Israeli NGO: Israel Is an Apartheid Regime
B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, has taken an extraordinary step — following many Palestinian and human rights groups around the world — in calling the state of Israel what it is: an apartheid regime and thus anything but a democracy.
Israeli border guards push over a Palestinian flag as they take a position during clashes near an Israeli checkpoint in Ramallah, West Bank, 2017. (Chris McGrath / Getty Images)
The Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem recently published a remarkable report: “A Regime of Jewish Supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This Is Apartheid.” B’Tselem has published hundreds of previous reports criticizing Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights in the Occupied Territories. It has offered testimony to the United Nations on potential Israeli war crimes in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. But this is different.
“This Is Apartheid” was not content itself with documenting the usual violent attacks by settlers on Palestinian farmers or hit-and-run accidents in which settlers kill Palestinian pedestrians. For the first time, an Israeli human rights NGO refused to make a distinction between crimes committed against Palestinians outside Israel (the Green Line) and those inside it.
In fact, it declares the Occupation is not separate from Israel, but an integral part of it:
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