Geneva – Israel has escalated apartheid policies against Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, since 7 October 2023 extending their reach through new laws, security actions, and administrative procedures. This has worsened their restricted and conditional citizenship status and increased persecution based on their Palestinian identity, Arabic language, and political views.
This escalation has been incorporated into laws, police actions, workplaces, and educational and health systems, reinforcing the dominance of the Jewish Israeli community and ongoing discrimination against Palestinians in their homeland. Moreover, it is taking place within a political and security environment in which Palestinian citizens are racially profiled, and their political views are treated as sources of suspicion, exposing them to increased surveillance, persecution, and discrimination. The application of counter-terrorism provisions to expression has expanded the scope of criminalisation and given discrimination based on national identity legal and institutional cover.
The legislative trajectory after 7 October 2023 has included increasing areas of Palestinian expression within the scope of counter-terrorism. In November 2023, the Knesset adopted, as a temporary measure, the criminalisation of the "systematic and continuous consumption" of publications that call for, praise, or document a terrorist act, where such viewing is considered evidence of identification with a designated terrorist organisation, punishable by up to one year in prison. Although incidental viewing or viewing for a legitimate purpose was excluded, the concepts of "systematic", "identification", and "sympathy" remained broad, without requiring intent to incite or a specific and likely risk of violence. The Knesset later extended the measure in November 2025.
The escalation in apartheid policies is taking place within a political and security environment in which Palestinian citizens are racially profiled, and their political views are treated as sources of suspicion
In November 2024, additional legislative changes increased the authority of the Minister of Education and other authorised bodies to dismiss teachers, deny employment, revoke licences, or withhold funding from educational institutions, either temporarily or permanently, based on signs of "identification", "support", or "endorsement".
The law does not always require a criminal conviction and permits reliance on police or General Security Service information, while key terms remain unclearly defined. Funding for an entire school can also be cut due to a single incident if the administration knew or should have known about it, risking collective punishment for students and staff over speech attributed to one individual. United Nations experts have cautioned about the vague and broad nature of these provisions, which could lead to discriminatory enforcement against Palestinian citizens.
The issue also relates to the original wording of the 2016 Counter-Terrorism Law. It broadens the scope of a "terrorist act" from merely acts aimed at killing, injuring, or taking hostages to include acts or threats that, when motivated by political, national, religious, or ideological reasons and intended to create fear or influence authorities, could also endanger property, religious sites, infrastructure, services, the economy, or the environment. This definition is accompanied by a system for the administrative designation of organisations that may rely on evidence undisclosed to the organisation or its legal team, or disclosed only in an incomplete summary, thereby undermining their ability to understand the basis of the decision and challenge it effectively.
Such a flaw stems from the combined effect of the entire system: a wide definition of terrorism, speech offences based on vague language, administrative designations that may depend on undisclosed evidence, and the lack of a clear requirement in several provisions for a direct and probable link between free expression and violence.
Overall, these factors provide authorities a wide scope to view Palestinian political, human rights, and civic activities as security concerns, which could lead to equating support for political or liberation causes with endorsing the violent tactics used to achieve them. When used selectively, counter-terrorism measures stop being a means to target particular acts of violence and instead serve as a way to criminalise Palestinian identity and public actions, while also imposing extraordinary restrictions on those involved.
The securitisation has also encompassed resources aimed at tackling social and economic disparities. In July 2026, the Israeli government reallocated NIS 496.9 million (Approx. 143.5 million euros) from Five-Year Plan No. 550, originally designated for economic development and addressing disparities in Palestinian society, to fund police and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) efforts to combat crime. Funds from a plan supporting education, employment, planning, and public services were diverted to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Petitioners filed a challenge in the High Court, questioning whether there was any legal basis for the Shin Bet to handle civilian crimes and cautioning against establishing a separate, more severe security system for Palestinian citizens.
