Al-Haq participated in the 35th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which took place between June 6-23, 2017. Al-Haq's engagement with the Council included a written submission, an oral statement, and participation in a side event marking fifty years of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

The written submission focused on Israel’s illegal annexation and changes to the demography of Jerusalem, its exploitation of natural resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and on Israel's excessive use of force against Palestinians throughout the past five decades.

June 2017 marks two grim milestones for Palestine: 10 years of closure of the Gaza Stripand50 years of occupation. Although Israel imposed movement restrictions on people and goods in Gazasince the 1990s, they intensified in June 2007, following Israel’s response to thedemocratic election of Hamas.[1]Since then, Israel closed off Gaza by land, sea, and air, prohibiting entry into and exit from the Gaza Strip. The ten years of closure has created a man-made humanitarian crisis: 80 per centof Gazansare now dependent on humanitarian aid, whilepoverty and unemployment rates have soared to over 40 per cent.

On 10 June 1967, in the aftermath of the 6-day war, Israel established a military administration over the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip marking the beginning of the belligerent occupation of the Palestinian Territory. The administration of territory subject to the laws of occupation is generally regarded as a temporary period of military governance where the sovereign rights of the occupied territory remain in abeyance or suspended until the conclusion of a peace treaty.[1] Under Proclamation No 3, the military commander of Israel’s occupying forces determined that it would ‘observe the provisions of the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilians in Time of War’. However, Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territory has permanent elements, where Israel unlawfully exercises its sovereign rights over Palestinian Territory. The occupation is not temporary but prolonged and represents a continuance of the colonization of historic Palestine under the pretext of a ‘temporary’ belligerent occupation.

This week marks the 50^th  year since the start of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. June also marks the 15^thyear since construction of the Annexation Wall began, and 10 years of closure/naval blockade on Gaza. Israel’s occupation and associated policies and practices fragment the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), violate the collective and individual rights of Palestinians, and amount to colonialism.