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While there is no existing ]n government policy that segregates ], their poor socio-economic conditions typically leave them somewhat segregated from the rest of Australian society. This situation has led a number of commentators and civil rights groups to characterize the situation as Apartheid. In fact, Australia's government policies are viewed by some as the original impetus for the Apartheid system in South Africa. While there is no existing ]n government policy that segregates ], their poor socio-economic conditions typically leave them somewhat segregated from the rest of Australian society. This situation has led a number of commentators and civil rights groups to characterize the situation as Apartheid. In fact, Australia's government policies are viewed by some as the original impetus for the Apartheid system in South Africa.


==Brazil==
== Muslims in France ==
]s in ] have recently been accused of apartheid due to their unwillingness to integrate into the French society. Many Muslim quarters in France are no-go areas for non-Muslims, and even the police avoids them. An internal security agency in France reported in 2004 that 300 communities across the country were marked by ], ], and violence, coupled with hatred of France and the ]. Some Muslims are already calling for the imposition of ] in predominantly Muslim districts; in some areas, they have imposed Islamic dress, chase away French shopkeepers selling pork and alcohol, and shut down cinemas on the basis that they are "places of sin".


Growing nequities in the economic and social status of Afro-Brazilians have been described as "social apartheid". According to Congressman Aloizio Mercadante, a leading member of Brazil's leftist Workers' Party, "Just as South Africa had racial apartheid, Brazil has social apartheid." The exclusion of youth (particularly street youth) from Brazilian society has also been described as "social Apartheid". Carlos Verrisimo states these two inequities are often inter-related, and Cristovam Buarque, Governor of the Federal District from 1995 to 98, Minister of Education from 2003 to 2004, and currently PT senator for the Federal District argues that "Brazil is a divided country, home to the greatest income concentration in the world and to a model of apartation, Brazilian social apartheid." '']'' has described Brazilian president ]'s as "fighting to bring the poor of Brazil out of economic apartheid".
== Malaysia ==
Malaysia has an ] which distinctly segregates the ]s and other indigeneous peoples of Malaysia from the non-Malays, or ] under the ], giving them special rights and privileges. This includes government-sponsored discounts and requiring even the ] of the economy to preferentially treat bumiputras with economic priveleges and penalising companies who do not have a certain quota of bumiputra in employment. Furthermore, any discussion of abolishing the article is prohibited with the justification that it is ]. This form of state-sponsored racial segregation is claimed as apartheid to opponents of the article. Supporters of the policy maintain that this is ] for the bumiputra who had suffered during the colonial era of the ], using the concept of the ] that Malaysia belongs to the Malays.


==Saudi Arabia== == Canada ==
]'s treatment of its native peoples has been described as "Canada's Apartheid". Canada's citizenship laws (described as "apartheid laws") did not grant full citizenship to native peoples until 1985 In 1966 ] stated:
<blockquote>The history of the Indian people for the last century has been the history of the impingement of white civilization upon the Indian: the Indian was virtually powerless to resist the white civilization; the white community of B.C. adopted a policy of apartheid. This, of course, has already been done in eastern Canada and on the Prairies, but the apartheid policy adopted in B.C. was of a particularly cruel and degrading kind. They began by taking the Indians' land without any surrender and without their consent. Then they herded the Indian people on to ]s. This was nothing more nor less than apartheid, and that is what it still is today.</blockquote>


In the 1980s the Urban Alliance on Race Relations stated "Perhaps the most severe and yet overlooked example of discriminatory practices towards Canadians is to be found in the treatment of our own indigenous people, the Native Canadians" . Even in the 21st century, according to Canada's '']'' newspaper, "Economically, socially, politically, culturally, we have come to accept a quiet apartheid that segregates, and thus weakens, native and non-native society",
]'s practices against women have been referred to as "]" and "sexual apartheid". Saudi Arabia's treatment of religious minorities has also been described as "apartheid".
and in 2004 the Canadian Taxpayers Federation describes Canada's Indian Act, and reserve system for native Indians, as "Apartheid: Canada's ugly secret".
Until ], ], the official government ] stated that ]s were forbidden from entering the country.


