This major human rights report examines the two-tier system of laws, rules, and services that Israel operates for the two populations—Israeli settler and Palestinian—in the areas of the West Bank under its exclusive control, notably Area C and East Jerusalem. Praised by UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Richard Falk as “exhaustively document[ing] the forms of discrimination against Palestinians” in these areas, the 166-page report uses regional case studies to show how zoning, construction permits, demolitions, land confiscations, restrictions on freedom of movement, access to natural resources, jurisprudence, and inconsistent enforcement of the law expand and deepen Israel's (permanent) hold on these areas. Much remarked upon was the report's recommendation that the U.S. government consider suspending aid to Israel in an amount equivalent to Israel's spending on settlements and examine the legality of tax exemptions to U.S. organizations that funnel support to them. The report's summary section is largely reproduced below, with the subsection on freedom of movement omitted on the grounds that the regime of permits, barriers, settler-only roads, and seam zones are more familiar to JPS readers. Also omitted, for space considerations, are the endnotes. The full text is available online at www.hrw.org.

This content is only available via PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.