Amnesty hails UN Special Rapporteur for recognising Israel’s “apartheid” against Palestinians

London (QNN)- Amnesty International has applauded the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing for declaring that ‘Israel’ is committing the crime of “apartheid” against Palestinians.

At the UN General Assembly on Friday, Special Rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal presented an “Adequate Housing” report which condemned ‘Israel’ for overseeing an “institutionalised regime of systematic racial oppression and discrimination against the people of Palestine”.

The report, which compared the forcible transfer of Palestinians to the Syrian regime’s destruction of civilian homes, concluded that Israel’s routine abuse – including forced displacement and illegal demolitions – amounts to “the crime against humanity of apartheid”.

In the report, the Special Rapporteur cites several examples of Israeli government laws and policies which are used to confiscate Palestinian land and property, such as the Absentee Property Law and land registration procedures.

Israeli occupation authorities also use the designation “firing zone” or “closed military zone” to confiscate Palestinian lands. Approximately 20% of the occupied West Bank has been designated as “firing zones”, and Palestinian presence is banned there without permission from the Israeli forces, according to the report.

This affects more than 5,000 Palestinians from 38 communities, who are hit with eviction orders, threatened with displacement, or forced to leave their homes while the military conducts training exercises. In the community of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, more than 1,000 people are facing forcible eviction due to this policy.

“Israeli authorities’ domination and control of the Palestinian population, including through discriminatory land, planning and housing policies, is well documented, and extends to Palestinians wherever Israel has control over their rights,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“There is growing recognition among human rights experts that Israel is committing apartheid, and the presentation of this report today could not be more timely. As well as the ongoing threat of forced eviction, demolition, and forcible transfer, there has recently been an alarming escalation in attacks on Palestinians in their homes and towns throughout the occupied West Bank.”

She added, “Military incursions, closures, state-backed settler attacks, home demolitions, and destruction of property are all manifestations of Israel’s apartheid system.”

Earlier this year, Amnesty International released a report declaring ‘Israel’ is carrying out “the crime of apartheid against Palestinians.” Amnesty’s report details how ‘Israel’ enforces a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinians.

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem also asserted that Israeli policies had been designed to enforce “Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea”.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch last year became the first international rights group to publicly concluding that Israeli occupation authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians.

Lately, five former European foreign ministers signed an open letter in which they also recognize that Israel’s policies against the Palestinians “amount to the crime of apartheid.”

The letter was signed by former Danish Foreign Minister Mogens Lykketoft, former Finish Foreign Minister Erkki Sakari Tuomioja, former Slovenia Foreign Minister Ivo Vajgl, former British Cabinet Minister Sayeeda Warsi and former French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine.

“As the world is watching in horror events unfolding in Ukraine, conversation around the urgency of protecting a rules-based global order is dominating political and public discourse,” the five former foreign ministers were quoted as saying by French daily Le Monde on Thursday.

“We see no alternative but to acknowledge that Israel’s policies and practices against the Palestinians living in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza amount to the crime of apartheid,” the former foreign ministers said.