Amnesty International accuses Israel of a new report of pursuing apartheid policies against Palestinians. After two years of investigations, the human rights organization says that Palestinians in the country are treated as a “subordinate racial group”.

 

The report has been criticized by, among others, the Israeli government and the Dutch Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI).

In the 280-page document, Amnesty talks about Palestinians’ “systematic” oppression. This population group would, among other things, miss out on facilities that Jewish Israelis do receive. According to the organization, Israel has unlawfully killed thousands of Palestinians and destroyed hundreds of thousands of Palestinian homes and property.

Amnesty wants, among other things, that Israel guarantees the rights of Palestinians and asks the United Nations to impose an arms embargo on the country. It is not the first time that a human rights organization has accused Israel of apartheid. Human Rights Watch already did this last year, as did the Israeli organization B’Tselem.

The CIDI calls the report “unfounded”. Amnesty would condone Palestinian terrorism and dismiss attacks on Israeli civilians as a freedom struggle. Also, the report would ignore the contribution of Arab residents to Israeli politics and society. The centre further criticizes Amnesty’s resource use. Sources would be poorly named so that their independence could not be checked.

In the run-up to publication, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spoke of an anti-Semitic and biased report. “Israel is not perfect, but it is a democracy committed to international law.” According to the government, Amnesty is based on lies.