In welcoming news Human Rights Watch,https://www.hrw.org/ a leading organization monitoring rights abuses worldwide, has just released a scathing new report "A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution on Tuesday, drawing on years of documentation,and case research from different sources, shows us Israel's oppressive policies against Palestinians., which is bound to cause powerful ripples that will be felt throughout the solidarity movement for Palestinian rights, freedom and liberation.
The 213 page report which is accompanied by graphics co-produced with Visualisinf Palestine, details the ways in which Israel is intentionally pursuing the domination of Jews over Palestinians in all parts of the land, as well as in the diaspora, regardless of their legal status, It argues that the policies and actions o the Israeli government against the Palestinian people amount to systematic apartheid and unlawful persecution that must be stopped..
The report reads, " Every day,a person
is born in Gaza into an open-air prison, in the West Bank without civil rights, in Israel with an inferior status by law, and in neighboring
countries effectively condemned to lifelong refugee status, like their
parents and grandparents before them, solely because they are
Palestinian and not Jewish.”
While the term "apartheid" was first used in relation to South
Africa's racist segregation of non-white citizens, the report said it
was now a "universally recognized legal term" that described crime
against humanity under international law.
An apartheid system is
defined by "an effort to maintain domination by one racial group over
another, a context of systematic oppression by the dominant group over
the marginalized group (and) inhuman acts," HRW said.
The accusation of persecution is based on "the widespread
confiscation of privately owned land, the effective prohibition on
building or living in many areas, the mass denial of residency rights,
and sweeping, decades-long restrictions on the freedom of movement and
basic civil rights," the publication says.
HRW also noted that the report is not comprehensive, as it does not
include all human rights abuses in the areas, including those committed
by armed groups or Palestinian authorities.
Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine Director of Human Rights Watch, had this to say about the report:
"Apartheid is the reality today for millions of Palestinians, and its incumbent upon the international community to recognize the reality for what it is, and have the courage to fight apartheid."
Israel, for its part, rejected the findings. Its foreign ministry dismissed the report's claims as "both preposterous and false."
But in order to maintain domination, Israeli authorities systematically discriminate
against Palestinians. This institutional discrimination that Palestinian
citizens of Israel face includes laws that allow hundreds of small
Jewish towns to effectively exclude Palestinians and budgets that
allocate only a fraction of resources to Palestinian schools as compared
to those that serve Jewish Israeli children. In the occupied territory,
the severity of the repression, including the imposition of draconian
military rule on Palestinians while affording Jewish Israelis living in a
segregated manner in the same territory their full rights under
Israel’s rights-respecting civil law, amounts to the systematic
oppression required for apartheid.
Israeli authorities have continued to commit a range of abuses against
Palestinians.in order to maintain domination, systematically discriminating
against Palestinians. This institutional discrimination that Palestinian
citizens of Israel face includes laws that allow hundreds of small
Jewish towns to effectively exclude Palestinians and budgets that
allocate only a fraction of resources to Palestinian schools as compared
to those that serve Jewish Israeli children. In the occupied territory,
the severity of the repression, including the imposition of draconian
military rule on Palestinians while affording Jewish Israelis living in a
segregated manner in the same territory their full rights under
Israel’s rights-respecting civil law, amounts to the systematic
oppression required for apartheid.
In addition to finding Israel guilty of the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution the report makes several recommendations including for states to consider sanctions as well to condition military aid to Israel and HRW called on the ICC prosecutor to “investigate and prosecute individuals credibly implicated” in apartheid and persecution. ( Last month, the International
Criminal Court (ICC) had
already announced it would investigate war crimes in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel has said it will not
cooperate with the probe.)
The United Nations must also take action by establishing an
envoy position focused on ending persecution and apartheid worldwide,
and businesses operating in the OPT must stop contributing to any
actions that facilitate the deprivation of Palestinian rights such as
the demolition of their homes.
The reports findings would not be possible without the decades of
struggle and resistance of Palestinians, who continued to resist even as
the international community remained silent. But
what we are witnessing could well be the beginning of the end of
Israel's impunity for the systematic oppression and dispossession of the
Palestinian people.It also represents a milestone for the wider
movement.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, the same year it annexed
east Jerusalem. Since then, Jewish settlers in both areas have absorbed
increased amounts of land. Palestinians in east Jerusalem and across
much of the West Bank are regularly denied building permits, while
Jewish home construction has steadily grown.
Israel's settlement
policy in the occupied Palestine is illegal under international law,
particularly international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva
Convention, which relates to the protection of civilians in time of
war. Palestinians
should have the same rights and freedoms as anyone else, not to have their rights denied or be
treated
differently because of their ethnicity or religion.
HRW thankfully is the latest in a lineup of top human rights groups, including Israeli NGOs Yesh Din and B’Tselem, that have publicly stated in recent months that Israel is
perpetrating apartheid and maintaining a regime of Jewish supremacy.
They join a growing movement, led for years by Palestinians and allies,
that has been working to debunk mainstream myths about Israel’s military
occupation and redefine the nature of the oppression Palestinians face
on the ground.
Ultimately, HRW is saying that apartheid is not some conditional, future scenario , that threshold has been crossed. Apartheid is the reality
today for millions of Palestinians, and it’s incumbent upon us the
international community to recognize the reality for what it is, and
have the courage to fight apartheid.
We can do this by supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a non-violent initiative, supported by 170 Palestinian civic groups that encourages individuals, nations and organisations to censure Israel's consistent violations of international law and human rights standards through various boycotts.Now that one of the world;s foremost human rights organisations has detailed how Israel's actions cross the legal threshold of the crimes against humanity of apartheid, will it still be considered antisemitic to say so, It's time to Make Apartheid History once and for all and to dismantle the walls that maintain it. You can read and share the report below.
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