ESCWA Report on Israel's Apartheid policies and practices

Euro-Med Monitor to issue Arabic translation of ESCWA report on Israel's Apartheid policies and practices

Geneva - The Arabic version of the report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) will be published at the beginning of next week by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.

The report was withdrawn as a result of pressure against the organization, whose then President Rima Khalaf, resigned in protest of the withdrawal.

Issued by ESCWA and written by Richard Falk, Chairman of Euro-Med’s Board of Trustees as well as former United Nations Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, and Virginia Tilley, a professor in political science, the report urged swift action against Israel’s apartheid policies and practices towards the Palestinian people.

Publishing the Arabic version of the report at this critical time has become even more significant with Israel's increasingly escalating denial of the Palestinian identity and its legalization of systematic and persistent discrimination against the Palestinians, said Sarah Pritchett, Euro-Med’s spokeswoman.

The recent law providing for this racist image of Israel provides that Israel is a national homeland for the Jewish people, while only Jews are entitled to the right to self-determination and the right to migrate, eventually obtaining Israeli citizenship, adds Pritchett.

The translation of the report comes as part of a project carried out by Euro-Med Monitor to raise awareness of the issues of apartheid, so that the outputs of the report will be present on the local and international scenes.

This translation also aims to target the people most affected by the Apartheid practices discussed in the report; the Palestinian people. Copies of the Arabic translation will be made available and disseminated to the public, researchers, activists and jurists.

The ESCWA report is the first UN report to analyze Israel's practices as a “complex matrix of control”, which represents a significant document to hold Israel accountable and to help end impunity prevailing in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Imposing Apartheid policies, Israel’s matrix of control effectively resulted in fragmenting the Palestinian people into four groups, including those in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, refugees in the diaspora, and Palestinians living inside Israel.

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