A recent study drafted by a leading global Jewish advocacy organization has warned that the Grey Wolves, the far-right Ülkücü movement, which enjoys a well-organized structure in Turkey, pose a danger for minority groups in Germany, with more than 18,000 followers.

The Grey Wolves are seen as the militant wing of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and their ideology is mainly based on Turkish nationalism. Therefore, Kurds and other minorities in Turkey have occasionally been their targets.

The study released on Tuesday by the Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) argued that the Grey Wolves were dangerous for minority groups in Germany such as Jews, Kurds, Alevis and Armenians since their ideology is based on anti-Semitism, racism and hatred of minorities.

Titled “Türkischer Rechtsextremismus in Deutschland – Die Grauen Wölfe” (Turkish Right-wing Extremism in Germany – The Grey Wolves) and written by social scientist Kemal Bozay, the study said it had focused on the history, ideology and structure of the Grey Wolves with the aim of initiating a broader social debate on the group, urging the state and security authorities to ban associations linked to them in Germany.

In reference to the MHP’s influence in the Turkish government, Bozay stated that it wasn’t acceptable for Erdoğan’s administration to try to exploit people living in Germany, whether citizens or not, for their goals. The influence of the Turkish government in Germany can be ended, or at least limited, Bozay argued.

Remko Leemhuis, director of AJC Berlin, on Wednesday told Deutsche Welle Turkish edition that what inspired the study was the French government’s ban on the group in November, which was followed by a motion submitted to parliament by German parties seeking to ban groups linked to the Grey Wolves as well.

Leemhuis added that they hoped the study, which reveals attacks carried out by the Grey Wolves in both Turkey and Germany that may involve violence and result in killings, would create a change in the domestic and foreign policies of the German Federal Government.

During the Artsakh war in the fall of 2020, residents of Armenia and the Diaspora as well as foreigners donated money and other items to help those on the front lines, those affected by the war, and the displaced.https://www.facebook.com/v3.2/plugins/quote.php?app_id=468673766529308&channel=https%3A%2F%2Fstaticxx.facebook.com%2Fx%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2F%3Fversion%3D46%23cb%3Df45d9567e629e4%26domain%3Dhetq.am%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fhetq.am%252Ff19886b38132dd%26relation%3Dparent.parent&container_width=930&href=https%3A%2F%2Fhetq.am%2Fen%2Farticle%2F128757&locale=en_US&sdk=joey

The big wave of aid was an opportunity for some groups engaged in fraudulent activity to organize fake fundraisers and misappropriate public funds.

The RA Police investigated cases of fraud committed using .org and .com domains but could not find the culprits. Cases have been filed against fundraisers organized on the social media network Facebook. Some have gone unpunished, while others are under preliminary investigation. The RA law enforcement bodies informed us that no person has been arrested for committing fraud. 

The Hetq Media Factory Team attempted to fully investigate online and offline cases of money extorted fraudulently during the war.

In the post-war period, our research showed that the aid collected did not serve its purpose in all cases; successful and unsuccessful attempts at embezzlement and fraudulent fundraising were documented.

Fake websites resembling the Hayastan All Armenian Fund

During the war, RA state institutions, in particular the Ministry of Defense, called for money to be transferred to the Hayastan All Armenian Fund. From September 27th to October 20th, the word “foundation” was the number one Google search in Armenia.

Taking into account the Foundation’s reputation and reliability, fraudsters created fake websites with similarities to the Foundation’s domain name, and tried to embezzle money by confusing individual donors.

himnadramfund.org is among the best examples of this. The first alerts about the site being fake came from social media networks. After many complaints, it is now blocked.

Earlier, another fake website similar to himnadram.org was shared, where the letters n and m were switched on the URL. The appearance of this website (its interface) was an exact replica of the real website of the Foundation. It was obvious that it was specifically created to embezzle the transferred funds. After active appeals from citizens, Armen Mkrtchyan, who was vocal about the domain registered under NameSilo.com, put out an email saying that the website was blocked.

