UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk has issued one of his strongest condemnations yet of Israeli apartheid in a report to the 49th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council for Agenda Item 7; the session which, claims Israel, singles it out unfairly. Referring to various statements, including those of former Israeli ministers and officials in state institutions who called out the colonial state’s apartheid, Lynk declared, “If these responsible figures have determined that this reality is apartheid, then it is incumbent on the rest of us to test, through the tools of international law and human rights, whether these observations accurately reflect what is happening in the Palestinian territory.”

Lynk’s report notes that the Rome Statute’s legal definition of apartheid provides “a forward looking definition with a universal application”, with no reference to South Africa, the country which remains the state primarily associated with the racist system of government and the main reference when speaking about the apartheid that Palestinians face daily.

In his report, Lynk reiterated, “While the historical practice of apartheid in southern Africa provides useful reference points for assessing the possible existence of apartheid elsewhere, such historical and political comparisons are never exact, and cannot be expected to be.” Israel does, moreover, satisfy the legal criteria upon which apartheid can be assessed, and Lynk has moved several steps ahead of the UN by tracing Israeli apartheid to 1967 and its subsequent military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip…

https://www.juancole.com/2022/04/apartheid-palestinians-countries.html

‘It’s not fair’: 10-year-old Palestinian girl breaks down while talking about violence in Gaza // Israel is committing the crime of apartheid, Israeli rights group says

Chris Hedges: Imploding the myth of Israel

Chris Hedges – Israel’s big lie: This isn’t self defense, it’s a war crime, aided and abetted by the U.S.

Why do Americans turn a Blind eye to Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians? / Children are on the frontline of Israel’s war on Gaza – again / How the United States helps to kill Palestinians

Yair Wallach: The violence that began at Jerusalem’s ancient holy sites is driven by a distinctly modern zeal

Meredith Tax: Biden is supporting Turkey’s Bounties on Kurdish Leaders / American silence over Israeli land encroachments and attacks on Palestinians

 

Some information for Israelis (and the rest of us)

Israel is committing the crime of apartheid: Human Rights Watch

Israel Guilty of Apartheid, Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians: UN Rapporteur

Palestinians Shot In Kusra Clash With Israeli Settlers

Israel admits it revoked residency rights of a quarter million Palestinians

The Agony of Palestine

URI AVNERY – Is Israel an apartheid state? // Israel announces east Jerusalem settlements

Robert Fisk: In the cases of two separate holocausts, Israel and Poland find it difficult to acknowledge the facts of history // ANDRÉ LIEBICH – Righteous indignation: On the Polish Holocaust law debate

Israel subjecting Palestinian children to ‘spiral of injustice’ – Children in military custody

Juan Cole: The End of the Oslo Accords: Palestinians pull out of Agreements in face of Netanyahu’s Sudetenland Moment