A report by a Harvard Human Rights Center sparked outrage among Israeli officials and pro-Tel Aviv groups for condemning Israel for committing the crime of apartheid
The report was issued by Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association in partnership with the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The submission outlines discriminatory laws policies and practices enforced by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank which create a dual legal system that systematically discriminates against Palestinians and suppresses their civil and political rights.
The submission finds that Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank are in breach of the prohibition of apartheid and amount to the crime of apartheid under international law.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan expressed dissatisfaction with the submission considering it “an antisemitic report.”
“I expect Harvard to unequivocally denounce this repugnant report and hold accountable those who wrote these lies against the only democracy in the Middle East where all its citizens enjoy full equal rights” he wrote on Twitter.
For its part America’s largest Muslim civil rights organization CAIR hailed Harvard Human Rights Clinic report.
“The truth can no longer be denied so when will the international community take action?” CAIR tweeted.
This came a few weeks after Amnesty International has analyzed Israel’s intent to create and maintain a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians and examined its key components: territorial fragmentation; segregation and control; dispossession of land and property; and denial of economic and social rights.
It has concluded at that time that this system amounts to apartheid.
Apartheid Avenue
Meanwhile British activists have put up an “Apartheid Avenue” road sign outside Israel’s embassy in London to mark Israeli Apartheid Week.
The road leading up to the Israeli embassy in the British capital London has been renamed to “Apartheid Avenue” by activists from Amnesty International to mark Israeli Apartheid Week according to a tweet by Kristyan Benedict a campaign manager for the global rights group.
Calls for Sanctions
Along the same line dozens of International organizations human rights groups academics and researchers from 45 countries called in a joint letter on the United Nations to impose sanctions on Israel for its occupation of the Palestinian territories and its apartheid regime.
In a statement issued on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Secretary-General of the International Academic Campaign against Occupation and Apartheid Ramzi Odeh condemned the Western countries’ double standards in dealing with the Palestinian issue compared to the Ukrainian crisis.
