Press Releases

Highlighting Israel’s institutionalized discrimination regime
Highlighting Israel’s institutionalized discrimination regime

PR/EN/081216/64

On 23 November 2016, BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights attended the consultation meeting with the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) titled “Joining hands to end racial discrimination.”

Through an oral intervention, BADIL highlighted the comprehensiveness of the Israeli regime in perpetuating the forcible transfer and forced displacement of Palestinians regardless of their geographic location or status within the Israeli legal framework. Institutionalized discrimination, through Israeli laws and policies are implemented against the Palestinian people, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, which amount to apartheid as defined in the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid and Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Israeli regime is manifested through the existence of more than 50 laws that discriminate against Palestinians. These laws affect all spheres of life, including education, state services and citizenship which often lead to the forced displacement of Palestinians.

Similarly, BADIL drew the committee’s attention to the contemporary forced displacement and forcible transfer of Palestinian Bedouin on both sides of the Green Line through additional Israeli policies. BADIL also highlighted the discriminatory policies Israel employs to perpetuate displacement and/or statelessness of more than 7 million Palestinian refugees. Further, Israel continues to  forcibly transfer Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory and its policies create an unbearable coercive environment for the Palestinian population.

Accordingly, BADIL called upon the third party states to uphold their legal obligations to ensure justice and respect for the rights of Palestinians in Mandate Palestine (oPt and Israel) and exile.