JERUSALEM – Palestinians in the occupied West Bank lack basic amenities and are effectively being forcibly displaced by discriminatory Israeli policies, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on Sunday.
The New York-based rights group called on the United States to penalise Israel by withholding from its massive annual aid a sum equal to the amount the Jewish state gives in subsidies to West Bank settlements.
The 166-page report accuses Israel of depriving the Palestinians of services that are offered to Jewish settlers, who live in communities considered illegal under international law because they are built on occupied land.
“Palestinians face systematic discrimination merely because of their race, ethnicity, and national origin, depriving them of electricity, water, schools, and access to roads,” HRW representative Carroll Bogert said. “While Israeli settlements flourish, Palestinians under Israeli control live in a time warp — not just separate, not just unequal, but sometimes even pushed off their lands and out of their homes.”
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev criticised HRW, saying evidence from recent years showed “that Human Rights Watch has allowed an anti-Israel agenda to pollute its objectivity.” He also denied the report’s accusations, saying there had been “unprecedented levels of growth and development on the part of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank” over the past two years.
“Anyone who looks at objective data can see this. The government of Israel is committed to working with the Palestinian Authority upon this path that is beneficial to all,” he told AFP. But Bill Van Esveld, the author of the report and a researcher at HRW’s Middle East division, said the study exposed a two-tier system enforced by a network of discriminatory laws and military orders.
