For years, it had been said that Israel was slipping into being an apartheid state, similar to South Africa before the success of the majority-black Africans to win control of their nation, but late last month, Human Rights Watch minced no words in charging Israel with "crimes of apartheid, persecution."

From time to time, small groups inside and outside of Israel had warned that the oppression of Palestinians was not just a temporary condition, but beginning to be set in stone. After a half-century, said the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, it becomes clear that "the crime against humanity of persecution, as defined under the Rome Statute and customary international law, consists of severe deprivation of fundamental rights of a racial, ethnic, or other groups with discriminatory intent."

One need only to read the myriad books about the occupation of Palestine by Israel and to hear the testimony of those Americans who have traveled to Palestine to support the struggle against the daily reality of apartheid to understand the abysmal condition of Palestinian lives. If the previous U.S. president wanted to see the effects of walls and fences, someone from his administration would only have to have gone to Israel, a land of walls and fences that keep two peoples who live within a breath of each other as apart as if they lived on different planets. Israeli authorities see to it every day that the separation is complete and not a day goes by that thousands of Palestinians have to go through one or more checkpoints to move from, say, home to work, or home to school, or home to a small farm.

It is frustrating beyond belief to have to answer to the young military who are fully suited up with body armor and carrying assault weapons at every checkpoint. Elder civilian Palestinians are often ordered about by members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who are barely beyond puberty. Military service for men and women starts at 17. They have complete control of the Palestinians' daily movements and can do what they wish to Palestinians at the checkpoints, including hold them up for hours for any reason or for no reason. It's nearly impossible to plan a day's schedule for work or school or any other reason under those conditions.

The HRW apartheid report enumerates the seemingly endless ways in which the Palestinians are oppressed to the extent that it fits the official description of apartheid. The HRW report says:

The 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid and the 1998 Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court (ICC) define apartheid as a crime against humanity consisting of three primary elements:

1. An intent to maintain domination by one racial group over another.

2. A context of systematic oppression by the dominant group over the marginalized group.

3. Inhumane acts.

The reference to a racial group is understood today to address not only treatment based on genetic traits but also treatment based on descent and national or ethnic origin, as defined in the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. Human Rights Watch applies this broader understanding of race.

Over the years and still, today, there are demolitions of the homes of Palestinians, and many of their villages that stood in 1948 are gone without a trace. The demolitions are some of the most brutal actions of the apartheid regime, as they can be done as the people are living in the homes, having spent their life savings to build the home. At a seeming whim, the residents can be told that their house or houses will be demolished this week or tomorrow.

After a short warning or no advanced warning, the giant Caterpillar D-9 bulldozers are brought in and simply mow the house down, as the family watches helplessly from the street. The American company manufactures the big machines, especially for Israel and its home demolition operations. They are armored, so no harm can come to the operator. It is in housing construction that Israel has complete control, as well. The permit to build often is held up for a long time, sometimes years. One family had waited for a permit for years to build on a piece of land owned by the family. When the permit never came, the house was built and, eventually, authorities were moved to demolish it because they did not have the proper permit. It was during such a demolition that Rachel Corrie, 23, was crushed by a bulldozer when she tried to stop a demolition in Rafah. The operator said he didn't see her, but witnesses said otherwise.

Home demolitions are such an egregious and brutal method of proving absolute control over a people that an organization was created to try to fight the practice, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). The co-founder, Jeff Halper, born in the U.S., has lived in Israel since 1973 and has been critical of Israel's treatment of Palestinians for many years. He and those who supported ICAHD and other groups similarly created to fight for rights called out apartheid early.

In Halper's 2010 book, “An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel,” he wrote:

“What if the Occupation wins? What if, in the light of day, in the glare of the mass media, an entire people is literally imprisoned behind 26-foot concrete walls? What if, on the southern border of Europe, with the active support of the American government, a new Bantustan emerges and the world is confronted with a new apartheid state? The Israeli-Palestinian conflict long ago ceased being a localized spat between two peoples in a far-away corner of the Middle East. It is a global conflict whose consequences reverberate far and wide."

Halper and ICAHD have helped rebuild 189 homes. It may seem like a drop in the bucket, compared with the rate of demolitions within the population of millions of Palestinians, but it gives many of them hope and there is very little of that among the oppressed people.

The HRW report concludes: “The ICC (International Criminal Court) Office of the Prosecutor should investigate and prosecute those credibly implicated in the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution. Countries should do so as well in accordance with their national laws under the principle of universal jurisdiction, and impose individual sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on officials responsible for committing these crimes.”

Unless there is a massive outcry by people around the world, it doesn't appear that too much change can be expected, especially in the U.S. Just this week, it was announced that a letter has been sent by hundreds of members of Congress, from both parties, that the $3.8 billion that is annually sent to Israel should continue “without conditions,” which mean that no matter what human rights violations are charged or committed by the Israeli government, the money should flow and keep flowing.

What to do? For starters, in the U.S., at least, politicians could stop equating criticism of the actions of the Israeli government with anti-semitism and stop passing laws that gag students, professors, scholars, and citizens in general from expressing support for freeing Palestinians from oppression. So far, laws that have been passed regarding such gags are direct hits against the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and they need to stop. Until there is the freedom to discuss Israel's absolute control over Palestinians, the world will just have to continue to put up with apartheid in their midst. And U.S. taxpayers will be footing at least part of the bill.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John Funiciello, is a former newspaper reporter and labor organizer, who lives in the Mohawk Valley of New York State. In addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure from factory food producers and land developers. Contact Mr. Funiciello and BC.