HRW: Israel Committed Apartheid Crimes Against Palestinians

New York, MINA – The International Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Israel committed the crime of apartheid against Palestinians.

This is imcludednin a report published by HRW on Tuesday entitled “A Threshold Crossed: Israel Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution,” which discusses Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

“The 213-page report is based on Israel’s decision to maintain Jewish domination and grave violations against Palestinians in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem,”said the New York-based rights group in a statement as quoted by Wafa.

HRW said the report based its documentation of Israeli violations against Palestinians after years of reviewing Israeli government planning documents and statements.

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“In Jerusalem, for example, the (Israeli) government’s plans for municipalities, including the occupied west and east of the city, set the goal of ‘maintaining a solid Jewish majority in the city’ and even determine the demographic ratio they wish to maintain,” the report said as quoted from Anadolu Agency.

Commenting on the report, HRW executive director Kenneth Roth said denying the fundamental rights of millions of Palestinians, without legitimate security justifications and simply because they are Palestinian and not Jewish, is not just a matter of cruel occupation.

Roth said the Israeli decision was meant to give privileges to one person at the expense of another.

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HRW concluded by urging countries to condition arms sales and military and security assistance to Israel.

The group also urged Israeli authorities to take concrete and verifiable steps to end the crime.

Meanwhile, Israel rejected the report and accused HRW of being led by BDS, referring to the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions global movement.

Israel also faces a war crimes investigation by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutors over its military operations in Gaza in the summer of 2014 and Israeli settlement policies in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)