Apartheid is a system of institutionalized racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. The term "apartheid" is used in international law to describe a category of regime, defined in the United Nations (UN) International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1973), to which more than 100 states are a party. The definition was refined in Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (2002) . The Rome Statute defines the Crime of apartheid as: "inhumane acts...committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime".

Israels policies and actions in its ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories have drawn accusations that it is committing the crime of apartheid. Amnesty Internationals investigation shows that Israel imposes a system of oppression and domination against Palestinians across all areas under its control, in order to benefit Jewish Israelis. This amounts to apartheid as prohibited in international law. Laws, policies, and practices which are intended to maintain a cruel system of control over Palestinians have left them fragmented geographically and politically, frequently impoverished, and in a constant state of fear and insecurity. The system instituted by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people meets the UN definition of apartheid. Human rights organizations are increasingly using the term "apartheid" to describe Israels regime.