Apartheid in Israel: An Analysis of Israel’s Laws and Policies and the Responsibilities of US Academic and Other Institutions
Executive Summary
This report analyzes the crime of apartheid and its application to Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)1 before and after October 7, 2023. Our analysis relies on a close examination of more than 25 credible human rights reports and judicial opinions from institutions and individuals with expertise in the region. Consistent with the findings of these experts, we conclude that Israel has committed and continues to commit the crime of apartheid as defined by the 1973 United Nations International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (Apartheid Convention).2 Although Israel is not a party to the Apartheid Convention, it is nonetheless bound by customary international law to refrain from acts of apartheid. The crime of apartheid constitutes jus cogens: a norm that binds all states, regardless of their treaty ratification status.
Israel’s perpetration of the crime of apartheid, as explained in this report, extends into numerous spheres of public and private life in Israel and the OPT. Apartheid in Israel violates the human rights of several groups protected by international law—including children, women, persons facing criminal prosecution, and others. Apartheid contributes to violations of Palestinians’ rights to life, self-determination, due process, freedom from torture and cruel or degrading treatment, human dignity, freedom of movement, development, and freedom of association and expression. The crime of apartheid also provides a legal framework for assessing Israel’s actions since October 7, 2023. This is the first report to undertake this analysis.
This report also examines whether academic institutions of higher education have obligations under human rights law that are triggered by the conclusion that Israel has engaged in apartheid. International law was developed to control the actions of States. Universities, like multinational corporations, are non-State actors, yet they wield immense power. Meanwhile, unlike corporations, universities also claim to embrace altruistic objectives to educate students, advance understanding, and enhance respect for individual rights. Though universities are not expressly bound by international law, their own guiding missions, alongside international guidelines for socially responsible practices by non-State actors, impose obligations that these institutions refrain from supporting crimes against humanity such as apartheid.
Finally, the report analyzes universities’ use of punitive sanctions against students, faculty, and staff who have engaged in peaceful protests or acts of civil disobedience in solidarity with Palestinian victims of human rights abuses. Concluding that protestors are entitled to protection under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Human Rights Defenders, the report affirms the recent findings of the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression that universities’ suppression of speech and peaceful protest violates international law and undermines the role of academic institutions as bastions of free thought and civic participation.
