Human rights report says Israel an 'apartheid state,' not a democracy

Palestinians and Israeli activists protest a plan by the Israeli government to annex parts of the West Bank, at the Almog Junction near Jericho in the West Bank on June 27, 2020.

 File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 12 (UPI) -- A human rights group said in a new analysis Tuesday that the Israeli government is not a parliamentary democracy, but rather practices an apartheid system that suppresses minority groups like Palestinians.

B'Tselem, which documents human rights abuses in Israel, argues in its report that the Israeli government is responsible for laws and practices designed to establish Jewish supremacy and sponsors violence against Palestinians.

It's the first time in its 32-year-history that B'Tselem has labeled Israel an "apartheid state."

The report, titled "This is Apartheid," criticizes Israel for governing Jewish and Palestinian territories differently.

"The Israeli regime has divided the area into several units that it defines and governs differently, according Palestinians different rights in each," it states. "This division is relevant to Palestinians only.

"The geographic space, which is contiguous for Jews, is a fragmented mosaic for Palestinians."

"This paper analyzes how the Israeli regime works to advance its goals in the entire area under its control," the report added.

"This document presents the principles that guide the regime, demonstrates how it implements them and points to the conclusion that emerges from all of this as to how the regime should be defined and what that means for human rights."

The report also accuses Israel of undermining Palestinians in occupied territories who wish to continue living in their native lands.

"Israel is not a democracy that has a temporary occupation attached to it," B'Tselem Executive Director Hagai El-Ad said. "It is one regime between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and we must look at the full picture and see it for what it is: apartheid."

El-Ad added that connecting Israel with apartheid grew in part because of its 2018 Nation State Law, which sought to solidify Israel's identity as an ethnic national Jewish state that provides a homeland for Jewish people.

Critics, however, say the law has helped institutionalize discrimination against minority populations.

Eugene Kontorovich, head of the Kohelet Policy Forum's International Law Department, said the apartheid claim is similar to an antisemitic "blood libel." ZIONIST BULLSHIT

"Apartheid is an extraordinary accusation because there is an international crime called the crime of apartheid and an international treaty against the crime of apartheid," he told The Jerusalem Post.

Kontorovich noted that no nation, other than South Africa, has ever been labeled by the international community as an apartheid state.

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Israel unveils plan for 800 more settlements in disputed West Bank


Israeli settlements are seen in the West Bank on February 13. Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday plans will go forward to build hundreds more in the occupied territory. File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday announced new plans to build close to 1,000 new settlements in the occupied West Bank -- a highly contentious issue that is expected to meet U.S. opposition once President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

Netanyahu's office said there will be about 800 new settlements built in the West Bank, which Israel claimed in 1967 -- including about 100 in an area where a woman was killed only last month by a Palestinian attacker.

Netanyahu and defense minister Benny Gantz support the new construction.

Palestinians have long opposed Israel's claim to the territory in the West Bank and years of building new settlements there. The land is part of territory Palestinians claim for a future state.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has supported new Israeli settlements and annexation efforts in the West Bank, but the incoming Biden administration is expected to follow many Western allies in opposing the new construction.

"This is an irresponsible step," Yair Lapid, head of Israel's Yesh Atid Party, said, warning that the new settlements could create early tensions with the new U.S. leadership.

"The Biden administration has not yet taken office and the government is already leading us into an unnecessary confrontation," he said.

Gantz's defense ministry is expected to approve the settlement plans before Biden's inauguration next week.

Most of the international community considers the Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal.