Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Calls on UN Committee to Recognise Israel’s Discrimination as Apartheid

In its submission to the UN Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council concludes that Israel has “opted to create and maintain an institutionalised apartheid regime of racial domination and oppression at the expense of the Palestinian people as a whole“; it then proceeds to demand that the Committee “view all forms of racial discrimination carried out by the State of Israel within the lens of apartheid, as included in Article 3 ICERD”. 

It stresses that “Palestinians will be unable to exercise their inalienable rights to self-determination and permanent sovereignty until such a point that the Israeli apartheid machinery has been dismantled”, and gives 16 specific recommendations to the Committee. Foremost among these is the suggestion that it should demand that Israel “repeal all legislation enshrining racial discrimination, domination, and oppression, including repealing the Basic Laws and other statutes that directly or indirectly effect the enjoyment of human rights through racial and/or racialized distinctions, including on the basis of religion”.