Palestine

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 03 August 2017

Summary: Palestine acceded to the convention on 2 January 2015 after participating as an observer in meetings of the convention. Palestine has stated that it does not possess any cluster munitions and says there had never been any use of cluster munitions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories by Israeli forces.

Policy

The State of Palestine acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 2 January 2015 and became a State Party on 1 July 2015.

In September 2016, Palestine announced that it has established a national body to look at whether specific legislation is needed to enforce its adherence to the convention.[1] 

As of 30 June 2017, Palestine had not yet provided its initial Article 7 transparency measures report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was originally due by 27 December 2015. In September 2016, Palestine committed to provide the report soon.[2] 

Palestine did not participate in any meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The first meeting related to the convention that it attended was an international conference on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile, in June 2010.

Palestine acceded after participating as an observer in meetings of the convention and expressing its support for the convention’s objectives.

Palestine participated in the convention’s Meeting of States Parties in 2010, 2011, 2013, and the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2016. It attended the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015 and intersessional meetings in 2013 and 2014.

Palestine has not elaborated its views on certain important issues relating to its interpretation and implementation of the convention, such as the prohibitions on transit, assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, investment in the production of cluster munitions, and on the retention of cluster munitions for training and development purposes.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In 2010, a Palestinian official told the Monitor that Palestine does not possess any cluster munitions and that Israeli forces have never used cluster munitions in the occupied Palestinian territories.[3]



[1] Statement of State of Palestine, Convention on Cluster Munitions Sixth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 5 September 2016.

[2] Statement of State of Palestine, Convention on Cluster Munitions Sixth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 6 September 2016.

[3] Meeting with Col. Mohammad A.M. Ghanayiem, Palestinian Ministry of Interior, Vientiane, 9 November 2010.