Apartheid is a universal legal term. The prohibition against particularly severe institutional discrimination and oppression or apartheid constitutes a core principle of international law. The 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid and the 1998 Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court (ICC) define apartheid as a crime against humanity consisting of three primary elements:

1. An intent to maintain domination by one racial group over another;
2. A context of systematic oppression by the dominant group over the marginalized group;
3. Inhumane acts.

The reference to a racial group is understood today to address not only treatment on the basis of genetic traits but also treatment on the basis of descent and national or ethnic origin, as defined in the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The crime against humanity of persecution, as defined under the Rome Statute and customary international law, consists of severe deprivation of fundamental rights of a racial, ethnic, or other group with discriminatory intent.

Findings

Human Rights Watch concludes that the elements of the crimes (requirred to establish a crime) come together in the occupied territory, as part of an Israeli government policy that is aimed at:

• maintaining the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians across Israel and the occupied territory;
• couple domination in the occupied territory with systematic oppression and inhumane acts against Palestinians living there;

Investigation

Human Rights Watch compared policies and practices towards Palestinians in the occupied territory and Israel with those concerning Jewish Israelis living in the same areas.

• Across Israel and the occupied territory, Israeli authorities have sought to maximize the land available for Jewish communities and to concentrate most Palestinians in dense population centers.
• The authorities have adopted policies to mitigate what they have openly described as a “demographic threat” from Palestinians.
• To maintain domination, Israeli authorities systematically discriminate against Palestinians.
• In the occupied territory, the severity of the repression, including the imposition of draconian military rule on Palestinians while affording Jewish Israelis living in a segregated manner in the same territory their full rights under Israel’s rights-respecting civil law, amounts to the systematic oppression required for apartheid.
• Israeli authorities have committed a range of abuses against Palestinians, including sweeping movement restrictions in the form of the Gaza closure and a permit regime, confiscation of more than a third of the land in the West Bank, harsh conditions in parts of the West Bank that led to the forcible transfer of thousands of Palestinians out of their homes, denial of residency rights to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and their relatives, and the suspension of basic civil rights to millions of Palestinians.
• Many of the abuses at the core of the commission of these crimes have no security justification.
• Security concerns are used as a pretext to further demographic goals.

Trends of concern

• the passage of a law with constitutional status in 2018 establishing Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people”;
• a growing body of laws that further privilege Israeli settlers in the West Bank and do not apply to Palestinians living in the same territory;
• massive expansion in recent years of settlements and accompanying infrastructure connecting settlements to Israel.

Recommendations by HRW

• Israeli authorities should dismantle all forms of repression and discrimination that privilege Jewish Israelis at the expense of Palestinians, including with regards to freedom of movement, allocation of land and resources, access to water, electricity, and other services, and the granting of building permits.
• The ICC Office of the Prosecutor should investigate and prosecute those credibly implicated in the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution. Countries should do so as well in accordance with their national laws under the principle of universal jurisdiction, and impose individual sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on officials responsible for committing these crimes.
• The findings of crimes against humanity should prompt the international community to reevaluate the nature of its engagement in Israel and Palestine and adopt an approach centered on human rights and accountability rather than solely on the stalled “peace process.” Countries should establish a UN commission of inquiry to investigate systematic discrimination and repression in Israel and Palestine and a UN global envoy for the crimes of persecution and apartheid with a mandate to mobilize international action to end persecution and apartheid worldwide.
• Countries should condition arms sales and military and security assistance to Israel on Israeli authorities taking concrete and verifiable steps toward ending their commission of these crimes. Countries should vet agreements, cooperation schemes, and all forms of trade and dealing with Israel to screen for those directly contributing to committing the crimes, mitigate the human rights impacts and, where not possible, end activities and funding found to facilitate these serious crimes.This video provides a short explainer to this report.