Israel As an Apartheid State: A Cruel System of Domination and Crimes Against Humanity
Part 1
Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has created and maintained an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination over Palestinians, which is enforced across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) through reinforcing discriminatory laws, policies and practices. When seen as a totality, Israel controls virtually every aspect of Palestinians’ lives and routinely violates their human rights.
The reason there is continued conflict today is because in the early twentieth century a few white people in Europe thought they could take control of other countries, of other people, who were not white, divide them, and take their land. They thought they had the right to do this. Consider the Balfour Declaration, Nov. 2nd 1917. One white racist, Lord Balfour, promised another white racist, Lord Rothschild, Palestine for the Jewish people. That’s what the Balfour Declaration was about. Who were they to give anything to anyone?
Moving forward to Nov. 1947, the United Nations passed a resolution to partition Palestine. The resolution—which was considered by the Jewish immigrants in Palestine to be a legal basis for the establishment of Israel, was rejected by the Arab community. They wanted to keep living in the entirety of their country. Furthermore, no one had consulted them regarding any of this.
If you look at the original partition map, the partition was not done in a very fair way. The United Nations gave the biggest part to the smaller population of Jewish immigrants.
How would we like it if the United Nations came and sliced up our country and gave it to a group of newly arrived immigrants? Everyone assumed this would work out for everyone.
Additionally, by 1947, the Zionist* movement in Israel had established a fighting force of around 40,000 well trained men. There was no armed force on the Palestinian side. There never has been a Palestinian army.
Jewish historians have written, as soon as the United Nations partitioned Palestine, the Zionist militia began a massive campaign that can only be described as terrorism and ethnic cleansing against the unarmed civilian population. It was a brutal attack that lasted twelve months, at the end of which, almost eighty percent of Palestine was conquered, and hundreds of towns and villages were destroyed. Between 800,000 to a million Palestinian civilians were forced into exile.
Americans have to remember the history of displaced indigenous peoples in the U.S. is not taught accurately our history books. There’s always a scrubbing of truth and facts. So, it’s no surprise that Western Americans have only been fed the revisionist story of Israel and how the resisting Arab/Palestinians are the bad guys. Would Americans say the revolutionary militia that fought for our independence from England were terrorists? No, we wanted out from under the subjugating English monarchy.
In February of 2022 Amnesty International published a report (here) on the seventy-five-year history of the systematic annihilation, segregation, and oppression of the Palestinian people.
“Amnesty International has demonstrated that Israel has imposed a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians wherever it exercises control over the enjoyment of their rights—across Israel and the OPT and with regard to Palestinian refugees. The segregation is conducted in a systematic and highly institutionalized manner through laws, policies and practices, all intended to prevent Palestinians from claiming and enjoying equal rights to Jewish Israelis within Israel and the OPT, and thus intended to oppress and dominate the Palestinian people.”
Across Israel and the OPT, millions of Palestinians live in densely populated areas that are generally underdeveloped and lack adequate essential services such as garbage collection, electricity, public transportation and water and sanitation infrastructure.
Amnesty International has concluded that Israel has perpetrated the international wrong of apartheid, as a human rights violation and a violation of international law. It has assessed that almost all of Israel’s civilian administration and military authorities, as well as governmental and quasi-governmental institutions, are involved in the enforcement of the system of apartheid against the Palestinians.
In order to end this madness, the U.S., its allies, and the U.N. must adopt and enforce the recommendations and guidelines set forth in the Amnesty International Report and establish a unified country in Israel with equal rights and opportunities for all citizens. In part 2 of this article some of these recommendations are discussed. However, it’s much better to read the entire report.
The Palestinians continue to reject a two-state solution that divides their country and leaves them second class citizens with less land, less resources and less opportunities.
Pauli Halstead-Nevada City