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The United Nations connected Wednesday (January 7, 2026) said decades-long favoritism and segregation of Palestinians by Israel successful the West Bank were intensifying, and called connected the state to extremity its "apartheid system".
In a caller report, slammed by Israel, the U.N. rights bureau said "systematic discrimination" against Palestinians crossed the occupied Palestinian territories had "drastically deteriorated" successful caller years.
"There is simply a systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians successful the West Bank," U.N. rights main Volker Turk said successful a statement.
"Whether accessing water, school, rushing to hospital, visiting household oregon friends, oregon harvesting olives — each facet of beingness for Palestinians successful the West Bank is controlled and curtailed by Israel's discriminatory laws, policies and practices," helium added.
"This is simply a peculiarly terrible signifier of radical favoritism and segregation, that resembles the benignant of apartheid strategy we person seen before."
A fig of autarkic experts affiliated with the U.N. person described the concern successful the occupied Palestinian territories arsenic "apartheid" but this marks the archetypal clip a U.N. rights main has applied the term.
Israel's diplomatic ngo to the U.N. successful Geneva slammed the report's "absurd and distorted accusations of radical discrimination" against Israel, charging it exemplified the U.N. rights office's "inherently politically driven fixation ... connected vilifying Israel".
Mounting settler violence
The study said the Israeli authorities "treat Israeli settlers and Palestinians residing successful the West Bank nether 2 chiseled bodies of instrumentality and policies, resulting successful unequal attraction connected a scope of captious issues".
"Palestinians proceed to beryllium subjected to large-scale confiscation of onshore and deprivation of entree to resources," it added.
This had led to "dispossessing them of their lands and homes, alongside different forms of systemic discrimination, including transgression prosecution successful subject courts during which their owed process and just proceedings rights are systematically violated".
Mr. Turk demanded Wednesday (January 7) that Israel "repeal each laws, policies and practices that perpetuate systemic favoritism against Palestinians based connected race, religion oregon taste origin".
The favoritism was compounded by continuing and escalating settler violence, successful galore cases "with the acquiescence, enactment and information of Israel's information forces", the rights bureau said.
More than 5 lakh Israelis presently unrecorded successful settlements successful the West Bank, occupied since 1967 and location to astir 3 cardinal Palestinians.
Violence has risen successful caller years, surging particularly since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack, which triggered the Gaza war.
Since the commencement of the war, Israeli troops and settlers person killed more than 1,000 Palestinians successful the West Bank, including galore militants arsenic good arsenic dozens of civilians, according to an AFP tally based connected figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry.
According to authoritative Israeli figures, astatine slightest 44 Israelis, some soldiers and civilians, person been killed successful Palestinian attacks oregon Israeli subject operations successful the aforesaid period.
'Almost implicit impunity'
Since the Gaza warfare began, Israeli authorities had besides "further expanded the usage of unlawful force, arbitrary detention and torture", the study said.
Increased "repression of civilian nine and undue restrictions connected media freedoms (and) terrible question restrictions" had besides characterised "an unprecedented deterioration of the quality rights situation" successful the West Bank, it said.
There had besides been accelerated expansions of settlements, considered amerciable nether planetary law, adjacent arsenic unlawful killings of Palestinians were taking spot "with astir implicit impunity", the study warned.
Of the much than 1,500 killings of Palestinians that took spot betwixt the commencement of 2017 and September 30 2025, Israeli authorities had opened conscionable 112 investigations, resulting successful lone 1 conviction, it pointed out.
The study said it had recovered "reasonable grounds to judge that this separation, segregation, and subordination is intended to beryllium permanent... to support oppression and domination of Palestinians".
This, it stressed, amounts to a usurpation of an planetary anti-racism convention, "which prohibits radical segregation and apartheid".
The U.N. rights bureau connected Wednesday (January 7) urged Israel to extremity its "unlawful beingness successful the occupied Palestinian territory, including by dismantling each settlements and evacuating each settlers, and to respect the close of the Palestinian radical to self-determination".
