Amnesty International Unprecedentedly Accuses ‘Israel’ of Perpetuating the Apartheid Regime Against the Palestinians

Amnesty International joined other human rights organizations and accused in a report issued on 01 February 2022 the Israeli occupation of committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinians, amid human rights and international welcome for the report, and an Israeli accusation of anti-Semitism to the organization.

New Amnesty report confirms findings of B'Tselem and Human Rights Watch in 2021, and the report prepared by the Euro-Mediterranean Chief of Trustees Richard Falk and the American expert Virginia Tilley in March 2017, at the request of UNESCWA.

But UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres instructed the Executive Secretary of ESCWA, Rima Khalaf, to withdraw the report, which prompted her to submit her resignation at that time.

Judaizing Palestine

In a report published on February 1, Amnesty International revealed many evidence proving that the Israeli occupation committed unfair practices against the Palestinians, which amount to the crime of apartheid.

The organization condemned the practices of the Israeli army and its control over areas in the West Bank and its obstruction of movement.

The organization confirmed during a press conference held in Jerusalem, in which it presented its first report of its kind, that there were Israeli pressures to prevent the publication of this report.

“Since 1948 until now, the Israeli occupation has forcibly displaced entire Palestinian communities, demolishing hundreds of thousands of their homes. Today, there are more than 7 million Palestinian refugees, and about 168,000 others are at risk of losing their homes inside their homeland,” the organization said.

The organization indicated that the Israeli occupation continues its policy of demolishing homes, denying access to water resources, and not granting building permits in the West Bank.

It also referred to the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip and the resulting spread of poverty and oppression against the Palestinians.

“The report documented the confiscation of Palestinian land and property on a large scale, unlawful killings, forced displacement, severe restrictions on movement, and denial of citizenship and citizenship rights for Palestinians,” it pointed out.

“Palestinians are treated as a lower-ranking ethnic group, and they are denied their rights, wherever they live in Gaza, the West Bank or in Jerusalem and other areas,” the organization stated.

“All Israeli civil administrations and military authorities are involved in this throughout Palestine, as well as against Palestinian refugees,” it noted.

Amnesty International called on the International Criminal Court to consider the crime of apartheid committed by the Israeli occupation in the context of its current investigations in the occupied Palestinian territories, and appealed to all states to exercise universal jurisdiction and to bring to justice the perpetrators of the crimes of apartheid.

On her part, Agnes Callamard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, pointed out that the organization has monitored many evidence of the Israeli occupation's violations against the Palestinians, stressing that apartheid against the Palestinians violates international law, which must be investigated.

Callamard said at the organization’s press conference held on February 1 in Jerusalem: “Our report reveals the actual scope of the Israeli apartheid, whether Palestinians live in Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank. They are treated as an inferior ethnic group and systematically denied their rights.”

Callamard pointed out that successive Israeli governments have viewed the Palestinians as a demographic threat, and have sought to Judaize many areas, including Jerusalem.

She called on the international community to take action to stop the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians, and an end to the brutal practices of home demolitions and forced evictions.

In turn, Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East Program at Amnesty International, called for pressure on the Israeli authorities to dismantle the apartheid regime against the Palestinians, calling on the authorities to bring those responsible for these crimes to justice.

He said during the same press conference of the organization, the report is the result of four years of field research, archiving and judicial analysis, expressing his hope that the international mechanisms will help in moving on this issue in a deep way.

Luther called on states to also use national courts to investigate these crimes, and government organizations to pressure their states and recognize the reality of Israeli apartheid.

 

Welcome and Denounce

Amnesty International's report, in which it said that the Israeli authorities are practicing apartheid against the Palestinians, provoked stinging and fierce Israeli reactions and an American condemnation, on the other hand, it was widely welcomed by the Palestinians, many human rights institutions, and even by the European Union.

On the evening of January 31, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs preempted the release of the Amnesty International report, and attacked it, describing it as false, biased and anti-Semitic.

This came in a press statement written by its foreign minister, Yair Lapid, in which he said: “Amnesty is not a human rights organization, it is just another radical organization that echoes propaganda without serious study.”

The United States also strongly rejected what was stated in the report issued by Amnesty International.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said: “We reject the view that Israel's practices constitute apartheid.”

The US ambassador to the Israeli occupation, Thomas Nides, also criticized the organization's report, describing its content as ridiculous.

He stressed that "Israel," as a Jewish state, should not be denied its right to self-determination.