==Israel== == China ==
{{main|Israeli apartheid (phrase)}}
]i apartheid (or calling Israel an apartheid state) is a controversial phrase used by some critics to describe the country's policies towards the ] and ] populations. Critics of the phrase see it as a political epithet and do not consider Israel's practices to be comparable to the actions of the apartheid-era South African government towards its Black and mixed-race populations, and regard the phrase as misleading ].


]'s ''houku'' system of residency permits, which has effectively discriminated against China's 800 million rural peasants for decades, has been been described as "China's apartheid". According to Jiang Wenran, acting director of the China Institute at the ], this system has been "one of the most strictly enforced "apartheid" social structures in modern world history. He states "Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens."
==United States==
{{main|Racial segregation in the United States}}
{{mergeto|Racial segregation in the United States}}
{{NPOV-section}}
===National issues===
In the early 20th century, it was popular belief that the presence of "blacks" in a neighborhood would bring down property values. As a result, the US Government created a policy to segregate the country which involved making low-interest mortgages available to white civilian families through the ] and white military families through ] Housing Loans. Black families were denied these loans because the planners behind this initiative took maps and labelled every black area in the country "in decline". The rules for loans did not say that "black families cannot get loans" it said people from "areas in decline" cannot get loans. This meant there was no actual wording for the segregation, however it was clearly successful. Most suburbs are 70% or more homogenously white. Urban areas are largely black/minority.


== France ==
In addition to encouraging white families to move to suburbs by giving them loans, the government savagely uprooted many established African American communities by building elevated highways through their neighborhoods. In order to build a highway, tens of thousands of single family homes were destroyed. Because these properties were summarily declared to be "in decline", families were given pittance for their property, and were forced into "the projects". In order to build the towering monstrosities, even more houses were demolished.
]s in ] have recently been accused of apartheid due to their unwillingness to integrate into the French society. Many Muslim quarters in France are no-go areas for non-Muslims, and even the police avoids them. An internal security agency in France reported in 2004 that 300 communities across the country were marked by ], ], and violence, coupled with hatred of France and the ]. Some Muslims are already calling for the imposition of ] in predominantly Muslim districts; in some areas, they have imposed Islamic dress, chase away French shopkeepers selling pork and alcohol, and shut down cinemas on the basis that they are "places of sin".
]
From: The Interstates and the Cities: Highways, Housing, and the Freeway Revolt, Professor Mohl, University of Alabama at Birmingham


== India ==
"When policy makers and highway engineers determined that the new interstate highway system should penetrate to the heart of the central cities, they made a fateful decision, but also a purposeful one. Indeed, the interstate system's urban expressways, or freeways, not only penetrated the cities but they ripped through residential neighborhoods and leveled wide swaths of urban territory, ostensibly to facilitate automobility. In retrospect, it now seems apparent that public officials and policy makers, especially at the state and local level, used expressway construction to destroy low-income and especially black neighborhoods in an effort to reshape the physical and racial landscapes of the postwar American city."


]'s treatment of it's lower-class ]s has been described by ] as "India's hidden apartheid". According to Rajeev Dhavan, of India's leading English-language newspaper '']'', "'casteism' is India's apartheid which will continue in its most vicious and persistent forms for decades to come." ] has claimed that "frantically tr] in ].


== Israel ==
In sum total, a half-century of government-enforced segregation had left African American communities poor, and without 'wealth creation mechanisms'. Following two families, one white and the other black from 1940 til today, the following would be true:
The phrase ''''Israeli apartheid''' (or the terming of '''Israel''' an '''apartheid state''') is a ] ] used by some ]-rights activists, ], some ] and ] individuals groups such as ]<!--http://www.davidduke.com/?m=200407--> and ],<!--http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-genocide-palestinian-apartheidlaws.html--><!--These groups are at least as notable as the "Palestinian-rights activits" etc.--> and some anti-Zionists to criticize Israel's policies by drawing an ] between the policies of the ]i government towards both ] and ] to those of the ]-era ]n government towards its ] and mixed-race populations. Critics of the term argue that it is historically inaccurate, offensive, antisemitic, and is used as justification for terrorist attacks against Israel.


