Tom Hurndall Student Protection Project

The Tom Hurndall Student Protection Project is LPHR’s initiative to tackle the systematic targeting of Palestinian university students for prolonged military detention by Israel’s military authorities in violation of basic human rights. Cases have surged since August 2019 of students being criminalised and arbitrarily detained for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of association, assembly and expression. LPHR will submit complaints to relevant UN Working Groups and Special Rapporteurs, and engage with governments and parliamentarians.

LPHR emphasises there is a continuum in the systematic targeting of children for military detention (see our Children’s Rights Project) and the targeting of university students for military detention. This punitive practice that foreseeably and immeasurably harms young Palestinian lives needs to end immediately.

This crucial project is named in honour and memory of Tom Hurndall, a courageous, British photojournalism student passionate about truth and justice. Tom was shot in the head as he carried a Palestinian child out of the range of an Israeli army sniper in the town of Rafah in the occupied Gaza Strip. Tom died nine months later in hospital in London, on 13 January 2004, aged only 22-years-old. In his journals,‘The Only House Left Standing: The Middle East Journals of Tom Hurndall’, Tom wrote discerningly and objectively about the injustices he had witnessed in Gaza and that had a profound effect on him. This project is an extension of Tom’s profound legacy.

The Tom Hurndall Student Protection Project has the full support of Tom’s mother and LPHR Trustee, Jocelyn Hurndall.

Photo: Eman Mohammed — Tom Hurndall

From our blog

Israeli Supreme Court strikes down the ‘Land Regularisation’ Law but fails to condemn illegal settlements and their expansion
9th July 2020
On 9 June 2020 the Israeli Supreme Court struck down a law passed in 2017 that provided for the expropriation of private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. The ruling, HCJ 1308/17, Silwad Municipality, et al. v. The Knesset, et. al (petition accepted 9 June 2020) (joined by the court with HCJ 2055/17, The Head of Ein Yabrud Village v. The Knesset ), held that the law disproportionately violates Palestinians’ rights to property, equality and dignity.
While a welcome relief against a particularly offensive law that would justify further expropriation of Palestinian land, the judgment is made on a narrow basis that fails to recognise either the underlying illegality of settlements or to be clear on the inappropriateness of the Israeli state passing and reviewing legislation to apply to the occupied West Bank. Before addressing the judgment and its limitations in more detail, a brief history of the Regularisation Law will be provided. (more…)
Abuse and violence against children in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Al-Issawiya in East Jerusalem
3rd July 2020
LPHR remain extremely concerned at the ongoing police campaign of abuse and violence against children in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Al-Issawiya in occupied East Jerusalem. Over the past year, LPHR has monitored and reported a sharp increase in the number of children injured as a result of violent police activity in the neighbourhood, with injuries sustained through the use of rubber-coated steel bullets, black sponge rounds and tear-gas. Since the Israeli police launched their operation in Al-Issawiya in April 2019, there has also been a high number of child arrests in the neighbourhood (many carried out during terrifying night-time raids of family homes) and a systemic violation of children’s legal rights during arrests and detention. B’Tselem reports that during the period of April 2019 – April 2020, more than 850 residents of Al-Issawiya have been arrested: the majority of them minors. This blog elaborates upon these serious child rights issues.
(more…)
COVID-19 pandemic: Vulnerable population groups in the occupied Palestinian territory and the legal duty to apply ‘all necessary preventative means available’
31st March 2020
While many parts of the world transition to mandatory lockdown, Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory face uncertainty about how they will be protected from the spread of COVID-19. This blog will focus on the circumstances of three particularly vulnerable population groups: i) the population of Gaza, ii) child and adult detainees in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, and iii) families and individuals displaced by home demolitions.
(more…)
Children from Gaza receiving medical treatment whilst separated from parents due to Israel’s permit regime
26th March 2020
Physicians for Human Rights Israel and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently reported that a 10-year-old girl from Gaza, Miral Abu Amsha, died of cancer on 28 February without having seen her father since December, after her family struggled to obtain Israeli-issued permits to accompany her to hospital. Miral’s mother had also initially been denied permission to accompany Miral to hospital in Nablus to undergo chemotherapy due to “incorrect details” on her application form. She was eventually allowed to visit Miral in hospital, reportedly following publicity around the case. Miral’s father didn’t apply for permission to accompany her as it is generally the case that only one accompanier is allowed per patient, including for children. (more…)

Twitter

RT @AlMezanCenter Press Release: Al Mezan welcomes Dutch government’s dismissal of Israeli smear campaign #shrinkingspace #HumanRightsDefenders #StandUp4HumanRights #Gaza mezan.org/en/post/23836

RT @saribashi 2 million people in Gaza are under COVID lockdown and Israeli closure. A majority of the workforce is unemployed. 2/3 dependency on humanitarian aid. So why is the Israeli army bulldozing crops and destroying livelihoods? @Gisha_Access gisha.org/updates/11612

For background on the pervasive use of administrative detention and its direct relationship to hunger-strike protests, see our joint legal Q&A with @PHRIsrael from 2017 when over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners launched a hunger strike lphr.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

About 2 days ago

Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups @AdalahEnglish @Addameer @stoptorture_il and @PHRIsrael call for immediate release of Palestinian prisoner Maher al-Akhras, who has been on hunger strike since his administrative detention began on 27 July 2020 adalah.org/en/content/vie…

About 2 days ago

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