LONDON (AP) – Amnesty International said Tuesday that Israel has maintained “a system of oppression and domination” over the Palestinians going all the way back to its establishment in 1948, one that meets the international definition of apartheid.
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With the release of a 278-page report compiled over a period of four years, the London-based rights group joins Human Rights Watch and the Israeli rights group B’Tselem in accusing Israel of apartheid.
They point to discriminatory policies within Israel and in annexed east Jerusalem, Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has been ruled by the Hamas militant group since 2007, and its de facto annexation of the West Bank, where it exerts overall control and is actively building and expanding Jewish settlements that most of the international community considers illegal.
Israel dismissed the previous reports as biased, but has adopted a far more adversarial stance toward Amnesty, accusing it of antisemitism and of delegitimizing Israel’s very existence even before the report was published.
“Its extremist language and distortion of historical context were designed to demonize Israel and pour fuel onto the fire of antisemitism,” the Foreign Ministry said Monday.
Yuval Shany, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and a member of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law, said it’s “highly unlikely” the ICC would pursue apartheid allegations given the complexities involved.
He said the apartheid claim is “extreme and quite unfounded” within Israel, despite there being discrimination. The situation in the territories “is much more complicated.”
“There you do have elements which could qualify as discrimination, segregation and oppression, given the length of the occupation,” he said. But “it is difficult to distinguish between questions that have to do with security policy, with competing national claims, and what is a racist agenda.”
Using the language of apartheid is “a bridge too far,” he said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told reporters last month that he expects intensified efforts this year to brand Israel as an apartheid state that could lead to it being banned from sporting or cultural events. He said that reviving a political process with the Palestinians would help to combat those efforts.
We should have listened to Rabbi Meir a long time ago. Why do we care what the world thinks. We need to do what’s right and think about ourselves first
Arafat’s entity began in 1967, not 1948. Responding to stupid people doesn’t make them smarter.
Who care what the Jew hating terrorist supporting organization says?
Soros is behind this.
Probably a good thing if this results in “lead to it being banned from sporting or cultural events”
The world need only to see the facts to understand if Israel is or is not an apartheid state. The truth is easy to see.