=== Origins ===
*The white family would get a loan to move out of the mixed city into an all-white suburb. They would purchase a house. The house would represent a wealth-creation mechanism. Every time they added a bedroom, painted the side, added a garage, or otherwise invested in their property, the value would appreciate. Their children would be able to go to school because the family could take out a mortgage on the wealth generated by their house. Because local primary and secondary schools were paid for through property taxes, the rising wealth of the community would make it easier to invest in their children's education.


The analogy was used as early as ] by ], an Israeli-born academic and ]ish member of the ], in his book ''Israel: An Apartheid State'' (ISBN 0862323177) which provided a detailed comparison of Israel and South Africa. The highly controversial ] in ] adopted resolutions describing Israel as an "apartheid state" . The term was subsequently used by the South African cleric ] in the articles he published following his visit to Israel. .
*The black family would be trapped in what was once a mixed city. In addition to the original, established, African American community, there would be an influx of African Americans from the South, as well as persons of Mexican, Caribbean, and Latin American origin. The members of the black family would have to compete against these new communities for jobs. In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, City, State, and Federal governments would likely decide that the neighborhood that the family lived in was no longer worth keeping, and demolish their house. In the process, they would lose any money they invested in their home. They would then be put in public housing. Instead of owning their own property, they become wards of the state, locked in a tower, bounded by elevated highways that allow white families from the suburbs to come into the city to work. Without property, they cannot get a mortgage, and cannot afford to send their children to college. The neighborhood schools malfunction because property taxes cannot raise enough money to maintain the school.


====Analogy====
Almost 70 years later, the white family would have a house in the suburbs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the black family would be locked in a public housing tower in a city.
Proponents of this term argue that while Israel grants some rights to Arabs living in Israel ], its policies towards ] in the ] and ] are analogous to the ] policies of ] towards blacks, for the following reasons:
*Palestinians who live in ] do not have Israeli citizenship or voting rights in Israel, but they are under Israeli occupation and subject to the policies of the Israeli government and its military.
*Israel has constructed "Jewish-only" ] in the ], which preclude "some of the most fertile land and richest water resources in the West Bank" from the "indigenous population" .
*Israel has created roads and checkpoints that isolate Palestinian communities , which is seen as a parallel to Apartheid South Africa's ]s.(Ibid)
*Israel is constructing the ] which some detractors have termed the ] for its alleged impact on Palestinians in the West Bank.
*Proponents of the term argue the Israeli policy of demolishing homes is an example of apartheid.
*The government of Israel has termed its policy of disengagement '']'' which literally means "separation". Some translate this word as ''apartheid'' as that word literally means "apartness".


Proponents of this term often claim discrimination against Israeli Arabs.
From done by the ]:
*Jews can easily gain ]i citizenship under the ], yet Palestinians who fled or were driven out, may not have the ].
*Arab municipalities receive less than one fifth the funding that is given to their Jewish counterparts.
*The government of Israel often refuses to grant permits to build or repair homes, and fails to provide electricity, water, health services, education, roads, or any other infrastructure. One of the consequences is that 70% of ] Bedouin (Arab) infants are not fully immunized and one third are hospitalized within their first year of life.
And in a recent article ("Sharon and the Future of Palestine," NY Review of Books, 12/2/04, Henry Siegman quotes Nahum Barnea, Israel's most respected political commentator: " is not yet the South Africa of apartheid, but is definitely from the same family."


====Usage====
The mean and median value of per family net worth (including home equity) increased from $219,000 in 1999 to $248900 in 2001, while the corresponding median value changed from $53,100 to $63,000. As indicated in Tables 2-
The term "Israeli apartheid" has been used by groups protesting the Israeli government, particularly student groups in Britain, the United States and Canada, where "Israeli apartheid week" is held on many campuses . It has been widely used by Palestinian rights advocates and also by some on the Israeli Jewish left. It has also been used by ] and ] groups such as ]<!--http://www.davidduke.com/?m=200407--> and ]<!--http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-genocide-palestinian-apartheidlaws.html-->.
3, both African -Americans and white families benefited from the rise in the net wealth. However, the mean and median wealth for African -American families ($59,100 and $7,500 respectively) still remained disappointingly low when compared to that of white families ( $291,800 and $95,000 respectively).


