2023 RLLR 63

Citation: 2023 RLLR 63
Tribunal: Refugee Protection Division
Date of Decision: February 7, 2023
Panel: Roderick Flynn
Counsel for the Claimant(s): John Rokakis
Country: Israel
RPD Number: TC1-12808
Associated RPD Number(s): N/A
ATIP Number: A-2023-01721
ATIP Pages: N/A

DECISION

[1]       MEMBER: Good afternoon, my name is Roderick Flynn, I am the seized Member in the claim for refugee protection made by XXXX XXXX. The file number is TC1-12808.

[2]       This is a decision rendered after the hearing in the absence of the parties by dictation using MS Teams. The transcript of this decision may be edited before it is signed.

[3]       You claim to be a citizen of Israel of Arab origin, and you are seeking refugee protection pursuant to section 96 and 97(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

[4]       My determination is, I find that you are a person in need of protection, for the reason that you have established on a balance of probabilities that you face a personalized risk of harm and risk to your life in Israel.

[5]       In summary, the allegations in this matter as follows. You are currently 20 years of age, having come to Canada when you were  
18-year-old in XXXX 2020. In your Basis of Claim and narrative you allege you face a personalized risk to your life from your neighbours in Jaffa, Israel, and persons associated with them connected to their ongoing feud with your cousins.

[6]       Specifically, you allege that you and your family members have been targeted since late XXXX 2019, when exchanges of violence erupted between your family represented by two (2) of your cousins who lived in the house next door to your family home, and other families, which was touched off by the murder of a man named SD (ph). In early 2020, problems escalated, and SD’s family and their numerous allies vowed to kill all of your cousins’ relatives. This led to you being chased by a car while you were out XXXX XXXX in XXXX 2020.You were injured in the subsequent motor vehicle accident during this incident when you were hit by another vehicle. Thereafter you fled to a relative’s home in XXXX Israel for five (5) months, essentially living in hiding with your aunt. During this day you were sent a death threat on social media vowing to kill you, no matter where in the country you might try to hide.

[7]       While you returned to your home in Jaffa in XXXX 2020, to visit your mother and sister, you witnessed the murder of your cousin in a drive-by shooting in XXXX 2020, while he was standing on the porch of your home. After receiving more threatening messages indicating that you too soon would be killed, in XXXX 2020, you fled to the United States before coming to Canada and claiming refugee protection in March 2021.

[8]       Concerning Identity.

[9]       I find you have established your identity as a citizen of Israel through the copy of your Israeli passport, and generally credible testimony, and the supporting documentation, including your birth certificate which has been entered into evidence at our hearing.

[10]     On the matter of credibility.

[11]     I find you to be a generally credible witness. And overall, I believe what you have alleged and testified to in support of your claim. You testified in a straightforward detailed, unhesitant, and responsive manner to the wide-ranging questions I asked you during the hearing. You detailed your circumstances in Israel, particularly, the nature of your family relationships, your residence next door to your cousins, and how the family dispute with the enemies of your cousins poses an ongoing threat to your life, and the lives of your immediate and extended family members. You’ve also credibly outlined that since your departure from Israel your remaining immediate family members including your mother, father, and sister, have all left the country fearing for their lives because of this feud.

[12]     There were no material inconsistencies in your testimony or contradictions between your testimony and your written materials which you did not satisfactorily explain, including the issues about your delay in claiming, and why you did not seek refugee protection in the United States. You’ve provided relevant documentary evidence to support your claim including; identity documents; documents connected the vehicular assault on you in XXXX 2020, and the injuries which resulted; your medical records confirming these injuries; photographs of these injuries; proof of your cousin XXXX’s death, and the media reports of his killing, and a corroborating statement of the events from your father.

[13]     Having considered the totality of evidence before me, I find the information you have presented in your testimony, and your documentary evidence to be credible, overall, on a balance of probabilities.

Personalized Risk to Your Life.

[14]     To find you’ve credibly established a personalized risk to your life in Israel, and therefore that you are a person in need of protection, for the purposes of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, I have to find there is an objective basis for your fear and that you are being personally targeted. In other words, you must clearly establish the perpetrators you fear have personally targeted you, and that the risk you face to your life in Israel is not simply a generalized risk faced by the population, for example, as a result of conflict or high crime rates in the area where you live. For the reason described below, I find your actions are consistent with those of a person who has been personally targeted, harmed, and who therefore faces a forward-looking risk of personalized harm, including a risk to your life if you return to Israel.

Objective Basis

[15]     Information in the country condition documentation including the NDP for Israel, as well as the country documents provided by your counsel, are consistent with your allegations that you face a personalized risk to your life if you return there. The country condition documents provided contain extensive evidence of high levels of crime and violence, within and involving Arab Palestinian communities in Israel. Item 2.1 at page 60.

