UN Report Highlights Intensification of Racial Discrimination in Occupied West Bank

Jerusalem: A comprehensive UN Human Rights Office report released today 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. The report warns that Israel is violating international law requiring States to prohibit and eradicate racial segregation and apartheid. According to Palestine News and Information Agency - WAFA, systemic discrimination against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is a long-standing concern, with the situation drastically deteriorating since at least December 2022. The report contains numerous illustrative examples of how increasingly constrained and insecure life has become for Palestinians. The report notes that Israeli authorities apply two distinct bodies of law and policies to Israeli settlers and Palestinians residing in the West Bank, resulting in unequal treatment on critical issues, including movement and access to resources such as land and w ater. Palestinians face large-scale land confiscation and deprivation of access to resources, leading to dispossession and other forms of systemic discrimination, including criminal prosecution in military courts that violate due process and fair trial rights. The report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe the separation, segregation, and subordination are intended to be permanent, maintaining the oppression and domination of Palestinians. It states that acts committed with the intention to maintain such a policy violate Article 3 of ICERD, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid. Since 7 October 2023, the report highlights the Israeli government's expanded use of unlawful force, arbitrary detention, and torture, repression of civil society, undue media restrictions, severe movement restrictions, settlement expansion, and related violations in the occupied West Bank. This escalation is compounded by continued settler violence, often with the acquiescence, support, and participati on of Israeli forces. The military justice system against Palestinians offers little human rights protection compared to Israeli civil law, which provides greater protection for settlers. The military legal system is described as a significant tool in controlling Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The report documents unlawful killings and other forms of State and settler violence, citing instances of lethal force used in a discriminatory manner against Palestinians. For example, on 28 January 2025, Israeli forces shot a 10-year-old boy, Saddam Hussein Rajab, who later died. The report also mentions the killing of a pregnant woman, Sondos Shalabi, by Israeli forces, who acknowledged she was unarmed. Discriminatory movement restrictions impact human rights, infringing on the right to work and preventing Palestinians from accessing their lands, causing financial hardship. The construction of roads accessible only to Israeli settlers further isolates Palestinian communities. Thousands of Palestinians hav e been evicted, which may amount to unlawful transfer, a war crime. Palestinians are deprived of natural resources, with Israel unlawfully confiscating and demolishing Palestinian water infrastructure, diverting water to settlements. This forces the Palestinian Authority to purchase water from an Israeli government company extracting water from the occupied West Bank. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Trk states the report documents a systematic asphyxiation of Palestinian rights in the West Bank. He calls for the repeal of all laws, policies, and practices perpetuating systemic discrimination against Palestinians and urges Israel to end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, dismantle settlements, and respect Palestinian self-determination. Impunity prevails for human rights violations, including endemic violence by Israeli forces and settlers. Of the more than 1,500 killings of Palestinians from 1 January 2017 to 30 September 2025, only 112 investigations have been opened by Israeli auth orities, with one conviction. Thousands of Palestinians remain arbitrarily detained, primarily under 'administrative detention' without charges or trial. The illegal settlement expansion continues, with tens of thousands of hectares of Palestinian land appropriated by Israeli authorities and settlers for new settlements or outposts, illegal under international law. A recent example is the approval of 19 new settlements by Israel's security cabinet to block the establishment of a Palestinian state.