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The use of riot control agents (RCAs) as a method of warfare is prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The Convention, however, permits the employment of such chemicals for law enforcement including domestic riot control purposes, provided they are used in “types and quantities” consistent with such purposes.

Whilst CWC States Parties are prohibited from developing RCA munitions for use in armed conflict, they may manufacture, acquire and utilise delivery systems to disseminate appropriate “types and quantities” of RCAs for law enforcement. However, there is continuing ambiguity as to the nature and specifications of those means of delivery that are prohibited under the Convention. This ambiguity has potentially dangerous consequences, allowing divergent interpretations, policy and practice amongst States Parties to emerge.

Of particular concern – given the current research and development of unmanned systems - are the implications for the regulation of “remote control” RCA means of delivery. These are dissemination mechanisms incorporating automatic or semi-automatic systems where the operator is directing operation of the platform and/or RCA delivery device at a distance from the target. Certain “remote control” devices incorporate target activated mechanisms triggering automatic RCA dispersal, without realtime operational control, whilst others employ a “man in the loop” system, requiring human authorisation before the RCA is released.

This report highlights the ongoing development, testing, production and promotion by a range of State and commercial entities of a wide variety of “remote control” RCA means of delivery including: indoor fixed installation RCA dispersion devices; external area clearing or area denial devices; automatic grenade launchers; multiple munition launchers; delivery mechanisms on unmanned ground vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

This infographic uses news stories from September and October 2015 to highlight key examples of excessive use of force by Israeli soldiers and police against Palestinians in the latest escalations across the OPT.

Israeli forces have carried out a series of unlawful killings of Palestinians using intentional lethal force without justification, said Amnesty International today, based on the findings of an ongoing research trip to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. 

(Jerusalem) – Israeli forces shot and wounded a research assistant working for Human Rights Watch on October 6, 2015, as she was observing a demonstration outside Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

She was observing the conduct of demonstrators and security forces, in the context of the current escalation in violence that began with the shooting death of an Israeli couple October 1. At least seven protesters were wounded at the same demonstration.

(Jerusalem) – Israeli security forces apparently shot to death a Palestinian boy during a demonstration near the West Bank town of Bethlehem on October 5, 2015. The shooting raises concerns about the excessive use of lethal force by security forces.  

Security forces opened fire at the demonstration, striking 13-year-old Abd al-Rahman Shadi Mustafa Abdallah in the chest with a live bullet, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. A statement from the Aida Refugee camp where Abdallah lived said he was returning home from school when he was shot, still wearing his school backpack.

It is not unusual to see youth from the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem fight with the Israeli forces of occupation. But the clashes which followed Israel’s slaying of 13-year-old Abdulrahman Shadi Obeidallah — or Abdo, as he was affectionately known — were among the fiercest that residents have seen in recent years.

For hours after Abdo’s funeral procession on Tuesday, anyone entering the camp had to wade through clouds of tear gas that had been fired by Israeli soldiers. Young locals, many of whom knew Abdo personally, could be seen gathering rocks and tires in preparation for another riot.

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli doctors on Wednesday were deciding whether to amputate the leg of 13-year-old Issa Ahmad Adnan al-Muti after he was severely wounded by Israeli forces last week, a hospital spokesperson said.

Israel’s security forces will have greater latitude to use live ammunition against Palestinians throwing stones and firebombs – including against minors – as part of a tough new series of measures pushed through by the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.

Under the new rules, approved unanimously by the security cabinet on Thursday night, police and soldiers will be able to fire .22 calibre live rounds from Ruger rifles when they judge that not only their own lives are in danger but also those of civilians.

A short time ago this evening, the Security Cabinet unanimously approved a series of decisions submitted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the framework of the fight against rock-throwing in Jerusalem...

The soldiers overreacted to an incident that could have ended without casualties. The establishment automatically backs them up.

Meet the Israeli company that has a contract with the Organizing Olympic Committee for the 2016 Games in Rio / Conheça a empresa israelense que tem um contrato com o Comitê Organizador dos Jogos 2016 no Rio. [En/Pt]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced the start of construction of a fence along Israel's border with Jordan after calls for Tel Aviv to take in Syrian refugees.

Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would not allow Israel to be "submerged by a wave of illegal migrants and terrorist activists".

"Israel is not indifferent to the human tragedy of Syrian and African refugees... but Israel is a small country, very small, without demographic or geographic depth. That is why we must control our borders", he said at the weekly cabinet meeting according to his office...

