STATE DEPT. CRITICIZES ISRAEL ON HUMAN RIGHTS

U.S.: Discrimination, corruption in Israel: State Department issues annual human rights report, finds Israel guilty of severe violations including harassing Arabs, discriminating against women and Arabs, abusing women and foreign workers; but overall Israel ‘respects its citizens’ rights’ Yitzhak Benhorin

WASHINGTON - “Trafficking in and abuse of women and foreign workers, discrimination against persons with disabilities, and government corruption,” read just a few of the criticisms of Israel made in the United States State Department’s annual human rights violations report. The reports, published every year since 1977, track democracy and human rights in 196 countries.

The authors report “serious abuses by some members of the security forces against Palestinian detainees; poor conditions in some detention and interrogation facilities; institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against the country's Arab citizens; and societal violence and discrimination against women ” in Israel. The report also notes that while Israeli detainees aged 17 and under are separated from adults, this separation does not exist among Palestinian prisoners.

In addition, the authors criticize Israeli matrimonial law, saying, “Jews can marry only in Orthodox Jewish services. Jews and members of other religious communities who wish to have civil marriages; Jews who wish to marry according to Reform or Conservative Judaism; those not recognized by Orthodox authorities as being Jewish; and those marrying someone from another faith, must marry abroad to gain government recognition. While government-recognized civil marriages are available in Cyprus, this requirement presents a hardship.”

However, despite the long list of criticisms, Israel comes out “okay” relatively, and isn’t included in the list of countries perpetrating severe human rights violations. The Israeli government, the U.S. concludes, “respects its citizens’ human rights.”

The six leading countries for human rights violations are: Burma, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, China and Zimbabwe. A number of Arab countries on friendly terms with the U.S. also find themselves harshly criticized in the report. Saudi Arabia is censured for beatings and lack of freedom of religion; Egypt’s faulty elections and torture of prisoners are noted; and the United Arab Emirates – which is currently in negotiations with the U.S. over opening sea ports on its eastern shores – is criticized for flogging drug users and adulterers.

The real “star” in the report is Iran. “The rulers, religious leaders and president are responsible for the deterioration of the imprisonment conditions of hundreds of political prisoners, and additional limitations on freedom of the press, social freedoms and political liberty,” reads a special section devoted to the policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran is accused of “hasty executions, disappearances of people, maintaining public order with extremism and torture, eliminating its citizens’ basic rights, involvement in Iraq, supporting Hizbullah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Its refusal to discuss these matters isolates it from the international community.”

Another country earning negative attention in the report is Syria. “The Syrian government ignores the international community’s calls to respect its citizens’ principles of freedom and refuses to stop its interference in neighboring countries,” the report says. “Syria continues to support Hizbullah, Hamas and Palestinian resistance organizations and does not full cooperate with the U.N. investigative committee into Hariri’s assassination.”