Study finds no apartheid or genocide by Israel — Jerusalem Post
An academic study published on the SSRN platform concluded that claims of apartheid and genocide by Israel are not supported under the relevant legal criteria. The authors also believe that the concept of settler colonialism is insufficient for a general characterization of Zionism and Israel, the Jerusalem Post reports.
The paper was prepared by Philippe Karpe, a senior researcher and international expert at CIRAD, and Günther Jikeli, an associate professor at the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism at Indiana University Bloomington. They analyzed the legal definitions of apartheid established by the 1973 Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute.
Assessment of the situation in Israel and the West Bank
The researchers noted that racism and significant inequality persist within Israel's “Green Line.” At the same time, Arab citizens participate in nationwide elections, turn to the courts, and are represented in the Knesset. In the authors' view, equating ethno-national inequality with a system of legally entrenched racial segregation and political exclusion is incorrect.
According to the authors' assessment, the strongest grounds for accusations of apartheid concern the West Bank due to the prolonged occupation, settlements, and unequal administrative mechanisms. However, Karpe and Jikeli argue that the available data do not demonstrate an intent to maintain systematic racial domination and oppression. They also link some legal differences to the administrative structure formed after the Oslo Accords and the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.
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Arguments regarding Gaza
In the section on genocide allegations, the authors examined the situation in Gaza through the lens of Article II of the Genocide Convention, in particular provisions on inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a group and preventing births. They referred to data from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which recorded at least 1,341,904 tonnes of food associated with 63,191 trucks on land and sea routes.
The authors believe these data weaken the conclusion that there was a policy of restricting food calculated to physically destroy the population. In their view, the suspension of aid from March to May 2025 also does not in itself prove such intent. Analyzing the destruction of the Al-Basma IVF clinic, the researchers noted that the intent to destroy a clinic or reproductive material is not equivalent to the intent to prevent births for the physical or biological destruction of a protected group.
Karpe and Jikeli emphasized that legal qualifications and historical interpretations should be separated from moral and political assessments. They also warned that broad definitions and selective use of evidence may combine accusations of apartheid, genocide, and settler colonialism into a generalized characterization of Israel.
