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Important: this page is not about genocide but a view on the question.
MODERN ERA 12. NO OCCUPATION AT ALL
The United Nations describes Palestine as "Occupied Palestinian Territory". In short: oPT. But, what is occupation? International law, specifically International Humanitarian Law (IHL), treats military occupation as a temporary, provisional situation where a foreign army exercises effective control over territory, not a transfer of sovereignty, imposing strict duties on the occupying power to ensure public order, welfare, and respect for the local population and existing laws, while balancing these with its own security needs. Key rules from the Hague Regulations and Geneva Conventions mandate restoring order, respecting existing laws (unless prevented), providing essential supplies, and allowing humanitarian access, viewing the occupant as a temporary trustee. But, there is no occupation. So, then what is in the territories? The Israelis are a war belligerent. How do we know that? Well, actually everyone could have known if they did understand the United Nations when they issue warnings to the Israelis, that actions could amount to war crimes. The world body would not speak in terms of 'war crimes' when nobody is in a stage of war. But, is it really about "occupation"? The Israelis never have lifted the stage of war since 1967. The reason why they never have lifted is simple to explain to one thing: they've not reached their goal yet: a "Greater Israel" that encompasses the whole of historic Palestine that is not yet fully colonized, Southern and Eastern Lebanon, the western parts of Syria and Jordan, the Sinai and the Suez Canal in Egypt, and half of Saudi Arabia. That is why the Israelis never provided their official borders to the UN. Unlike what is generally viewed, we distinct war violation and war crime from each other. In our view, war violation refers to breaches against protocols, international rules and laws, while war crimes refers to unlawful acts to willfully cause damage and destruction during time of war. If the Israelis think they needs to own a piece of land, so they just steal for their own and foreign people. It is illegally acquiring occupied land. They already do that when plans to build housing units for these people are executed. Building these units is building a colony then showing having decided to stay permanently, ultimately confirming without official declaration to have annexed that part of Palestinian land. It is called de facto annexation, which is a violation of international law. When the Israelis find objects and structures, which are either part of the identity of the occupied land, or are objects needed to have an locally based existence, and decides to remove them in order to replace them with their own, it is altering the environmental identity of Palestinian land, which is also a violation of international law. When all the before mentioned hallmarks the existence of a systematically used program, raising the suspicion that the program is meant to erase all references to very existence of the life of Palestinians, we then have to look at the armed colonzing military, as plans for new colonies is by the military unit COGAT. ERASING EXISTENCE. Existence means litterly your physical presence, your being, you but 'confirmed' visually by the eyes of anyone who sees you. However, the term has a broader meaning, as it is an umbrella term encompassing everything that is needed to exist, not to mention to continue to exist. Among those belonging to 'everything' are your roots and ancestry, your tradition, your culture, your native language and your belief. They all are elements belonging to your identity. Material belongings are your house, your property even the whole town or city or neighborhood if not your land as a country were you belong to. Then we have life, which includes food, water, electricity, health, communication and the availability to have a place to stay. Erasing all references to the existence of life with the aim to end its continuation doesn't directly need to include making an direct end to psysical life. This can also gradually by a program, a policy, doctrine or directive. We're then dealing with cultural genocide. But, if the above also includes systematically causing casualties among those who are members of another nation*, ethnicity* and another religion* as well damaging and destroying references to these people's existence, either in whole or in part, we won't support the view of war crimes nor genocide, but crimes against humanity. In the context of people, distinction is differentiating someone from somebody else. You do this to recognize what makes someone different from the other. It is a way to set someone aside from others or to put someone apart from others. A positive way is by excellence that sets someone apart from others. But that is not in Palestine. APARTHEID Racism is inherent to perception someone has towards others that leads to prejudice or antagonism against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized. You put someone apart from the rest you (also) belong to. You do the same when you belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another. However, we do not view discrimination as racism. Because, discrimination is the act of unjust treatment of anyone, not only because of race but also because of person's background such as religion, sexuality, disability. If you advocate for a land but only for your own people while other people are (still) on the land you designate as land for your own people, it is discrimination. When it is about people from another belief, it remains discrimination. But, when these people are also from a different ethnicity, discrimination is then also based on racism. You then politicize people by targeting them as unwanted for your cause. India's caste system is such example were the Dalit people and Muslims are the unwanted. That is what Zionism is all about too. 