Several left wing Members of the ] (MKs) have also drawn an analogy between Israeli policies and apartheid, such as ] of the ] party who said of an Israeli Supreme Court ruling upholding the country's controversial citizenship law "The Supreme Court could have taken a braver decision and not relegated us to the level of an apartheid state." Similarly, ], a former Meretz leader and Israeli Education Minister has said "If we are not already an apartheid state, we are getting much, much closer to it."
More recently, the disparity between the racial composition of inmates in the American prison system has led to claims that the U.S. Justice system furthers a "new apartheid".


The term has also been used by three prominent South African Anti-Apartheid activists: Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Mahatma Ghandi's grandson, Arun Ghandi who grew up in Durban, SA and now runs the MK Institute for nonviolence ; and Christopher Brown, with the Christian Peacemaker Teams .
===Issues in the South===
] was the law in parts of the ] until the ]. These laws became known as ] and were similar to apartheid legislation in the forced segregation of facilities and services to [[Black (people)|
black]] and ], and prohibition of intermarriage. Some similarities between the situation in the Southern United States and South Africa were:
* The races were kept separate, with separate schools, hotels, bars, hospitals, toilets, parks, even telephone booths, and separate sections in libraries, cinemas, and restaurants, the latter often with separate ticket windows and counters. (See .)
* Laws prohibiting interracial sex and marriage (miscegenation) were passed between ] and ] in eleven southern states
* The voting rights of blacks were systematically restricted or denied through suffrage laws, such as the introduction of ] and ]. Loopholes, such as the ] and the understanding clause protected the voting rights of white people who were unable to pay the tax or pass the literacy test. Only whites could vote in the [[Democratic Party (United States)|
Democratic Party]] primary contests.
Some differences were:
* In the United States after the ] (] - ]), there was never a class of blacks who were not citizens (although it is certain that most were treated as second class citizens);
* There were no "homelands" in the United States (although some areas were informally designated black neighbourhoods, and as such were under-resourced and stigmatized), and families were not separated as they were in South Africa by not allowing men to bring their families with them to the areas where they worked.
* Blacks are a minority in the United States, but a majority in South Africa.
* In South Africa, voting rights were denied to blacks outright, by denying them citizenship. In the United States, denial of voting rights was enforced by local custom, by ] and other forms of violence, or by poll taxes and selective enforcement of literacy requirements as described above.


The term is often appropriated by those attempting to advance political goals, such as ]s against Israel or ] in Israel. It is meant to establish a link between political anti-Israel campaigns, on the one hand, and human-rights campaigns against apartheid-era South Africa, on the other.
The term ], meaning not only mass killing of a group but the intention to destroy a group of people, and is often used to describe ]. The ] were designed to disempower ]s and characterised them as an inferior race, just as the ] deemed Jewish people. The ] justified and perpetuated the use of lynchings against African Americans, particularly by groups such as the ].


===Criticism===
The ] (CRC) made a ] presentation on ] to the ] entitled "We Charge Genocide," which argued that the ], by its failure to act to curb the lynchings, was guilty of ] under Article II of the ].
Critics of the phrase argue that calling the country an "apartheid state" or referring to "Israeli apartheid" is incorrect for a number of reasons .
===Issues in the North===


