B’Tselem said that years of injustice against Palestinians, culminating in laws that entrenched discrimination, mean that „the prohibition against classifying the Israeli regime as apartheid has been fulfilled.“

Right-wing Israelis and their support groups have often rejected the claim that Israel is an „apartheid state“ as anti-Semitic. But it will be difficult to make this argument now that Israel is designated in this way by such a highly respected Israeli institution, albeit with only the support of a minority in its homeland.

The Israeli embassy in London rejected the report, describing it as „not based on reality, but rather on a distorted ideological point of view.“

“The fact that B’Tselem chose not to submit the report to the Israeli government for comment attests to the fact that this is nothing more than a propaganda tool. Israel rejects the false allegations in the so-called report … a strong and vibrant democracy that gives full rights to all its citizens regardless of religion, race or Arab citizens of Israel are represented in all branches of government – in the Israeli parliament, in the courts (including the Supreme Court), in the public service and even in the diplomatic corps where they represent the State of Israel around the world. “

Over the past decade, there have been growing concerns among Israel’s traditional allies, especially in Europe, that the ongoing loss of Palestinian land to Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law, has not only undermined the long-standing peace process. But Israel’s moral standing.

These concerns were sharply highlighted with the passage in 2018 of the Basic Law: Israel – the National State of the Jewish People – which has permanently enshrined Israel as a Jewish state in its constitution – and reinforced by promises from Israeli politicians, particularly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to annex large areas. From the West Bank from one side.

Israel occupied and occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967. The Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the first of which were signed in 1993, were supposed to lead to a „two-state solution“ and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state living alongside Israel.

Twenty-eight years later, there are no indications of this outcome.

Rather, B’Tselem says, Israel has entrenched discrimination against non-Jews in the areas under its control.

These include fewer rights for Palestinians who live in Israel and hold Israeli citizenship (17% of the population). B’Tselem says the most obvious example is the fact that non-Jews cannot immigrate to Israel. Palestinians who marry an Israeli woman need official Israeli permission to move to Israel.

In the West Bank, Jewish settlements are under continuous construction, while it is almost impossible to obtain building permits for Palestinians in areas officially under Israeli security control, and „illegal“ buildings are often demolished.

The human rights organization says that freedom of assembly and expression is severely restricted for Palestinians in the West Bank, while it is largely unrestricted for Jews.

Haji El-Ad, Executive Director of B’Tselem: “Israel is not a democracy with a temporary occupation: it is one system between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and we must look at the whole picture and see it for what it is: Apartheid. This realistic view of reality should not lead. To despair, just the opposite. It is a call to change. After all, people have created this system, and people can change it. “

Between 1948 and 1994, South Africa’s apartheid regime based on apartheid and „separate development“ was designed to confine non-whites to „autonomous Bantustans“, stripping them of their nationality and placing them under the administration of client regimes that resemble spotty inkblots. on the map.

The Palestinian Authority, which was established under the Oslo Accords, runs the majority of Palestinians in the West Bank, but they are largely confined to urban areas separated by Israeli-controlled land and are mostly forbidden from traveling on roads mostly designated for Jewish settlers and other Israelis.

B’Tselem officials said they want the international community to „take action“ on Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.

But they refused to be drawn into whether the „act“ included calls for international economic and cultural sanctions of the kind that were imposed on the apartheid regime in South Africa before it was freed by a series of steps that led to the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994.