UN accuses Israel of 'severe segregation and discrimination' in West Bank 'apartheid'

The UN on Wednesday released a report accusing Israel of decades of "severe racial discrimination and segregation" in the West Bank equivalent to "apartheid" as the UN rights office urged Israel to end its "unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory".

A Palestinian woman walks next to a member of Israeli forces during an Israeli raid in Qalandya, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on December 23, 2025. © Mohamad Torokman, Reuters

The United Nations on Wednesday said decades-long discrimination and segregation of Palestinians by Israel in the West Bank were intensifying, and called on the country to end its "apartheid system".

In a new report, slammed by Israel, the UN rights office said "systematic discrimination" against Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories had "drastically deteriorated" in recent years.

"There is a systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank," UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

"Whether accessing water, school, rushing to hospital, visiting family or friends, or harvesting olives – every aspect of life for Palestinians in the West Bank is controlled and curtailed by Israel's discriminatory laws, policies and practices," he added.

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