Apartheid is a system of segregation and discrimination on grounds of race. In South Africa, Apartheid (“apartness” in the language of Afrikaans) was a system of legislation that upheld segregationist policies against non-white citizens of South Africa. After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all-white government immediately began enforcing existing policies of racial segregation.

Hendrik Verwoerd, also called the Architect of the Apartheid, was Prime Minister and leader of the National Party from 1958-66 and was main actor who shaped the implementation of apartheid policy and practices.

The three most important features of the legislation that sustained Apartheid  were the Race Classification Act, Every citizen suspected of not being European was classified according to race, the Mixed Marriages Act, which prohibited marriage between people of different races, and the Group Areas Act.

Motive and justification Apartheid:

Strategists in the National Party invented apartheid system as a means to solidify their control over the economic and social systems. Initially, the aim of the apartheid was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation. With the enactment of apartheid laws in 1948, racial discrimination was institutionalized.

About 6.8 million Jewish Israelis and 6.8 million Palestinians live today between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, an area encompassing Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the latter made up of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Throughout most of this area, Israel is the sole governing power; in the remainder, it exercises primary authority alongside limited Palestinian self-rule. Across these areas and in most aspects of life, Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.