*With the exception of Arabs residing in East Jerusalem, the ] minority have voting rights and are represented in the ] (Israel's legislature) whilst in apartheid South Africa, Blacks could not vote and had no representation in the South African parliament.
{{sect-stub}}
*Israeli law is identical to that of most countries in the world, regarding the rights of Palestinians who live outside Israel and are not Israeli citizens. International law does not reqire an occupying power to grant citizen rights to people living on occupied territory, and this is seldom, if ever, done in practice.
*Israel's security situation has forced it to impose restrictions on Palestinians living in the ] and ]. However, these conditions are not imposed on Israeli Arabs (that is, Palestinians who are residents of Israel living within the state's pre-1967 borders).
*The features of legal ] do not exist in Israel. Jews and Arabs use the same hospitals, Jewish and Arab babies are born in the same delivery room, Jews and Arabs eat in the same restaurants, and Jews and Arabs travel in the same buses, trains and taxis without being segregated..
*Apartheid South Africa strictly denied Blacks their legal rights, in contrast to Israeli law, which upholds Israeli Arabs' rights. Israeli courts have ruled against practices that exclude Israeli Arabs from leasing property. Arabs are being hired in increasing (though still disproprtionately low) numbers in the civil service and government owned agencies. Israeli Arabs also serve as judges in Israeli courts. .
*]s were created as resevoirs for Black labour to be utilised by South Africa whilst providing a legal means to strip Blacks of their South African citizenship. Israel's policy towards the ] and ] are quite different, to keep Palestinian residents of these territories out of Israel and exclude as many as possible from working within Israel.
*Jews constitute a majority of the Israeli population while the situation in South Africa was one of ].
*The claim that the Israeli government refuses to grant permits to build or repair homes, and fails to provide electricity, water, health services, education, roads, or any other infrastructure is simply false. Studies have shown that the Arab population receives as many, if not more, building permits as demographically equivalent groups of Israeli Jews.
*The comparison between Israel and South Africa is fictitious and is made in an attempt to demonize Israel as a prelude to an international ] campaign. The long term goal is to pressure the United Nations to impose ] against Israel.
*The analogy "demean(s) Black victims of the real apartheid regime in South Africa."
*Zionism is not a manifestation of European colonialism.
*Black labor was exploited in slavery-like conditions under apartheid whilst Palestinians rely on employment in Israel do to the economic failures and corruption of the Palestinain Authority.
*Equating Zionism with apartheid is propaganda used to justify Palestinian terrorist attacks and deny Israelis the right of self-defence by demonizing the construction of the West Bank security barrier with the name "Apartheid wall".


Some critics of the term such as Dr. Moshe Machover, professor of philosophy in London and co-founder of ], argues against the use of the term on the basis that the situation in Israel is worse than apartheid. Machover points out some significant differences between the policy of the Israeli government and the apartheid model. According to Machover, drawing a close analogy between Israel and South Africa is both a theoretical and political mistake.
While it is commonly thought that segregation was a southern phenomenon, segregation was also to be found in "the North". The ] suburb of ] for example, was made famous when Civil Rights advocate Rev. ] led a march advocating open (race-unbiased) housing.

==Malaysia==

In 2006 Marina Mahathir, the daugther of Malaysia's former Prime Minister, and a campaigner for women's rights, described the status of Muslim women in Malaysia as similar to that of Black South Africans under apartheid. She was apparently doing so in response to new family laws which make it easier for Muslim men to divorce wives, or take multiple wives, or gain access to their property. Mahathir stated ""In our country, there is an insidious growing form of apartheid among Malaysian women, that between Muslim and non-Muslim women." According to the '']'', she sees Muslim Malaysian women as "subject to a form of apartheid - second-class citizens held back by discriminatory rules that do not apply to non-Muslim women." Her comments were strongly criticized: the Muslim Professionals Forum stated "Her prejudiced views and assumptions smack of ignorance of the objectives and methodology of the Sharia, and a slavish capitulation to western feminism's notions of women's rights, gender equality and sexuality," and Dr Harlina Halizah Siraj, women's chief of the reform group Jamaah Islah Malaysia said "Women in Malaysia are given unlimited opportunities to obtain high education level, we are free to choose our profession and career besides enjoying high standard of living with our families."

==Saudi Arabia==

]'s practices against women have been referred to as "]" and "sexual apartheid". Saudi Arabia's treatment of religious minorities has also been described as "apartheid".
Until ], ], the official government ] stated that ]s were forbidden from entering the country.


==See also== ==External links==
* ( and
*]
*, in '']'', February 7, 2006
*]
* in ''The Guardian'', February 6, 2006
*]
* by Lawrence Davidson, Professor of Middle East History at West Chester University
* in '']'', November 2003
*, in '']'', March 2006
* by ] and ] in '']'' (July 15, 2002)
* pro-Palestinian site
* by ]
* BBC article on ]'s legal battle for the right to live in a Jewish town.
* ''Jerusalem Post''
* by ]
*, ]
* by ], a former anti-apartheid activist from South Africa now living in Israel.
* by Gerald M. Steinberg, ''Jerusalem Post'' August 24, 2004

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Arguments are sometimes made that the past or present actions of other nations are analogous to apartheid in South Africa, or constitute apartheid under the definition adopted in international law. The following are examples of use of the word Apartheid as a term used either rhetorically for polemic effect, in reference to the original racial discrimination laws properly called "Apartheid", formerly used in South Africa and Namibia, or as a concept under international law or political theory.

