Holy Land: Amnesty issues major report on 'apartheid' Israel

Separation Wall, Bethlehem - image ICN/JS

Source: Amnesty International/ Israel Embassy

The Israeli authorities must be held accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians, Amnesty International has said in a damning new report released yesterday.

Commenting on a leaked copy of the report, the Israeli foreign ministry called on Amnesty to withdraw the report before it was made public and denounced it as "false" and "extremist". It said the report "serves as a green light for the perpetrators and others to harm not only Israel, but Jews around the world."

Amnesty's comprehensive 280-page report - Israel's Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity - documents how massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, the forcible transfer of Palestinian people from their land, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system amounting to apartheid under international law.

This system is maintained by violations which Amnesty found constitute apartheid as a crime against humanity, as defined in the Rome Statute and Apartheid Convention.

Amnesty's investigation details how Israel enforces a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people wherever it has control over their rights. This includes Palestinians living in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as displaced refugees currently in other countries.

In light of the report, Amnesty is urging the UK government to ensure there is a "major re-assessment" of its foreign policy position and strategy on Israel so as to "confront and begin to tackle the scale and systematic nature of Israel's apartheid crimes"

Amnesty's findings build on a growing body of work by Palestinian, Israeli and international NGOs which has increasingly applied an apartheid framework to the situation in Israel and/or the OPT.

A system of apartheid is an institutionalised regime of oppression and domination by one racial group over another. In international criminal law, specific unlawful acts which are committed within a system of apartheid and with the intention of maintaining it constitute the crime against humanity of apartheid. These acts are set out in the Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute, and include unlawful killing, torture, forcible transfer and the denial of basic rights and freedoms.

Amnesty has documented acts outlawed in the Apartheid Convention and Rome Statute in all areas Israel controls, although they occur more frequently and violently in the OPT than in Israel. Israel enacts multiple measures to deliberately deny Palestinians their basic rights and freedoms, including draconian movement restrictions on Palestinians in the OPT; chronic discriminatory underinvestment in Palestinian communities in Israel, and the denial of refugees' right to return. Amnesty has also documented forcible transfer, administrative detention, torture and unlawful killings, both inside Israel and in the OPT.

These acts form part of a systematic and widespread attack directed against the Palestinian population - and are committed with the intent to maintain the system of oppression and domination; they therefore constitute the crime against humanity of apartheid.

Amnesty is calling on the International Criminal Court to consider the crime of apartheid in its current investigation in the OPT and calls on all states to exercise universal jurisdiction to bring perpetrators of apartheid crimes to justice.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International's Secretary General, said: "Our report reveals the true extent of Israel's apartheid regime. Whether they live in Gaza, East Jerusalem, Hebron or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights. We found that Israel's cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid. The international community has an obligation to act.

"For Palestinians, the difficulty of travelling within and in and out of the OPT is a constant reminder of their powerlessness. Their every move is subject to the Israeli military's approval, and the simplest daily task means navigating a web of violent control. There is no possible justification for a system built around the institutionalised and prolonged racist oppression of millions of people.

"Apartheid has no place in our world, and states which choose to make allowances for Israel will find themselves on the wrong side of history. Governments who continue to supply Israel with arms and shield it from accountability at the UN are supporting a system of apartheid, undermining the international legal order, and exacerbating the suffering of the Palestinian people.

"The international community must face up to the reality of Israel's apartheid, and pursue the many avenues to justice which remain shamefully unexplored. Israel must dismantle the apartheid system and start treating Palestinians as human beings with equal rights and dignity. Until it does, peace and security will remain a distant prospect for Israelis and Palestinians alike."

The unlawful killing of Palestinian protesters is perhaps the clearest illustration of how Israeli authorities use unlawful acts to maintain the status quo. In 2018, Palestinians in Gaza began to hold weekly protests along the border with Israel, calling for the right of return for refugees and an end to the blockade. Before the protests even began, senior Israeli officials warned that Palestinians approaching the wall would be shot. By the time the protests stopped at the end of 2019, Israeli forces had killed 214 civilians, including 46 children.

In light of the systematic unlawful killings of Palestinians documented in its report, Amnesty is also calling for the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel. This should cover all weapons and munitions as well as law-enforcement equipment, given the thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been unlawfully killed by Israeli forces. The Security Council should also impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most implicated in the crime of apartheid.

A 430-mile fence, which Israel is still extending, has isolated Palestinian communities inside 'military zones', and they must obtain multiple special permits any time they enter or leave their homes. In Gaza, more than two million Palestinians live under an Israeli blockade which has created a humanitarian crisis. It is near-impossible for Gazans to travel abroad or into the rest of the OPT, and they are effectively segregated from the rest of the world.

Amnesty states: "As one of Israel's closest diplomatic allies, the UK should call on the country to make urgent changes to dismantle its apartheid system. In its official assessment of Israel's human rights record, the UK describes Israel as 'an open democracy, underpinned by robust institutions and a vibrant civil society', while noting that it has "continued to violate human rights and humanitarian law in the context of Israel's occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza".

In November, Amnesty also called on the UK construction giant JCB to take urgent measures to prevent the company's diggers from being used by the Israeli authorities to carry out the unlawful destruction of Palestinian homes or the construction of settlements in the OPT. In a substantial report, Amnesty showed that in recent years there have been dozens of incidents where JCB machinery was used to demolish residential and farm buildings belonging to Palestinians, to destroy water pipes, and to uproot large numbers of olive trees and other agricultural produce and structures. The same month, the Government found JCB to be in breach of international human rights standards in respect of failures to carry out proper due diligence on the end-use of its goods. Amnesty is calling for the Government to ensure there are consequences for JCB over these failings, including the denial of public procurement contracts.

Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK's CEO, said: "For too long the UK has tried to sit on the fence when it comes to Israel's shameful human rights record - effectively turning a blind eye to the systematic discrimination against Palestinians amounting to a system of apartheid. Instead of honestly confronting the enormity of Israel's crimes, the UK has contented itself with low-key criticisms of Palestinian protester killings and the relentless expansion of Israel's illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

"Ministers often make the claim that a confident 'Global Britain' stands for the rule of law around the world - if this means anything it must mean concrete consequences for a close ally like Israel over its cruel and unlawful apparatus of discrimination. Ministers should use the UK's close diplomatic ties with Israel to hold it to account for its crushing system of apartheid and institutionalised discrimination against Palestinians - and ongoing settlement-building and the Gaza blockade must end.

"The UK should impose a comprehensive import ban on all products from Israel's illegal settlements, rein in JCB's exports linked to illegal house demolitions, and immediately suspend all UK military and policing assistance to Israel."

Amnesty's report provides numerous specific recommendations for how the Israeli authorities can dismantle its apartheid system and the discrimination, segregation and oppression which sustain it, including:

-Israel must end its brutal practice of home demolitions and forced evictions.

-Israel must grant equal rights to all Palestinians in Israel and the OPT, in line with principles of international human rights and humanitarian law.

-Israel must recognise the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes where they or their families once lived, while providing victims of human rights violations and crimes against humanity with full reparations.

Israeli foreign affairs Minister Yair Lapid accused Amnesty of recycling "lies, inconsistencies, and unfounded assertions that originate from well-known anti-Israeli hate organisations".

"The report 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," he said in a statement.

LINK

Read the full report HERE