Al-Haq submitted its shadow report to the ninety-ninth session of the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) with regard to its review of State of Palestine’s initial and second periodic reports, in relation to Palestine’s compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), to which the State of Palestine has acceded without reservations and according to which it must adopt appropriate measures and means, without delay, to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination. Al-Haq has followed with interest the interactive dialogue between CERD Committee members and the official delegation of the State of Palestine during the Committee’s ninety-ninth session, which took place on 13 and 14 August 2019 at the UN Office in Geneva. In light of the responses given by the delegation of the State of Palestine during the review by the Committee, Al-Haq considers it important to submit a follow-up report.

1. In examining the State of Palestine’s initial and second periodic reports (hereinafter ‘State report’ or ‘the report’),[1] submitted to the ninety-ninth session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (hereinafter CERD or ‘the Committee’), Al-Haq affirms the importance of examining the broader context of Israel’s prolonged occupation of the Palestinian territory since 1967. At the same time, Al-Haq stresses that this context does not absolve the State of Palestine of its obligation to give effect to the provisions and purposes of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD or ‘the Convention’),[2] to which it has acceded without reservations. In assessing the obligations of the State of Palestine under the Convention, the Committee should consider the simultaneous applicability of international humanitarian law, in particular the law of belligerent occupation, to the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), in addition to applicable norms of public international law. Al-Haq urges the Committee to consider the conclusions of the 2017 report by the United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), which concluded that Israel has established an apartheid regime over Palestinians, based on the strategic fragmentation of the Palestinian people.[3] In addition, Al-Haq calls on the Committee to examine the State of Palestine’s report in light of Israel’s widespread and systematic human rights violations committed against Palestinians, including policies and practices of racial discrimination and segregation, constituting the crime of apartheid.

Date: 10 August 2019

One Palestinian was killed in Khan Younis and 69 protesters were injured on Friday, 26 July 2019, during the 68th Great Return March demonstrations in the occupied Gaza Strip. Amongst the injured, 44 demonstrators were wounded with live bullets and bullet shrapnel, 18 were hit by rubber bullets, and seven were injured by direct gas canister hits. Of the total number of injuries, 29 were children. On Friday, 2 August 2019, during the 69th Great Return March demonstrations, 67 Palestinians were injured by the Israeli occupying forces throughout the Gaza Strip. Of the injured, 27 were wounded with live bullets and shrapnel, 20 were wounded with rubber bullets, and 20 were injured by direct gas canister hits. Amongst the injured were 29 children, two journalists, and a paramedic.

Date: 3 August 2019

On Friday, 26 July 2019, 23-year-old university student Ahmad Muhammad Al-Qara from Bani Suhaila in Khan Younes was announced dead at the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younes, Gaza. Al-Qara had been shot earlier that day in the abdomen by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) with a live bullet, while standing approximately 80 – 100 meters from the fence east of Khan Younes during the 68^th Great Return March.^[1] At the time he was shot, he was standing behind a small sandpaper covering and was not posing any threat or danger to the IOF.