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Israeli apartheid
Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Howwarah Checkpoint, July 2005
Huwwara Checkpoint, one of many Israeli checkpoints and closures (dismantled 2011[1]) that restricted the movement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and have been compared to the apartheid pass laws.[2][3]
Map of Israel showing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights
LocationIsrael and the Palestinian territories
Date1948–present
TargetPalestinians
Attack type
Fragmentation into domains of control, Dispossession of land and property, Segregation and control, Deprivation of economic & social rights
Victimsest. ≥3 million Palestinians subject to apartheid
PerpetratorGovernment of Israel
MotiveDomination of Palestinians [4]

The Israeli government has committed a series of ongoing human rights abuses against Palestinians in Israel and the Palestinian territories that is often characterized as apartheid. Since 1948, the Israeli government has pursued policies that have subjected more than an estimated three million Palestinians to apartheid[5][6][7].

Background

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Palestinian identity

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Israeli-Palestinian conflict

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Mandatory Palestine

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State of Israel

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Government policies

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Israeli West Bank Barrier

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Main article: West Bank Barrier

In 2003, a year after Operation Defensive Shield, the Israeli government announced a project of "fences and other physical obstacles" to prevent Palestinians crossing into Israel.[8][9] Several figures, including Mohammad Sarwar, John Pilger, Mustafa Barghouti and others have described the resultant West Bank barrier as an "apartheid wall".[10][11][12][13][14][15]

The barrier has been called an "apartheid wall"[16] by Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs describe the barrier, constructed in 2002, as a security fence, limiting the ability of Palestinian terrorist groups to carry out suicide attacks.[17]

Some Israelis have compared the separation plan to the South African apartheid regime. Political scientist, Meron Benvenisti, wrote that Israel's disengagement from Gaza created a bantustan model for Gaza. According to Benvenisti, Ariel Sharon's intention to disengage from Gaza only after construction of the fence was completed, "along a route that will include all settlement blocs (in keeping with Binyamin Netanyahu's demand), underscores the continuity of the bantustan concept. The fence creates three bantustans on the West Bank – Jenin-Nablus, Bethlehem-Hebron and Ramallah. He called this "the real link between the Gaza and West Bank plans.".[18]

The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 in an advisory opinion that the wall is illegal where it extends beyond the 1967 Green Line into the West Bank. Israel disagreed with the ruling, but its supreme court subsequently ordered the barrier to be moved in sections where its route was seen to cause more hardship to Palestinians than security concerns could motivate.[19]

Counter-terrorism justification

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Supporters of the West Bank barrier consider it to be largely responsible for reducing incidents of terrorism by 90% from 2002 to 2005.[20][21] The Supreme Court of Israel ruled that the barrier is defensive and accepted the government's position that the route of the barrier is based on security considerations.[22]

Cultural effects

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Al Aqsa mosque

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Administrative Detention

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Cemeteries

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Israel has demolished several Palestinian cemeteries[23][24].

Marriage laws in Israel and the Palestinian territories

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Israeli marriage law states that while Palestinians from the Palestinian territories cannot gain residency or citizenship through marriage, Jewish Israelis can.[25]

Palestinian flag

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The Palestinian flag is regularly confiscated by Israeli police.[26]

Human rights abuses

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Inside the Palestinian enclaves

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Under Israeli military occupation

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Leila Farsakh, associate professor of Political Science at University of Massachusetts Boston has said that after 1977, "the military government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS) expropriated and enclosed Palestinian land and allowed the transfer of Israeli settlers to the occupied territories." She notes that settlers continued to be governed by Israeli laws, and that a different system of military law was enacted "to regulate the civilian, economic and legal affairs of Palestinian inhabitants." She says "[m]any view these Israeli policies of territorial integration and societal separation as apartheid, even if they were never given such a name."[27]

Under Palestinian Authority

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Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and deemed to be occupied territory under international law, are under the civil control of the Palestinian Authority, and are not Israeli citizens. In some areas of the West Bank, they are under Israeli security control.[citation needed]

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter authored a 2006 book titled Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Carter's use of the term "apartheid" was calibrated to avoid specific accusations of racism against the government of Israel, and carefully limited to the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. In a letter to the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix, Carter made it clear that he was not discussing the circumstances within Israel but exclusively within Gaza and the West Bank.[28]

