This might be a good time to get into how the state of Israel has created & enforced a series of laws & practices that amount to apartheid.
APARTHEID: "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."
- International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, General Assembly of the United Nations, 1973
APARTHEID: "inhumane acts committed in the context of and to maintain an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group."
- Article 7, Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 2002
The United Nations recognizes seventeen components comprising apartheid:
1. Denial of right to life by murder of members of a racial group.
Israeli police and military routinely shoot Palestinian demonstrators; Israel actively carries out and celebrates extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions of Palestinian leaders through targeted assassinations; Israel employs disproportionate and excessive use of force, resulting in unintended civilian casualties.
2. Denial of Right to Life and Liberty of Person by Subjection to Torture or to Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Israel's military & security forces use beatings, painful binding, cursing and humiliation, denial of basic needs, solitary confinement, arrest and implied or actual torture of family members against Palestinians of all ages, including children.
3. Denial of Right to Liberty of Person by Arbitrary Arrest and Illegal Imprisonment of Members of a Racial Group
Israel uses mass detention as a tool of intimidation; there is widespread "administrative detention" of Palestinian without cause for up to six months; Israeli military courts are used to try Palestinian civilians; Palestinians are subjected to indefinite detention without charge or trial and without explanation or knowledge or length of detention; judicial review of detentions of Palestinians by Israel is inadequate-to-nonexistent.
4. Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country and the deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group or groups, in particular by denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms,...specifically, Denial of the rights to freedom of movement...
Israel has restricted access to the Occupied Palestinian Territories for Jewish Israelis, erecting 699 checkpoints, roadblocks, trenches, earth mounds, road gates and other physical barriers to restrict physical movement in the West Bank. Checkpoints restrict access to Palestinians with proper identification or documentation only.
Israel has built an"apartheid wall" along with a system of segregated roads and highways reserved for the exclusive use of Jewish Israelis - Palestinian access to other roads is contingent on special permits issued by Isreal. Palestinians are prohibited from traveling by foot or vehicle on Road 443.
Israeli-issued permits are required by Palestinian to leave certain areas to receive medical care, or to travel from one Palestinian area to another (e.g. between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip). A system of permits, checkpoints and restricted-access roads gives Israel complete control of Palestinian movement to and from the Jordan Valley. Access to East Jerusalem for Palestinians is restricted via permits and checkpoints.
The Gaza Strip has been subjected to a full blockade by Isreal and approximately half of the West Bank is now off-limits to Palestinians.
5....denial of the right of residence...
Residency in Israel for Palestinians can expire or be revoked by the Minister of the Interior. Palestinians with"permanent residents" of Jerusalem can only pass their residency status on to their children under certain conditions. If a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem leaves for seven years or more or procures residency in another country for more than three years (unless for education), their residency rights are revoked. Possession of an Israeli-issued ID card is mandatory for permanent residency in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. An East Jerusalem resident who marries a Palestinian from the OPT must apply for permission if they wish to live with their spouse in East Jerusalem - in May 2002 this option was revoked entirely.
6. …denial of the right to return to one's country…
While Jewish immigrants can enter Israel freely and qualify for automatic citizenship, Palestinians face massive barriers to returning to their country of origin. 2.8 million Palestinian refugees have been denied their right of return, guaranteed under UN human rights law. Palestinians expelled in 1948 have not been allowed to return to their homes, regain their property, or obtain residency or citizenship in Israel as per Israel's 1952 Citizenship Law. The majority of Palestinian refugees from the 1967 war continue to be barred from returning to the Occupied Palestinian Territory by Israeli administrative measures. The 1950 Law of Return and the 1952 Citizenship Law are explicitly discriminatory and ‘confer an advantage on Jews in matters of immigration and citizenship.
7. …denial of the right to a nationality…
Palestinian refugees now living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are prevented from holding citizenship in Israel, the state that formed in the territory of their birth, although Palestinian refugees now living in the OPT have the right of return and the right to citizenship in Israel as the successor State in that part of Mandate Palestine where they were formerly habitual residents. This ban is enforced through Israeli laws determining citizenship, which discriminate on the basis of Jewish and non-Jewish identity and which are particularly relevant to the case of residents of Palestine who fled the fighting during the 1947-49 war and after the establishment of the State of Israel (on 14 May 1948) and then attempted to return and obtain citizenship.
Israel’s intention to discriminate on the basis of race in this regard is expressed by the Law of Return (1950) and the Citizenship Law (1952), which facilitate the acquisition of Israeli citizenship by Jewish immigrants but deny the right of return and citizenship to Palestinian refugees. Israel has also denied the Palestinian people living in the OPT the right to citizenship in a separate state by sustaining the occupation and refusing to withdraw to allow an independent Palestinian state to be established there. Thus most Palestinians in the OPT and in refugee camps of surrounding states have been rendered stateless.
8. …denial of the right to work…
By closing checkpoints to Palestinian workers; destroying of Palestinian farms, greenhouses, factories, offices and shops; and permiting laws that make it impracticable for Palestinians to work in Israel or even in other parts of the OPT, Palestinians are prevented from working.
9. …denial of the right to form recognized trade unions…
Israel has refused to recognize Palestinian trade unions; attempted to close down Palestinian trade unions; and detained, arrested, deported and exiled Palestinian union leaders. TheIsraeli military have raided Palestinian union offices, destroying files and shutting them down and preventing Palestinian union meetings.
