Omar Shakir Profile picture
Apr 27, 2021 27 tweets 12 min read Read on X
Breaking: @hrw finds that Israeli authorities are committing crimes against humanity of apartheid & persecution. Thread w findings in 213pg report on Israel's rule of Palestinians. Time to recognize reality for what it is, find #Courage2FightApartheid 1/27 hrw.org/news/2021/04/2…
While coined in relation to South Africa, legal treatises recognize apartheid as a universal legal term. Apartheid is prohibited as a matter of customary international law & is also a crime against humanity consisting of three primary elements. 2/27
The related crime against humanity of persecution consists of (1) a discriminatory intent, when leading to (2) severe deprivation of fundamental rights of a racial, ethnic or other group. 3/27 Image
More than two years in the making, “A Threshold Crossed” evaluates Israel’s treatment of Palestinians based on years of @hrw documentation, case studies & review of govt policies & statements. It evaluates these facts against elements of crimes of apartheid & persecution. 4/27 Image
Findings of apartheid & persecution by @hrw are based on (1) a policy Israeli authorities pursue across Israel & occupied territory (OPT) to maintain domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians, & (2) grave abuses against Palestinians in OPT, including in East Jerusalem. 5/27 Image
First, @hrw found that Israeli officials have sought to engineer & maintain a Jewish demographic majority, maximize land for Jewish Israelis & confine Palestinians to dense enclaves across Israel/OPT, which amounts to discriminatory intent to dominate, one element of crimes. 6/27 Image
Officials openly seek to mitigate “demographic threat” Palestinians pose. Eg, Israeli law denies Palestinians expelled/who fled from homes & languishing in camps nearby from returning, while allowing Jewish citizens aboard to move to Israel & automatically gain citizenship. 7/27
Authorities have pursued a policy to “Judaize” the Negev and Galilee, areas that account for 2/3rds the land inside Israel. Policies hem in Palestinian areas, while allowing Jewish areas with the power by law to exclude Palestinians from living there to flourish. 8/27 Image
Israeli govt's plan for the Jerusalem municipality, including both the west & occupied east parts of city, sets the goal of “maintaining a solid Jewish majority in the city” & specifies the demographic ratios it hopes to maintain btw Jewish Israelis & Palestinians. 9/27 Image
In West Bank, govt plans, such as 1980 Drobles plan, call on authorities to “settle the land btw minority population centers,” noting that doing so would “remove any trace of doubt about our intention to control” these areas forever. Land grabs & actions on ground back up. 10/27 Image
Govt enforces “separation” policy btw Gaza & West Bank. It has effectively barred Gaza residents from living in WBank as part of strategy to effectively take its large Palestinian population off the demographic ledger, gerrymandering Jewish majority in Israel & rest of OPT. 11/27 Image
Pursuant to this intent, @hrw finds that Israeli authorities have erected a two-tiered system across Israel & OPT: privileging Jewish Israelis & granting them same rights/privileges wherever they live, & repressing Palestinians at varying intensities, wherever they live. 12/27 Image
In the OPT, the means used amount to systematic oppression, the second prong of apartheid. Many abuses at core of crime [land grabs, residency revocations, denial of building permits] have no security justification or use security as a pretext to advance demographic goals. 13/27 Image
In West Bank, Israeli authorities subject Palestinians to draconian military rule while applying civil law to Jewish Israeli settlers living in same territory, enforce segregation & plunder land/resources from Palestinians & allocate it to settlers in discriminatory fashion 14/27
In annexed E Jerusalem (occupied under intl law), authorities maintain separate sets of rules for Jewish Israelis & Palestinians: eg guaranteeing residency rights to Jewish Israelis, but, for largely stateless Palestinians, providing conditional, revocable residency status. 15/27
In Gaza, authorities impose a generalized travel ban on 2+ million Palestinians, robbing them w few exceptions of their freedom of movement. They also severely restrict entry/exit of goods & have effectively turned 25x7 mile (40by11 KM) territory into an open-air prison. 16/27 Image
In Israel, @hrw found institutional discrimination: eg in Negev, authorities refuse to recognize or connect 35 Palestinian Bedouin communities to basic infrastructure & make it impossible for their 90K residents to live lawfully in their homes, which they regularly raze. 17/27
Amid systematic oppression, @hrw found five clusters of inhumane acts & severe abuses of fundamental carried out by Israeli authorities in the OPT, the final element of both apartheid & persecution. 18/27 Image
First, sweeping movement restrictions: Gaza closure, imposition of permit regime, erection of separation barrier in part on Palestinian land & nearly 600 checkpoints/other closure obstacles across West Bank, often turning short commutes into hours-long, humiliating ordeals 19/27
Second, more than 1/3 of the land in the West Bank confiscated from Palestinians (2 mill dunams, 500K+ acres), w/ 99% of public land allocated by Israeli govt given to Jewish Israelis in illegal settlements, leaving Palestinians to live in dozens of disconnected enclaves. 20/27 Image
Third, coercive policies in most of West Bank under full Israeli control (Area C) & E Jerusalem that make it effectively impossible for 100s of 1000s of Palestinians to build. Btw 2016-18, 100x more demolition orders than building permits for Palestinians in Area C issued. 21/27 Image
Fourth, stripping 500K+ Palestinians in OPT of legal status since 1967 & effectively freezing the family reunification process since 2000. 22/27 Image
Fifth, denial for generations to 4.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank & Gaza of their basic civil rights, such as freedom of speech, assembly or association, or a say in the affairs that affect them most. 23/27 Image
We've worked on Israel/Palestine for 30+ years. These are most stark findings @hrw has ever reached on conduct of Israeli authorities. We call on them to end apartheid/persecution & dismantle all forms of discrimination privileging Jewish Israelis at expense of Palestinians 24/27 Image
For intl community, we call for investigations, prosecutions & targeted sanctions against Israeli officials implicated in apartheid/persecution, conditioning military assistance to Israel on ending crimes & vetting engagement w Israeli govt to ensure non-complicity in them. 25/27 Image
A 54-year-occupation is not temporary. A 30+ year peace process won’t alone dismantle systematic repression. Those who strive for peace, whatever the solution, should recognize reality for what it is- apartheid & persecution- & bring to bear tools needed to end grave abuses 26/27
Prominent voices have long warned that Israel's rule over Palestinians could give rise to apartheid. That threshold has been crossed. Apartheid & persecution is the reality today for millions of Palestinians today. 27/27 #Courage2FightApartheid hrw.org/report/2021/04… Image