This resource diversion pattern was also seen in Wadi Ara, where NIS 557 million (Approx. 160.8 million euros) was allocated for a public transport project on Highway 65 to address disparities. However, a petition revealed that only 6.5 per cent of the funds were used for the original purpose, with over 90 per cent spent on other projects benefiting Jewish localities. These figures demonstrate how funds meant to combat historical infrastructure discrimination can be rerouted to reinforce the very disparities they aimed to reduce.
The disparity in protection from war dangers is also stark. As of March 2026, official figures cited by multiple human rights groups show Arab local authorities have only 37 public shelters, compared to 11,775 across Israel. Civil society surveys reveal that about 41 per cent of Palestinian citizens lack sufficient protection, and around 165,000 people in unrecognised Palestinian villages in the Negev Desert are without protective infrastructure and warning systems. This unequal distribution significantly influences the risk of injury or death, depending on location and identity, highlighting how decades of neglect in planning, recognition, and funding have compromised the effective safeguarding of the right to life.
The relationship between police and Palestinian society combines over-policing and inadequate protection. Abraham Initiatives reports that in the first half of 2026, 144 people died from violent crimes within Palestinian society, comprising 140 citizens and four Palestinians from East Jerusalem; 127 of these victims were killed by firearms. The organisation estimated that only about 12 per cent of cases had been resolved, highlighting ongoing shortcomings in prevention, investigation, and unlicensed weapons collection, despite significant resources used for monitoring expression, executing raids, and restricting movement.
Recently, police have frequently raided weddings and social gatherings in areas such as Barta'a, Baqa al-Gharbiyye, Zemer, Umm al-Fahm, and the Negev. In one case, the father of a groom in Umm al-Fahm reported that over 100 police and Border Police officers stormed the event, deploying stun grenades, forcing attendees to lie on the ground, and assaulting some of them, all without locating any weapons.
In another incident, a groom and bride from Shaqib al-Salam claimed they were detained on their wedding day on suspicion of traffic obstruction and then released without interrogation. These cases remain legally unadjudicated. However, their similar accounts raise important concerns about the legal grounds, the appropriateness of the force applied, and its proportionality, highlighting the need for independent investigation and a systematic review of law enforcement practices during Jewish social events.
The persecution also affects personal freedom. On 2 March 2026, activist Tamer Khalifa was taken from his home in Umm al-Fahm and held for 15 days of questioning. Subsequently, the court ordered his release with house arrest outside his hometown for one week. On 25 March, the Minister of Defence issued a six-month administrative detention order against him, citing undisclosed evidence. The Haifa District Court later reduced the detention to two months, ending on 2 July 2026. Khalifa's defence team argued that the basis for the "security threat" was their client's regular conversations with friends in Arab countries.
Because it relies on material detainees and their lawyers cannot fully access or challenge, administrative detention strips detainees of essential fair trial guarantees and their right to effectively challenge evidence. In Khalifa's situation, the order shifted the case from a publicly scrutinised criminal process to an administrative procedure that limited evidence review. This followed a court order releasing him from criminal investigation on conditions, raising serious concerns that the exceptional power was used to sidestep fair trial protections.
The racist environment has also spread to educational institutions. On 4 February 2026, Jewish students attacked Palestinian students and teachers from Ibn Khaldun School in Sakhnin, during a school trip, employing physical violence and pepper spray, which resulted in injuries to 14 students and staff. The school administration states the assault was triggered after the students were heard speaking Arabic and included racist insults. The police's response raises significant concerns because they described the incident as a "fight between two groups" and mentioned mutual accusations of assault, potentially masking the racist motivation and equating victims with the attackers.
Testimonies from Palestinian workers in hospitals, pharmacies, and shops reveal restrictions on speaking Arabic. For example, one shop manager issued written instructions forbidding employees from speaking Arabic, even after hours when no customers were present. All employees except the manager were Palestinians. One worker reported that those who objected were denied shifts for about two months and later offered transfers to branches that were difficult to reach. This suggests the ban was not about service needs but was used as a tool for punishment and exclusion, requiring the concealment of Palestinian identity as a condition for continued employment.