Unionization in the Gaza Strip is banned by Israeli military. There is also a ban on Palestinian union elections. Palestinian union lawyers are not allowed to represent Palestinian union members in Israeli courts. All legal action by Palestinian unions must first be approved by the Israeli union federation.
There is a total ban on Palestinian unions in Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Israeli unions suffer none of these prohibitions, restrictions, or attacks.
10. …denial of the right to education…
The Israeli military has closed Palestinian schools and attacked Palestinian schools and students, including partial or total destruction of schools (73 in Gaza Strip between 2000-2004) and killings of students while in class. From 2000-2009, nearly 6000 children were arrested and detained by the IDF.
University students and teachers are forced to navigate checkpoints which create delays of hours or deny them access to schools entirely.
There is a near-total denial of exit permits to Palestinians to study abroad.
Separate Jewish schools in settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are not subject to closings or attack by the Israeli military but Palestinian children barred from attending them.
Palestinian schools experience funding shortages so severe that only half of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem have classrooms or schools to go to. Israel spends 3x as much educating Jewish Israeli children in Jerusalem as it does Palestinian children in Jerusalem. 90% of three-and-four year-old Palestinian children in East Jerusalem do not receive compulsory education whatsoever.
11. …denial of the right to freedom of opinion and expression…
The Isreali military engages in direct censorship in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. News about the OPT is routinely censored in the Israeli media. Palestinian newspapers must submit stories they intend to publish to Israeli press censors whereas Hebrew and English papers only must do so when the story concerns "military" matters. Newpapers must be approved by Israeli military before being imported into the West Bank. West Bank publishers are forbidden from printing "political" articles. Certain terms (e.g. "East Jerusalem," "Palestine," "Palestinian Territories") have been prohibited from use in Israeli media. Palestinian journalists require accreditation from Israeli press office, which has in the past refused accreditation in discriminatory and unconstitutional ways, according to the Israeli High Court. Israel imposes travel bans on human rights and political activists, preventing them from speaking at conferences, meetings and lectures abroad. The Israeli military has seized and destroyed media broadcasting stations and ordered media outlets closed. Palestinian journalists have been detained, beaten and killed by Israeli troops.
12. …denial of the right to peaceful assembly and association.
Public gatherings of more than ten people are illegal without the government receiving advance notice and a list of attendees and without permission of Israel military. Palestinian organizations have been closed down by the Israeli military and most Palestinian political parties have been declared illegal "terrorist" organizations by Israel, making any organization connected directly or indirectly to a political party subject to closure, destruction, or military attack (examples include a residential neighbourhood, a school, two medical clinics and two orphanages).
Membership in a Palestinian political party declared "terrorist" by Israel is punishable by detention, house arrest, exile, or travel ban. Israel has closed East Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce and banned on all gatherings in East Jerusalem in March 2009 celebrating Jerusalem as the "capital of Arab culture."
13. Creation of separate reserves and ghettos.
The entire population of the Occupied Palestinian Territories is divided according to their ethnicity and then are allowed to live only in racially-designated geographic zones. An integrated system of territory in the OPT is designated for the exclusive use of Jewish Israelis. Palestinians in the OPT are confined to a series of disarticulated enclaves connected by smaller roads whose access is controlled by Israeli military and private security forces. Israeli infastructure comprises 40% of the OPT.
14. Prohibition of mixed marriages
The absence of civil marriage means that only religious marriages are recognized and the Israeli Rabbinate does not recognize marriages where one spouse is not Jewish. Religious courts have exclusive jurisdiction over marriage and divorce. A mixed marriage involving a Jew and a Palestinian can only happen outside of Israel, but such a couple will not be legally permitted to live together in Israel or East Jerusalem and would face legal obstacles to living together in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
15. Expropriation of land and property
Israel has unlawfully expropriated the majority of Palestinian land, resulting in the annexation-by-proxy of OPT territory by Israeli settlers. Israeli law allows for the seizure of any land whose owner was "absent" (read: refugees) during the 1967 conflict. Jewish purchase of Palestinian land is facilitated via Israeli military edicts, which denied Palestinian courts jurisdiction concerning unregistered West Bank land and gave the authority to validate signatures in land transactions exclusively to Israelis.
16. Exploitation of the labour of the members of a racial group
Israel's suppression of Palestinian industry and export restrictions undermine Palestinian economy and force Palestinians to rely on jobs inside Israel. Palestinians working in Israel are restricted to the lowest-wage jobs; are prohibited from living in the areas they work in; and lack union representation. Since the construction of the apartheid wall, so few Palestinians are able to work in Israel that Israeli jobs for Palestinians to fill are used as bargaining chips in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
17. Persecution of organizations and persons, by depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms, because they oppose apartheid
Palestinian political leaders and activists have been subjected to arrest and imprisonment for their political views and/or membership in political parties, as well as torture and targeted extrajudicial killings. Israel has banned certain Palestinian political parties and made membership in them illegal. Charitable, educational and cultural organizations associated with banned political parties are also shut down. Arrest campaigns and excessive force are used to target those who criticize the actions of the Israeli occupying forces, the apartheid wall, and the discriminatory administration of land, water and infastructure in the OPT. Israel is clearly engaged in persecuting Palestinians who express certain political views, criticize Israel's human rights practices or demonstrate against the occupation.
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