A family flees their home in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank. UN report: Discrimination against Palestinians in West Bank ‘has reached unprecedented levels’ International Law
A new report from the UN Human Rights Office documents a sharp increase in decades of systemic racial discrimination against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The document states that Israeli laws, policies and practices violate international obligations to prohibit and eliminate racial segregation and apartheid.
The report notes that discrimination against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is a long-standing problem, but the situation has “deteriorated sharply since at least December 2022.” The document provides numerous examples of how Palestinians’ lives have become increasingly restricted and insecure. key issues, including freedom of movement and access to resources such as land and water,” the report says.
Palestinians, according to the document’s authors, continue to experience large-scale confiscation of land and deprivation of access to natural resources, leading to the loss of housing and sources of livelihood. The report also points to systematic violations of fair trial rights under the military justice system applied to Palestinians.
The authors conclude that existing practices of division, segregation and subordination are persistent and aimed at maintaining the oppression and domination of the Palestinian population. “Actions carried out in furtherance of such policies constitute a violation of Article 3 of the International Convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, prohibiting racial segregation and apartheid,” – emphasized in the report.
Deadly violence
Since October 7, 2023, UN experts note, Israel has further expanded its use of illegal force, arbitrary detention and torture, increased repression of civil society, restrictions on freedom of the media and movement, and accelerated settlement expansion. This, the report assessed, has led to an “unprecedented deterioration in the human rights situation” in the West Bank, exacerbated by ongoing settler violence—often with the acquiescence or participation of security forces.
The document also contains data on unlawful killings and other forms of state and settler violence. Examples are given of the use of deadly force “in a discriminatory manner and unnecessarily, with the apparent intent to take life.”
Such cases include the death of a 10-year-old boy, Saddam Hussein Rajab, who was shot dead by Israeli security forces in January 2025, as well as the murder of a 23-year-old pregnant woman, Sondos Shalabi, in February of the same year. In both cases, according to official data, the victims were unarmed.
Access to resources
According to the report, restrictions on movement seriously undermine the economic and social rights of Palestinians, impede access to land and work, and the construction of roads intended exclusively for Israeli settlers isolates Palestinian communities from each other. Thousands of Palestinians have been evicted from their homes, which experts say may amount to illegal population transfers—a war crime.
Special attention is paid to depriving Palestinians of access to natural resources, in particular water. The report describes the practice of confiscating and demolishing Palestinian water infrastructure and redirecting water resources to Israeli settlements, resulting in the Palestinian Authority being forced to purchase water produced in the West Bank from an Israeli state-owned company. Palestinians”
“There is a systematic infringement of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, – said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. – Whether it is access to water, schools and hospitals, visiting relatives or collecting olives – every aspect of life Palestinians are controlled and constrained by Israel’s discriminatory laws, policies and practices.”
He called what is happening “a particularly severe form of racial discrimination and segregation, reminiscent of the apartheid systems the world has experienced before.”
The report also points to almost complete impunity for human rights violations. Of the more than 1,500 Palestinian deaths from 2017 to September 2025, only 112 investigations were opened, resulting in one indictment.
The authors emphasize that illegal settlement expansion continues unabated and call on Israel to repeal all laws and practices that support systemic discrimination, end its illegal presence in occupied Palestinian territory and ensure the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.