Human rights group Amnesty International accused Israel of apartheid, stating that its system of “oppression and domination” against Palestine amounts to the international definition of the crime.
It makes Amnesty the latest rights group to accuse Israel of apartheid, which is a crime against humanity.
The London-based human rights organization released a 287-page report today, stating that it found Palestinians are treated as an inferior race by Israel, and systematically deprived of their human rights. The report said that Palestinians were forced to live with cruel policies of exclusion, dispossession, and segregation, which by definition, amounts to a crime against humanity.
Israel has forcefully rejected the extensive report, claiming it was biased and “anti-Semitic.” Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid accused Amnesty of quoting “lies spread by terrorist organizations,” and furthermore, of being a radical organization that repeats propaganda.
Components of apartheid that Amnesty cites include unlawful killings, massive seizures by Israel of Palestinian land and property, drastic movement restrictions, forcible transfers of Palestinians off of their land, the denial of citizenship and nationality.
The report calls for Israel to be held accountable for its actions, and calls on the U.S. European Union, and the United Kingdom, as well as Arab and African nations, to recognize that Israel is creating a crime against humanity through apartheid as well as other international crimes. It also called on the United Kingdom to have a major reassessment of its foreign policy position towards the country.
It took four years for Amnesty to compile the massive report. Its release means that Amnesty is the most recent human rights group to accuse Israel of apartheid over the past year, joining the U.S. group Human Rights Watch in the accusation. Last year in April 2021, Human Rights Watch became the first significant international rights group to accuse Israel of apartheid.
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