In response, Amnesty International said: “We acknowledge that the Jews, like the Palestinians, demand the right to self-determination, and we do not challenge Israel's desire to be a homeland for the Jews, likewise, we do not see that calling Israel itself (a Jewish state) by itself indicates an intent to oppress and dominate.”

It is noteworthy that according to the statistics of the Prisoners' Club, a Palestinian non-governmental organization, there are 4,600 Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, including 16 children and 32 women.

On the other hand, B'Tselem, in a statement, welcomed the report, stressing that it adds an important building block to many previous reports on the subject.

“The report is indicative of a new consensus that agrees with the fact that Israel administers a system of Jewish supremacy in the lands of historic Palestine,” B'Tselem said.

The Israeli human rights organization rejected the accusations made by the Israeli foreign minister against Amnesty International.

In turn, The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor also condemned the incitement attack launched by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the organization.

“The demonization campaign against Amnesty International comes in the context of Israel's systematic campaign against human rights defenders, attempting to stigmatize them with terrorism, and questioning the integrity of their work,” it said in a statement.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the report, and it considered, in an official statement, that it is further proof that the Israeli occupation is an apartheid regime and called for it to be held accountable.

On his part, the European Union's spokesman for international affairs, Peter Stano, said in a press conference on February 01, that the European Union attaches all necessary attention to the Amnesty International report issued on the Israeli apartheid crimes against the Palestinians, stressing that it will continue to closely monitor developments on the ground.

Stano stressed that the EU's position on the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including occupied Jerusalem, is also clear and has not changed, pointing out that they are illegal under international law, constitute a major obstacle to peace, and threaten to make the negotiated two-state solution impossible.

 

Systematic Israeli Apartheid

The Israeli occupation has always used racist laws systematically to dispossess Palestinians of their lands and homes for the benefit of Israeli Jews since its founding in 1948, and forcibly displacing about 700,000 Palestinians, which continued until 1967 when it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as the Gaza Strip, which has been subject to a devastating siege since 2007.

According to the latest Amnesty International report, it is clear that Israeli practices over the past years have been explicitly targeting Palestinians and not Israeli Jews and aiming to reduce the Palestinian presence to a minimum in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“The population inside historical Palestine is 14.5 million, including 3.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank, and 2.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as well as about 7 million Jews and about 1.9 million Palestinians who live in the 1948 territories,” according to recent statistical estimates.

What indicates the systematic racial discrimination between Jews and Arabs is that the current 120-member Knesset includes only 14 Arab deputies, and the Israeli government includes only two Arab ministers.

As for the importance of the Amnesty International report on the Israeli occupation’s crimes against the Palestinians, Ismail Maslamani, political expert in Israeli affairs said in a statement to Al-Estiklal: “The new Amnesty International report is a document of condemnation against the Israeli apartheid regime that has been systematically practiced against the Palestinians on the area of historical Palestine, for nearly 73 years now.”

“In addition, the organization's report breaks the standard of anti-Semitism that the Israeli occupation threatens against anyone who dares to criticize and expose its crimes,” he continued.

The Palestinian expert asked: “The international community is now faced with a clear question. Will they bring justice, or will they politicize international law again? Does not such a report require the international community to reconsider the legal nature of its relations with the Israeli apartheid regime? Shouldn’t the countries that are rushing to normalization stand up and ask themselves which entity they are dealing with?”

“Zionism is a systematic killing system based on an extremist ideology, and its tool is the Israeli occupation, not only an apartheid regime, but an invasion colony that has practiced multiple types of ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and practices apartheid as one of its tools to undermine the existence of another people,” Maslamani added.

“The biggest evidence of this is the laws that it signed, the most prominent of which are: the law issued in 2018, which considers it as the nation-state of the Jews, and which completely undermines the Palestinian narrative, in addition, what is happening in the Negev and Jerusalem is also clear evidence on the ground,” he explained.

Since the beginning of the peace process in the Madrid Conference in 1991, the Palestinians have adhered to the option of a Palestinian and Israeli two-state solution on the land of historic Palestine.

But the peace talks have been frozen since April 2014, due to an Israeli refusal to stop settlements in the occupied territories, and to accept the 1967 borders as a basis for negotiating the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Israeli and Palestinian estimates indicate that there are about 650,000 Israelis in West Bank settlements, including occupied Jerusalem, in 164 settlements and 124 outposts.