apartheid 101: occupied palestine

The term ‘apartheid’ originated in the context of South Africa. It is an Afrikaans term literally meaning separation or ‘apartness.’ It has been accepted in international law and policy to refer to any political regime where racialisation is legally enforced to regulate unequal access to rights in government and civil society.

In international human rights law, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), race and racial discrimination have been interpreted broadly to mean far more than skin color or genetic traits but also to include distinctions based on descent and national or ethnic origin, among other categories. The 1973 Apartheid Convention defines the crime against humanity of apartheid as: “inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.” The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court adopts a similar definition: prolonged and cruel “inhumane acts… committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.”

Among the inhumane acts identified in either the Convention or the Rome Statute are “forcible transfer,” “expropriation of landed property,” “creation of separate reserves and ghettos,” and denial of the “the right to leave and to return to their country, [and] the right to a nationality.”

There is extensive literature in both scholarly and policy circles, a body of international law and research from major human rights organisations, that designate israel as an apartheid state. Under the legal standards set out, and with rigorous investigation, Human Rights Watch (HRW) & Amnesty International concluded that israeli officials have committed the crime of apartheid.

Amnesty International concluded that the state of israel considers and treats Palestinians as an inferior non-Jewish racial group. The segregation is conducted in a systematic and highly institutionalized manner through laws, policies and practices, all of which are intended to prevent Palestinians from claiming and enjoying equal rights to Jewish israelis within the territory, and intended to oppress and dominate the Palestinian people.

Amnesty International & HRW have called on israel to dismantle this cruel system of apartheid; remove all measures of discrimination, segregation and oppression in place against the Palestinian population and to repeal or amend all laws, regulations, policies and practices including but not limited to citizenship and residency rights, civil rights, freedom of movement, allocation of land and resources, access to water, electricity, and other services, and granting of building permits, that discriminate on racial, ethnic or religious grounds, in line with international human rights law and standard.

Sources

We are grateful to the work of Amnesty International (2022), israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch (2021), A Threshold Crossed: israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution & Middle East Council on Global Affairs (2023), Apartheid and the Palestine Liberation Movement: Opportunities and Challenges, direct excerpts of which informed the content for this blog post.