nAfter several human rights organizations, an expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has accused Israel of having established an apartheid system in the occupied Palestinian territories. Michael Lynk, the “Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian possessions occupied since 1967,” makes the allegation in a report to be debated at the UNHRC assembly in Geneva this Friday.
In it he writes that the reliable “settler colony project” is based on a legal and political dichotomy: settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have comprehensive rights, while the Palestinians are subject to military law and are without the protection of international humanitarian law or international human rights law. He comes to the conclusion, writes Lynk, that this satisfies the facts of apartheid. Apartheid is defined as the systematic oppression of one ethnic group by another through inhuman acts and the goal of dominance.
The efficient UN mission in Geneva rejected the report. UN Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar accused Lynk of his report being a “recycling of baseless and scandalous slanders” from NGOs who, like him, aim to delegitimize and criminalize Israel. Most recently, Amnesty International raised apartheid accusations against Israel in February.
While Lynk argues that apartheid is a crime under international law, the Canadian lawyer’s 17-page report also details similarities and differences to the system that prevailed in South Africa up until the 1990s. Thus, in Palestinian values, there are not many of the acts of daily apartheid that South Africa has noted.
On the other hand, Israel’s rule in the Palestinians has seen some “ruthless features,” such as separate highways, high walls, numerous checkpoints, a barricaded population, and targeted attacks on civilians. Under the eyes of the world community, Israel has imposed “an apartheid reality in a post-apartheid world” on Palestine, he writes.