Burak Bir
08 January 2026•Update: 08 January 2026
LONDON
Israel is violating international law requiring states to prohibit and eradicate racial segregation and apartheid, according to a new UN report on Wednesday, citing impact of Israel’s practices on every aspect of daily life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
In the report, titled Israel’s discriminatory administration of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the UN Human Rights Office said that systemic discrimination against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is a long-standing concern.
"The situation has drastically deteriorated since at least December 2022," said the report, giving details about numerous illustrative examples of how increasingly constrained and insecure life has become for Palestinians.
"Israeli authorities treat Israeli settlers and Palestinians residing in the West Bank under two distinct bodies of law and policies, resulting in unequal treatment on a range of critical issues, including movement and access to resources such as land and water," it added.
The report revealed that Palestinians continue to be subjected to large-scale confiscation of land and deprivation of access to resources.
"This has had the effect of dispossessing them of their lands and homes, alongside other forms of systemic discrimination, including criminal prosecution in military courts during which their due process and fair trial rights are systematically violated," the UN warned.
'Unlawful killings'
It said that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that the “separation, segregation and subordination are intended to be permanent,” adding that severe racial discrimination violates Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
The report further noted that since Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli government has further expanded the use of unlawful force, arbitrary detention and torture, repression of civil society and undue restrictions on media freedoms, severe movement restrictions, settlement expansion and related violations in the occupied West Bank.
It added that this is compounded by the continuation and escalation of settler violence, in many cases with the acquiescence, support and participation of Israeli security forces.
The UN report also documents "trends of unlawful killings" and other forms of state and setter violence, including the use of “lethal force” that has been “deliberately used when unwarranted,” with the “apparent intention to kill.”
Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed at least 1,103 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, injured nearly 11,000, and detained around 21,000 since October 2023, Palestinian figures showed.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Palestinian authorities have long urged the international community to pressure Israel to halt settlement activity in the occupied territories, which the UN considers illegal.
Israel was established in 1948 on Palestinian land, and later occupied the remaining Palestinian territories. Successive Israeli governments have rejected a withdrawal and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