In 2007, in advance of a report from the United Nations Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur John Dugard said that "Israel's laws and practices in the OPT [occupied Palestinian territories] certainly resemble aspects of apartheid." Dugard asked: "Can it seriously be denied that the purpose [...] is to establish and maintain domination by one racial group (Jews) over another racial group (Palestinians) and systematically oppressing them?"[29][30] In October 2010, Richard A. Falk reported to the General Assembly Third Committee that "the nature of the occupation as of 2010 substantiates earlier allegations of colonialism and apartheid in evidence and law to a greater extent than was the case even three years ago." Falk described it as a "cumulative process" and said "the longer it continues...the more serious is the abridgment of fundamental Palestinian rights."[31]

Israeli Defense Minister and former prime minister Ehud Barak stated in 2010 regarding the occupied territories that "As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state."[32][33]

Under State of Palestine and Hamas Government in Gaza

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In November 2014, former Attorney General of Israel (1993–1996) Michael Ben-Yair urged the European Economic Union to endorse the creation of a Palestinian state, arguing that Israel had imposed an apartheid regime on the West Bank. He stated that the Jews' "national-historical affiliation with the land of Israel" must not come "at the expense of another nation", advocating for co-existence.[34] In 2015, Meir Dagan argued that continuation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies would result in an Israel that is either a binational state or an apartheid state. Dagan, a former head of the Israeli agency Mossad, said in particular that the Operation Cast Lead military effort in Palestinian territory had failed.[35]

Arbitrary detention

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Settlement activity

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Torture

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According to Lisa Hajjar (2005) and Dr. Rachel Stroumsa, the director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, torture has been an abiding characteristic of Israeli methods of interrogation of Palestinians.[36][37]

Reproductive rights

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Palestinian women occasionally have to give birth at Israeli military checkpoints.[38]

Usage of Palestinian labor

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Evictions

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Sheikh Jarrah

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Main article: Sheikh Jarrah controversy

Silwan

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Main article: Palestinian displacement in East Jerusalem

Masafer Yatta

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Main article: Masafer Yatta

Organ harvesting

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Israeli doctors have harvested the organs of dead Palestinians without the consent of their families[39].

Use of biometric and surveillance technology

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Israeli authorities use biometric technology to track individuals.[40].

Classification of abuses

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Apartheid

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The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 has stated on 25 March 2022 that "apartheid is being practiced by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory"[41]. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B'Tselem have also characterized Israeli government policy as apartheid.[42][43][44]

Crimes against humanity

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International responses

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Reactions by supranational organizations

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Reactions at the United Nations

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Reactions at the European Union

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Reactions at the African Union

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In February 2022, the Assembly of the African Union passed a resolution calling for the dismantlement of Israeli apartheid in the State of Palestine and recommended boycotting "the Israeli colonial system and illegal settlements" to end apartheid.[45]

Reactions by country

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Africa

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Americas

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Canada
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On May 4th, 2022, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, Patricia Skinner, stated "Canada rejects the view that Israel's actions constitute apartheid"[46].

United States
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The Biden administration has rejected the usage of the term apartheid. On 1 February 2022, State Department Spokesman Ned Price stated that "...we certainly reject the [apartheid] label that has been attached to this [Amnesty International report]."[47].

Asia

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Iran
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Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh stated on May 30, 2022, that "“All of the world’s freedom-seeking people, especially the Muslim people and countries, are duty-bound to act in a united manner towards all-out defense of the al-Aqsa Mosque and confrontation against the Zionist apartheid regime.” [48]

Lebanon
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Qatar
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Yemen
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South Asia
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Pakistan
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Europe

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United Kingdom
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Germany
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Australia

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On 2 February 2022, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison dismissed Amnesty International's report on Israeli apartheid and stated that “We do not agree with the report’s characterisations of Israel, and we remain a firm supporter of the state of Israel.”[49].

Other reactions

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Non-governmental organizations and research institutions

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Multinational Corporations

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Ben and Jerry's announced on July 20, 2021 it will no longer sell its ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territories.[50]. General Mills announced on May 31, 2022 it would be fully divesting from a business venture in Israel that had operated in an East Jerusalem settlement[51].

