The Independent Commission for Human Rights - ICHR 17 1. The impact of Israeli violations on Palestinian institutions’ ability to fulfil human rights obligations Introduction Throughout 2021, the Israeli occupying authorities continued to escalate daily violations and colonial policies against Palestinians, target Palestinian lives and properties, and impinge on rules of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL). Acting as a State above the law, Israel seeks to serve and expand its settler colonial project, which runs counter to customary practice, human rights principles, and international laws. Of these, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 of 2016 provides that the establishment by Israel of settlements has no legal validity and demands that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard. The Israeli occupying authorities also maintained a systematic policy of providing protection to Israeli commanders and soldiers involved in the commission of grave violations against Palestinian civilians. In December 2021, the Israeli occupying forces (IOF) modified open fire regulations, allowing that stone throwers to be targeted. The impunity of leaders of the occupying Power has encouraged the persistent perpetration of further abuses. The fact that Israel considers itself immune from punishment has been a source of great concern for Palestinian citizens. Palestinians have, therefore, lost confidence in international agencies, human rights actors, resolutions of international legitimacy, and principles of International Law. Israeli arbitrary policies and measures serve as a tool to entrench a colonial setting, tighten the grip on the Palestinian territory, dispossess Palestinians of their social, economic, and political rights, and deprive them of security and safety. As a result, Palestinian citizens cannot lead a normal life. The root causes of Israeli racist practices, policies, and crimes against Palestinians are grounded in apartheid processes. While Israel has historically enjoyed impunity for systematic violations against Palestinians, repression, systematic excessive use of force, collective punishment, and settlement activity are distinctive features of the Israeli colonial regime. For the most part, the Israeli occupying authorities have conferred on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem a legal status, which undermines their right to a residence on systematic and discriminatory grounds. This is aimed at Judaising and seizing control of the city of Jerusalem in the context of Israeli racist colonial and apartheid policies. In pursuit of changing the demographic structure and tightening the grip on the city, the Israeli occupying authorities and settlers have systematically targeted Jerusalemite neighbourhoods under the threat of expulsion in an apparent breach of the principles of International Law. In these quarters, Palestinian families have lived under the threat of forced eviction and have been deprived of their right to property and adequate housing. Israeli settler groups further committed illegal and inhuman practices against, and assaulted, members of these families on a daily basis. Home demolitions reflect a racial engineering policy and promote discriminatory planning, which seeks to eliminate Palestinian presence in the Twenty Seventh Annual Report 2021