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The United Nations (UN) has accused Israel of operating an apartheid system in the occupied West Bank, warning that decades of discrimination and segregation against Palestinians must come to an end.
In a new report released on Wednesday, the UN human rights office said systematic discrimination against Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories has drastically deteriorated in recent years.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Palestinians in the West Bank are experiencing what he described as a suffocation of their fundamental rights, with nearly every aspect of daily life tightly controlled by Israeli laws, policies and practices. He said access to water, education, healthcare, family life and even agricultural activities such as harvesting olives is routinely restricted.
“Whether accessing water, school, rushing to hospital, visiting family or friends, or harvesting olives, every aspect of life for Palestinians in the West Bank is controlled and curtailed by Israel’s discriminatory laws, policies and practices.
“This is a particularly severe form of racial discrimination and segregation, that resembles the kind of apartheid system we have seen before.”
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While several independent UN experts have previously characterised Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as apartheid, this is the first time a serving UN human rights chief has publicly used the term.
The report stated that Israeli authorities apply two separate legal systems in the West Bank, one governing Israeli settlers and another governing Palestinians, resulting in unequal treatment across key areas. Palestinians, it said, continue to face widespread land confiscations and denial of access to vital resources, leading to the loss of homes and livelihoods.
Türk called on Israel to repeal all laws, policies and practices that entrench discrimination against Palestinians based on race, religion or ethnic origin.
The report added that discrimination has been compounded by escalating settler violence, often carried out with the acquiescence, support or direct participation of Israeli security forces.
Official Israeli data show that at least 44 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations during the same period.
The report said Israeli authorities have also expanded the use of unlawful force, arbitrary detention and torture since the Gaza war began. It highlighted increased repression of civil society, severe movement restrictions and growing constraints on media freedom, describing the situation as an unprecedented deterioration of human rights in the West Bank.
The UN also warned of rapid settlement expansion considered illegal under international law, alongside unlawful killings of Palestinians carried out with near-total impunity. Of more than 1,500 Palestinian deaths recorded between early 2017 and September 30 last year, Israeli authorities opened just 112 investigations, leading to only one conviction.
Thousands of Palestinians, the report said, remain arbitrarily detained mostly under administrative detention, which allows imprisonment without charge or trial.
The UN rights office said it found reasonable grounds to believe that the separation, segregation and subordination of Palestinians is intended to be permanent in order to maintain domination and oppression, amounting to a violation of international conventions that prohibit racial segregation and apartheid.
It urged Israel to end its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territories by dismantling all settlements, evacuating settlers and respecting the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
