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Op-Ed via +972 Magazine

‘One system, one policy’: Why Human Rights Watch is charging Israel with apartheid

By  Amjad Iraqi on April 27, 2021

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The word “apartheid” has undoubtedly become a centerpiece of the mainstream public debate around Israel-Palestine this past year — and today, the once-taboo term may have received one of its biggest endorsements yet.

Human Rights Watch, a leading organization monitoring rights abuses worldwide, released a major report on Tuesday arguing that Israel is committing the crimes of apartheid and persecution — both defined by the Rome Statute as crimes against humanity — on both sides of the Green Line. The 213-page report, which is accompanied by graphics co-produced with Visualizing Palestine, details the ways in which Israel is intentionally pursuing the domination of Jews over Palestinians in all parts of the land, as well as in the diaspora, regardless of their legal status.

“Every day,” the report reads, “a person is born in Gaza into an open-air prison, in the West Bank without civil rights, in Israel with an inferior status by law, and in neighboring countries effectively condemned to lifelong refugee status, like their parents and grandparents before them, solely because they are Palestinian and not Jewish.” Among other recommendations, the report calls on states to condition military aid to Israel and impose targeted sanctions against Israeli officials deemed responsible for the crimes.

What makes this report significant for HRW is that it “connects the dots” between Israel’s varying policies to show that they are driven by “one system, one policy, and one intent” to secure the permanent rule of one group over another, explained Omar Shakir, the organization’s Israel-Palestine director, in an interview with +972. Shakir, the chief author of the report, is currently based in Amman after the Israeli government, with the High Court’s approval, deported him in November 2019, claiming he supported the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The group’s damning conclusions after a two-year process were not made lightly, said Shakir, but the evidence was “so overwhelming” that any claim that the reality on the ground was somehow “temporary” could no longer stand. Recognizing that Palestinian groups and others have been making the same case for years, he hopes that HRW’s contribution will help push the international community to recognize the gravity of the crimes at hand and to “have the courage to fight apartheid.”

HRW is the latest in a lineup of top human rights groups — including Israeli NGOs Yesh Din and B’Tselem — that have publicly stated in recent months that Israel is perpetrating apartheid and maintaining a regime of Jewish supremacy. They join a growing movement, led for years by Palestinians and allies, that has been working to debunk mainstream myths about Israel’s military occupation and redefine the nature of the oppression Palestinians face on the ground.

+972’s interview with Shakir was edited and shortened for clarity.

 

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