September 20, 2017: Suggested Guidelines: How to End Israeli Impunity

All States have a clear and standing duty to ensure respect of provisions of the United Nations charter as well as international humanitarian and human rights law that protect the rights, safety and well-being of a people living under foreign occupation. They have a duty, as outlined by the United Nations Charter, to carry out the decisions of the Security Council and to abide scrupulously by the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force and to respect the peremptory norms of international law, including the right to self-determination.

This duty encompasses:

• The obligation not to recognize Israel’s illegal actions, which aim at altering the character, status, and demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
• The obligation of States to take all necessary legal and policy measures arising from their existing human rights obligations to ensure respect for human rights of the Palestinian people.
• The obligation to refrain from recognizing the illegal measures of the occupying Power and from rendering assistance to the maintenance of that occupation or aid in maintaining the illegal situation created by it.
• The obligation to hold Israel accountable for its violations and to ensure the protection of the Palestinian people by exerting all possible efforts and adopt serious practical measures to ensure Israeli compliance with its legal obligations as an occupying power and to ensure compliance with human rights law and relevant United Nations resolutions;
• The obligation to honor states’ legal obligations with regard to the potential involvement of its nationals/companies (includes both Israeli dual nationals and non-Israeli) in international crimes relating to Israel’s occupation of Palestine, including the ongoing Israeli illegal settlement activities.

What can governments Do to Fulfill this Obligation?

1. Unequivocally reaffirm commitment to international law and the two-state solution by recognizing the State of Palestine on the territory Israel occupied in 1967.
2. Recognize and reiterate that the settlements are illegal and constitute the main obstacle to peace;
3. Examine any possible public and private sector ties to the illegal settlement regime in all its manifestations, including the Wall and related infrastructure, and to take concrete actions to discontinue and discourage these activities including:

• Prohibit assisting any activity (including commercial) that harms or does not benefit the protected population of the occupied territory, such as investments in illegal settlements and their infrastructure, conducting business in settlements, or importing goods produced in settlements,
• Enact necessary legislation to provide effective penal sanctions for persons committing, or ordering to be committed, any of the listed grave breaches, in particular as regards to illegal settlements activities,
• Ensure that no public or private sector activities support illegal Israeli settlement activities nor to allow for activity that further entrenches the occupation.
• Ensure that private sector engaged in supporting or profiting from illegal activities do not receive public assistance or funds.
• Prohibit the collection of donations by organizations for the benefit of supporting, directly or indirectly, the illegal settlement regime.
• End any and all tax breaks enjoyed by organizations that support, fund, or assist in funding activities that perpetuate the suffering of the Palestinian people, including the ongoing military occupation and its illegal settlement regime.

1. Search, detain, and bring to justice persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, regardless of their nationality;
2. Ensure that markets are free from goods and/or products produced in illegal Israeli settlements or as a consequence of the illegal exploitation of Palestinian natural resources like quarries, minerals, and other resources.