 14, 2013

JVP Boston activists protest the Veolia transportation company for operating bus lines serving settlements in the West Bank. November 14, 2012. (Tess Scheflan/ Activestills.org)

Could UNHRC’s settlement report put the ‘S’ back in BDS?

The last paragraph of the UN Human Rights Council-sanctioned report on Israeli settlements may lay the legal and practical foundations for a new, untried regime of economic and trade sanctions against Israel, or at least provide new tools to those already advocating BDS. The UNHRC-sanctioned International Fact Finding Mission’s report on Israeli settlements is by…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man February 4, 2013