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LAST UPDATE | 10 Feb 2022
OVER THE LAST year, there has been an ongoing public debate as to whether the actions the Israeli government is enacting in the Occupied Palestinian Territories can be classified as apartheid under international law.
On 1 February, Amnesty International became the latest NGO to class it as apartheid, calling it ‘a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity’. This followed earlier declarations of apartheid by fellow human rights groups, Yesh Din, B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch.
As the former Attorney General of Israel, I have spent my career analysing Israel’s most pressing legal questions. Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem was a fundamental dilemma during my tenure and beyond.
‘A gross injustice’
Israel’s ongoing domination over these territories is a gross injustice that must be urgently rectified.
It is with great sadness that I must also conclude that my country has sunk to such political and moral depths that it is now an apartheid regime. It is time for the international community to recognise this reality as well.
Since 1967 Israeli authorities have justified the occupation by claiming that it is temporary until a peaceful solution can be found between Israelis and Palestinians. However, five decades have now passed since these territories were conquered and Israel shows no interest in rescinding this control.
It is impossible to conclude otherwise: the occupation is a permanent reality. This is a one state reality, with two different peoples living with unequal rights.
Violating international law, Israel has transferred more than 650,000 of its Jewish citizens to live in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. These settlements are established in areas that surround Palestinian villages, intentionally fragmenting Palestinian communities from each other, to ultimately prevent the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state. In East Jerusalem, discriminatory property laws are forcing Palestinians out of their homes in a state-backed policy of Judaising the city.
There are no ‘two Israels’
In Area C of the West Bank, discriminatory planning laws are being used to drive Palestinian communities from their land. These communities face a deluge of settler violence from unauthorised outposts (illegal even under Israeli law), the perpetrators of which face little to no consequences.
Any attempts to resist apartheid are heavily surveilled or criminalised, exemplified by the spurious designation of Palestinian civil society groups as terrorists by the Israeli Ministry of Defence.
Successive Israeli governments including the recent coalition government which billed itself as a shift away from Netanyahu’s intransigence has consistently and publicly affirmed that they have no intention of establishing a Palestinian state.
However, much of the discussion in the international community operates as if Israel’s behaviour in the occupied territories can be distinguished from the liberal democracy that exists within the Green Line. This is a mistake.
You simply cannot be a liberal democracy if you operate apartheid over another people. It is a contradiction in terms because Israel’s entire society is complicit in this unjust reality.
It is the Israeli ministerial cabinet for settlements that approves every illegal settlement in the occupied territories. It was me, in my role as the Attorney General who approved the expropriation of private Palestinian land in order to build infrastructure such as roads that have entrenched settlement expansion.
It is the Israeli courts that uphold discriminatory laws geared to expel Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem and their land in the West Bank. Its healthcare providers operate over the Green Line. And Israeli citizens ultimately pay taxes that subsidise the government’s entrenchment of control and domination in these territories.
Between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, it is Israel that is permanently depriving millions of Palestinians of their civil and political rights. This is Israeli apartheid.
Is there hope?
There are two possible democratic solutions that can resolve this status quo. The first is granting everyone living under Israeli control full citizenship and equality.
Unfortunately, this scenario would lead to a loss of the Jewish majority and ‘Balkanisation’ of the entire territory, increasing the likelihood of intractable conflict.
The second possible solution would be for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories and establish a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel. This would not only ensure the fair division of the land between the indigenous Palestinians and the Jewish people who have been persecuted for thousands of years. It would also guarantee both a sustainable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an end to apartheid.
The status quo on the ground is a moral abomination. The delay by the international community in taking meaningful steps to hold Israel accountable for the apartheid regime it is perpetuating is unacceptable.
Michael Benyair is a former Attorney General of Israel and a former acting judge in the Israeli Supreme Court.
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Good man
@Liam MacSuibhne: This is a massive step for the Palestinian people on the international stage. Fair play to him.
@Liam MacSuibhne: Ah come on, Israel needs apartheid to counter those Palestinian children throwing stones at their tanks. Without Apartheid how can it reasonably fight those rockets that has so often brought Israel to the near brink of destruction?
On a serious note, M. Martin must now feel like a right clown for refusing to call the apartheid state an apartheid state. But then again his brass neck probably wont allow him to blink an eye over it.
If only the international community had the backbone to join him…
Wow. Reminds of that quote about when good people stand by and do nothing. Brave man. Well done.
@Vonvonic: indeed. He is likely to face a huge backlash and may need to be very careful. It’s an incredibly brave thing to say
@Vonvonic: “Desperate people do desperate things” without just taking sides, the fears, insecurities and ideologies/religions of both sides need to be honestly discussed/considered.
@Tom Molloy: Except that the world’s preeminent super power amd weapons maker HAS been taking sides with the oppressor om this story for over half a century, while their allies stick their heads in the sand.
Brave man he couldn’t do us a favour and let Michael Martin know.
@Mar Mar: And coveney, the Bilderberg boy
The sad reality is that the Israeli apartheid is supported and enabled by the USA. The international community fears angering the Americans and the Americans, as we saw in WWII will only do the right thing when it’s almost too late. Israel will continue to do what it is doing and worse until the USA takes a stand. They’re backed by the largest superpower in earth that pumps money into the apartheid state and they know they’re untouchable while this continues.
@: Absolutely. It’s interesting that it is an AG that has put this out as it speaks to the actual legality of what Israel is doing.. If it were a politician, it would be hammered by other politicians. Maybe we should be petitioning the legal establishment instead of politicians; it would be more effective.
@ …it’s fairly obvious that appealing to the US’s sense of decency and mortality is a complete waste of time.
@Vonvonic: *morality
@Vonvonic: good point. Although, the US see human rights as optional too, so a fight on legality with them won’t wash unless major economical powers unite to push the US to do the right thing.
@: This is quite interesting and Mr Benyair would make a compelling witness.
https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/02/27/lawsuit-could-expose-u.s.-organizations-involvement-in-west-bank-settlements-pub-78464
The publication of this article is to be welcomed. It is very rare such criticism is covered by the media which is one major problem in educating people to the reality on the ground for Palestinians over there. A lot of that is down to the ownership of the media, take Sky News for example, owned by Comcast whose CEO is a jewish billionaire. No chance they are going to run anything critical of israel in fact Amnesty’s recent report only got a cursory mention. It’s the same in US media, therefore the majority of people are oblivious to the reality of israel’s apartheid. If the media reported the wrongs with the same zeal as they do with China, Russia, Iran, Syria, Venezuela etc then maybe the tide would start to turn but unfortunately that is not going to happen anytime soon.
About time, wake up Irish government.
Free Palestine!!!
The US is just as culpable. It continues to prop up this apartheid regime and supplies it with state of the art weaponry to suppress the natives. It’s up to the international community to pressurise the US now. They’ll always support their Israeli allies but they at least have some influence over their actions. Irish government ministers could start the ball rolling when they’re on their jolly to the US in March but they don’t have the back bone for it.
I’m sure we’ll have a few expert commentators on soon to say he’s a terrorist or leader of Hamas now.
The only peace Israel wants is every piece of Palestine. #FreePalestine 9
Will American doing anything about it? After all they supply the Israel military with most of their weapons!
@Brian Kelly: Even more potent than US arms, our medias refusal to report on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is far more valuable to the settler/colonial project. If the world knew what was happening, they would not stand for it. The silence of our media is active complicity
About time.
And todays prize for stating the bleedin obvious goes to…..
@Dan Duggan: Em…you?
@Nick Nolan: Touché
Was he called anti-Semitic yet
Never too late to choose justice
History
When Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon moved their forces toward the Israeli border, Israel mobilized its reserve forces, and launched a diplomatic campaign to win international support to end the Egyptian blockade of Israeli shipping through the Straits of Tiran.
When this failed, and in reaction to threats of wiping Israel out, the war began with an Israeli pre-emptive aerial strike on 5 June 1967. It ended on 10 June 1967 with Israel’s victory.
@Tom Molloy: not relevant.
