Will The ‘Most-Read’ Human-Rights Story Of 2021 Continue In 2022?

As Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid noted, such venomous distortions have consequences in the international arena. In 2022, multiple U.N. bodies will devote millions of dollars to investigate Israel and, inevitably, to lobby accusations of apartheid. In sharp contrast, the devastating 11-year Syrian civil war received far less in the way of U.N. resources and attention.

Why is this the case? What drives the disproportionate production of content accusing Israel of “apartheid,” while actual human-rights atrocities receive considerably less attention?

The answer largely rests on how these non-governmental organizations (NGOs) politicize international law and redefine key terms. Along with HRW and B’Tselem, a network of Palestinian organizations—funded by European states in the amount of 35 million euros (nearly $40 million) annually—have been leading this destructive campaign for two decades. Applied in tandem, these tactics coalesce into the NGOs’ overarching goal of eroding Israel’s legitimacy.

Most importantly, the NGOs’ allegation that Israel practices apartheid “from the river to the sea”—an institutionalized regime of oppression and domination over a racial group—is a lie. Israel has enshrined equality in its declaration of independence and basic laws, the latter of which hold constitutional status. Arab and other minority citizens serve at the highest levels of the country’s parliament, government, military and judiciary.