UN accuses Israel of West Bank ‘apartheid’, citing discrimination against Palestinians
For first time, UN rights chief labels situation in occupied Palestinian territories ‘apartheid’, a term previously used only by UN experts
The United Nations on Wednesday said decades of discrimination and segregation of Palestinians by Israel in the West Bank were intensifying, and called on the country to end its “apartheid system”.
In a new report, the UN rights office said the “systematic discrimination” against Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories had “drastically deteriorated” in recent years.
“There is a systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
“Whether accessing water, school, rushing to hospital, visiting family or friends, or harvesting olives – every aspect of life for Palestinians in the West Bank is controlled and curtailed by Israel’s discriminatory laws, policies and practices,” he added.
“This is a particularly severe form of racial discrimination and segregation, that resembles the kind of apartheid system we have seen before.”
A number of independent experts affiliated with the UN have described the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories as an “apartheid”, but this marks the first time a UN rights chief has applied the term.