Wendy Isaack

UN report chronicles intensification of decades of severe racial discrimination by Israel in occupied West Bank ohchr.org/en/press-relea…

Genocide does not require mass graves, it also includes efforts to destroy a people's capacity to bring the next generation into being. Israel’s systematic use of torture and sexual violence against Palestinians meets that definition. mondoweiss.net/2026/03/israel…

A gentle reminder that we continue to host the Prof Bernard Magubane reading group. Sessions are held last Thursday of the month from 5-6 pm online. For more on this you can pop in a message towardsapartheidstudies@gmail.com #bernardmagubane #raceclass #readinggroup

📣 New Q&A: Israel’s Settler Colonial Apartheid Regime and Genocidal Underpinnings Al-Haq’s work on settler-colonialism and apartheid builds on over two decades of Palestinian civil society legal research, campaigning and advocacy. Read it here: 🔗 alhaq.org/publications/2…

April 30 is the deadline for governments to formally weigh in on the new Crimes Against Humanity treaty — and the definition of apartheid in that treaty still needs to change. We've spent years building toward this moment. Now we need states to act. bit.ly/422LEEm

Apartheid after South Africa: Legacies, Logics, and New Frontiers, 29-31 Jul 2026. Invitation to scholars, artists, and civil society to explore how the legacies & logics of apartheid continue to shape our world. Bio for more info. 📹: Mbalenhle Mkhize & Shakira Katjaimo

Today marks 38 years since the legendary Dulcie September's assassination. Her family, who have lived through unimaginable pain, are still seeking justice. Thirty-eight years later, questions remain: who killed Dulcie September, and who ensured the truth stayed buried?

📢Call for Abstracts | Towards a Pan-African #reparations agenda: Contestations, disputations and prospects. 🗓️Deadline: 30 April 📍Workshop: 3 June See more at: humanities.uct.ac.za/african-studie…

Over the next three days, some topics to be discussed: Confronting Impunity: Accountability for apartheid-era crimes; Reconciliation for Whom: Who benefited from this & the unfinished business of reparations and of course, Gender, Power and the Silences of Truth Recovery.

Happening right now. In conversation with @PhemeloMotene @KayaOnAir on the question of apartheid, reparations and the UN Crimes Against Humanity. Huge thanks for the opportunity to talk about these issues. April 30 deadline for government submissions fast-approaching.

If you work in humanitarian, human rights, policy, or have lived experience, your voice can help shape what comes next: 👇 🔗 ohchr.org/en/calls-for-i… #LeaveNoOneBehind #HumanRights #LGBT #Policy #UN #Humanitarian

The BADIL Resource Center for Residency and Refugee Rights has released Working Paper #33, “The Israeli Apartheid Spatial Regime: Fragmentation and Enclavement of Palestine.” The paper introduces “enclaving” as a framework for understanding how Palestinian space is being systematically reorganized by the Israeli regime into fragmented, governed units that isolate communities while reconfiguring control as administration. This Israeli apartheid spatial regime is deliberately engineered to fragment Palestine and its people into enclaves, with the purpose of systematically undermining their inalienable rights to self-determination and return. badil.org/press-releases…

Despite having been judicially cleared of allegations of sexual misconduct, a Western-led campaign against ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has led to a political decision to disregard the judicial findings and proceed with a disciplinary process. US-Israel allies Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Japan, & South Korea voted to continue the proceedings against Khan, who was leading the prosecution of Israeli genocidaires when he was derailed by this campaign. Senegal, South Africa, Sierra Leone, and Kenya voted against the decision. Sadly, 4 Latin American countries voted with the West. Uganda and Bosnia abstained. middleeasteye.net/news/icc-gover…

.@AdalahEnglish Petitions Israeli Supreme Court Against the Death Penalty Law: Racist Legislation Enshrining Inhumane Punishment and Systemic Oppression (see text of law in English) mailchi.mp/adalah/press-r…

Launch of the Global South Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Development Justice. 👉🏾 SRHR, human rights, and development justice are inseparable, and why strengthening Global South leadership is essential to advancing human rights to all.

