We, the undersigned members of the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) condemn in the strongest possible terms Israel’s recent spate of demolition of Palestinian structures in and adjacent to the area known by the international community as ‘E1’, in the occupied West Bank, and highlight that these demolitions represent material acts upon which a finding of forcible transfer can be based. Accordingly, these acts constitute a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity under international criminal law, while violating numerous fundamental human rights.

Sixteen international organisations have joined the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) in welcoming the release of its president Mazen Darwish and in calling for all charges against him and his colleagues to be dropped, as well as for the release of all other prisoners of conscience who remain detained by the Syrian authorities.

For Palestinians, 2015 marks the 67^th year of forced displacement from, and within, their ancestral homeland. This ongoing Nakba (‘catastrophe’) continues to be perpetuated through Israel’s denial of the Palestinian refugees’ Right of Return, the right to self-determination, and various other Israeli policies, which give rise to forced displacement, including forcible transfer as a grave breach of international law. These policies are framed within the wider gamut of perpetual human rights violations being committed on both sides of the green line (across the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel).

Israel’s unlawful seizing of nearly $400 million of Palestinian funds in order to collectively punish Palestinians for seeking justice through joining the International Criminal Court (ICC) has had devastating consequences for millions of people and is itself a “war crime” prosecutable under the ICC, says Ramallah based Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq.