Since October 7, 2003, the occupation has been committing acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing against our people in the Gaza Strip, and has escalated its grave violations against citizens in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, to the extent of completely disregarding human rights.

This day symbolizes the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, coinciding with the severe violations committed by the occupation against our people.

In 1948, the United Nations established December 10 as Human Rights Day, which later became an annual commemoration. At that time, only a few months had passed since the Nakba that befell the Palestinians.

However, after 76 years, a large percentage of Palestinians still do not receive even the most basic of their natural rights, as enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Israel, which completed its control over all of historical Palestine in 1967, today stands between the Palestinians and their natural rights, which have been almost entirely stripped from them.

In reality, no day passes for the Palestinians without documenting violations against them, whether by killing, arrest, torture, demolition, or seizure of property.

The occupation practices collective punishment against Palestinians in the West Bank by setting up more than 800 permanent military checkpoints (not including sudden checkpoints). These checkpoints are of various forms and types, including stone and earth barricades, in addition to around 150 military iron gates that close off residential areas, trapping people behind them, paralyzing their movement. This suffering has worsened after the war on Gaza, as the checkpoints have become prisons and tools of abuse, humiliation, and revenge against the citizens.

One of the fundamental rights of Palestinians that the occupation systematically violates daily is the right to freedom. Since October 7, 2023, arrests have surged, with more than 12,000 cases of detention in the West Bank alone, involving all segments of Palestinian society. This includes the arrest of dozens of Palestinian workers, thousands from Gaza, and to this day, the exact numbers and identities remain undetermined, as the crime of enforced disappearance continues to be perpetrated against them.