Apartheid

There are differences and similarities between Apartheid South Africa and Israeli-occupied Palestine. Israeli officials point to the differences to refute claims the occupation policies constitute apartheid. However, apartheid means separate as well as applying policies of segregation and social and economic discrimination. Palestinians are subjected to a military court system, while Israelis are under the jurisdiction of a civil court system; a segregated school system within historic Palestine; loss of freedom of movement because of the Apartheid Wall, which has forced Palestinians in the West Bank into isolated cantons. Palestinians in Gaza are segregated and locked inside the world’s largest open-air prison. Former South African Prime Minister Hendrick Verwoerdt himself called Israel an “Apartheid state.” (Rand Daily Mail, Nov. 23, 1961).

Discrimination in Israeli Law

Posted in Apartheid

Despite Israel's ratification of the ICCPR and its guarantee to protect all of its citizens against discrimination, Palestinian Arab citizens in Israel are discriminated against in a variety of forms and denied equal individual rights because of their national belonging. Though th discrimination is politically motivated, the Israeli legal system is part of this context. As well as offering limited provisions for equality or political particip members of the Palestinian Arab minority, the law in Israel subjects them to of discrimination: direct discimination against non-Jews within the law itself, discrimination through "neutral" laws and criteria which apply principally to P and institutional discrimination through a legal framework that facilitates a s pattern of privileges(1)

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