Israel is an Apartheid State
“Words matter. Churches are called to use the word apartheid. The word apartheid points—in both its definition in international law and its description of realities on the ground—to a truth.”
From the Dossier: by Kairos Palestine and Global Kairos for Justice
Israel and Apartheid
For decades, observers of Israel have noted that due to its treatment of the Palestinians who live under its control, Israel is a de facto apartheid state. As long ago as 1961, South African Prime Minister Hendrick Verwoerd, one of the architects of his country’s system of apartheid, stated,
“Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state.”
Since then, the controversial accusations have become more and more frequent. Israel and its western supporters vigorously resist this terminology, as it implies that Israel is not a western-style democracy. Israel is also determined to avoid the fate of South Africa, which experienced widespread international rejection and isolation.
What is apartheid?
Apartheid is a crime against humanity.
The term ‘Apartheid’ comes from the Africaans language and means “separateness.” This word came into widespread use in South Africa in 1948 to describe the political system that used laws, policies, and practices to entrench white minority rule over the majority non-white population. In the 1970s, the term was used to condemn any systemic racial discrimination and oppression.
Apartheid is specifically prohibited and criminalized in three international treaties:
- The 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD, which was ratified by 182 countries, including Israel.
- The 1973 Apartheid Convention offered the first precise definition of the crime of apartheid. Currently 109 states have signed it. Israel has not.
- The Rome Statute of 1998, which has been signed by 123 states. Israel withdrew in 2002.
Israel's Rebuttal
Over time, Israel has used several arguments to defend itself that include:
- Israel has unique security concerns,
- Comparisons with South Africa are flawed
- The charges of apartheid are inherently antisemitic and are attempts to delegitimize Israel
Excerpts from Human Rights Reports on Apartheid
Michael Lynk
With the eyes of the international community wide open, Israel has imposed upon Palestine an apartheid reality in a post-apartheid world.
The Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and the Crime of Apartheid
The crime against humanity of apartheid is being committed in the West Bank. The perpetrators are Israelis, and the victims are Palestinians. . . . The Israeli regime in its entirety is an apartheid regime. Israel is an Apartheid state.
A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid
In the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, the Israeli regime implements laws, practices, and state violence designed to cement the supremacy of one group — Jews — over another — Palestinians.
. . . These accumulated measures all form the basis for our conclusion that the bar for labeling the Israeli regime as apartheid has been met.
A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution
On the basis of its research, Human Rights Watch concludes that the Israeli government has demonstrated an intent to maintain the domination of Jewish Israelis over Palestinians. In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, this intent has been coupled with systemic oppression of Palestinians and inhumane acts committed against them. When these three elements occur together, they amount to the crime of apartheid.
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School
Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank are in breach of the prohibition of apartheid and amount to the crime of apartheid under international law
Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity
Israel has established and maintained an institutionalized regime of oppression and domination of the Palestinian population for the benefit of Jewish Israelis — a system of apartheid — wherever it has exercised control over Palestinians’ lives since 1948.
Al-Haq (Palestinian NGO supporting human rights)
It is time for the international community to recognise and condemn Israel’s apartheid regime of systemic racial domination and oppression over the Palestinian people as a whole and take all necessary steps to bring it to an end, including through the dismantling of Israel’s discriminatory laws, policies, and practices that perpetuate it.
Is Israel Guilty of the Crime of Apartheid?
Yes. Since the founding of the Jewish state in 1948, Israel has created laws, policies, and practices to ensure the supremacy of its Jewish citizens over the rest of the population. In every aspect of life in the regions that Israel controls, Jews are legally privileged over non-Jews. Maintenance of this system of racial supremacy has involved widespread deportations, unlawful imprisonment and torture, denial of political self determination and fundamental human rights, massacres and extra-judicial killings, destruction of homes, and seizure of lands, houses, and businesses.
