Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that Israel is committing the crime of \u201capartheid\u201d by seeking to maintain Jewish \u201cdomination\u201d over Palestinians and its own Arab population, an allegation fiercely denounced by Israel.
\nIsrael, currently being investigated by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, blasted the accusations as \u201cpreposterous and false\u201d and accused the New York-based group of having \u201ca long-standing anti-Israeli agenda\u201d.
\nHRW said its finding that Israel is \u201ccommitting the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution\u201d against Palestinians was based on robust sourcing including government planning materials and statements by public officials.
\nThe 213-page report finds that the Israeli government is the \u201csingle authority\u201d with primary control \u201cover the area between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea\u201d.
\nWithin that territory, there is \u201can overarching Israeli government policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians,\u201d HRW said.
\nThe group said its findings apply to Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the blockaded Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem as well as Arab Israelis — Palestinians who stayed on their land following Israel s creation in 1948.
\n– Threshold crossed –
\nHRW said that while apartheid was initially coined with respect to institutional persecution of black people in South Africa, it was now a universally recognised legal term. An apartheid system is defined by \u201can effort to maintain domination by one racial group over another, a context of systematic oppression by the dominant group over the marginalised group (and) inhuman acts,\u201d the group said.
\nOmar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, told AFP there have been warnings for years that \u201capartheid is around the corner\u201d.
\n\u201cI think it s quite clear that that threshold has been crossed,\u201d Shakir said from Jordan.
\nA US citizen, Shakir was the first foreign national deported by Israel for allegedly supporting an international boycott movement that seeks to isolate Israel, an allegation he denies.
\n– Propaganda pamphlet –
\nIsrael s foreign ministry told AFP the HRW report amounted to a \u201cpropaganda pamphlet\u201d from an organisation that has been \u201cactively seeking for years to promote boycotts against Israel\u201d.
\nIsrael has occupied the West Bank since the 1967, the same year it annexed east Jerusalem.
\nSince then, more than half a million Jewish settlers — both ideologically and economically motivated — have moved into or grown up in these areas.
\nPalestinians in east Jerusalem and across much of the West Bank are regularly denied building permits, while Jewish home construction has steadily grown.
\n\u201cWhile much of the world treats Israel s half-century occupation as a temporary situation that a decades-long peace process will soon cure, the oppression of Palestinians there has reached a threshold and a permanence that meets the definitions of the crimes of apartheid and persecution,\u201d said HRW executive director Ken Roth.
\nHRW called on nations to stop viewing the occupation as an issue that can be resolved through a peace deal, and to foster accountability by reconsidering their Israel ties, including military cooperation.
\n– Sanctions call –
\nThe group also called on the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority to cease some forms of security cooperation with Israel to avoid being \u201ccomplicit\u201d with apartheid.
\nPalestinian officials welcomed the HRW findings.
\n\u201cThe report exposes the nature of Israel s colonial occupation as an entrenched regime of Jewish supremacy and domination over the Palestinian people,\u201d the Palestinian foreign ministry said, according to the official Wafa agency.
\nHamas, considered a terrorist group by most Western states and also being probed by the ICC, welcomed the HRW report as proof of the \u201ccredibility of the Palestinian narrative which exposes the crimes against humanity committed by the Israeli occupation against Palestinians\u201d.
\nThe report emphasises the \u201cnecessity for a serious and practical international action to punish and hold the Israeli occupation accountable for its crimes and for the international community to assume its duty towards such atrocities,\u201d the militant group said in a statement.
\nIsrael has said it will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court investigation, expected to focus on war crimes allegedly committed by both sides during its 2014 war with Hamas.
\nBut HRW said the ICC should conduct additional investigations into those \u201ccredibly implicated\u201d in committing the crimes of apartheid and persecution.
\nIt called on nations to \u201cimpose individual sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on officials responsible for committing these crimes.\u201d
\nWhile HRW is the first major international organisation to level the controversial apartheid charge against Israel, it is following a move made this year by Israeli civil society group B Tselem.
\nThe settler watchdog charged that the \u201cIsraeli regime implements laws, practices and state violence designed to cement the supremacy of one group — Jews — over another — Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that Israel is committing the crime of \u201capartheid\u201d by seeking to maintain Jewish \u201cdomination\u201d over Palestinians and its own Arab population, an allegation fiercely denounced by Israel. Israel, currently being investigated by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, blasted the accusations as \u201cpreposterous and false\u201d and accused the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n