Religious groups

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On June 3rd, 2021, a spokesperson for the Quaker American Friends Service Committee stated that "We call on all companies to divest from Israel’s illegal and brutal occupation of Palestine, and from the apartheid system it is part of."[52].

On 18 July 2021, the General Synod of the United Church of Christ adopted a resolution that states “What we see happening in Israel/Palestine clearly seems to fit the legal definition of apartheid as Palestinians do not have equal access to water, vaccines, jobs, the ability to travel, etc. ...”[53].

Protests

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Boycott of Israel
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Main article: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
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Denial

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The abuses against the Palestinians have been denied by the Israeli government, with a foreign ministry spokesperson stating that Amnesty International's report on apartheid "...denies the State of Israel's right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people. Its extremist language and distortion of historical context were designed to demonize Israel and pour fuel onto the fire of anti-Semitism..."[54].

See also

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  1. ^ Israeli forces begin the removal of infrastructure of the Huwwara. Bahrain News Agency. 10 February 2011
  2. ^ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs occupied Palestinian territory (2009). "West bank movement and access update: November 2009" (PDF). United Nations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2009. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ Dugard, John (29 November 2006). "Israelis adopt what South Africa dropped". Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  4. ^ "ISRAEL'S APARTHEID AGAINST PALESTINIANS: A LOOK INTO DECADES OF OPPRESSION AND DOMINATION". Amnesty International. 2022-02-01. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  5. ^ "Israel is an apartheid state, Amnesty International says". NPR. 1 February 2022.
  6. ^ "Amnesty International, joining other human rights groups, says Israel is 'committing the crime of apartheid'". Washington Post. 1 February 2022.
  7. ^ "Amnesty joins rights groups in accusing Israel of apartheid". Associated Press. 1 February 2022.
  8. ^ "United Jerusalem – Historical Perspectives – 4/13/2002". Archived from the original on 15 March 2008.
  9. ^ 'The Security Fence Facts & Figures Dec 2003' (mfa) Archived 22 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ "Israel: West Bank Barrier Endangers Basic Rights" Archived 27 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine, Human Rights Watch, 1 October 2003.
  11. ^ Alan Blenford, "Degree of separation", The Guardian, 30 September 2003, 14.
  12. ^ Mohammad Sarwar, 'No one sees policy as credible', The Independent, 4 August 2006.
  13. ^ John Pilger, "John Pilger rejects the Law of Silence" Archived 26 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine, New Statesman, 11 April 2005
  14. ^ Mustafa Barghouti, quoted in Horsley, William. "Europe mulls new role in Middle East" Archived 15 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine, BBC, 13 December 2006.
  15. ^ "The Apartheid Wall", Al Jazeera English, 8 December 2003
  16. ^ "Welcome – Stop the Wall". www.stopthewall.org. Archived from the original on 24 September 2004. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  17. ^ Various aspects of the security fence project on Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs site Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ Meron Benvenisti, "Bantustan plan for an apartheid Israel", The Guardian, 26 April 2005.
  19. ^ Erlanger, Steven (8 October 2005). "At Israeli Barrier, More Sound Than Fury". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016 – via NYTimes.com.
  20. ^ Wall Street Journal, "After Sharon", 6 January 2006.
  21. ^ Boehlert, Eric. "Fence? Security barrier? Apartheid wall?" Archived 8 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Salon.com, 1 August 2003. Retrieved 1 January 2007.
  22. ^ The Supreme Court Sitting as the High Court of Justice Archived 21 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine Beit Sourik Village Council vs. The Government of Israel and Commander of the IDF Forces in the West Bank. (Articles 28–30)
  23. ^ "Israel accused of destroying Muslim graves in East Jerusalem to make way for park". The Independent. 2 November 2016.