There were also examples of fundraisers that could immediately be identified as fake, owing to the website and content containing grammatical and spelling errors. This was the case with the page zinvorner (soldiers) on donationalerts.com. During the war, a call was posted on the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/v3.2/plugins/quote.php? (“Everything will end in silence one day”), which explained step-by-step how to donate money “for a good cause”.

There is no report published on the website regarding how money donated in the past was used or how money currently donated will be spent. There is no mention of contact details or names of the organizers on the website. Rather, through the who.is online tool, we see that the website was registered in 2015, and we learn from alexa.com that it has high visibility in Russia and the USA.https://www.facebook.com/v3.2/plugins/quote.php?app_id=468673766529308&channel=https%3A%2F%2Fstaticxx.facebook.com%2Fx%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2F%3Fversion%3D46%23cb%3Df45d9567e629e4%26domain%3Dhetq.am%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fhetq.am%252Ff19886b38132dd%26relation%3Dparent.parent&container_width=930&href=https%3A%2F%2Fhetq.am%2Fen%2Farticle%2F128757&locale=en_US&sdk=joey

The police announced that only preliminary investigations were carried out on the websites Hinmadram.org, Himnadramfund.org, and Donationsalerts.com regarding the current fundraisers and that, during this time, it was not possible to get information on those registering domain names or people who donated money to the fundraisers.

At the same time, the police noted that authority over .org and .com domains are not within the jurisdiction of RA law enforcement bodies. In accordance with international frameworks, information on these sites can only be obtained when a criminal case based on fraudulence and abuse of trust has been opened by individuals or legal entities who have submitted applications or reported crimes about money stolen from them.

The same bank accounts on Armenian and Azerbaijani telegram channels

Fundraising was carried out on the Новости Армении (Armenian News) telegram channel to provide assistance to the victims of the Second Artsakh War. The page encouraged financial assistance to be sent to the card account 4890 4947 0987 4051. The Azerbaijani Азербайджан | Новости (Azerbaijan | News) also called for money transfers to the same card account using Telegram, allegedly to support Azerbaijani citizens who suffered as a result of the war.

Source: https://hetq.am/en/article/128757

U.S. President Joe Biden’s use of the word genocide to describe what happened to Ottoman Armenians during World War on April 24 “would be a good moment” to end discussions on the matter and move to more important things, Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank the CATO Institute, wrote on Sunday.

“Next year, forget the Armenian genocide. Let’s have a serious debate about kicking Turkey out of NATO,” Bandow said. “Doing so would serve a useful purpose.”

U.S. “lobbyists and PR flacks” currently concerned with genocide recognition could be kept “equally busy and well paid”, Bandow said, if they focused on a joint reaction to “Ankara’s destructive behavior” in the region and implementing sanctions against the Turkish president for human rights violations and for having “destroyed Turkish democracy”.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could dismiss the matter of whether the 1915 events, the mass deaths of Armenians and other Anatolian Christian minorities upon an exile order, and say it had nothing to do with Turkey, Bandow said, observing “that the issue belonged to a completely different state and government”.

Ottoman pashas signed the exile order at the time and oversaw the expulsion process, which according to Armenians resulted in the death of some 1.5 million people.

Turkey acknowledges the occurrence of some deaths, but maintains they happened in much lower numbers and under wartime conditions of World War I, without a systemic or planned organisation.

However, there are more pressing matters to focus on regarding Turkey today, according to Bandow. Turkey, after two decades of Erdoğan’s rule, is “only a nominal democracy” and the Turkish president “brutally used” the July 15 attempted coup in 2016 “as his Reichstag fire, rounding up as many of his opponents and critics”, he said.

“In recent years, Ankara has lost ground,” the scholar continued, adding that Erdoğan “has few friends left in America.”

Turkey has, Bandow said, entered into conflicts with Washington’s allies, arrested American citizens, colluded with Islamist forces, and targeted Kurds allied with the United States, he said.

The United States should pull its nuclear weapons out of the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey “tomorrow”, Bandow said, and discuss with NATO member states how to “either oust or restrict Ankara to eliminate the danger of a fifth column within the transatlantic alliance”.