In recent years, several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have published exhaustive, meticulously researched reports and studies that establish beyond a doubt that Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid
The 1973 Apartheid Convention
Article II of the 1973 Apartheid Convention defines the specific inhuman acts that “committed in this context, amount to the crime under the international law of apartheid.”
- Denial to a member or members of a racial group or groups of the right to life and liberty of person:
- By murder of members of a racial group or groups;
- By the infliction upon the members of a racial group or groups of serious bodily or mental harm, by the infringement of their freedom or dignity, or by subjecting them to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
- By arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment of the members of a racial group or groups;
- Deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or in part;
- 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, including the right to work, the right to form recognized trade unions, the right to education, the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association;
- Any measures including legislative measures, designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups, the prohibition of mixed marriages among members of various racial groups, the expropriation of landed property belonging to a racial group or groups or to members thereof;
- Exploitation of the labour of the members of a racial group or groups, in particular by submitting them to forced labour;
- Persecution of organizations and persons, by depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms, because they oppose apartheid.
What Can I Do?
~ Select one of the Human Rights reports below and read it carefully and prayerfully
~ Don’t be afraid to use the word Apartheid – and to explain why you are using it
~ Encourage any communities you are part of (communities of faith or other) to consider becoming Apartheid-Free
Reports from International Organizations
Amnesty’s comprehensive report, Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity, sets out how massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law.
A Dossier on Apartheid includes:
- A description of apartheid and how Israel’s laws, policies and practices meet the internationally agreed-upon definition.
- A Biblical and theological perspective on the sin of apartheid.
- A comprehensive compendium of statements and declarations by human rights organizations as well as scholarly and educational resources.
- A stirring call to the churches of the world to respond to the call of the Palestinian people.
- Actions to take now as congregations, denominations and citizens
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: Israel has imposed upon Palestine an apartheid reality in a post-apartheid world.
Michael Lynk concluded “that the political system of entrenched rule in the occupied Palestinian territory satisfied the prevailing evidentiary standard for the existence of apartheid. First, an institutionalised regime of systematic racial oppression and discrimination has been established. Second, this system of alien rule had been established with the intent to maintain the domination of one racial-national-ethnic group over another. And third, the imposition of this system of institutionalised discrimination with the intent of permanent domination had been built upon the regular practice of inhuman(e) acts.”
Excerpt: “You are invited to read the full position paper, to see how, despite the differences in Palestinians’ status in each of the geographical units controlled by Israel, as described in the paper, the Israeli regime applies the same organizing principle in the entire area – promoting and perpetuating the supremacy of one group, Jews, over another, Palestinians.
Apartheid is not set in stone: It’s a regime created by people, and people can change it too. It is, however, difficult – impossible – to change reality if one refrains from calling things by their proper name. Apartheid.”
A position paper from B’tselem (Israel’s oldest human rights organization): A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.
Human Rights Watch wrote an extensive report, A Threshold Crossed, on crimes of Apartheid in the state of Israel with strong recommendations for action.
Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.
The Gaza Bantustan — Israeli Apartheid in the Gaza Strip considers Israeli apartheid from the perspective of two million Palestinians struggling to live in the Gaza Strip.
Al Mezan calls upon the international community to fulfill its obligations to end Israel’s iniquitous apartheid regime as it did in relation to its South African predecessor.
Israeli Apartheid: Tool of Zionist Settler Colonialism
Together, leading Palestinian civil society organisations, Al-Haq Law in the Service of Man (Al-Haq), Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer), Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights (Al Mezan), Al-Quds University ‘Community Action Center’ (CAC), the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCPRJ), in this report explore Israel’s settler colonial and apartheid regime imposed on the Palestinian people.
The Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and the Crime of Apartheid: Legal Opinion
Yesh Din – Volunteers for Human Rights is an Israeli organization registered as a non-profit in Israel.
Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid by Virginia Tilley and Richard Falk was published by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in 2017.
The report examines the lives of Palestinians who live under four legal domains, and shows that each constitutes apartheid, a crime against humanity, according to the 1973 United Nations Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid and the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.