  24. ^ "Israel continues to raze Palestinian graves in East Jerusalem". Middle East Monitor. 25 October 2021.
  25. ^ "ISRAEL'S APARTHEID AGAINST PALESTINIANS: A LOOK INTO DECADES OF OPPRESSION AND DOMINATION". Amnesty International. 2022-02-01. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  26. ^ "The Palestinian flag: A target for 'erasure' by Israeli forces".
  27. ^ Farsakh, Leila. "Israel an apartheid state?" Archived 10 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Le Monde diplomatique, November 2003
  28. ^ "Carter explains 'apartheid' reference in letter to U.S. Jews". International Herald Tribune. 15 December 2006. Archived from the original on 25 January 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2007. The six rabbis... and I... discussed the word 'apartheid', which I defined as the forced segregation of two peoples living in the same land, with one of them dominating and persecuting the other. I made clear in the book's text and in my response to the rabbis that the system of apartheid in Palestine is not based on racism but the desire of a minority of Israelis for Palestinian land and the resulting suppression of protests that involve violence ... my use of 'apartheid' does not apply to circumstances within Israel.
  29. ^ John Dugard, "Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 March 2009. (243 KB) (Advance Edited Version), United Nations Human Rights Council, 29 January 2007.
  30. ^ McCarthy, Rory. "Occupied Gaza like apartheid South Africa, says UN report", The Guardian, 23 February 2007.
  31. ^ Falk, Richard (30 August 2010). "Situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967". United Nations General Assembly. A/65/331.
  32. ^ Top Israelis Have Warned of Apartheid, so Why the Outrage at a UN Report?, Mehdi Hassan, The Intercept, 23 March 2017.
  33. ^ Barak: make peace with Palestinians or face apartheid, Rory McCarthy, The Guardian, 3 February 2010.
  34. ^ 'Ex-attorney general urges EU to recognize Palestine,' Archived 25 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine The Times of Israel 23 November 2014.
  35. ^ Ex-Mossad chief pans Netanyahu's 'bulls---' speech to Congress (Jerusalem Post, March 3rd, 2015) Archived 10 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine
    "Israelis gather for mass anti-Netanyahu rally", Financial Times, 7 March 2015
  36. ^ Aharony 2018.
  37. ^ Hajjar 2005, p. 195.
  38. ^ https://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=country&category=&publisher=UNHRC&type=COUNTRYREP&coi=ISR&rid=&docid=49c776182&skip=0
  39. ^ "Doctor admits Israeli pathologists harvested organs without consent". The Guardian. 21 December 2009.
  40. ^ "Israel Population Authority accidentally formed illegal biometric database". The Jerusalem Post. 13 July 2013.
  41. ^ "Israel's occupation of Palestinian Territory is 'apartheid': UN rights expert". United Nations. 25 March 2022.
  42. ^ "ISRAEL'S APARTHEID AGAINST PALESTINIANS: A LOOK INTO DECADES OF OPPRESSION AND DOMINATION". Amnesty International. 2022-02-01. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  43. ^ "A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution". Human Rights Watch. 2021-05-27. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  44. ^ "A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid". B'Tselem. 2021-01-12. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  45. ^ https://au.int/sites/default/files/decisions/41583-Assembly_AU_Dec_813-838_XXXV_E.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  46. ^ "Claims that Israel is imposing 'apartheid' on Palestinians put new pressure on Trudeau Liberals". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 4 May 2022.
  47. ^ "WATCH: State Department spokesperson Ned Price hold news briefing". PBS. 1 February 2022.
  48. ^ "Iran calls for united intl. response to Israeli apartheid". Mehr News Agency. 1 May 2022.
  49. ^ "Amnesty calls on Australia to condemn Israel after Morrison dismisses apartheid claim". The Guardian. 2 February 2022.
  50. ^ "Ben & Jerry's will stop selling ice cream in Palestinian territories". CNN. 20 July 2021.
  51. ^ "BDS advocates claim victory as General Mills divests its Israeli dough operation". The Jerusalem Post. 2 June 2002.
  52. ^ "Maker of Pillsbury products divests from Israel, after multi-year boycott campaign". The Arab American News. 3 June 2022.
  53. ^ "US-based Christian mission accuses Israel of 'apartheid' in new letter". The Jerusalem Post. 26 February 2022.
  54. ^ "Israeli policies against Palestinians amount to apartheid - Amnesty". BBC. 1 February 2022.
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