Reporting of Federici Studies Center
Society St. Yves. From justice comes peace
It is the only Catholic-based NGO that offers legal protection to Palestinians in the Holy Land: the St. Society. Yves, active from 27 years and with two locations, in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, it is increasingly a reference in cases of injustice and discrimination.
Penalties in healthcare, lack of permits to enter Israel, demolitions of houses and schools, land confiscations: These are the problems of Palestinians and residents of Jerusalem that the St. Society deals with every day. Yves. Founded in 1991, is the only Catholic organization for human rights in the Holy Land. He was the Latin patriarch of the time, mons. Volerla to Michel Sabbah, on the proposal of the woman who later became its first director, Lynda Brayer. «We were at the end of the first intifada and there was a need for human rights organizations», explains the current director, the lawyer Raffoul Rofa.
The first case handled by St. Yves fu nel 1991 against the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Gas masks were also requested to be distributed to Palestinians in the West Bank, given that a chemical attack from Iraq was feared. The Supreme Court granted the petition and ordered the military to distribute gas masks. From that moment on, the action of the organization began, which every year provides legal assistance to thousands of people in different fields, from health, to freedom of movement, to discrimination in tax matters. Today «St. Yves» has twenty-five employees, including ten lawyers, in the two offices in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
The organization takes its name from Saint Ivo of Brittany, a 13th century aristocrat and doctor of law, famous defender of the poor and considered the patron saint of lawyers. «We operate in East Jerusalem – continues Rofa – and in Area C of the southern West Bank (subjected to the full control of the Israeli military administration – ndr). In East Jerusalem we deal with legal issues relating to Palestinian residency and family reunification". After the Six Day War (1967), Israel has in fact granted the Palestinians of Jerusalem the status of "permanent resident", but a law enacted later establishes that the Palestinian who has left Jerusalem for seven years, not necessarily continuous, or who has acquired another citizenship through naturalization, may have his or her residency status revoked.
The director of the St. Yves explains that since 1967 to date, 15 thousand Palestinians have lost the right to live in Jerusalem. Only in April 2017 and May 2018 the human rights center closed 4.838 cases about beyond 5.100 under management: consultancy, legal services, awareness raising activities on cases of public interest. «We work on the streets, in contact with people – explains the lawyer Rofa proudly -. Sometimes people call us directly, other times we are the ones who organize awareness sessions. A big part of our mission is to go out and inform the population of their rights. We also urge international support.".
Often the St. Yves faces cases of discrimination, such as that of payments for state health insurance to Palestinians in Jerusalem. Not long ago, Indeed, the State of Israel, through the Ministry of Health, decided to grant public health insurance to those Palestinians who have family reunification permits with permanent residents in Jerusalem. «It was an excellent decision – explained Rofa -, but there was discrimination in payments". Palestinians married to Israeli citizens must initially pay approx 1.700 shekel (little more than 400 euro) and then monthly around 500 shekel (118 euro). Palestinians married to permanent residents, Instead, they should pay as an initial investment almost 8.000 shekel (1.900 euro) and monthly 500 shekel. Prompted by several reports, St. Yves moved promptly: «We reported the problem to the Ministry of Health and they told us that everything was "according to the law". We then took the case to the Supreme Court which, in March, has forced the Ministry of Health to investigate our requests further and we will see what will happen in the coming months. The issue affects thousands of people".
One of the most well-known events dealt with by the St. Yves is the Cremisan case. The protests and legal actions conducted between 2004 and the 2015 to prevent the construction of the separation wall in the Cremisan valley, near Bethlehem, they did not achieve the desired objective: the wall was built, but there is a gap 225 meters to connect the Salesian convent and the school with Bethlehem, a gap that could be closed at any time. «The owners of private lands, Instead, they didn't have this luck. Their lands are behind the wall and they can only access it through an "agricultural gap" – spiega Raffoul Rofa -. It is a door built into the wall, which can only be opened at certain times of the year, during the harvest, but permission is required. It's a great injustice.".
In Area C of the West Bank, the St. Society. Yves often works to prevent the demolition of buildings, as in the case of a school east of Bethlehem, close to a settlement and which has therefore already been demolished. The Palestinian Authority rebuilt it and requested legal assistance from St. Yves, who promptly responded with a petition to the Supreme Court. In this case successfully: the school is still standing. Assistance to Palestinians in the West Bank often involves movement permits, many times denied by providing "security" reasons. It is then up to the Society of St. Yves try to understand the actual reasons: it may be by homonymy with people considered dangerous, for family members involved in legal problems or for having taken part in protests.
Through the work of lawyers, attempts are also made to denounce "collective punishments", as in the cases of attacks on Israeli soldiers. Whenever they happen, the police force the closure of shops and streets or ask people to return home. «We condemn every act of violence. If someone makes a mistake, we believe he should be punished, but individually, without involving the entire community", underlines the lawyer Rofa. «We believe that our work contributes to peace and we don't do it because we hate anyone – clarifies the director -. We don't hate anyone, but we are here to help the poor and oppressed. This is our mission".
(Echo of the Holy Land, n.5 September/October 2018, pages. 8 -9)