Apartheid comes from the word 'apart' and may literally mean "to or on one side" or "at a distance from someone". In the context of this page, a more freely explanation is simply putting the other apart from you, which emerges in many ways. Most known example is separation which is synonymous to apartheid as you then do the same but by viewing someone as belonging to the other (side). Separation walls are just meant for such purpose: dividing an area from the other area by viewing the divided area as not being part of the other area. However, the Israelis are war belligerent and have to obliged to apply themselves to the Customary International Law. The walls in Jerusalem are in violation against the UN resolution on Jerusalem, while the walls erected across the West Bank are in violation against the Rules of Occupation as they partition the occupied territory into pieces. 
You can do that with roads too. That's exactly what the Israelis do: tarmac roads for their own illegally transferred people and roads in poor condition for the Palestinians. A less known example are the traffic lights: longer on green for the Israelis, longer on red for the Palestinian drivers. But, roads constructed in the occupied territory are illegal as they also partition the territory into pieces. And during the pandemic: unexpired vaccines for your own people, nearly to expire for the other. This reminds us to the Israeli health minister in an interview about COVID19 with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. In this talk show she asked him "Why are you not helping the Palestinians?" The Israeli answer: "We will help them after we have helped our people first". Well, that's separation or apartheid by setting the Palestinians apart to let them waiting until all of own people are vaccinated. Separation or Apartheid in the middle of a pandemic. As a war belligerent, the Israelis are obliged to apply themselves to the Fourth Geneva Convention and must ensure access to vaccines to Palestinians in the occupied territory. Israelis can or are certainly to be accused of practicing a version of Apartheid. This is not the same as saying "Israelis are practicing Apartheid" as you then need to show that you have investigated that have led to your finding. This doesn't means that you can't write about this issue. You can but it depends on how you write about it: with or without explanations. GLOSM is not an NGO, so it doesn't write in the style of an NGO. It tries to help the reader to recognize the methodology on which the Israeli Apartheid is based by providing examples the reader can recognize in every-day life.
Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man, senior counsel at the Michael Sfard Law Office in Tel Aviv and a member of the legal team of Israeli human rights NGO Yesh Din, wrote:
Apartheid can also be read by the numbers. For example, if 91% of the investigations into ideological crimes against Palestinians were closed with no indictment filed, it means that the number of Palestinians behind the rate were treated differently, so unjust. Well, discrimination is the act of unjust treatment as a result of antagonism against Palestinians. The Israeli (war belligerent) judiciary systems are subjected to the Customary International Humanitarian Law, which regulates the legal environment of the occupied territories. The most clear visible form of separation or Apartheid is something everyone can read about or could have watched on TV: the handling of sling shooting, catapulting or throwing stones. But, the world is only familiar with images about Palestinian sling shooters, catapulters and stone throwers. However, illegal settlers in the West Bank also use slingshots, catapults and throwing stones during their attacks on Palestinian shepherds or farmers who are working on their land. In many cases you even see soldiers nearby who just stand there and watch. See collage on the left. 