What Israel imposes on Palestinians, including Palestinians inside Israel, constitutes a system of apartheid in the legal sense. Under Articles 7(1)(j) and 7(2)(h) of the Rome Statute, the crime of apartheid encompasses inhumane acts committed in the context of an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime, and "when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack."
Israeli laws and policies towards Palestinians function within a framework that grants collective privileges in areas such as self-determination, land, immigration, settlement, resources, and political influence to Israeli Jewish citizens, while Palestinians are placed in lower tiers of rights and protection. The Basic Law of 2018, Israel - the Nation State of the Jewish People, explicitly grants constitutional status to this framework by reserving the right to national self-determination for the Jewish people, defining Jewish settlement as a "national value", establishing Hebrew as the official language, and giving Arabic a "special status" without the law compromising the status given to Arabic before the law came into force.
This structure aims to uphold the demographic, political, and material dominance of the Israeli Jewish community, while fragmenting Palestinians into separate legal categories and denying Palestinian citizens of Israel equal citizenship, which involves defining the state and resource distribution. Palestinians possess citizenship granting certain rights, but the law reserves national self-determination for another group, including Jewish individuals who live outside the state and do not hold Israeli citizenship. As a result, citizenship becomes a subordinate relationship to the law, without equal control over the political sphere or an equal voice in shaping the community's sovereignty.
The crime of apartheid may consist of acts that also fall under other legal classifications, including imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty, and persecution through the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights because of the identity of a group. Such acts fall within the crime of apartheid when committed in the context of an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination and with the intention of maintaining it, provided that the general requirements for crimes against humanity are met. Regarding state responsibility, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination forbids any discrimination or preference rooted in race, colour, descent, or national and ethnic origins that aims or results in undermining equal enjoyment of human rights. Article 3 mandates that states take measures to prevent, prohibit, and eliminate racial segregation and apartheid.
This system was in place long before 7 October 2023. The war has facilitated the expansion of its tools and accelerated the shift of many aspects of Palestinian citizens' lives from civilian to security control. Issues related to free speech, education, development, and crime prevention are now increasingly scrutinised, monitored, and penalised. Meanwhile, ongoing shortages and neglect in protection, infrastructure, and resource distribution persist.
All states should view Israel's apartheid system as a unified whole that impacts all Palestinians, including those in Israel. They are encouraged to align their diplomatic, trade, and security policies with their obligation not to endorse or sustain illegal practices. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor calls on countries to leverage their diplomatic and economic influence to push for the repeal of discriminatory laws, revise counter-terrorism measures that infringe on legality and free expression, and stop administrative sanctions based on vague notions or evidence that cannot be effectively challenged.
States are required to review all transfers of weapons, police equipment, surveillance tools, and security cooperation agreements. Any transfer or assistance that risks contributing to apartheid, persecution, arbitrary detention, or other international crimes should be suspended. Additionally, targeted measures should be imposed on officials and entities involved in creating or executing apartheid policies and related serious violations. States must also prevent institutions and companies within their jurisdiction from supporting such practices.
Euro-Med Monitor calls on the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to use its early warning and urgent action procedures to examine the measures adopted since 7 October 2023 and their cumulative impact on Palestinian citizens of Israel. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights should establish a regular and public monitoring track for these measures.
Furthermore, the Special Rapporteurs on racism, minorities, freedom of opinion and expression, counterterrorism, adequate housing, and arbitrary detention should coordinate their interventions, request information and country visits, and systematically include the situation of Palestinians inside Israel in their reports.
The European Union and its member states should invoke the human rights clause in Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and shift from mere political evaluation to implementing proportional and tangible actions, including suspending benefits or forms of cooperation associated with serious violations or the ongoing apartheid system.