@Tom Molloy: Oh, so that’s why over 50 years later they’re allowed to flout international law, discard human rights and run an apartheid regime…. I always wondered about that. Thanks for the lesson
@Liam MacSuibhne: Apartheid ?
Covenant of Hamas terror
Its Covenant is a comprehensive manifesto comprised of 36 separate articles, all of which promote the basic HAMAS goal of destroying the State of Israel through Jihad (Islamic Holy War). The following are excerpts of the HAMAS Covenant:
The Hamas Covenant – Selected Excerpt
1. Calls for the Destruction of Israel
Introduction: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it” (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).” [Page 1]
Article 6: “The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine…”
@Tom Molloy: Do you know what? I think I’m going to go with an Israeli attorney general’s interpretation of that’s going on rather than your hackneyed apologism.
@Tom Molloy: From your own tit.ie website: “To foster mutual respect and tolerance and understanding between individuals or groups in conflict……”
You are pretty much one sided, right wing in your comments. Flying in the face of what your own website claims.
@Tom Molloy: So, you would have been OK with the British carrying out similar collective punishment of the Irish people in Ireland during the 1970′s, 1980′s & 1990′s because of IRA ideology?
@Fr. Fintan Stack: It is not defending the expansion of settlements to remind people that there is a background to the irrational behaviour of both sides.
@Tom Molloy: Don’t forget the USS Liberty attack by the jew militia, that is still being covered up…..
@Tom Molloy: Whatever can be said about Hamas is a different story. You are supporting extreme collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: I won’t respond as it seems to be an endless circle of unreasonable behaviour and argument on both sides.
@Tom Molloy: Everyone understands what you’re trying to say. It’s hardly complicated. It’s just that noone with a thought in their heads buys into the complete fallacy that there’s any kind of equivalency.
@Tom Molloy: you might want to ask when and why hamas formed.
Maybe read an actual history book instead of your zionist propaganda.
@Tom Molloy: History: Israel has illegally occupied the West Bank (and parts of Lebanon & Syria) for 55 years. During that time they have murdered thousands of innocent Palestinian children, women & men.
@Seán Marlow: A declaration to wipe out an entire national population of children, women and men is fuelling extreme behaviour. Settlements are fuelling extreme behaviour. What’s the double-answer.
What a pity our own minister for foreign affairs does not have this man’s courage, timid simon runs away from these issues
I’m a simple man. I don’t quite grasp a lot of the gobbly goop that is in this article. Big words confuse me. But I must say that the world would be a much better place if we all accepted that Israel and Palestine are neighbours who need to come to some sort of arrangement. Does it really make a difference if they have some sort of disagreement about territories that have been in place for a long time? Other civilised countries have been able to coexist.
Sort your s..t out and live in peace, please!
At least you have admitted what we all know for years.
Being unvaccinated must be like apartheid squared
@Credalytics ☘️: Nothing like it at all. Unvaccinated made that decision, Palestinians have no choice in being evicted from their homes, having the crops destroyed etc.
Ridiculous comparison.
@DJ François:
What if your a Palestinian and decided to not get vaccinated?
Surely, what little rights they enjoy would be further diminished?
@Credalytics ☘️: You wouldn’t happen to know Sean Simpson (or any other of the fly-in and then fly-out commenters on here, would you? You seen to be using a variation of the playbook that’s become all too familiar.
If Ireland had a seat on the UN Security Council we could do something.
No surprise here this guy has been attempting to destabilise the Israeli state since 94, and is a well known “poster boy” for the Palestinian cause.
@Raymond Barry: Well as someone who’s family lived peacefully with Palestinians before 1948 he has a good perspective on how Israel has transitioned to a South African style state.
@Raymond Barry: Is Ehud barak, former president a poster bot who said Isreal is on the “slippery slope to apartheid” in 2017?
Or maybe the well known anti-semite Yitzhak Rabin, who told a TV journalist in 1976 during the first of his two terms as Israel’s prime minister, “I don’t think it’s possible to contain over the long term, if we don’t want to get to apartheid”
have your say