Amnesty International labels Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians "a cruel system of domination"

Amnesty International has published a damning report on Israel's "system of oppression and domination” in Palestine, joining other prominent human rights groups in calling for severe sanctions against Israel.

In international criminal law, specific unlawful acts which are committed within a system of oppression and domination, 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’s findings build on a growing body of work by Palestinian, Israeli and international NGOs, who have increasingly applied the apartheid framework to the situation. The body of work was compiled over a period of four years by the rights group. Human Rights Watch and the Israeli rights group B’Tselem have also accused Israel of apartheid in the last year.

Amnesty's 278-page report calls for Israeli authorities to be "held accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians", writing: "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, as well displaced refugees in other countries."

'Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity' documents how 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 a system which amounts to apartheid under international law.

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

As well as demanding that the International Criminal Court consider the crime of apartheid in its current investigation, the NGO also called on all states to exercise universal jurisdiction to bring perpetrators of apartheid crimes to justice.

By the end of 2019, Israeli forces had killed 214 civilians - including 46 children - who were protesting weekly along the wall for their human rights. In light of the systematic unlawful killings of Palestinians documented in its report, Amnesty International is also asking for the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel. This would 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 organisation also suggested that the Security Council could impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most implicated in the crime of apartheid.

“The report reveals the true extent of Israel’s apartheid regime," Colm O'Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty Ireland, said today.

"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. 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."

“There is no possible justification for a system built around the institutionalised and prolonged racist oppression of millions of people," Amnesty adds. "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.”

Amnesty's report illustrates that Israeli authorities treat Palestinians as an inferior racial group who are defined by their non-Jewish, Arab status. This racial discrimination is cemented in laws which affect Palestinians across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. From the Nakba of 1948, Israel has demolished hundreds of thousands of Palestinian homes and other properties across all areas under its jurisdiction and effective control.

Since the report was published this morning, Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid, has already labelled the information as “divorced from reality”: “Amnesty quotes lies spread by terrorist organisations.”

Lapid also accused Amnesty of antisemitism: “I hate to use the argument that if Israel were not a Jewish state, nobody in Amnesty would dare argue against it, but in this case, there is no other possibility."

Following the report's publication, the NGO called for an end to the brutal practice of home demolitions and forced evictions as a first step.

"Israel must grant equal rights to all Palestinians in Israel and the OPT, in line with principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. It must recognise the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes where they or their families once lived, and provide victims of human rights violations and crimes against humanity with full reparations," a press release from Amnesty reads.

The organisation also called on international communities and leaders to step in. All states can exercise universal jurisdiction over persons reasonably suspected of committing the crime of apartheid under international law, and states that are party to the Apartheid Convention have an obligation to do so.

“The international response to apartheid must no longer be limited to bland condemnations and equivocating. Unless we tackle the root causes, Palestinians and Israelis will remain locked in the cycle of violence which has destroyed so many lives,” said Agnès Callamard, of Amnesty International.

“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.”

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