Israel operates a two-tiered system in the West Bank that provides preferential treatment to Jewish Israeli settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians."Almost exclusively Jewish?" But if they are not exclusively Jewish, who else lives there?
Businesses contribute to and benefit from the two-tiered system of laws, rules, and services that Israel operates in the parts of the West Bank that are under its exclusive control, which provides preferential services, development, and benefits for Jewish settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians.
In Human Rights Watch’s view, businesses servicing settlements often benefit from Israel’s discriminatory policies and practices that harm Palestinians while privileging Jewish Israelis.
Given the character of settlements as almost exclusively Jewish and the rules that effectively bar Palestinian residents of the West Bank from living there, agents selling property there effectively contribute to discrimination against Palestinians.
The answer is in the report, even though HRW tries to minimize it:
Palestinians with Israeli citizenship or residency are legally allowed to live in settlements, but, according to the most recent census, only 400 live in West Bank settlements and slightly more live in settlements in East Jerusalem.Hold on a second. If hundreds of Israeli Arabs actually live in settlements, and HRW calls them "Palestinians," then HRW cannot say that Israel discriminates against Palestinians!
The best they can say is that Israel treats its citizens different than its non-citizens - which happens to be the case with every other nation on Earth.
But Arab Israelis do buy houses on the other side of the Green Line. They do have businesses there as well, as we have shown.
Why do HRW and other "human rights" NGOs only have a problem with Jewish Israelis buying houses and no problem with Israeli Arabs doing the exact samething? Indeed, the fact that no NGO ever complains when Israeli Arabs move or open businesses across the Green Line shows it isn't the Israeli government that is bigoted - but the NGOs themselves!
HRW writes reports that try so hard to give the impression that Israel is evil. They really, really want to use the "apartheid" word. But this shows that they know the truth - there is no discrimination.
But that doesn't stop them from writing 50,000 page hit pieces that say otherwise.
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