London

- The quest to end the apartheid regime is more difficult than proving it. The facts that indicate the Israeli occupation’s practice of an apartheid policy against the Palestinian people are many and documented, according to a group of jurists and academics who responded to the call of the International Center for Justice for Palestinians in London (ICJP).

The symposium focused on the topic of "confronting the Israeli apartheid regime and the occupation of Palestinian lands", to shed light on the suffering of the Palestinian people, as well as to direct a legal and human rights criticism of the West's handling of the Palestinian tragedy and granting Tel Aviv immunity from accountability.

Representatives from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Democracy in the Arab World Now (DAWN), the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, and the Al-Sharq Forum participated in the symposium.

Sherine Abu Aqleh was assassinated while covering the storming of the Jenin refugee camp by the occupation forces (communication sites)

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Wadah Khanfar, head of the Al Sharq Forum, opened his intervention by talking about his joining the Al Jazeera network in the same year that Shireen Abu Akleh joined the same network. unspoken in Palestine.

Wadah Khanfar recalled his memories in South Africa and how he was wondering, "When will the Palestinian people live the moment of liberation from racism and occupation, even though I know that the Palestinian file is linked to many interests and centers of power and granting complete immunity to Israel, which does not stop producing an unlimited number of lies and deceptions."

Wadah Khanfar relied on the lessons of history to show the similarity between the incident of the attack on the coffin of a human rights activist in South Africa in 1987 by the police at the time, and the attack on the coffin of the late Shireen Abu Akleh. This moment will turn into a defining moment in Palestinian history."

The head of the Al-Sharq Forum considered that the moment of the attack on the coffin "represents the moment of the shining truth of the apartheid regime that strips the Palestinians of their humanity and does not care about the world, because this world granted it this immunity."

A large audience of jurists participated in the symposium (Al-Jazeera)

Enough dodging

Hagai L. Ad, Executive Director of the human rights organization B'Tselem, proceeded from the conviction that proving the existence of an apartheid system practiced by Israel against the Palestinians "does not require much work, as it is a daily living reality," adding that the apartheid system has become systematic, and is practiced by the state with its various organs.

He gave the example of the inability of the Palestinians along the Green Line to live in a normal way with their families because of apartheid, in addition to the inability to raise the Palestinian flag even inside Jerusalem, and "If you are a student at an Israeli university and raise the Palestinian flag, this may expose you to expulsion and prosecution."

To bring the picture closer to the audience, the Israeli human rights activist emphasized that 10% of the Jews live in the areas beyond the Green Line, and that Jerusalem "practically is subject to annexation and occupation, and the rest of the occupied territories suffer from oppression, humiliation and violation of the law," which means that we have a state that practices racism against another group. different.

The spokesman stressed that the behavior of the Israeli police who attacked the late Shirin Abu Aqleh "shows how far the mentality of oppression and violence has reached," adding that racism has become widespread even in the judiciary, citing a statement by a judicial body that said, "The lands are ours, that is, the Jews and the resources are ours, and the Palestinians go to Hell", to conclude that the duty of all human rights activists to call things by their proper names without equivocation is that what is happening is an apartheid regime.


shocking reality

Solomon Sako, Deputy Director of Amnesty International, proceeded from his personal experience, as he was born in South Africa, and knows the meaning of apartheid, and under that system, funerals and coffins of the dead were attacked, and journalists were shot dead, and this is what is currently happening with the Palestinians.

The human rights official considered that there are many similarities between what happened in South Africa and what is happening in the occupied territories, adding that the legal and human rights arguments should focus on considering that what is happening is a state crime, and that “Israel is responsible for setting up this racist regime and for consolidating the differences between Two groups of people."

The Amnesty International official described the testimonies collected by the organization from the Palestinians about the reality of apartheid as “shocking” testimonies as well as the facts on the ground, adding that there is an increasing conviction among international human rights and legal institutions that what is happening is an “apartheid” regime because we have come to the conclusion that what is happening It is a system in favor of one group of people to assert their superiority at the expense of another.”

He stressed that what is important in this matter is not "legal standards as much as thinking about ending this unacceptable situation, and we know that this matter may not be soon, but what we have to do is push towards getting rid of it."


hit freedom of expression

Jurist and legal Sarah Whitson of the Organization for Democracy in the Arab World Now sounded the alarm about Israeli attempts to "transfer its totalitarian model of restricting freedom of expression to the Western world."

In the face of the growing awareness of what is happening in the occupied territories, "there is a campaign by Israel and its supporters in order to cover up its crimes and attempt to restrict freedom of expression in Western countries and to copy what it is doing inside to abroad by targeting mouths that raise their voices loudly to criticize their policies."

The American Academy confirmed that even the most staunch defenders of Israel in America and the United Kingdom "are finding it difficult to deny the apartheid regime that Tel Aviv is building."

The official of the (DAWN) Foundation spoke that the Israeli strategy in the United States is based on smear campaigns, harassment and harassment of any critical voice, "and that is why millions are spent on lobbies in order to frighten all supporters of the Palestinian cause and exploit the issue of anti-Semitism."

And she warned against legislation being passed in Britain and the United States, in order to punish discussions that expose violations of the occupation and mix them with anti-Semitism.

growing awareness

Omar Shakir, head of the Palestinian file at Human Rights Watch, expressed that there is a growing awareness of the ugliness of the situation in the occupied territories, "and even Israeli human rights organizations and figures inside Israel are criticizing the human rights situation and talking about apartheid against millions of Palestinians."

The human rights activist emphasized that the reality on the ground says that there is a government that rules a certain area of ​​land and rules two groups of people of the same size, but in a way that distinguishes one group from the other and establishes a system to make one group superior to the other.


Shakir called for accurately describing the reality and emphasizing that "what is happening is preventing the Palestinians from their most basic rights for decades just because they are Palestinians and not Jews, and this is considered racism."

The representative of "Human Rights Watch" warned that the peace process is only an attempt to cover up the ugly reality on the ground, "which says that one group practices racism against another group."

'Treat us like Ukraine'

Shawan Jabarin, director of the human rights organization Al-Haq, appealed to the British government and Parliament to direct a fact-finding committee to find out what is really happening in Palestine, "if what they lack is information, but in reality what they lack is political will."

The Palestinian human rights activist criticized what he described as selectivity in the West's dealings with international laws, and that "these days in particular are selective in dealing with the law, especially with what is happening in Ukraine."

Jabarin expressed his support for the efforts of the international community to protect the Ukrainian people, "but we must generalize the rejection of the invasion and occupation and support the victims, and we ask only 10% of the efforts made by the British government to support the Ukrainians."