UN Condemns Israel Over ‘Apartheid’ in West Bank

The United Nations on Wednesday accused Israel of intensifying decades of discrimination and segregation against Palestinians in the West Bank, urging the country to end what it described as an “apartheid system.”

In a new report, the UN human rights office said that systematic discrimination against Palestinians across the occupied territories had “drastically deteriorated” in recent years.

“There is a systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank,” said UN rights chief Volker Turk.
“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.”

While several UN-affiliated independent experts have previously described conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories as apartheid, this marks the first time a UN rights chief has used the term.

Mounting Settler Violence
The report highlights that Israeli authorities treat Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank under separate laws and policies, resulting in unequal treatment in critical areas. Palestinians face large-scale land confiscation, denial of resources, and systemic discrimination, including trials in military courts where due process is often violated.

Turk called on Israel to “repeal all laws, policies and practices that perpetuate systemic discrimination against Palestinians based on race, religion or ethnic origin.”

The report also noted escalating settler violence, sometimes carried out with the acquiescence or support of Israel’s security forces. Over 500,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank, home to around three million Palestinians, a territory occupied since 1967.

Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack and the ensuing Gaza war, Israeli troops and settlers have killed over 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, including militants and civilians, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Israeli figures report at least 44 Israelis killed in Palestinian attacks or military operations during the same period.

Almost Complete Impunity
The UN report also highlighted expanded use of unlawful force, arbitrary detention, and torture, along with restrictions on civil society, media freedom, and movement. It condemned the rapid expansion of settlements—considered illegal under international law—and noted that most killings of Palestinians go unpunished, with only one conviction from 112 investigations conducted between 2017 and September 2025.

Thousands of Palestinians remain in administrative detention without charge or trial.

The report concluded that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that this separation, segregation, and subordination is intended to be permanent… to maintain oppression and domination of Palestinians,” a violation of international anti-racism conventions prohibiting racial segregation and apartheid.

The UN called on Israel to end its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territories, dismantle settlements, evacuate settlers, and respect the Palestinian right to self-determination.

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