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More from @OmarSShakir

May 14
Israel's April 1 strike killing 7 @WCKitchen aid workers was no anomaly—new @hrw report finds that Israel has repeatedly struck known locations of aid convoys & premises. 250+ aid workers have been killed since Oct 7. Perpetrators must be held to account.🧵 hrw.org/news/2024/05/1…
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We @hrw documented 8 cases in which aid organizations or UN agencies shared the GPS coordinates of an aid convoy or premises with Israeli authorities & yet Israeli forces attacked them without warning. These Israeli attacks killed 15 people—including 2 kids—& injured 16 others. Image
On Nov 18, Israeli forces fired on convoy of five marked @MSF cars, killing two people. MSF coordinated their movements w the Israeli army & followed the route they designated. There were no apparent military targets in area. MSF requested an explanation, but received no reply. Image
Read 12 tweets
Apr 4
Breaking: new @hrw report documents another apparent Israeli war crime—Oct 31 strike on central Gaza apartment building killing 106+ civilians, including 54 kids, many playing football. No evidence of military target—making strike unlawfully indiscriminate hrw.org/news/2024/04/0…
350 people lived in building—including 150 who were displaced. When Israel struck, many kids were playing football outside building; others gathered to charge their phones in rare grocery store that had power amid Israeli electricity cuts. Members of 14 families killed in instant Image
This is one of 31000+ Israeli strikes. More Palestinians killed on average per day since Oct 7 than in this strike. Israel's blocking of entry to investigators & killing of journalists makes deep-dive investigations difficult, but this one points to many yet unreported war crimes Image
Read 4 tweets
Feb 20
This week's momentous Int'l Court of Justice hearings on legal consequences of Israel's 57-year occupation highlight the growing global consensus that Israel's repression of Palestinians amounts to apartheid. A🧵of excerpts from the proceedings (to be updated as statements go up) Image
South Africa "beseeches @CIJ_ICJ to examine the institutionalized régime of discriminatory laws, policies & practices applied by Israel alongside the definition of the crime of apartheid & to find that Israel subjects Palestinians to what constitutes an apartheid régime" (Feb 20) Image
Saudi Arabia to @CIJ_ICJ (Feb 20): "There can be no serious debate that Israeli policies & practices also amount to racial discrimination & are tantamount to apartheid, in grave violation of the Palestinian people’s human rights." Image
Read 31 tweets
Oct 15, 2023
Israeli authorities are signaling their intent to commit mass atrocities. They must be stopped. A thread 1/10 Image
The Hamas-led massacre shook Israelis to their core—many know someone killed when fighters shot up crowds, taken as hostages/paraded about or narrowly survived by barricading themselves as militants infiltrated homes. They committed heinous crimes & should be held to account 2/10 Image
But that’s not what Israeli officials are calling for—they want revenge, using incendiary language & suggesting that the entire population of Gaza—2.2+ million people, half of whom are children—should be collectively punished. Some examples 3/10 Image
Read 10 tweets
Feb 1, 2022
With today’s landmark @amnesty report, Israeli apartheid is now a matter of wall-to-wall consensus. As more & more recognize reality for what it is, our challenge is to take action to change it & #EndIsraeliApartheid 1/10
Amnesty thoroughly exposes a “system which operates w varying levels of intensity & repression based on Palestinians’ status in the separate enclaves where [they] live.. but ultimately seeks to establish & maintain Jewish hegemony wherever Israel exercises effective control” 2/10
Amnesty’s findings echo those of leading Palestinian & Israeli rights orgs, @hrw & others: that Israeli govt committing the crime of apartheid against millions of Palestinians & that int’l community should end complicity & hold perpetrators to account 3/10
Read 10 tweets
Jul 27, 2021
Breaking: @hrw finds that Israeli strikes in May killed scores of civilians in Gaza, wiped out entire families w/ no evident military targets in area & amount to apparent war crimes that @IntlCrimCourt should probe. Hear the harrowing accounts of survivors hrw.org/news/2021/07/2…
In one strike @hrw investigated, guided missile witnesses saw approach from Israel killed 6 kids as they played & 2 adults near Beit Hanoun. Israel said it was a Palestinian rocket, but offered no evidence & included one victim among ppl they said were killed. All were civilians.
In another, a US-made guided bomb destroyed a building in al-Shati refugee camp, one of world’s most densely populated areas, killing 2 women & 8 of their young kids as they slept, leaving only one surviving kids from each family. @hrw found no evidence of military target there.
Read 8 tweets

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