Yesh Din

Yesh Din
Founded 2005[1]
Type Non-profit
NGO
Focus "the extent of Israel's implementation of its duty to protect the Palestinian civilians under its armed forces' occupation"[1]
Location
Area served
West Bank[1]
Method reporting human rights abuses, legal actions, direct advocacy with the authorities and working with the media to encourage debate[1]
Mission "work to uphold the rule of law in the occupied territories and monitor the Israeli law enforcement system in those territories"[1]
Website www.yesh-din.org

Yesh Din (Hebrew: יש דין) is an Israeli human rights group providing legal assistance to citizens of the Palestinian territories. Its name comes from a Hebrew phrase meaning "there is law". The group has been active since March 2005.

Public Council

Yesh Din's activities are overseen by its Public Council. Members include prominent former Israeli government officials and retired high-ranking generals of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF):[2]

Activities

Yesh Din monitors the IDF investigations into troops' and Israeli settlers suspected crimes against Palestinians.[3]

Following the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict, the group denounced the distribution of booklets which according to the group "bordered on incitement to racism", encouraging Israeli soldiers to fight an enemy described as "murderers" and advising them to "show no mercy". The distribution of the booklets caused IDF to reprimand one of its officers, describing the case as an "isolated incident".[4]

On January 30, 2009, the Associated Press reported that Yesh Din planned to use a classified Israeli government database to prove that many West Bank Israeli settlements were built on land privately owned by Palestinian citizens without compensation.[5]

In 2014 Yesh Din published data of its investigation of over 1,000 files of the Judea and Samaria Area Police indicating that between 2005-14 only 7.4% had led to indictments of Israeli citizens suspected of attacking Palestinian persons or their property.[6] The vast majority of files had been closed as the police either failed to locate the offender or collect sufficient evidence for prosecution. Yesh Shin found a similar degree of negligence and lack of professionalsim by the District Police in its 2006 report.[7]

Funding

Yesh Din describes itself as being funded by "private individuals, from Israel and around the world" and institutional donors in the international donor community.[8] It regards itself as an independent, non-partisan organization and to maintain its independence it does not accept direct or indirect donations from Israeli or Palestinian government bodies.[1] In 2011 Yesh Din received a total of just over NIS 4.2 million from the following foreign institutional donors; Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations - IFA (Germany), Norwegian Refugee Council, European Commission, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Ireland), Oxfam Novib, Open Society Institute, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (United Kingdom), CAFOD and The Moriah Fund.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "About". Yesh Din.
  2. "Public Council". Yesh Din.
  3. "IDF: Probes of suspected crimes against Palestinians up 36%". Haaretz. Associated press. December 27, 2007. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
  4. "Israel 'no mercy' officer rebuked". BBC News. January 28, 2009.
  5. Friedman, Matti (January 30, 2009). "Group: Settlement info implicates Israeli gov't". Associated Press.
  6. "Data Sheet: Increase in Rate of Police Investigation Failure in Cases of Ideological Offenses against Palestinians". Yesh Din. November 12, 2014. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  7. "Semblance of Law". Yesh Din. September 12, 2006. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  8. "Our Supporters". Yesh Din.
  9. "Donations from Foreign Countries 2011". Yesh Din.

External links

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