(Ramallah) – The evidence in an Israeli colonel’s fatal shooting of a Palestinian boy on July 3, 2015, indicates that the shooting violated international standards on the use of lethal force in policing, and possibly also Israel’s own open-fire regulations. A recently released video supports witness accounts and forensic evidence that Col. Israel Shomer killed Mohammad al-Kasbeh, 17, while al-Kasbeh was fleeing, apparently contradicting the military’s initial statement exonerating the colonel on the grounds that he faced a “mortal danger.”

Israeli riot police have fired stun grenades and water cannon on thousands of ethnic Ethiopian Jewish citizens in an attempt to clear one of the most violent protests in memory in the heart of Tel Aviv.

The protesters, Israeli Jews of Ethiopian origin, were demonstrating on Sunday against what they said was police racism and brutality after a video clip emerged last week showing policemen shoving and punching a black soldier.

From tracking online activity to cameras that see through walls, Israel's homeland security industry offers European states a range of options as they tackle the terrorists in their midst.

The past year has been one of high-profile growth for Black-Palestinian solidarity. Out of the terror directed against us—from numerous attacks on Black life to Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and chokehold on the West Bank—strengthened resilience and joint-struggle have emerged between our movements. Palestinians on Twitter were among the first to provide international support for protesters in Ferguson, where St. Louis-based Palestinians gave support on the ground. Last November, a delegation of Palestinian students visited Black organizers in St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit and more, just months before the Dream Defenders took representatives of Black Lives Matter, Ferguson, and other racial justice groups to Palestine. Throughout the year, Palestinians sent multiple letters of solidarity to us throughout protests in Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore. We offer this statement to continue the conversation between our movements.

A new report highlights Israel’s use of supposedly “non-lethal weapons” against unarmed Palestinian protesters.

The report – “Proven Effective: Crowd control weapons in the Occupied Territories” – was published by the group Who Profits and launched at a conference in Jerusalem on 10 September.

Focusing on tear gas, skunk water and “The Scream” (a high volume acoustic device strapped atop Israeli military vehicles), the report documents their regular use to violently crush unarmed Palestinian demonstrators throughout the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The clouds of tear gas, flurries of projectiles and images of police officers outfitted in military-grade hardware in Ferguson, Missouri, have reignited concerns about the militarization of domestic law enforcement in the United States. But there has been another, little-discussed change in the training of American police since the 9/11 attacks: At least 300 high-ranking sheriffs and police from agencies large and small – from New York and Maine to Orange County and Oakland, California – have traveled to Israel for privately funded seminars in what is described as counterterrorism techniques.

Ahmad S.* was on his way to a wedding when he was shot in the head. It was the afternoon of April 5, 2013 and Ahmad, then 16, was making his way through the streets in the Jalazoun refugee camp where he lives.

“There were clashes and soldiers were firing tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets,” he said. “The soldier was about 10 meters away when he fired at me. I was hit in the head and the arm. I fainted and fell to the ground.”

When tear-gas was first fired into the streets of Ferguson, Missouri at people angry at the police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown, Palestinian activists sent out messages on Twitter giving people tips for how to deal with tear gas’ effects.

And there was another direct connection between events in Missouri and the West Bank, as Palestinian activist Mariam Barghouti noted: the company that supplies the Israeli army with tear gas is the same company supplying the police in Ferguson.

Palestinian groups and individuals inside and outside of historic Palestine have signed the following statement in solidarity with their brethren in Ferguson, Missouri.

Since the killing of eighteen-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson police in Missouri last weekend, the people of Ferguson have been subjected to a military-style crackdown by a squadron of local police departments dressed like combat soldiers. This has prompted residents to liken the conditions on the ground in Ferguson to the Israeli military occupation of Palestine. 

And who can blame them? 

The dystopian scenes of paramilitary units in camouflage rampaging through the streets of Ferguson, pointing assault rifles at unarmed residents and launching tear gas into people’s front yards from behind armored personnel carriers (APCs), could easily be mistaken for a Tuesday afternoon in the occupied West Bank. 

And it’s no coincidence.

(Jerusalem) – Israeli soldiers unlawfully killed two men who had participated in a July 25, 2014 protest in the West Bank against Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, according to all available evidence. Official medical reports and medical sources indicated that they died of gunshot wounds caused by live ammunition.

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) has called for this campaign for ISDS and other companies complicit with Israeli apartheid to be banned from the Olympics, for pressure until the Olympics will be free of apartheid.

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Rubhiya Abd al-Rahman Darwish was taking a nap on the couch of her family home on Sunday when she was awoken with a start by the sound of shattering glass.

"I saw a burst of water breaking through the window, when suddenly an intense odor hit and I passed out from the smell, so they had to take me to the hospital," the 75-year-old woman told Ma'an during an interview in her small apartment in Bethlehem's Aida refugee camp.