Source: https://ahvalnews.com/turkey-us/turkeys-nato-membership-problem-not-armenian-genocide-scholar

A bipartisan group of over 65 U.S. House members joined in the Congressional Armenian Caucus request for the House Appropriations to allocate over $100 million in U.S. aid to Armenia and Artsakh following Turkey and Azerbaijan’s devastating attacks last year, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) reported.

U.S. Representatives sent a letter to House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Ranking Member Hal Rogers (R-KY), as the panel begins crafting the FY2022 Foreign Aid Bill.

“We want to thank Armenian Caucus leaders and Congressional cosigners from across the U.S. for supporting U.S. re-engagement through robust U.S. assistance to Artsakh, an immediate cut-off in all U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, and strong support for the sovereignty of Armenia as a pillar of regional security architecture,” said ANCA Government Affairs Director Tereza Yerimyan. “We look forward to working closely with House and Senate appropriators to ensure maximum funding reaches Armenians displaced by Turkish and Azerbaijani aggression, as Artsakh rebuilds from the devastating war.”

“The United States is uniquely positioned to help Armenia that has been shaken by last year’s war in Artsakh and the resulting uncertainty. Providing significant economic assistance to Armenia will help make its people more secure, bolster its democracy, help sustain economic development, stabilize its civil society, and aid its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and, most urgently, alleviate the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Artsakh,” said Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ), who along with Co-Chair Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Vice-Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA), led the effort. 

In a letter to their Congressional colleagues, Reps. Pallone, Speier, and Schiff  wrote: “The below requests for Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh in the Fiscal Year 2022 State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs appropriations bill are critical for assisting the country in helping to make its people more secure, bolster its democracy and sustainable economic development, stabilize its civil society, aid its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and, most urgently, alleviate the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Artsakh,” which included the following budgetary requests:

— Robust funding to directly aid the Armenian people of Nagorno Karabakh to recover and rebuild, including urgently needed housing, food security, water and sanitation, medical and refugee assistance, rehabilitation, and infrastructure needs.

— $2 million for Conventional Weapons Destruction programs in Nagorno Karabakh.

— $100 million for economic, governance, rule of law, and security assistance to Armenia through State Department and USAID accounts.

— The suspension of all U.S. security assistance for Azerbaijan until it has been verified to have ceased all attacks against Armenia and Artsakh.

Expert in Iranian studies Vardan Voskanyan reacted to recent statements made by Azerbaijani President Ilham ALiyev, who had put forward territorial claims to Armenia. 

“The dictator of the artificial formation named Azerbaijan is now talking about ‘a historical Azerbaijani territory of Zangezur,’ meaning Syunik province of Armenia. The real thing is that even Absheron is not a historical territory belonging to Azerbaijan. When the Russian Empire was conquering it from Iran, there was only one Turkish-speaking settlement in the peninsula named Tyurkan. Even Baku was a small Persian township where Armenians already lived,” Voskanyan wrote. 

Armenia has another political prisoner, a member of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, Dashnaktsutyun) party, Artsvik Minasyan, told reporters on Wednesday, denouncing the court ruling to arrest his nephew Hayk Hekimyan.

“Obviously, Hayk Hekimyan is being persecuted for political reasons, becoming another political prisoner in Armenia. Moreover, this shows the real face of the current authorities,” Minasyan said.

According to him, the conduct of the court and the presiding judge clearly indicates that a political order is being carried out.

“Getting acquainted with the ruling, you realize that this is a legal mockery. The alleged grounds for the arrest not only do not correspond to reality, but also clearly indicate that we are dealing with a situation in which a political order is being fulfilled at any cost,” the ARF member said, stressing that such persecutions cannot impede the struggle against the authorities.

The opposition leader stated that those who carry out the orders of the incumbent authorities will also be tried by a fair and impartial court.

“The time will come for everyone to be held to account. Freedom for all political prisoners! And our struggle continues,” he said. 