When Israeli right-wing extremists rally, you don't see troops deployed to crush the rally. When Israelis protest against their leaders, you don't see riot police deployed to crush the protest. But, when Palestinians protest, then you see all kind of troops deployed, who immediately start firing teargas, rubber bullets and throw stun grenades, sniping and abducting protesters while these people do the same the Israelis do: expressing their views. The Palestinians don't even need to take the initiative to express their views as this example that happens every year, shows:
Passover is a Judaic ritual, the Israelis held every year during the period from April 15th to April 23rd. The Ramadan begins on April 12th and ends on May 12th every year. Every year, Israeli extremists use their ritual as a weapon to march to the compound under illegal protection by occupying forces. In the same week of the Israeli extremists' provocation in April 2021, Netanyahu threw oil on the fire by announcing the forced eviction of of Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. Among these people also those who were already forced evicted from Haifa* during Nakba in 1948. That have angered the Palestinians at the Al Aqsa. So, they began to protest as their Ramadan was already disrupted by Israeli extremists. Israeli troops invaded the compound and started a violent crackdown. Tens of worshipers were killed, hundreds of others wounded. When this development reached Sheikh Jarrah, residents went onto the streets were they met live ammunition from Israeli troops. The military wing of Hamas warned the Israelis but they ignored the warning. The Israelis intensified the crackdown against protesters, willfully causing the escalation between May 7th and May 10th themselves, leaving Hamas no other option than to seek the only way they have to protect Palestinian people: firing rockets. That's the real roots of the 11-days war on Gaza No one have realized that the Israeli mishandling of the protests, that was triggered by Israelis themselves, and that have led to the 11-days war, is also differentiating, so setting apart the Israeli provocateurs' action from the reaction by worshipers at the Al Aqsa. The world have watched without knowing that they've witnessed an example of Apartheid. PARTITIONING
The Israeli belligerent has built an extensive, segregated road network in the West Bank, primarily for settlements, featuring "bypass" roads for Israeli use and "fabric of life" roads for Palestinians, which often cut them off from main routes and resources, leading to restrictions, long detours, and accusations of de facto annexation, with recent surges in illegal colonist road construction linked to new outposts and territorial control. Video: 20250926 - news - Israeli de facto annexing belligerent fragmenting the west bank: Nearly 1000 checkpoints separating Palestinian cities. The Israeli belligerent claims security benefits, which refers to the security of illegally transferred colonists. International law says that their presence may only be temporary, and to restore and maintain public order, not for the benefit of itself and the illegally transferred people. In general, partition is a specific type of division, that formally divides jointly owned property (like land or a business) into separate, exclusive parts for each owner, ending joint ownership. But, in international law, partition has a different meaning. The law, specifically the law of belligerent occupation, prohibits the Israeli war belligerent from partitioning Palestinian land through the construction of roads, walls, or other infrastructure because such actions alter the territory's status, seize private property, and hinder the welfare and movement of the Palestinians in the West Bank. OUTPOSTS & COLONIES
Outposts in the West Bank are illegal makeshift encampments of caravans or tents, established by colonists to claim territory and create facts on the ground, disrupting Palestinian continuity and violating international law, though Israel sometimes retroactively legalizes them. They serve to expand Israeli presence, control land, and hinder Palestinian self-sufficiency, often under the guise of agricultural or youth programs, but are considered illegal by international bodies. Video: We made an impression of outposts established in late 2025. Under international law, the setting up of outposts—small residential outposts built in occupied territory—is considered a violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), similar to established colonies. They are part of a larger policy of transferring a civilian population into occupied territory, which is prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention. We do not use the terms "settlers" and "settlements." as a settler is someone who leaves his or her country to build a new life peacefully elsewhere in the world, so without having the intention to take possession to own someone else's land. A colonist is someone who leaves his or her country to take possession to own someone else's land first then start building a new life. Setting outposts in the Palestinian territory is an act as apart that is not occupation but de facto annexation. CONCLUSION As mentioned several times on this website, occupation is supposed to be a temporary situation without taking sovereignty of any part of the West Bank. The Israeli presence is also supposed to be only to restore and maintain public order, and to administer the territory. However, they have never acted as the administrator. Instead, we keep seeing acquiring pieces of Palestinian land by demolition, which creates the opportunity to annex the property on which the demolished object was built. We keep seeing the eraction of outposts, which is another means of acquiring pieces of Palestinian land. We keep seeing colonists resorting to all kinds of terror and terrorism to seek for the possession of pieces of Plaestinian land. The Israeli belligerent use systematically the argument of "for security (reasons)." while constantly delivering evidence that it is about the protection of their own colonists who are illegally in the West Bank. There is a lot of evidence showing that "occupation" of this part of Palestine has been gradually under de facto annexation since 1967. That's one year before the situation goes on for 60 years in 2027. -------- *)
**) click on any of the images to enlarge.
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