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In a report released on April 27, Human Rights Watch accused the Israeli government of committing “crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution” against Palestinians. The statement came after an assessment to determine “whether specific acts and policies” of the Israelis fall into apartheid, as defined by international law. Following its findings, HRW asked the International Criminal Court to investigate “systematic discrimination”.
For the first time, Human Rights Watch defines Israel’s policies on the Palestinians and the Arab minority population in its territory as apartheid. It is “the strongest finding HRW has made on Israeli behavior in 30 years,” said Omar Shakir, the organization’s director for Israel and Palestine and author of the more than 200-page report.
As part of its remarks, the NGO dedicated to the investigation and promotion of human rights highlights the restrictions on the mobilization to which the Palestinians are subjected and the seizure of their lands to build Jewish settlements in the territory that was occupied in the war of the Middle East of 1967, in order to favor the Jews while severely repressing the Palestinians.
“On this basis, the report concludes that Israeli officials have committed the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution,” as defined in the 1973 Apartheid Convention and the 1998 Rome Statute.
The organization also stresses that the Israeli “nation-state” law of 2018, which states that only Jews have the right to self-determination in the country, “provides a legal basis for policies that favor Israeli Jews to the detriment” 21% of the nation’s Arab minority, who regularly denounce discrimination.
HRW Executive Director Ken Roth said that “the oppression of the Palestinians has reached a threshold and a permanence that meets the definitions of the crimes of apartheid and persecution.”
Behind all the diversionary name calling, the Israeli government is refusing to engage with the facts about its crimes against humanity of persecution and apartheid toward so many Palestinians. Tell us, what fact in @HRW‘s 213-page report did we get wrong? https://t.co/EgH9sS6qcD pic.twitter.com/wHbpCEtudn
– Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) April 27, 2021
Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas responded that “it is urgent that the international community intervene, including ensuring that its states, organizations and companies do not contribute in any way to the execution of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine”.
The report was based on years of human rights documentation, analysis of Israeli law, a review of government planning documents, and statements from officials.
While the term “apartheid” was first used in relation to the racist segregation of non-white citizens in South Africa, the recent report indicates that it is now a “universally recognized legal term” denoting a crime against humanity under international law. .
The Palestinians claim the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem for a future state. Areas that were captured in the also known as the six-day conflict, which pitted Israeli forces against an Arab coalition and ended with Israel increasing its territory considerably.
HRW calls for investigation of the International Criminal Court
Shakir assured that HRW would send his report to the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC), “as we normally do when we reach conclusions about the commission of crimes that fall within the jurisdiction of the Court.”
Last month and after inquiries carried out by its prosecutors, the ICC had already announced that it would formally investigate war crimes in the Palestinian territories, after determining that it does have jurisdiction to do so. Although he did not refer to apartheid crimes, as HRW now describes.
The court indicated that both the Israeli military forces and the Hamas group, which controls the Gaza Strip, will be targeted. The so-called Return Marches, which took place in Gaza in March 2018, will enter into the investigations, in which Israeli forces used “non-lethal and lethal means”, as well as the launching of missiles from Gaza towards Israel, allegedly at the hands of armed groups Palestinians.
HRW highlighted that in 2018 it also sent the ICC its report on possible crimes against humanity by the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas.
Israel calls HRW’s accusations “absurd” and “false”
The Israeli government categorically rejected the claims of being the author of apartheid.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the claims in the new report as “both absurd and false” and accused HRW of harboring an “anti-Israel agenda”, which has sought “for years to promote boycotts against Israel.”
The distorted reality presented by Human Rights Watch is part of its ongoing, political and obsessive campaign against Israel in recent years. The Israeli judicial system is globally renowned for its independent, steadfast, and tireless work to protect the rights of all citizens
– Michael Biton מיכאל ביטון (@ MichaelBiton4) April 27, 2021
For his part, the Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, Michael Biton, maintained that “the purpose of this illegitimate report is not related in any way to human rights, but rather to a continuous attempt by HRW to undermine the right of the State of Israel to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people. “
The Israeli Foreign Ministry also asserted that the report was led by a known supporter of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Omar Shakir was expelled from Israel in 2019 on allegations that he endorsed BDS. However, he denies that his work constitutes an active support for that movement.
With Reuters and EFE
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source https://pledgetimes.com/hrw-denounces-israeli-policies-against-palestinians-as-apartheid-crimes/
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