YEREVAN. – Artur Vanetsyan, former Director of the National Security Service and leader of the opposition Homeland Party, has been summoned for questioning by the Military Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Armenia. This information was confirmed to Armenian News-NEWS.am by Vanetsyan’s lawyer, Lusine Sahakyan.

The attorney said that Artur Vanetsyan had been summoned to testify within the framework of preparing the case materials in connection with the alleged “desertion.”

Sahakyan did not elaborate on what Vanetsyan testified. “The existence of that incident has been denied,” she said.

“Regarding the leaving of the [combat] positions in [Artsakh’s (Nagorno-Karabakh)] Shushi [town], there was a public refutation by people who were aware of whether such an incident had taken place or not. It is obvious that this is a continuation of political persecution and, if a legal process starts, the initiation of a criminal case should be denied,” the lawyer added.

Coronavirus infections in India have been hitting record peaks for the past few days and the death toll has been on the rise. But the official death count doesn’t tell the full story, say experts.

During the week between April 18 and 25, India reported 2.24 million new coronavirus cases, the highest number recorded by any country in a seven-day period. It also logged 16,257 deaths, almost double the 8,588 deaths recorded the previous week, according to Health Ministry data.   

India has been logging global daily records of over 300,000 cases for the last five days. The country saw 352,991 daily new infections and 2,812 COVID-related deaths in the past 24 hours. 

Altogether, 195,123 people have died while 17.3 million people have been infected with the virus in India.

These numbers are staggering, but experts and epidemiological modelers believe that the real number of COVID fatalities could be much higher than the deaths recorded by health departments nationwide.

“The distressing scenes of patients dying in ambulances and bodies burning on pyres outside crematoriums and even on pavements across cities and towns clearly show that the tragedy is far greater,” Anoop Saraya, a private doctor, told DW.

The true numbers are being suppressed’

India’s relatively low fatality rate doesn’t tell the whole story and suspicions abound that there’s substantial undercounting in several states.

Suspected cases are not being added to the final count and deaths from the infection are being credited to underlying health conditions, point out observers.

“There appears to be a wide discrepancy between official records of deaths attributed to COVID-19 and reports of cremations and burials that are many multiples of what might normally have been expected,” Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University, told DW.

“These discrepancies suggest that the true numbers are being suppressed,” the health expert said. “The actual number of deaths from COVID-19 may be 5 to 10 times the official numbers. Together with under-reporting of cases and the large test positivity ratios we are seeing across the country, the true scale of the pandemic may be far worse than the numbers would suggest.”

Surging cases lead to delayed results

Shahid Jameel, a virologist and director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, also maintains that the real death toll is higher than the recorded one, based on reports from cremations and burial sites.

He pointed out that the surging demand for COVID tests has created backlogs, causing labs that issued results within hours to now take days to deliver them.

“One problem that is happening is that test results are taking too long to come. It has happened to my cousin in Uttar Pradesh. He was tested on April 13 and his test result has still not come,” Jameel told DW.

“And his will not be reported as a COVID death even though he had all symptoms, including a very high lung infection score and high inflammation markers in blood. There are thousands of cases like that.”

Poor registration of deaths

In smaller towns like Surat, Kanpur and Ghaziabad, which have been reporting a high number of COVID deaths, mass cremations have been taking place in open spaces because of a dearth of crematorium space and deaths far exceeding official figures.

Although many countries have struggled to record the precise number of COVID deaths, in India, the problem has been compounded by the lack of an effective death registration system in many parts of the nation.

Most deaths in the country are not assigned a cause by a trained medical professional, making data on case fatality ratio unreliable.

“Because death registration is poor in India, the government will have little data to respond to the impact of COVID-19 on large sections of the population who live in rural areas,” Jacob John, a renowned virologist, told DW.

Had these deaths been monitored through a registration system, they could have influenced the scale and geographic targeting of government relief measures as well as healthcare system responses.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have a public health system at all in this country. The cause of deaths is seldom recorded,” John said.

Undercounting deaths outside hospitals?

In the absence of a reliable death registration system, the government’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) has been collecting data on COVID cases and deaths from testing laboratories and hospitals.

