The word "occupation" brings forth many images: right against left, settlers against the IDF, the Defense budget, boycotts of products from the occupied territories, BDS, the mantra "there is no partner for peace." But few talk about its impact on Israel's standard of living.
This is the second annual monitoring report on the conditions of the detention of migrants and asylum seekers held in administrative detention in Israeli facilities. In February 2016, the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants (HRM) published its first annual monitoring report, which focused on the conditions in which migrants were held in detention in 2015.
The report – a joint publication of Ir Amim and Peace Now – focuses on the rapid escalation of private settlement activity in the heart of Batan al-Hawa, a Palestinian community in Silwan, located just outside the Old City walls within clear sight of Al-Aqsa. Batan al-Hawa is now the site of the largest attempted settler takeover in East Jerusalem, representing not only the large-scale displacement of an entire community but also the complicity of the Israeli government in facilitating private settlement in the Historic Basin.
Over recent decades, Israel has become a target destination for tens of thousands of migrants: asylum seekers1 fleeing wars, massacres, and oppressive regimes and migrant workers seeking to improve their standard of living. Israeli law permits the detention of any person who does not have status in Israel, provided that the detention is not for a punitive purpose, but serves as a tool intended to enable removal.
