A/HRC/41/35/Add.2 44. The recommendations made to the Government of Israel following the visit concerned reviewing restrictive domestic legislation; media censorship; the policing of peaceful protests; the work of journalists; and minority rights. The recommendations made to the Palestinian Authority concerned legislative reform; independence of the media regulatory body; press freedom; and the right to peaceful assembly. The recommendations made to the de facto authorities in Gaza concerned media freedom; peaceful assembly; and the work of journalists. 45. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the information provided by the Palestinian Authority in support of the present report. He regrets that a response was not submitted by the Government of Israel. The 22 communications sent to Israel and the 4 communications sent to the Palestinian Authority since the visit testify to the continuing concerns regarding freedom of opinion and expression in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. The recommendations made by the former Special Rapporteur have retained their relevance throughout this period, during which they have gone almost entirely unimplemented (see table 4). 46. In Israel, regressive steps towards legalizing discrimination and undermining the right to freedom of expression were taken through amendments to the Basic Laws. On 19 July 2018, the Knesset adopted a bill entitled “Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People” (the Nation-State Law), raising serious concerns as to its impact on the constitutional rights of minorities in Israel. In article 1 (c), the right to exercise national self-determination is declared as unique to the Jewish people. In article 3, Jerusalem in its entirety is designated as the capital of Israel. In article 4, Arabic is downgraded to a language of “special status”, while in article 7, “Jewish settlement” is defined as a “national value” to be encouraged and promoted. Concerns as to the compatibility of the Law with international standards, including with regard to anti-discrimination, were raised in a communication sent by several special procedures mandate holders in November 2018.6 A substantive reply to the communication has yet to be received. Further concern has been raised by recent comments by the Prime Minister of Israel, who stated that Israel is “not a state of all its citizens”.7 The Law, which has since been subject to several High Court challenges, was adopted amid discussions in the Knesset concerning a further amendment to the Basic Laws that would insert a so-called “override clause”, undercutting the capacity of the courts to decide on the constitutionality of amendments to the Basic Laws. 47. New legislation has brought fresh limitations on freedom of expression in the name of national security. In March 2017, an amendment to the Entry into Israel Law provided for authorities to deny entry into the State to anyone who has publicly called for a boycott against Israel, with grounds for prohibition also including affiliation with any organization that has publicly supported such a boycott. A bill proposing to extend the potential for civil lawsuits based on the Boycott Law of 2011 is currently pending in the Knesset. In 2016, the Transparency Law was enacted, targeting human rights NGOs through the imposition of new reporting obligations, subject to fines, on organizations receiving more than 50 per cent of their funding from foreign Governments. 8 48. Journalists and photographers have repeatedly been targeted in connection with their work. Frequently detained without charge, they have seen their detention periods extended through a series of administrative processes overseen by the military and civil courts. Threats by security forces, including of sexual and gender-based violence, smear campaigns led by the highest public authorities, physical assaults and travel bans have been used in an apparent attempt to dissuade journalists and human rights defenders from pursuing their work. 6 7 8 See communication ISR 12/2018, available at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/Tmsearch/TMDocuments. The Guardian, “Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is ‘not a state of all its citizens’”, 10 March 2019. Available at www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/10/benjamin-netanyahu-says-israel-is-not-astate-of-all-its-citizens. See communication ISR 1/2016, available at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/Tmsearch/TMDocuments. 15