Euro-Mediterranean Monitor for Human Rights called for confronting Israel's discriminatory policies and forcing it to respect the international laws related to equality and non-discrimination.

The Durban Declaration is a milestone in the history of the United Nations, in which it confirms that equality and non-discrimination are basic human rights, Euro-Med and GIWEH said in a joint statement at the 46th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) to discuss item 9 related to racism and racial descrimination.

The two organizations highlighted, in the speech delivered by Muhammad  Shehadeh, the Euro-Med Monitor Regional Manager in Europe, that since the establishment of Israel in 1948, successive Israeli governments have chosen the wrong side of history in which they enacted exclusivists policies that discriminate against the Palestinian Arab Minority politically, economically, socially and culturally.

The Israeli discrimination is seen in the discriminatory land policies which squeezes the Palestinian towns despite the accelerated population growth while Jewish towns expand unconditionally, the two organizations stated.

They added, "Discrimination appears in the 2018 basic law which defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, formally relegating Palestinian Arabs to second citizens.

Euro-Med and GIWEH confirmed that Israel disregarded serious calls to end such discrimination, and attacked human rights groups that work on strengthening equality, which led the Israeli Btseleem organization to designate Israel's control between the Jordanian river and the Mediterranean Sea as an apartheid regime.

The two organizations confirmed that this concerning reality is unbearable. It cannot last forever and requires intensive efforts from all member states to this council to bring it to an end.

Source : Safa