"Why Human Rights Organizations Have Called It Apartheid"
"We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians." Nelson Mandela
In July of 2018, the Israeli parliament adopted a new law that has come to be known as the Nation-State Bill. This law specifies the state of Israel is the nation-state for Jewish people only, and neglects to mention any of the minority populations living in the land. "Jewish settlement as a national value" says the state will "labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development." It also states "the right to exercise national self-determination" in Israel is "unique to the Jewish people." 61 voted in favor, 55 against, and two obstained.
This law ignored the Palestinian population in the land, around 21% of its inhabitants, who do not hold Israeli citizenship, although members of Israel's Knesset deny this. In simple terms, any people living in the land that are not Jewish, are not allowed to have citizenship and the rights of those living in the land only belong to the Jewish population. The passing of this law was considered racist and undemocratic by Palestinians, liberal American Jews, and many Israelis on the left. Laws like the Nation-State Bill add one more layer to why Israel has been called by many experts, an Apartheid State.
What is Apartheid? Apartheid is defined as "racial segregation" and a "policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa." It can also be defined as, "The implementation and maintenance of a system of legalized racial segregation in which one racial group is deprived of political and civil rights."
In 2021, Human Rights Watch (HWR) put out a report calling Israel an apartheid regime due to the systematic oppression of Palestinians and inhumane acts that take place in the country.
"Several widely held assumptions, including that the occupation is temporary, that the "peace process" will soon bring an end to Israeli abuses, that Palestinians do not have meaningful control over their lives in the West Bank and Gaza, and that Israel is an egalitarian democracy inside its borders., have obscured the reality of Israel's entrenched discriminatory rule over Palestinians." Human Rights Watch.
In 2022, Amnesty International also reached this conclusion stating that Israel, "imposes a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinians," which ultimately amounts to apartheid. Amnesty's report speaks about, "massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians," are all components of an apartheid system.
B'tselem, Jewish human rights organization also came to the same conclusion as mentioned in post 8.
There are also many Israeli scholars and former officials who have started using the term apartheid. Michael Ben-Yair, a former attorney general of Israel said, "I must also conclude that my country has sunk to such political and moral depths that it is now an apartheid regime." Tamir Pardo, former head of Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency said, "there is an apartheid state here.... two people are judged under two legal systems."
What makes people claim Israel is an apartheid state? Aside from the fairly new Nation-State law, Palestinians do not have the freedom to move freely and they are also tried under a completely different legal system. This system rarely works in their favor as I have already outlined in previous posts about the unjust criminal system for Palestinians when they are arrested or detained.
Human Rights Groups and experts who have investigated the Israeli state conducted their reviews based on three points that were outlined in the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid and the Rome Statute. Apartheid exists if these three things exist:
1. The state has established an institutionalized regime of systematic racial oppression and discrimination.
2. There is a intent to maintain the domination of one racial group over another.
3. A series of inhumane acts were committed as an integral part of this regime.
All rights group reports detailed how all three of these components were present in the Israeli government and in the way they deal with Palestinians. "Israeli authorities enact multiple measures to deliberately deny Palestinians their basic human rights and freedoms, including draconian movement restrictions, chronic discriminatory underinvestment in Palestinian communities in Israel....forcible transfer, administrative detention, torture, and unlawful killings." Checkpoints, division walls, limited fuel, water, and electricity are some of the other things being controlled.
You can read these reports for yourself here:
Human Rights Watch: A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution | HRW
B'tselem: Publications | B'Tselem (btselem.org)
Most Holy Land tours today will try their best to avoid people seeing the crimes happening against the Palestinian people. However anyone wanting to go to Bethlehem cannot help but see the giant partition wall that stretches 700 kilometers long from the northern West Bank, all the way to the southern tip. It does not entirely surround the West Bank, instead it cuts deeper into the occupied territory. Perhaps it is most visible in the city of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. There is a special gate for tourists, foreigners, and those who hold Israeli ID cards, and another entrance for Palestinians who have procured the permission from Israel to come and go.
The Wall went up through areas that were Palestinian land. For example, the wall was built directly through some farms, so these people have their house on one side of the wall, and their olive groves were on the other side, to which they no longer have access. This is also complimented by a complicated road system that created different road network for Israeli's and Palestinians.
In October of 2022, I visited the wall for the first time while spending time in Bethlehem. One thing that is clear, this wall is perhaps the largest most visible example of racial segregation and a clear indication that different people in the land have different rights.
Very early one morning, I woke up and walked at least a mile of the wall, reading the graffiti and all the art on the Bethlehem side of the wall. I prayed and asked God to tear down the wall, and break through the racism and obstacle to peace this wall represents. In this "holy land" that felt much more like an amusement park for Christian entertainment, I felt overcome by it being the only place I truly sensed the spirit of Jesus. I couldn't find him in Jerusalem, the empty tomb, or even the Church of the Nativity. Indeed, once again I found Jesus ministering to the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden, arguably, the low ones of the earth who find themselves on the other side of the wall, caught in the middle of this political and religious disaster.
"I have been to the occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid." Desmond Tutu