[16]     Further these objective sources describe that these problems persist because of low levels of police engagement and enforcement of crime. In this regard you’ve credibly described that you are situated in a community where you and your family have been targeted for death, by an alliance of rival families who vowed revenge against your cousins and their relatives. Particularly, and so far, as they live beside you. These enemies have demonstrated their motivation to harm and kill you and they have shown their ability to carry out such lethal harm by murdering your cousin XXXX in your presence in XXXX 2020.

[17]     Multiple Items from the NDP for Israel, speak to the prevailing violence in communities of Arab origin within the country including Item 1.8, 2.1, 2.13 and 10.1.

[18]     Also, Item 2.1, which is the annual United States Department of State report, records that young Arab men in Israel are reported to face allegations of arbitrary arrest, institutional and social discrimination, and high levels of crime and violence related to low levels of policing. Other objective documents provided by your counsel indicate in the fact that police and the State in Israel, generally fail to intervene to protect Israelis of Arab origin despite high rates of violence in those communities.

[19]     Overall, the country condition report before me, clearly indicates violence is a serious problem in communities of predominantly Arab origin within Israel, and despite significantly higher rates of crime; significantly fewer state resources have been allocated to address these issues. This leaves perpetrators such as your neighbours who now target you and your family to act with virtual impunity. With these factors in mind, I find you’ve established a credible fear for your life in Israel.

[20]     Given the totality of evidence before me, I therefore conclude you would face a personalized risk to your life if you return there.

[21] On the matter if state protection.

[22]     You’ve given evidence that you are unable to access adequate state protection in Israel to deal with the situation you face. States are presumed to be capable of protecting their own citizens, except in situations where there is a complete breakdown of the State itself. To rebut this presumption of state protection a claimant must provide clear and convincing evidence of the State’s inability or unwillingness to protect them on a balance of probabilities.

[23]     Based on all the evidence before me, and for the reasons set out below, I find on a balance of probabilities that Israel is unwilling and/or unable to adequately protect you if you return there.

[24]     Freedom House in Item 2.4 of the NDP for Israel, in an article entitled: Freedom in the World 2021, documents at page 14 and 15, that citizens of Arab origin account for the vast majority of murder victims in the country just by being only 1/ 5th of the population. Freedom House comments that despite high incidents of murder victims of Arab origin “Police are far less likely to solve murders with Arabs as opposed to Jewish victims.”

[25]     Item 2.1 of the NDP, documents that Israeli citizens of Muslim origin face persistent institutional, and societal discrimination, with their communities being plagued by high levels of crime and violence especially due to organized criminals.

[26]     In a June 2021 report included at Item 10.2 of the NDP for Israel, Amnesty International decries the lack of protection provided to Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin, noting that wholesale failure in the country to protect Palestinians from even premeditated attacks. In concert with these reports the objective documentation before me, also indicates a discrepancy in the access to police and/or other state protection at resources between Arabs and Jews in Israel. While some efforts are apparently underway to address these discrepancies, reported efforts to improve policing in Arab areas in Israel, according to the NDP, have not been effectively implemented at present.

[27]     Therefore, I find that there is a little barrier between you and the personalized threats to your life that you face from your neighbours, who have repeatedly threatened to kill you and your family members and have shown the ability to do so with the murder of your cousin XXXX in XXXX 2020.

[28]     I have no evidence before me to show that your agents of persecution were held to account for this homicide, or other violent threats to you and your family. For all these reasons, I find you’ve presented sufficient clear and convincing evidence to rebut the presumption of state protection on a balance of probabilities.

Internal Flight Alternative

[2]       I’ve also had to consider whether you have an internal flight alternative within Israel, i.e., whether you can safely and reasonably relocate within your country of citizenship. At the hearing, new location in XXXX where your aunt lives, was proposed as an internal flight alternative. You described successfully relocating to your aunt’s home in XXXX for five (5) months, after the vehicle attack on you. You’ve outlined that this relocation was only temporary, and it is not sustainable.

[30]     Further, given the small size of the country, you testified that you believe that people looking for your family members will eventually find you there. You described that you deliberately kept a low profile during this stay to avoid trouble.

[31]     On all the evidence, I find you have no viable internal flight alternative within Israel. As you pointed out Israel is a small country physically, and Jaffa is only about a 90-minute drive from your aunt’s home in XXXX. Aside from the possibility of being found by your agents of persecution, I find it is not reasonable for you to relocate to XXXX. You’re a young man from a Muslim minority in Israel with a XXXX XXXX education, the only family you have remaining in Israel, is located outside of Jaffa is your elderly widowed aunt. While you might draw on family support in Jaffa to sustain your relocation, your immediate family members have now all fled the country, leaving you with your extended family members, whom you’ve already testified are being targeted themselves by your agents of persecution, and whose illegal activities cannot provide you reliable assistance in relocating safely.

[32]     As such, I conclude on a balance of probabilities, you have no viable internal flight alternative in Israel.

[33] In Conclusion.

[34]     For all the reasons above, I find you have established you are a person in need of protection with the (inaudible) of section 97(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. And I therefore accept your claim.

——— REASONS CONCLUDED ———