Australia

While there is no existing Australian government policy that segregates Aborigines, their poor socio-economic conditions typically leave them somewhat segregated from the rest of Australian society. This situation has led a number of commentators and civil rights groups to characterize the situation as Apartheid. In fact, Australia's government policies are viewed by some as the original impetus for the Apartheid system in South Africa.

Brazil

Growing nequities in the economic and social status of Afro-Brazilians have been described as "social apartheid". According to Congressman Aloizio Mercadante, a leading member of Brazil's leftist Workers' Party, "Just as South Africa had racial apartheid, Brazil has social apartheid." The exclusion of youth (particularly street youth) from Brazilian society has also been described as "social Apartheid". Carlos Verrisimo states these two inequities are often inter-related, and Cristovam Buarque, Governor of the Federal District from 1995 to 98, Minister of Education from 2003 to 2004, and currently PT senator for the Federal District argues that "Brazil is a divided country, home to the greatest income concentration in the world and to a model of apartation, Brazilian social apartheid." The Nation has described Brazilian president Lula's as "fighting to bring the poor of Brazil out of economic apartheid".

Canada

Canada's treatment of its native peoples has been described as "Canada's Apartheid". Canada's citizenship laws (described as "apartheid laws") did not grant full citizenship to native peoples until 1985 In 1966 Thomas Berger stated:

The history of the Indian people for the last century has been the history of the impingement of white civilization upon the Indian: the Indian was virtually powerless to resist the white civilization; the white community of B.C. adopted a policy of apartheid. This, of course, has already been done in eastern Canada and on the Prairies, but the apartheid policy adopted in B.C. was of a particularly cruel and degrading kind. They began by taking the Indians' land without any surrender and without their consent. Then they herded the Indian people on to Indian reserves. This was nothing more nor less than apartheid, and that is what it still is today.

In the 1980s the Urban Alliance on Race Relations stated "Perhaps the most severe and yet overlooked example of discriminatory practices towards Canadians is to be found in the treatment of our own indigenous people, the Native Canadians" . Even in the 21st century, according to Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper, "Economically, socially, politically, culturally, we have come to accept a quiet apartheid that segregates, and thus weakens, native and non-native society", and in 2004 the Canadian Taxpayers Federation describes Canada's Indian Act, and reserve system for native Indians, as "Apartheid: Canada's ugly secret".

China

China's houku system of residency permits, which has effectively discriminated against China's 800 million rural peasants for decades, has been been described as "China's apartheid". According to Jiang Wenran, acting director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, this system has been "one of the most strictly enforced "apartheid" social structures in modern world history. He states "Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens."

France

Muslims in France have recently been accused of apartheid due to their unwillingness to integrate into the French society. Many Muslim quarters in France are no-go areas for non-Muslims, and even the police avoids them. An internal security agency in France reported in 2004 that 300 communities across the country were marked by Islamic fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, and violence, coupled with hatred of France and the West. Some Muslims are already calling for the imposition of sharia in predominantly Muslim districts; in some areas, they have imposed Islamic dress, chase away French shopkeepers selling pork and alcohol, and shut down cinemas on the basis that they are "places of sin".

India

India's treatment of it's lower-class dalits has been described by UNESCO as "India's hidden apartheid". According to Rajeev Dhavan, of India's leading English-language newspaper The Hundu, "'casteism' is India's apartheid which will continue in its most vicious and persistent forms for decades to come." Eric Margolis has claimed that "frantically tr

Israel

The phrase 'Israeli apartheid (or the terming of Israel an apartheid state) is a pejorative political epithet used by some Palestinian-rights activists, South Africans, some neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic individuals groups such as David Duke and Jew Watch, and some anti-Zionists to criticize Israel's policies by drawing an analogy between the policies of the Israeli government towards both Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel to those of the apartheid-era South African government towards its Black and mixed-race populations. Critics of the term argue that it is historically inaccurate, offensive, antisemitic, and is used as justification for terrorist attacks against Israel.

