Rights group accuses Israel of ‘apartheid’ against Palestine
HUMAN Rights Watch said yesterday that Israel was committing the crime of “apartheid” by seeking to maintain Jewish “domination” over Palestinians and its own Arab population, an explosive allegation Israel rejected.
Currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, Israel blasted HRW’s accusations as “preposterous and false”, accusing the New Yorkbased group of having “a long-standing anti-Israeli agenda”.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said he hoped the report might lead the international community to hold Israel “accountable for its crimes”.
The 213-page report finds that the Israeli government is the “single authority” with primary control “over the area between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea”. That area includes the occupied West Bank, the blockaded Gaza Strip, annexed east Jerusalem as well as all the territory within Israel’s 1948 borders. HRW pointed to Israeli policies targeting Palestinians that include movement restrictions, land confiscation, forcible population transfer, denial of residency rights and suspension of civil rights.
Omar Shakir, HRW’s Israel and Palestine director, said there had been warnings for years that “apartheid is around the corner. I think it’s quite clear that that threshold has been crossed,” he said.
Israel maintains it is a democracy where the 20% Arab minority enjoys full rights, but Arab citizens complain of systemic discrimination.
Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza and annexed east Jerusalem after the 1967 Six Day War. It withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but restricts the flow of goods and people from the enclave. Israeli governments have said they could withdraw from parts of the West Bank depending on the terms of a peace deal with the Palestinians.
But nearly half a million Jewish Israelis live in settlements on West Bank land Palestinians hope will be part of their future state.
HRW called on nations to reconsider their Israel ties. The group also called on the Palestinian Authority to cease some forms of security co-ordination with Israel.