Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA)

Four Years On: Cases of Brutality by the Israeli Police against Palestinian Arab Citizens

4 October 2004



The cover of the latest HRA report shows a photograph of Saleh Suleiman Amer, aged 50, lying on the road next to a Border Police jeep, a bleeding wound to his leg and his arm out-stretched as though pleading to the photographer for help. His 27-year-old son Shadi lies still on the ground, his shirt removed, his hands cuffed, and his body showing signs of a severe beating. This is just one of the shocking images that illustrates the HRA’s report “Four Years On”, a study of continuing police brutality directed at the country’s Palestinian Arab minority four years after the security forces shot dead 12 unarmed Palestinian Arab citizens and one labourer from Gaza during protests at the outset of the intifada 

Human Rights groups: "Prisoner Rights are Human Rights"

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Prisoner Association, Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA), Adalah, B'Tselem, Mossawa Center, HaMoked and Public Committee Against Torture in Israel 27 August 2004



Nine human rights organizations placed an advertisement in the Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz, stating that the rights of thousands of incarcerated Palestinians are being violated and that the Israel Prison Service must respect the basic and universal principals of prisoners’ human rights. Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that all persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent diginity of the human person.The groups include ACRI, The Prisoner Association, The Arab Association for Human Rights, Adalah, B’Tselem, Mossawa, Ha’moked, and the Public Committee Against Torture. 

"Let them starve to death"

23 August 2004



On Sunday, August 15, 2004, the Palestinian prisoners kept inside the Green Line started a hunger strike in protest of the living conditions inside Israeli jails. They were joined by the 120 political prisoners who are citizens of Israel. Testimonies of prisoners and reports from lawyers and human-rights groups reveal shocking accounts of physical and psychological torture, which appear to be part of a systematic policy rather than exceptions due to individual misconduct. The prisoners’ daily routine is dominated by medical negligence, unsanitary conditions, beatings, position torture, sleep deprivation, strip searches and the denial of contact with family members and friends. The inhumane conditions of Israel’s prisons are reflected in the demands the Palestinian detainees put forward as a condition to end their hunger strike. 

Israel's poisonous aerial spraying of Negev crops illegal, endangers health of Bedouin villagers

6 July 2004



On seven occasions, over a period of two years, the Israeli government has sent planes to the Negev to spray the crops of Bedouin farmers with toxic chemicals. Some 7,500 acres of Bedouin fields have been destroyed since February 2002. The last such incident occurred as recently as March 2004, at Qtamat and Abeida villages, ruining some 750 acres of crops shortly before the harvest. Today, the Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) publishes “By All Means Possible: Destruction by the State of Crops of Bedouin Citizens in the Naqab (Negev) by Aerial Spraying with Chemicals”, the first detailed report into the crop destruction, investigating both the legality of the government’s actions and the dangers posed to the local inhabitants’ health. 

Report: 'Let Them Suffocate'

Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) 14 May 2004



A new report, ‘Let Them Suffocate’: Police Brutality during House Demolition in Upper Galilee Village of al-Bea’neh, February 25, 2004, examines in detail the behavior of the Israeli police in the enforcement of house demolitions in the Arab village of al-Bea’neh in the Upper Galilee on February 25, 2004. The Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) based in Nazareth recognizes that house demolitions inside the state of Israel are a government policy directed almost entirely against the country’s Palestinian Arab citizens, who are both deprived of land on which to build homes and face grossly unfair obstacles to gaining permits to build on land they do own.