Al-Marsad – Arab Human Rights Centre in Golan Heights (“Al-Marsad”), Al-Haq, and Cornell Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic have submitted a joint parallel report to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“Committee”). The report was submitted for the Committee’s consideration as it is due to begin its review of Israel’s fourth periodic report at the end of September. The joint report highlights how Israel illegally exploits energy resources – specifically oil, gas, and renewables – through common strategies it applies across the territories it occupies.

Today’s joint parallel report outlines the common policies, laws, and practices Israel uses to exploit energy resources in the territories it occupies in violation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“Covenant”). Specifically, the report discusses how Israel obstructs resource access, discriminates against occupied populations, and systematically undermines local businesses to create a thriving energy sector for itself at the cost of Palestinians’ and Syrians’ livelihoods, culture, and development.

The report also discusses how Israel enables private businesses to take part in activities that undercut the Covenant. It highlights numerous private projects in the gas, oil, and renewable energies industries that seek to take advantage of Israel’s illegal occupations to generate profits. Some of the business featured in the report are local, like Energix Renewable Energies and Afek Oil and Gas, yet others, like Genie Energy and Noble Energy, are large, multinational corporations. All these private entities are complicit in the international human rights law violations highlighted in the report.

With this report, Al-Marsad, Al-Haq, and Cornell Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic hope to show how Israel’s violations of international human rights and humanitarian law are not area specific, but that Israel uses common methods to exploit both the Occupied Palestinian Territory and occupied Golan simultaneously. The report demands that the Committee engage Israel to encourage it to refrain from persistently violating the Covenant and allowing businesses to, with impunity, also do so.