Press Release
………………………………………………………
Today, Thursday, June 16, 2022, the Egyptian Coalition for Human Rights and Development (ECHRD) issued a report entitled: (Hate Speech and Apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories).
The report emphasized that the expansionist settlement policy resulted in the Palestinians being subjected to discriminatory “apartheid” laws in favor of the intrusive groups on the ground. And not only that, most of those who live in the settlements are from extremist Jewish groups that advocate the Jewishness of the state and play a role in provoking and inflaming the feelings of Palestinians with open hate speeches and incitement to violence against them, encouraged by Israeli laws and authorities that protect them.
The report dealt with some topics, which were stated:
First: Hate Speech Against the Palestinian People and Its Repercussions
The report stated that the hate speech spread in Israel against the Palestinians finds its source from the Israeli education and curricula that implant hatred in the minds since childhood, as Israeli textbooks teach a racist discourse that removes Palestine permanently from the map, and there are no positive aspects in these books about Palestinian culture and life.
In separate areas, Palestinians are subjected to many forms of hate crimes by settlers, including beating, assault, dragging, punching with rifle butts, handles and sticks, using firearms, killing, threatening to shoot, throwing stones, shooting unsuspecting dogs, running over attempts, damaging agricultural equipment, stealing and killing beasts used in Land and farming work, requesting identity cards and tearing them up without authority, and other things vandalizing property such as cars and looting land and forcibly evicting them from the land and their homes.
It is noted that Israeli hate crimes have increased in frequency and violence in the last ten years, but it is necessary to note that this violence against Palestinians also characterized the nineties of the last century. The end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties witnessed the killing of 119 Palestinians, including 23 children, at the hands of settlers and Israeli citizens.
The report added that Israel relies on the development of media technology and the press to fight the media war, so psychological propaganda campaigns against the Palestinians increased and used to promote psychological warfare and create an ideal image of Israel, in addition to falsifying facts and spreading misleading ideas. At the same time, spreading hatred and violating the rights of Palestinians through the media and the press is always permissible.
On the other hand, the report monitored that Israeli hate speech on social media against the Palestinians during 2021 has a threefold increase in incitement compared to 2020.
Second: The Israeli Apartheid Regime
The report emphasized that discriminatory and racist dealings with hate speeches and crimes committed by the Israelis against the Palestinian people inside Israel and the occupied territories. What proves this on the ground are the roots laid down by the system of laws and transactions that differentiate between what is Israeli and what is Palestinian-Arab, where it is believed in the public, judicial, political and media fields that two systems are separated; The first is a steady, democratic Israeli; The second is in areas under military occupation and military emergency laws. That is, the Palestinians are under the rule of a state that achieves its goal with the superiority of the Israeli-Jewish element from the river to the sea.
In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in condemnation (within the international political discourse) of the apartheid regime, which was associated with the settlement regime in South Africa and ended in 1994. Jews and beyond. As a result of the control tools used by Israel in the occupied territories of 1967, there has been a political and geographical reality based on ethnic and hierarchical segregation in parallel with the ongoing Judaization.
There is also a clear discrimination of the Jewish component in the judiciary and courts in favor of the Jewish component, as the High Court of Justice decided in December 2006 that the crimes of assassination are “legal” and that there is a “right” for Israel to use them; “To protect the security of its citizens”. But the acquittal of the Israelis from the crimes of killing Palestinians preceded the issuance of this law.
Third: The Consequences of Hate Speech and Apartheid
The report addressed the fact that the common “racist incitement” among the Jews and settlers is what links hate speech and apartheid towards the Palestinians. Although some describe Israeli law as strict in combating racism and racial incitement, as long as it comes to incitement against “Arabs” and Palestinians, the Israeli authorities find it difficult to implement laws that punish the perpetrator.
In light of the complete conviction of the ultra-Orthodox Jews that they do not fear punishment as long as it is always on their side, and as long as they are convinced of obliterating Palestinian facts and rights, the violence flows from one direction, driven by Zionist greed and expansionist dreams on the ruins and blood of Palestine.
It is noted that the occupation is deepening, represented by the annexation process. The government does not care about the dangerous political and moral effects of the settlements project, nor the systematic violations of human rights of the Palestinians who have been under Israeli military rule for fifty years. Moreover, the leadership of the State of Israel is not interested in the presence of two judicial bodies and two systems of laws in the occupied territories; One for the Palestinians and the other for the Israelis. Rather, it is concerned with deepening their presence. This trend has led to a flood of bills proposing direct or indirect annexation, culminating in the enactment of the “Settlements Settlement” Law in 2016.
The report concluded by emphasizing that no democratic country legalizes hatred and racial segregation and makes itself a system of racial discrimination by law, and thus it consolidates the racist colonial legacy that is based on ethnic cleansing, the abolition of the other, and the deliberate denial of the rights of indigenous peoples on their historical land, which is a serious targeting of the existence of Palestinians and their historical right to their land, and a clear theft of their property.