Origins

The analogy was used as early as 1987 by Uri Davis, an Israeli-born academic and Jewish member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in his book Israel: An Apartheid State (ISBN 0862323177) which provided a detailed comparison of Israel and South Africa. The highly controversial World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa adopted resolutions describing Israel as an "apartheid state" . The term was subsequently used by the South African cleric Desmond Tutu in the articles he published following his visit to Israel. .

Analogy

Proponents of this term argue that while Israel grants some rights to Arabs living in Israel within its pre-1967 borders, its policies towards Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are analogous to the Apartheid policies of South Africa towards blacks, for the following reasons:

  • Palestinians who live in Israeli-occupied territories do not have Israeli citizenship or voting rights in Israel, but they are under Israeli occupation and subject to the policies of the Israeli government and its military.
  • Israel has constructed "Jewish-only" settlements in the West Bank, which preclude "some of the most fertile land and richest water resources in the West Bank" from the "indigenous population" .
  • Israel has created roads and checkpoints that isolate Palestinian communities , which is seen as a parallel to Apartheid South Africa's Bantustans.(Ibid)
  • Israel is constructing the Israeli West Bank barrier which some detractors have termed the Apartheid Wall for its alleged impact on Palestinians in the West Bank.
  • Proponents of the term argue the Israeli policy of demolishing homes is an example of apartheid.
  • The government of Israel has termed its policy of disengagement Hafrada which literally means "separation". Some translate this word as apartheid as that word literally means "apartness".

Proponents of this term often claim discrimination against Israeli Arabs.

  • Jews can easily gain Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, yet Palestinians who fled or were driven out, may not have the Right of return.
  • Arab municipalities receive less than one fifth the funding that is given to their Jewish counterparts.
  • The government of Israel often refuses to grant permits to build or repair homes, and fails to provide electricity, water, health services, education, roads, or any other infrastructure. One of the consequences is that 70% of Negev Desert Bedouin (Arab) infants are not fully immunized and one third are hospitalized within their first year of life.

And in a recent article ("Sharon and the Future of Palestine," NY Review of Books, 12/2/04, Henry Siegman quotes Nahum Barnea, Israel's most respected political commentator: " is not yet the South Africa of apartheid, but is definitely from the same family."

Usage

The term "Israeli apartheid" has been used by groups protesting the Israeli government, particularly student groups in Britain, the United States and Canada, where "Israeli apartheid week" is held on many campuses . It has been widely used by Palestinian rights advocates and also by some on the Israeli Jewish left. It has also been used by neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic groups such as David Duke and Jew Watch.

Several left wing Members of the Knesset (MKs) have also drawn an analogy between Israeli policies and apartheid, such as Zehava Gal-On of the Meretz party who said of an Israeli Supreme Court ruling upholding the country's controversial citizenship law "The Supreme Court could have taken a braver decision and not relegated us to the level of an apartheid state." Similarly, Shulamit Aloni, a former Meretz leader and Israeli Education Minister has said "If we are not already an apartheid state, we are getting much, much closer to it."

The term has also been used by three prominent South African Anti-Apartheid activists: Archbishop Desmond Tutu"Apartheid in the Holy Land"; Mahatma Ghandi's grandson, Arun Ghandi who grew up in Durban, SA and now runs the MK Institute for nonviolence Apartheid reference; and Christopher Brown, with the Christian Peacemaker Teams Apartheid reference.

The term is often appropriated by those attempting to advance political goals, such as sanctions against Israel or disinvestment in Israel. It is meant to establish a link between political anti-Israel campaigns, on the one hand, and human-rights campaigns against apartheid-era South Africa, on the other.

Criticism

Critics of the phrase argue that calling the country an "apartheid state" or referring to "Israeli apartheid" is incorrect for a number of reasons .

