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There is a systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank. Whether accessing water, school, rushing to hospital, visiting family or friends, or harvesting olives – every aspect of life for Palestinians in the West Bank is controlled and curtailed by Israel’s discriminatory laws, policies and practices.
This is a particularly severe form of racial discrimination and segregation that resembles the kind of apartheid system we have seen before.
Every negative trend documented by a new comprehensive UN Human Rights Office has not only continued but accelerated. And every day this is allowed to continue, the consequences worsen for Palestinians.
Impunity prevails for human rights violations, including endemic violence committed by Israeli security forces and settlers.
With more than 1,500 killings of Palestinians between January 2017 and September 2025, the Israeli authorities have opened 112 investigations, with only one conviction.
Thousands of Palestinians remain arbitrarily detained by Israeli authorities, mostly under ‘administrative detention’, without charges or trial.
The illegal settlement expansion continues unabated. Israeli authorities and settlers have appropriated tens of thousands of hectares of Palestinian land most of which serves to build new Israeli settlements or outposts, illegal under international law. A recent example is the approval by Israel’s security cabinet of the construction of 19 new settlements, which Israeli officials have said is to block the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The Israeli authorities must repeal all laws, policies and practices that perpetuate systemic discrimination against Palestinians based on race, religion or ethnic origin. The Israeli authorities should bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including by dismantling all settlements and evacuating all settlers, and to respect the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
Volker Türk,
UN Human Rights Chief
n Editor’s note: The UN Human Rights Office report details the asphyxiating impact of Israel’s laws, policies and practices on every aspect of daily life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It warns that Israel is violating international law requiring States to prohibit and eradicate racial segregation and apartheid.
Systemic discrimination against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is a long-standing concern, the report notes, adding that the situation has drastically deteriorated. The report contains numerous illustrative examples of how increasingly constrained and insecure life has become for Palestinians.
The report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe the separation, segregation and subordination are intended to be permanent, to maintain oppression and domination of Palestinians.
“Acts committed with the intention to maintain such a policy amount to a violation of Article 3 of ICERD (the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination), which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid,” it finds.
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