Israel came into being because of a British mandate in 1920. The initial mandate, stemming from the Balfour Declaration of 1917, was to establish a “national home for the Jewish people.” It added that such a homeland would not to prejudice the rights of non‑Jewish communities.
However, over the years, various human rights bodies have accused the Israeli government of perpetuating policies that segregate, discriminate and dispossess Palestinians; in short, apartheid.
The Birth of Israel and Displacement of Palestinians
While the British mandate had promised there would be no compromise of the rights of the Arab people living on the land where Israel was established, there were tensions between the two groups from the outset.
Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948. Immediately, its Arab neighbours declared war. What ensued was the Six-Day War, which Israel won. Thereafter it began occupying the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) estimated that over 700,000 Palestinians were displaced after the war in what the Palestinians call the “nakba”.
The ICJ, in 2024, also ruled that the takeover of land by Israel was an occupation under international law. The Hague condemned Israel’s “sprawling settlements”, Israel’s “occupation” of East Jerusalem, and the Jewish State’s discriminatory laws. The ICJ ruled that Israel should withdraw from East Jerusalem and its settlements should also be removed.
As of 2025, there are over 700,000 Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem and the West Bank scattered between the Palestinians. However, the two peoples live different lives.
Palestinians face separate legal systems, restricted movement controlled via checkpoints and settler‑only roads, a permit regime, and home demolitions, as the UN has documented.
Apartheid Under International Law
Apartheid is defined in the 1973 Apartheid Convention. Thereafter, the 1998 Rome Statute, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination laid out the conditions that should be evaluated when judging if a regime practices apartheid. These include institutionalised segregation, domination intent, and inhumane acts.
There are two charges of genocide and discriminatory practices against Israel pending before the ICJ. The international court also issued an advisory in 2024 demanding that Israel remove discriminatory practices.
Israel’s Indulging in Apartheid: UN, Amnesty, and Human Rights Watch
In 2022, UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk wrote about the different legal system governing Israelis and Palestinians in the area. He said there was a “deeply discriminatory dual legal and political system” which granted Israeli settlers privileges while dispossessing Palestinians of basic rights. Lynk said the legal system— with walls, numerous check points at every route, a coercive military presence, and inhumane acts by the occupying forces—met all criteria for apartheid under international law.
Since then, Lynk’s assessment has been corroborated by many UN experts including Francesca Albanese and Navi Pillay. During the 2024 Hague hearings before the ICJ, the court affirmed that Israeli practices in occupied territories were nothing short of systemic racial discrimination and apartheid.
Israeli officials criticised the UN rapporteurs reports, and thereafter refused to allow UN investigators into the area saying the charges were politically motivated.
Amnesty International's Report
In February 2022, Amnesty published a landmark report titled “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity.” The report was a study of Israel’s policies through a series of questionnaires posed to Palestinian and Israeli people. The human rights watch dog documented territorial fragmentation, dispossession, movement restrictions, denial of citizenship rights of Palestinian people. Based on its study, Amnesty concluded that Israel’s practices in Gaza and West Bank constituted apartheid, a crime against humanity.
Israel’s government, and its Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, disputed the apartheid label, calling Amnesty’s report “false, biased and antisemitic.” The US State Department also rejected the report as “absurd.”
Human Rights Watch's Allegations
Earlier, in 2021, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) had also said it considered Israel’s occupation of Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank as an apartheid and persecution regime. The HRW said Israeli occupation and laws were designed with the intent to maintain Jewish Israeli domination both within Israel’s recognised borders and the occupied Palestinian territories.
The same year, an NGO within Israel— B’Tselem— wrote a paper that accused Israel of perpetuating “a regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.”
