Far-Right Israeli Government Escalates Apartheid Policies
By Cassandra Backx and ACHRS
Less than two months into 2023, Israeli forces have already killed 50 Palestinians including 11 children. Since Israel’s new far-right cabinet took office, raids on West Bank cities and villages, settler violence, and extrajudicial killings have intensified dramatically.
War crimes
For the past few months, Israel has been regularly raiding West Bank cities and villages, especially in and near Jenin and Nablus, which have become the main hubs of Palestinian civil resistance. Israeli armed forces have killed countless innocent civilians in their effort to crush resistance against the occupation and apartheid.
Also as part of Israel’s new series of punitive measures against the Palestinian population, three Palestinian officials had their Israeli travel permits revoked after they visited a Palestinian citizen of Israel recently released from prison. Karim Younis had served a 40-year prison sentence for killing an Israeli soldier.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Defense confirmed the decision is part of a new government policy to penalize Palestinians for pushing the UN to issue a judgment on Israel’s occupation.
The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 as well as the 1977 Additional Protocol II of the 1949 Geneva Convention III have classified collective punishment as a war crime.
Al-Aqsa provocations
Israel has recently also been challenging Jordan, whose royal family have been custodians of the Al-Aqsa compound and all of Jerusalem’s Muslim and Christian holy sites since 1924.
In January, Israeli officials denied Jordan’s ambassador to Israel entry to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Ambassador Ghassan Majali stated in response: “Israel must adhere to its obligations under international law and the international humanitarian law towards the occupied city of Jerusalem and its sanctities, especially the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Israeli armed forces have been enabling Israeli settlers to regularly storm the Al-Aqsa compound for the past few months. The settler violence and provocations have intensified significantly since Netanyahu was reelected and formed the new far-right government.
Jordan’s King Abdullah has expressed concern that Israel’s most far-right government is trying to challenge the status quo of Al-Aqsa and warned that Jordan has ‘red lines’.
Settlement expansion ramping up
Furthermore, on February 12th the Israeli government approved the legalization of nine illegal settler outposts in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The government is also planning to build more illegal settler housing in the areas under Palestinian control. The UN has condemned the construction of settlements in the occupied Palestinian areas and has deemed them illegal.
Meanwhile, Israel has ordered the suspension of Palestinian construction projects in most of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Netanyahu confirmed this decision also serves to collectively punish Palestinians after the UN voted to refer Israel’s occupation to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Palestinian Authority’s request.
Israel’s new fascist government appears set on escalating its uncompromising apartheid policies towards Palestinians as far as the international community will allow. However, despite countless ICJ orders and UN votes condemning Israel’s policies, Israel is escalating the ethnic cleansing and occupation of Palestine, essentially unchallenged.
ACHRS strongly condemns Israeli aggression and human rights violations against the Palestinian population in the occupied areas of the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.
The center calls on the international community, particularly the allies of Israel, to condemn Israel’s policies and impose sanctions to end its apartheid regime.
The Israeli government’s treatment of and apartheid policies towards the Palestinian population constitute grave violations of the right to life, the right to health, the right to freedom of movement, the right to freedom of expression, e.a.
Finally, ACHRS reiterates that collective punishment, e.g. the Israeli siege of Gaza and the punitive measures against Palestinians in the West Bank, is a war crime. Accordingly, the center supports the UN vote to refer Israel’s occupation to the ICJ.
