UN report concludes Israel is committing apartheid

A new report by the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on human rights has concluded that the current climate in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) is tantamount to apartheid. 

The report examines the current human rights situation in the OPT, with particular focus on the question of apartheid. 

It found that Israeli Jews and Palestinians in Occupied Palestinian Territories live “under a single regime which differentiates its distribution of rights and benefits on the basis of national and ethnic identity, and which ensures the supremacy of one group over, and to the detriment of, the other.”  

The report also sets out how this system “endows one racial-national-ethnic group with substantial rights, benefits and privileges while intentionally subjecting another group to live behind walls, checkpoints and under a permanent military rule”. 

It concludes that this “satisfies the prevailing evidentiary standard for the existence of apartheid”.

Amnesty International South Africa Executive Director Shenilla Mohamed said the Special Rapporteur’s findings are an important and timely addition to the growing international consensus that Israeli authorities are committing apartheid against the Palestinian people. 

“Palestinian human rights organisations have been calling the situation apartheid for years, and this report is a landmark moment of recognition of the lived reality of millions of Palestinians.” 

“Like Amnesty International and many other human rights groups, the Special Rapporteur examined Israel’s treatment of Palestinians through the lens of international law and reached the unmistakeable conclusion that this is apartheid,” Mohamed said. 

In January, a leaked cable from the Israeli Foreign Ministry described a planned campaign to discredit the Special Rapporteur’s work, and Israeli authorities have prevented UN human rights staff and investigators from entering Israel and/or the OPT.

Mohamed said Israel has intensified its efforts to censor and discredit anyone who uses the word apartheid. 

“The report emphasises the need for the international community to accept the findings of human rights organisations, including Amnesty, and start calling Israel’s apartheid what it is. 

“The international community, in particular countries allied to Israel, must stop making excuses for this cruel system of racial domination and oppression and take immediate action to help end apartheid and protect Palestinian rights,” Mohamed said. 

Last year, the South African government strongly condemned the attacks by Israel on Palestinian civilians and called on the country to immediately stop all its hostilities and comply with international law.

Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip in 2021 left at least 149 Palestinians, including 41 children, dead while scores were wounded. 

The international relations department said Israel’s attack on civilians in Palestine is unjust.

“The continued escalation of attacks by Israel on Palestinians in Gaza is totally unjust and shameful, particularly the targeting of the most vulnerable section of the Palestinian community, children, women and the elderly.”

Dirco said it wanted Israel’s conduct to be investigated.

The African National Congress (ANC) has also been a long-time ally of the Palestinian independence movement‚ dating back to the struggle against apartheid. 

At the ANC’s 54th national conference 2017 at Nasrec, the party took a resolution to downgrade the status of its Israel embassy.

ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa also expressed support for the people of Palestine amid the deadly strikes.

Ramaphosa made the remarks while delivering the closing address after the ANC’s national executive committee meeting last year. 

Ramaphosa reiterated South Africa’s position on the decades-long conflict.

“The NEC reaffirms its support for the people of Palestine and their struggle for freedom and self-determination. And we repeat our condemnation in the strongest terms of the unlawful evictions of the Palestinians from their homes and the brutal attacks on the Palestinian protestors at al-Aqsa mosque.”

South African government officials have also frequently engaged in diplomatic efforts to solve the Middle East crisis. 

Amnesty has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to consider the crime of apartheid in its current investigation in the OPT, and for all states to exercise universal jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute persons suspected of the crime against humanity of apartheid.

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