  • With the exception of Arabs residing in East Jerusalem, the Israeli Arab minority have voting rights and are represented in the Knesset (Israel's legislature) whilst in apartheid South Africa, Blacks could not vote and had no representation in the South African parliament.
  • Israeli law is identical to that of most countries in the world, regarding the rights of Palestinians who live outside Israel and are not Israeli citizens. International law does not reqire an occupying power to grant citizen rights to people living on occupied territory, and this is seldom, if ever, done in practice.
  • Israel's security situation has forced it to impose restrictions on Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. However, these conditions are not imposed on Israeli Arabs (that is, Palestinians who are residents of Israel living within the state's pre-1967 borders).
  • The features of legal petty apartheid do not exist in Israel. Jews and Arabs use the same hospitals, Jewish and Arab babies are born in the same delivery room, Jews and Arabs eat in the same restaurants, and Jews and Arabs travel in the same buses, trains and taxis without being segregated..
  • Apartheid South Africa strictly denied Blacks their legal rights, in contrast to Israeli law, which upholds Israeli Arabs' rights. Israeli courts have ruled against practices that exclude Israeli Arabs from leasing property. Arabs are being hired in increasing (though still disproprtionately low) numbers in the civil service and government owned agencies. Israeli Arabs also serve as judges in Israeli courts. .
  • Bantustans were created as resevoirs for Black labour to be utilised by South Africa whilst providing a legal means to strip Blacks of their South African citizenship. Israel's policy towards the West Bank and Gaza are quite different, to keep Palestinian residents of these territories out of Israel and exclude as many as possible from working within Israel.
  • Jews constitute a majority of the Israeli population while the situation in South Africa was one of minority rule.
  • The claim that the Israeli government refuses to grant permits to build or repair homes, and fails to provide electricity, water, health services, education, roads, or any other infrastructure is simply false. Studies have shown that the Arab population receives as many, if not more, building permits as demographically equivalent groups of Israeli Jews.
  • The comparison between Israel and South Africa is fictitious and is made in an attempt to demonize Israel as a prelude to an international boycott campaign. The long term goal is to pressure the United Nations to impose economic sanctions against Israel.
  • The analogy "demean(s) Black victims of the real apartheid regime in South Africa."
  • Zionism is not a manifestation of European colonialism.
  • Black labor was exploited in slavery-like conditions under apartheid whilst Palestinians rely on employment in Israel do to the economic failures and corruption of the Palestinain Authority.
  • Equating Zionism with apartheid is propaganda used to justify Palestinian terrorist attacks and deny Israelis the right of self-defence by demonizing the construction of the West Bank security barrier with the name "Apartheid wall".

Some critics of the term such as Dr. Moshe Machover, professor of philosophy in London and co-founder of Matzpen, argues against the use of the term on the basis that the situation in Israel is worse than apartheid. Machover points out some significant differences between the policy of the Israeli government and the apartheid model. According to Machover, drawing a close analogy between Israel and South Africa is both a theoretical and political mistake.

Malaysia

In 2006 Marina Mahathir, the daugther of Malaysia's former Prime Minister, and a campaigner for women's rights, described the status of Muslim women in Malaysia as similar to that of Black South Africans under apartheid. She was apparently doing so in response to new family laws which make it easier for Muslim men to divorce wives, or take multiple wives, or gain access to their property. Mahathir stated ""In our country, there is an insidious growing form of apartheid among Malaysian women, that between Muslim and non-Muslim women." According to the BBC, she sees Muslim Malaysian women as "subject to a form of apartheid - second-class citizens held back by discriminatory rules that do not apply to non-Muslim women." Her comments were strongly criticized: the Muslim Professionals Forum stated "Her prejudiced views and assumptions smack of ignorance of the objectives and methodology of the Sharia, and a slavish capitulation to western feminism's notions of women's rights, gender equality and sexuality," and Dr Harlina Halizah Siraj, women's chief of the reform group Jamaah Islah Malaysia said "Women in Malaysia are given unlimited opportunities to obtain high education level, we are free to choose our profession and career besides enjoying high standard of living with our families."

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's practices against women have been referred to as "gender apartheid" and "sexual apartheid". Saudi Arabia's treatment of religious minorities has also been described as "apartheid". Until March 1, 2004, the official government website stated that Jews were forbidden from entering the country.

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