How Israel’s Apartheid System Affects Palestinian Citizens

Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship are treated like strangers in their own homeland.

Often labeled as “Arab Israelis”—a term designed to erase their Palestinian identity—they are the descendants of those who managed to remain during the Nakba in 1948, when over 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed. Though they carry Israeli citizenship, they live as second- or even third-class citizens—denied basic equality in a system built on Jewish supremacy.

Image source A Two-Tiered System of Rights

Palestinian citizens of Israel live under a deeply discriminatory framework. Despite formal citizenship, over 65 laws privilege Jewish citizens over non-Jews. Inequality is not incidental—it is legislated.

From land ownership and housing to education, political participation, and access to employment, Palestinians are systematically excluded. Entire communities face chronic underfunding, while Jewish towns flourish.

The 2018 Nation-State Law codified this discrimination into Israel’s constitutional fabric. It declared that the right to self-determination is “unique to the Jewish people.” Arabic, the native language of Palestinians, was downgraded. Promoting Jewish-only settlement became a “national value.”

This is not simply inequality. This is apartheid.

And It’s Getting Worse

While committing genocide in Gaza since 2023—with the backing of many world powers—Israel’s far-right government has simultaneously escalated its apartheid policies against Palestinians inside Israel.

November 2024:
The Knesset passed laws enabling the revocation of citizenship and residency from Palestinian citizens and residents, vastly expanding punitive measures even within Israel’s 1948 borders.

December 2024: The Knesset approved a preliminary reading of a bill that would grant the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Education the authority to refuse teaching licenses to individuals holding degrees from Palestinian universities. This legislation would compel teachers in East Jerusalem who studied at Palestinian institutions to requalify at Israeli academic institutions to continue their employment.

January 2025: The Israeli High Court overturned a 2015 law that stripped parents of minors imprisoned for security offenses of their welfare benefits. The court ruled that, although deterrence from committing security offenses is important, the law disproportionately violated equal rights.

February 2025: The Knesset’s Cabinet Committee for Legislation approved a bill to replace the term “West Bank” with “Judea and Samaria” in official discourse, a move viewed as a step toward annexation and the erasure of Palestinian identity.

Additionally, in the United States, Senator Tom Cotton introduced the RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria Act (S.384) on February 4, 2025, aiming to prohibit the federal government from using the term “West Bank,” mandating instead the use of “Judea and Samaria” in official communications.

These legislative actions are part of a broader strategy to entrench systemic discrimination and suppress Palestinian identity and rights within Israel and the occupied territories.

March 2025 (During Ramadan, amid ceasefire violations and massacres in Gaza and the West Bank):

The Knesset gave the ruling coalition greater control over judicial appointments, threatening what little recourse Palestinians had through Israeli courts.
It passed laws to deport Palestinian families from East Jerusalem or inside Israel if one member is merely accused of “terrorism”—a term Israel often uses to criminalize resistance, activism, or even speech.
Additional legislation now allows the government to strip legal status, increase home demolitions, and limit UNRWA operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

A Call to Awareness—and Accountability

These developments are not isolated incidents but represent a calculated expansion of an apartheid regime that controls Palestinian lives from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. The international community’s silence—or worse, complicity—makes this apartheid especially dangerous.

In a world increasingly driven by data, digital connection, and global norms, how long can such systemic oppression continue without accountability?

What Can You Do?

Raise Awareness: Share this post. Use your platforms to educate others.
Support Palestinian Voices: Follow and amplify those speaking out—including human rights organizations, journalists, and affected individuals.
Pressure Policymakers: Advocate for policies that condition aid on human rights compliance.

Apartheid anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. When it’s codified into law—as it is now in Israel—it becomes our collective moral failure if we stay silent.

Let’s not wait for history to tell us we were silent.

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