However, the IDSP’s major drawback is that it has no way of tracking deaths outside hospitals.

Human Rights Watch has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate “systematic discrimination” against Palestinians.

In a report published Tuesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israel of pursuing policies of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians.

Omar Shakir, the watchdog’s Israel and Palestine director, said the report was “the starkest finding HRW has reached on Israeli conduct in 30 years.”

The 213-page document alleges that Israel is committing the crime of “apartheid” by seeking to maintain Jewish domination over Palestinians and its Arab population.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has rejected the claims as “both preposterous and false.”

The reported violations apply to Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the blockaded Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem, as well as of Arab Israelis — a term referring to Palestinians who stayed on their land following Israel’s creation in 1948.

Israel an ‘apartheid’ state

The report drew on years of human rights documentation, analysis of Israeli laws, a review of government planning documents and statements by officials.

It summarized that there was a “present-day reality of a single authority, the Israeli government … methodologically privileging Jewish Israelis while repressing Palestinians, most severely in the occupied territory.”

HRW executive director Ken Roth said “the oppression of Palestinians there has reached a threshold and a permanence that meets the definitions of the crimes of apartheid and persecution.”

While the term “apartheid” was first used in relation to South Africa’s racist segregation of non-white citizens, the report said it was now a “universally recognized legal term” that described crime against humanity under international law.

An apartheid system is defined by “an effort to maintain domination by one racial group over another, a context of systematic oppression by the dominant group over the marginalized group (and) inhuman acts,” HRW said.

Persecution, which is also a crime against humanity, is defined as “the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights” of a group of people.

HRW has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to “investigate and prosecute individuals who are implicated” in apartheid and persecution.

Last month, the ICC had already announced it would investigate war crimes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel has said it will not cooperate with the probe.

Escalating unrest

Tensions between Jews and Palestinians have increased since a video emerged last week of an assault on an ultra-Orthodox Israeli man on a tram in Jerusalem. Two Arab suspects were later arrested. The attack was seen as a response to the ongoing eviction of 550 Palestinian people in the neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah.

Violence erupted on Thursday when around 300 far-right Jewish extremists marched toward the Old City chanting “Death to Arabs,” threatened to burn Palestinian parts of the city and forcibly tried to remove Arab families from their homes.

Other videos showed Jewish youths attacking an Arab home just inside the Old City. Children’s cries can be heard as an unseen woman shouts “Stop” in Arabic.

Here, radical Jews are seen stopping cars to check whether there are Jews or Arabs in them. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called the anti-Palestinian violence in Jerusalem “state terror.”

News

Human Rights Watch: Israel committing ‘apartheid’ crimes against Palestinians

Human Rights Watch has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate “systematic discrimination” against Palestinians.

Israeli border police fired in the direction of Palestinians taking part in an anti-Israel protest

In a report published Tuesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israel of pursuing policies of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians.

Omar Shakir, the watchdog’s Israel and Palestine director, said the report was “the starkest finding HRW has reached on Israeli conduct in 30 years.”

The 213-page document alleges that Israel is committing the crime of “apartheid” by seeking to maintain Jewish domination over Palestinians and its Arab population.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has rejected the claims as “both preposterous and false.”

The reported violations apply to Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the blockaded Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem, as well as of Arab Israelis — a term referring to Palestinians who stayed on their land following Israel’s creation in 1948.

Israel an ‘apartheid’ state

The report drew on years of human rights documentation, analysis of Israeli laws, a review of government planning documents and statements by officials.

It summarized that there was a “present-day reality of a single authority, the Israeli government … methodologically privileging Jewish Israelis while repressing Palestinians, most severely in the occupied territory.”

HRW executive director Ken Roth said “the oppression of Palestinians there has reached a threshold and a permanence that meets the definitions of the crimes of apartheid and persecution.” Watch video 01:29

Demonstrators in Jerusalem protest hatred, violence

While the term “apartheid” was first used in relation to South Africa’s racist segregation of non-white citizens, the report said it was now a “universally recognized legal term” that described crime against humanity under international law.

