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Israeli apartheid

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Israeli apartheid is a controversial phrase used by some anti-Zionists and Palestinian rights activists to draw an analogy betweem the policies of the Israeli government towards Palestinians to those of the apartheid-era South African government towards its Black and mixed-race population.

The term "Israeli apartheid" has been used frequently by left-wing groups protesting the Israeli government, particularly student groups in Britain, the United States and Canada, where "Israeli apartheid week" is held on many campuses. The term is also used by those advocating sanctions against Israel or disinvestment in Israel echoing the 1980s campaign for sanctions and disinvestment as economic tools to pressure apartheid-era South Africa.

Israeli road plans in the West Banks have been condemned as "apartheid". These condemnations come after Israel's decision to reserve its road system for Jews only.

One of the most notable figures to apply the term "apartheid" to the situation in Israel is Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who himself was a prominent anti-apartheid activist in South Africa.

On August 31, 2001, 30,000 to 50,000 activists took to the street in Durban, South Africa to protest, what they saw as, Israeli apartheid.

Criticism

Supporters of Israel argue that calling the country an "apartheid state" or referring to "Israeli apartheid" is inaccurate for a number of reasons.

  • Jews constitute a majority of the Israeli population while the situation in South Africa was one of minority rule.(ibid)
  • The Israeli Arab minority have full and equal 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.(ibid)
  • Israel's security situation has forced it to impose restrictions on Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza and these conditions are not imposed on Israeli Arabs (that is Palestinians who are residents of Israel living within the state's pre-1967 borders).(ibid)
  • The features of legal petty apartheid do not exist in Israel. Jews and Arabs use the same hospitals with Jewish and Arab babies being born in the same delivery room. Jews and Arabs eat in the same restaurants, travel in the same buses, trains and taxis without being segregated.(ibid)
  • Apartheid South Africa strictly denied Blacks their legal 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. Arabs are also now being appointed 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. (ibid)

See also

External links

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