Reply #32: HR Organizations Testify about Israel's Ongoing Policy of Population Transfer

[Scurrilous]

Full Title: HR Organizations Testify about Israel's Ongoing Policy of Population Transfer to the UN's Antiracism Body

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"The UN's antiracism monitoring body, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), questioned Israel about its institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians inside Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Ten human rights NGOs, including Israeli, Palestinian and international organizations, briefed CERD and documented how Israel bestows certain economic, social and cultural rights, privileges and benefits solely on its citizens holding Jewish nationality.

"This discriminatory practice has resulted in the systematic dispossession of the indigenous Palestinian population, including over five million refugees. Over 20 human rights organizations also presented a joint parallel report to CERD, documenting Israel's breaches of the antiracism treaty," said a press release by the organizations.

Joseph Schechla, coordinator of the Habitat International Coalition's Housing and Land Rights Network, characterized Israel's Basic Laws and parastatal institutions such as the World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency, and the Jewish National Fund as "principal agents in carrying out Israel's material discrimination against non-Jewish citizens and long-expelled refugees who inhabited the country before the creation of the state of Israel."

He noted also that, "while these organizations carry out internationally prohibited population transfer as their central task, they nonetheless operate as charitable institutions in many Western countries."

Gareth Gleed, legal researcher at Al Haq, a human rights organization based in the occupied Palestinian territories, pointed out that "within the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israel's policy of separation is inherently discriminatory and based on clear violations of international law."

http://www.wafa.ps/english/body.asp?id=9330