Press Releases
Within its engagement under agenda item 7 of the United Nations Human Rights (UNHRC) 54th regular session, BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights clearly illustrated Israel’s colonial-apartheid regime’s policies leading to the forcible displacement and transfer of Palestinians in Mandatory Palestine, exemplified in the case of the Jordan Valley, and called for the full realization of Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and return under a rights-based decolonization approach.
BADIL's written statement submitted under agenda item 7 highlighted Israel's policies including land confiscation, home demolitions, segregation, fragmentation, isolation, denial of access to natural resources, deprivation of basic services, and state-backed Israeli colonizers’ violence. These policies have created a coercive environment that forcibly continues to displace Palestinians, violating international law and infringing upon their right to self-determination and their fundamental rights.
BADIL also carried out a parallel event titled "Forcible Transfer, Corporate Complicity, and Decolonization - the Case of the Jordan Valley'' on 2 October at the United Nations in Geneva. The program of the parallel event began with an opening statement by Her Excellency Julia Imene-Chanduru, Ambassador of the Mission of Namibia stating: “Namibia is fully committed to a just cause for the Palestinian people and will continue to actively promote all initiatives aimed at restoring the individual and collective rights of the Palestinian people. [...] It is clear to everyone to see that Israel is practicing apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory including the Jordan valley. [...] we must hold Israel accountable for these serious breaches of international law.”
Next, BADIL highlighted the policies of the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime, specifically how they perpetrate ongoing forcible displacement and transfer on both sides of the Green Line. Using the Jordan Valley as a case study, BADIL screened a short video on the most prominent forcible transfer policies implemented in that area. This was followed by Ms. Maha Abdallah, a PhD candidate and researcher, presenting on corporations complicit in human rights violations and crimes, particularly in the Jordan Valley. And lastly, BADIL presented its rights-based decolonization approach for Palestine.
The event was attended by the representatives of 11 member states and Palestinian and international civil society. Within the event, the representative of South Africa stated that: “South Africa sees the extended occupation and extensive settlements, expropriation of Palestinian property and land cannot be seen as occupation anymore but as clear colonization.”
With its oral statement, BADIL emphasized the critical role the international community must take in holding Israel accountable for its actions. The failure to do so perpetuates Israel's war crimes, resulting in the continued displacement of Palestinians and bolstering Israeli domination and impunity.
Throughout its involvement in agenda item 7 of UNHRC session 54, BADIL called upon the Council and member states to recognize the urgent need to dismantle the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime by addressing the root causes of ongoing Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity, namely colonization, apartheid, and the continuous forced displacement and transfer of Palestinians. BADIL called on the UNHRC and UN mechanisms to leverage all legal means to refrain third states from supporting or investing in infrastructure and services that reinforce Israel's colonial-apartheid regime, in addition to cutting all investment ties with Israel and its companies as well as international companies involved in the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime.