Massachusetts – The US-based Harvard Law School has recognized ‘Israel’ as an apartheid regime.
In a recent report to the UN, the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School recognized the apartheid character of the Israeli regime.
The report was in response to a call for submissions from the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the OPT and ‘Israel’.
Addameer, in partnership with the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, contributed the joint submission.
The report’s title is Apartheid in the Occupied West Bank: A Legal Analysis of Israel’s Actions.
It analyses whether Israel’s legal regime in the occupied West Bank violates the prohibition of apartheid under international law.
The submission also outlines Israel’s discriminatory laws, policies, and practices in the occupied West Bank.
The groups said Israel’s discriminatory law “create a dual legal system.”
This system “systematically discriminates against Palestinians and suppresses their civil and political rights.”
The submission also finds “Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank are in breach of the prohibition of apartheid.”
Moreover, it finds that its actions “amount to the crime of apartheid under international law.”
The Human Rights Council established the Commission of Inquiry in May 2021.
It aimed to investigate “all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law.”
“..leading up to and since 13 April 2021” in the OPT, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel.
In addition, it aimed to investigate “all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict.”
This included “systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.”
Amnesty International said lately ‘Israel’ is carrying out “the crime of apartheid against Palestinians.”
B’Tselem also asserted that Israeli policies had been designed to enforce “Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea”.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch last year became the first international rights group to publicly level the allegation of apartheid.