While many countries are abolishing or reducing the use of the death penalty, Israel is doing the opposite, writing it into law. Israel’s Death Penalty Law institutionalizes and legalizes the state’s mechanism for executing Palestinians. Since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 72,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and at least 1,050 Palestinians in the West Bank. During this time, more than 80 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons, which have turned into a network of torture camps where prisoners are subjected to continuous abuse and violence. The death penalty law adds another official killing mechanism to existing practices. The mass incarceration of Palestinians is a feature of Israel’s apartheid regime. As of March 2026, about 9,500 Palestinians are held in inhumane conditions in Israeli prisons, roughly half of them under administrative detention or as “unlawful combatants,” without trial and with no ability to defend themselves. Death penalty for Palestinians only: The law is worded to apply to Palestinians only, and it is set to make the killing of Palestinians a normalized, common punitive tool through several mechanisms: The law gives military courts no discretion. Military judges will be required to sentence Palestinians convicted of murder to death, except in “special circumstances.” There is no requirement for a unanimous decision. A simple majority will suffice, and avenues for appeal will be extremely limited. Only Palestinians are tried in military courts. Their conviction rate is 96%, based largely on “confessions” extracted under duress and torture during interrogations. The penalty, execution by hanging, must be carried out within 90 days of sentencing, with no possibility of pardon. A designated prison officer will execute the sentence. The law, which enjoys broad public support in Israel, is expected to pass in the Knesset tomorrow, Monday, 30 March. The Israel Prison Service has already begun preparing designated execution facilities. The death penalty is a total violation of the most basic human rights, primarily, the right to life. Israel enforces a comprehensive policy of killing and oppression against the Palestinian people in all the territories it controls. The Death Penalty Law gives Israel’s apartheid regime yet another tool for advancing that policy.

⭕️ Israel has not prosecuted a single killing of a Palestinian civilian in the West Bank since 2020, Guardian analysis finds No Israeli soldier, police officer, or settler has been charged for killing a Palestinian civilian in the occupied West Bank since the start of this decade, a Guardian review of legal data and public records shows. At least 1,100 Palestinian civilians have been killed there since 2020, more than a quarter of them children, according to UN data. Dozens of former Israeli security chiefs, including two former military heads, five former Mossad and Shin Bet directors, and four ex-police commissioners, have signed a letter warning that "almost daily" attacks on Palestinians amount to "organized activity" by people "wearing uniforms, who shoot at innocent people and burn the property and homes of civilians." They warned that failure to address what they called "Jewish terrorism" poses an existential threat to Israel. This month alone, Israeli settlers and police killed 10 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, including a family of four shot in the head, among them brothers aged five and seven, as they returned from a Ramadan shopping trip. According to legal rights group Yesh Din, between 2020 and 2025: ▪️over 96% of police investigations into settler violence concluded without an indictment ▪️Of 368 cases, only eight ended in full or partial convictions ▪️Palestinians filed 1,746 complaints against Israeli soldiers in the same period, including over 600 related to killings. Less than 1% resulted in charges

Dr Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza at the time, has been detained by Israeli military forces since 27 December 2024, under Israel’s unlawful combatant law, despite his status as a civilian medical practitioner. I have repeatedly stressed that this law violates human rights and humanitarian law. He has been systematically denied critical medical examination and treatment, and deprived of essential care to such an extent that his life, health, and wellbeing have been gravely endangered. He must be immediately released.

At the commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination against Racism, Prof. Justin Hansford, Member of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent & Executive Director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Centre paid tribute to those lost at the Sharpeville Massacre in Apartheid South Africa on 21 March 1960 #sabcnews

As of March 2026, some 9,446 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons; 4,691 of them are under administrative detention, imprisoned without charge, trial, or the ability to defend themselves. Even during the illegal and deadly Israeli-American attack on Iran, Israel continues to operate a network of torture camps for Palestinian prisoners from north to south, where they are subjected to systematic abuse, including physical and psychological violence, inhuman conditions, starvation and denial of medical treatment. 84 identified Palestinians, including one minor, have died in Israeli torture camps over the last two years, and there is grave concern that the real number is higher. This policy persists with the full support of Israel’s political establishment, judicial system, prison authorities and media. The Israel Prison Service and the Minister for National Security have publicly bragged about the harsh conditions imposed on Palestinian prisoners. These torture camps are part of the planned, extensive assault Israel is waging against Palestinian society, intended to break down and destroy Palestinians as a group. Link to our report “Living Hell” >> btselem.org/publications/2…