An apartheid system is defined by “an effort to maintain domination by one racial group over another, a context of systematic oppression by the dominant group over the marginalized group (and) inhuman acts,” HRW said.

Persecution, which is also a crime against humanity, is defined as “the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights” of a group of people.

HRW has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to “investigate and prosecute individuals who are implicated” in apartheid and persecution.

Last month, the ICC had already announced it would investigate war crimes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel has said it will not cooperate with the probe.

Escalating unrest

Tensions between Jews and Palestinians have increased since a video emerged last week of an assault on an ultra-Orthodox Israeli man on a tram in Jerusalem. Two Arab suspects were later arrested. The attack was seen as a response to the ongoing eviction of 550 Palestinian people in the neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah. https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1382774547615789058&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw.com%2Fen%2Fhuman-rights-watch-israel-committing-apartheid-crimes-against-palestinians%2Fa-57346287&sessionId=77d5153a221437852850b435c490783a23e8c194&siteScreenName=dwnews&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ff2e7cf%3A1618526400629&width=550px

Violence erupted on Thursday when around 300 far-right Jewish extremists marched toward the Old City chanting “Death to Arabs,” threatened to burn Palestinian parts of the city and forcibly tried to remove Arab families from their homes. https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1385331797106565131&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw.com%2Fen%2Fhuman-rights-watch-israel-committing-apartheid-crimes-against-palestinians%2Fa-57346287&sessionId=77d5153a221437852850b435c490783a23e8c194&siteScreenName=dwnews&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ff2e7cf%3A1618526400629&width=550px

Other videos showed Jewish youths attacking an Arab home just inside the Old City. Children’s cries can be heard as an unseen woman shouts “Stop” in Arabic. https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-2&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1385365600885559297&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw.com%2Fen%2Fhuman-rights-watch-israel-committing-apartheid-crimes-against-palestinians%2Fa-57346287&sessionId=77d5153a221437852850b435c490783a23e8c194&siteScreenName=dwnews&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ff2e7cf%3A1618526400629&width=550px

Here, radical Jews are seen stopping cars to check whether there are Jews or Arabs in them. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called the anti-Palestinian violence in Jerusalem “state terror.” https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-3&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1386019960959291400&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw.com%2Fen%2Fhuman-rights-watch-israel-committing-apartheid-crimes-against-palestinians%2Fa-57346287&sessionId=77d5153a221437852850b435c490783a23e8c194&siteScreenName=dwnews&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ff2e7cf%3A1618526400629&width=550px

The Damascus Gate, in particular, has been focus of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police following an Israeli decision to prevent people from gathering in the area, a popular nighttime focal point during the holy month of Ramadan. 

Israel rejects report’s findings

In the past, when human rights organizations and different politicians had raised similar allegations, Israel has taken particular offense to the claim it discriminates against Palestinian citizens of the country, also known as Arab Israelis. It has cited equal rights laws and the fact that Arabs are represented in government and the judicial system.

Regarding the occupied West Bank, Israel has pointed to agreements signed in the 1990s that afforded Palestinians limited self-rule there. However, HRW has said the Israeli government still “retains primary control over many aspects” of their lives, including borders, natural resources and movement of people and goods.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has accused HRW of a “longstanding anti-Israeli agenda” and said the report was a “propaganda pamphlet” that had “no connection to facts or reality on the ground.”

“The fictional claims that HRW concocted are both preposterous and false,” it said.

HRW calls for legal action

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, the same year it annexed east Jerusalem. Since then, Jewish settlers in both areas have absorbed increased amounts of land. Palestinians in east Jerusalem and across much of the West Bank are regularly denied building permits, while Jewish home construction has steadily grown.

Israel’s settlement policy in the occupied Palestine is illegal under international law, particularly international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, which relates to the protection of civilians in time of war.

HRW has called on nations to stop viewing the occupation as an issue that can be resolved through a peace deal and foster accountability by reconsidering their Israel ties, including military cooperation.

It called on nations to “impose individual sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on officials responsible for committing these crimes.”