28
January 2008
Asma Jahangir, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of
religion or belief of the United Nations Human Rights Council, made the
following statement on 27 January in Jerusalem at the end of her visit to
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (20-27 January 2008):
"Ladies and gentlemen,
I wish to thank the Government of Israel and the
Palestinian Authority for inviting me to Israel and the occupied Palestinian
territory (oPt). I have had the privilege of spending the past eight days
here, visiting Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Daliyat al Carmel, Haifa, Nazareth,
Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus and Qalqilya. During my visit I talked
with Government officials responsible for matters of religion or belief and I
also met with representatives of religious organizations, non-governmental
organizations and individuals.
The visit has been both fascinating and disturbing for me.
This is a land blessed with a rich diversity and important holy sites of many
religions. Yet, this very diversity, which should have been a blessing,
tragically has polarized people on the lines of religion. Indeed, the
conflict has an adverse impact on the right of individuals and communities to
worship freely and to attend religious services at their respective holy
places.
I have noticed that people of all religions have the will
and aspiration to live side by side in peace. There are outstanding examples
where despite conflict and religious polarization people have been able to
extend respect and tolerance to each other's religions and beliefs. There
have been encouraging instances of inter-faith and intra-faith dialogue on
various levels. At the same time I have also met individuals who bear
resentments against other religions and their adherents.
A major issue of concern for my mandate is the restricted
access to holy places. Muslims and Christians are impeded from worshipping at
some of their most holy places in the world due to an elaborate system of
permits, visas, checkpoints and the Barrier. While the Israeli Government
informed me that these restrictions are necessary for security reasons, I would
like to emphasize that any measure taken to combat terrorism must comply with
the States' obligations under international law, including freedom of
religion or belief. These intrusive restrictions strike me as
disproportionate to their aim as well as discriminatory and arbitrary in
their implementation. My concern also extends to problems of access to holy
places revered by Jews.
In addition, I was more than surprised to learn about the
subtle differences with regard to indicating religious affiliation on
official ID cards. While Israeli citizens' ID cards no longer state the
holder's ethnicity, those of Palestinians residents of the oPt do disclose
their religion. In my opinion, to indicate the religious affiliation on
official ID cards carries a serious risk of abuse, which has to be weighed
against the possible reasons for disclosing the holder's religion.
During my talks with members of religious minorities in
Israel, my interlocutors have by and large acknowledged that there is no
religious persecution by the State. Within the Israeli democracy, I would
like to emphasize the important role that the Supreme Court has played in the
past and can play for safeguarding freedom of religion or belief.
However, strands within the Christian, Jewish and Muslim
faiths have experienced different forms of discrimination. There are concerns
that the State gives preferential treatment to the Orthodox Jewish majority
in Israel to the detriment not only of other religious or belief communities
but also of other strands of Judaism. For example, conversion to Judaism
within Israel is only recognised if performed by the Orthodox Rabbinate.
Another concern is the urgent need to preserve and protect Christian and
Muslim holy sites; many of those have been made inaccessible or neglected
since decades, while Jewish places have appropriately been designated as holy
sites and hence protected. Further concerns have been raised with regard to
unfair allocation of subsidies at the expense of religious minorities and
strands. I have also received reports that the religious rights of detainees
are not fully respected. I will be dealing with these issues in more depth in
my report to the Human Rights Council.
Personal status questions in both Israel and the oPt show
the delicate relationship between State and religion. Even though the various
religious courts for historical reasons have the jurisdiction for issues such
as marriage and divorce this does not absolve the authorities from their
responsibility to ensure equal treatment and the implementation of human
rights for all individuals. I find it difficult to understand that under
domestic law persons can be deemed to be "unmarriagable"; in this
regard I was informed that more than 200.000 Israeli citizens and residents
with no official religious designation are barred from marrying in Israel. I
wish to emphasize that freedom of religion or belief also includes the right
not to believe.
This brings me to the contentious question of conversion,
which – socially speaking – is considered a taboo and is restricted by
religious laws. In Israel, offering or receiving inducements for conversion
is also prohibited by the domestic law. Hence, some small communities in
Israel have refrained from proselytising. In the oPt, the few conversions
which have taken place, particularly when involving interfaith relationships,
have been followed by serious tensions and in some cases violence.
Women seem to be in a particularly vulnerable situation
and bear the brunt of religious zeal. I was informed about cases of honour
killings carried out with impunity in the OPT in the name of religion.
Reportedly some women in Gaza have recently felt coerced to cover their heads
not out of religious conviction but out of fear.
Further apprehensions concerning the situation in the oPt
have been expressed by minority communities, including some small Christian
groups, who fear a rising level of religious intolerance. In October 2007, a
Christian librarian in Gaza city was threatened and subsequently kidnapped and
killed. The question whether he was engaging in missionary activities or not
is entirely irrelevant. This was a hideous crime and also a violation of his
right to manifest his religion or belief. I welcome that the representatives
of the Palestinian Authority who I met expressed concern and had taken note
of these incidents.
I am encouraged by the engagement of Israeli and
Palestinian civil society organisations and I trust that the many challenges
which I have alluded to will be appropriately addressed in the democratic
fora. I sincerely thank everybody who I met, also for their courage and
sincerity in sharing their experiences and concerns in this violent
environment.
In my report I will recommend that all parties to a
possible peace agreement bind themselves legally to protect the rights of
religious minorities. Particular attention should be paid to include
guarantees for equality and non-discrimination based on religion as well as
for the preservation and peaceful access to holy sites.
A major challenge, which needs to be addressed
immediately, if we are to avoid deterioration, is to effectively prohibit and
sanction incitement to religious hatred. Article 20 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights clearly states that any advocacy of
national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to
discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law. However,
impunity for incitement is a concern. Any violence committed in the name of
religion, whether violent acts by zealous settlers or even worse in the form
of suicide bombings by militant Islamists, should be denounced, investigated
and sanctioned. Furthermore, it is particularly worrying when children are
being incited to express hatred toward those with a different religious
affiliation.
Today is a sobering day. We solemnly mark the
International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
I join the United Nations Secretary-General in saying: "We remember
those whose rights were brutally desecrated at Auschwitz and elsewhere, and
in genocides and atrocities since. We vow to apply the lessons of the
Holocaust to our lives and to those of succeeding generations."
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