Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): published a thematic report on Israel’s discriminatory administration in the occupied West Bank
On the 7th of January, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a comprehensive report detailing the asphyxiating impact of Israel’s laws, policies and practices on every aspect of daily life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, with a focus on the period between 7 October 2023 and 30 September 2025. The report warns that Israel’s discriminatory administration is in violation of international law, including Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination (ICERD) which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid.
This thematic report builds on decades of OHCHR documentation of discrimination against Palestinians and it identified systemic discrimination, racial segregation and the risk of apartheid if corrective action is not taken. The report situates these findings within the long-standing expansion of Israeli settlements, involving unlawful land confiscation, exclusion of Palestinians, and the transfer of settlers into the territory in violation of international humanitarian law. The report further highlights how this expansion and de facto annexation have entrenched Israeli control and undermined Palestinians’ right to self-determination. In the occupied territories, Palestinians and Israeli settlers are subjected to separate legal systems, resulting in profound inequality in movement, access to land and resources, and legal protections, with Palestinians facing dispossession, military courts, and systemic violations of due process, while settlers enjoy full civilian legal rights. Palestinians are also deprived of their natural resources, with Israel unlawfully confiscating and demolishing Palestinian water infrastructure, and diverting water to its settlements.
These discriminatory structures have been documented for years but have sharply deteriorated since late 2022 and particularly after 7 October 2023, with increased use of force, arbitrary detention, torture, restrictions on civil society and media, intensified settlement activity, and escalating settler violence often involving Israeli security forces. Recent administrative changes transferring authority from the military to Israeli civilian officials are assessed as further entrenching these dynamics.
The report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe this separation, segregation and subordination are intended to be permanent, to maintain oppression and domination of Palestinians. This intention is in violation of Article 3 of ICERD, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid.
The recommendations at the end of the report affirm that Israel is legally obliged, as confirmed by the International Court of Justice and the General Assembly, to end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible, halt and dismantle illegal settlements, respect Palestinian self-determination, and provide full reparations to victims of resulting human rights violations. Moreover, it urges to end unlawful killings and injuries, ensure lawful use of force, protect Palestinians from settler violence, enable the voluntary return of displaced communities, repeal movement restrictions, release arbitrarily detained Palestinians, end torture and ill-treatment, and ensure accountability through independent investigations, prosecutions and effective remedies for victims. The recommendations also stress that third States have a duty not to recognise or assist the unlawful situation arising from Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and call on all States to take concrete measures to prevent violations of international law, cease arms transfers linked to such violations, cooperate with the International Criminal Court, and exercise universal or extraterritorial jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute international crimes.
Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urges Israeli authorities to repeal discriminatory laws, policies and practices in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, particularly those underpinning settlements and associated regimes that amount to oppression, racial segregation or apartheid.