5. ISRAEL’S OPPRESSION AND DOMINATION OF PALESTINIANS
As outlined above, apartheid consists of a system of prolonged and cruel discriminatory treatment by one racial group of members of another with the intention to control the second racial group. This chapter examines the extent to which Israel has created such a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians in all areas under its jurisdiction and effective control, as well as over Palestinian refugees whose right of return to their homes remains controlled by Israel. It does so by first establishing Israel’s intent to oppress and dominate all Palestinians by establishing its hegemony across Israel and the OPT, including through means of demography, and maximizing resources for the benefit of its Jewish population at the expense of Palestinians. It then analyses the laws, policies and practices which have, over time, come to constitute the main tools for establishing and maintaining this system, and which discriminate against and segregate Palestinians in Israel and the OPT today, as well as controlling Palestinian refugees’ right to return. It divides this analysis by the key components of this system of oppression and domination: territorial fragmentation, segregation and control, dispossession of land and property and the suppression of Palestinians’ human development and deprivation of their economic and social rights. The chapter demonstrates how distinct but interlocking administrative and legal systems in different geographic areas have controlled Palestinians’ legal status, deprived them of the right to nationality, placed extreme restrictions on their freedom of movement, deprived them of political and civil rights equal to Jewish Israelis, and precluded any possibility of them enjoying equality in access to land, property and resources. These policies have had disastrous consequences for Palestinians and have deliberately prevented them from fulfilling their human potential and accessing equal economic and social rights, further worsening their situation. The chapter concludes that Israel has created a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians in all areas under its effective control and over the rights of Palestinian refugees, which amounts to apartheid as prohibited by public international law and international human rights law. Israel’s system of control has been built and maintained over decades by successive Israeli governments across all territories they have controlled, regardless of the political party in power at the time. Indeed, Israel has subjected different groups of Palestinians to different sets of discriminatory and exclusionary laws, policies and practices at different times, responding to the territorial gains it made first in 1948 and then in 1967, when it annexed East Jerusalem and occupied the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Over decades, Israeli demographic and geopolitical considerations have shaped policies towards Palestinians in each of these territorial domains in different ways. This means that, today, Israel’s system of control is not applied uniformly across all areas.124 Palestinians experience this 124. ESCWA, Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid Palestine and the Israeli Occupation (previously cited).
ISRAEL’S APARTHEID AGAINST PALESTINIANS CRUEL SYSTEM OF DOMINATION AND CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY Amnesty International
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