A new report by 3 leading Israeli human rights organizations - Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), Yesh Din and Breaking the Silence - documents the grevious mental health repercussions, including on children, of the Israeli policy of forcible invasions by the military into the homes of West Bank Palestinian families. The report, titled “Life Exposed”, is based on 158 interviews of Palestinians who experienced home invasions, as well as over 40 soldiers who carried them out. The report, following three years of joint work, documents how these invasions, which number more than 250 a month and are primarily carried out between midnight and 5:00 A.M., traumatize and cause harm to Palestinians, and effectively serve as a means to intimidate and maintain control over the Palestinian population.
This policy, as documented in over 30 in-depth interviews of men and women based on a questionnaire formulated by mental health experts, undermines the sense of control associated with the home. This dramatically impacts children: individuals interviewed, who had 41 children among them, ranging in ages from infancy to 17 years old, testified feelings of helplessness and anxiety as well as other symptoms that are stress related such as insomnia. Children regressed to increased dependency on parents, including difficulty falling asleep and wanting to sleep close to their parents and parents saw an increase in aggressive behavior Dependency on parents and the need to remain close to them could impact children’s ability to participate in school and in social activities regularly. Some families indicated deterioration in functioning demonstrated in difficulty remaining committed to school and even dropping out. Some parents reported their children exhibited physical symptoms such as abdominal pain and contractions along with reluctance to remain alone at night - a possible physical translation of the negative emotions the children feel. These invasions significantly impair the development and functioning of both children and adults, while the repetitious nature of such invasions offers little hope for regaining a sense of safety in the home.
Control over the private sphere of the home is a fundamental condition of personal liberty and forced intrusion by agents of the regime into the home is a severe violation of a person’s liberty, dignity, and privacy. For this reason, all legal systems that respect human rights place strict limitations on governmental authorities, designed to reduce the use of such invasions as much as possible to protect individuals from harm.
Palestinians in the West Bank do not enjoy these protections. Military law does not limit invasion into their homes to exceptional cases in which there are concrete suspicions against an individual, nor is a judicial warrant necessary. The circumstances in which homes may be searched are defined broadly and vaguely. As such, it leaves Palestinians constantly vulnerable to arbitrary invasions into their homes.
Meanwhile, Israeli law stipulates that searches in homes of Israeli families, including those living in a settlement just hundreds of meters away from homes of Palestinians, should be conducted according to a judicial warrant issued on the basis of evidence and concrete information that point to substantiated suspicion and in keeping with a limited list of offenses. This is the case despite the fact that both settlers and Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank, sometimes just hundreds of meters from one another.
The differential application of the law on two populations living in occupied territory on the basis of national distinction – Palestinians living under occupation and Israeli settlers whose presence in occupied territory is illegal according to international law – constitutes a clear violation of the prohibition on discrimination on the basis of nationality as set forth in international human rights law.
PHRI has, since the publication of the report, reached out to the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) and asked it to voice it’s opposition to Israel’s policy of forcible home invasions. The IMA has not yet responded.
To read the executive summary of the report, please see here<https://www.phr.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Exposed_Life_Short_ENG...
To read the full report, please see here<https://www.phr.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Exposed_Life_ENG.pdf>
Dana Moss
CHIFA PROFILE: Dana Moss is International Advocacy Coordinator at Physicians for Human Rights Israel. Professional interests: vulnerable communities.
Email address: dana AT phr.org.il
