“Such discriminatory treatment is part of why Human Rights Watch recently concluded that the Israeli government is committing the crime of apartheid” Kenneth Roth said to Mehr News Agency (MNA).
His description of the situation in the occupied territories is as follows:
The Sheikh Jarrah dispute reflects the Israeli government’s discriminatory rule in occupied East Jerusalem(Quds). The government allows Jews to reclaim land in East Jerusalem based on claims from before 1948, when the State of Israel was founded, but it doesn’t allow Palestinians to make claims for land from before 1948 when they were forced out of their homes inside what today is Israel. Such discriminatory treatment is part of why Human Rights Watch recently concluded that the Israeli government is committing the crime of apartheid.
As for the current armed conflict, the Israeli government cites Hamas’s indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli population centers, which are war crimes. But that does not give the Israeli military license to ignore the international humanitarian war in Gaza, such as by, after warning people to leave, disproportionately destroying entire large apartment buildings, leaving many people homeless and their possessions destroyed, because supposedly a single Hamas office is inside.
** Kenneth Roth is the executive director of Human Rights Watch, one of the world's leading international human rights organizations, which operates in more than 90 countries.
Interview By Hamid Bayati
Your Comment