Is Israel an apartheid state?

By
John Minto
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13
12

evans-cartoon

The cartoon the NZ Herald sacked  Malcolm Evans for

In the wake of the protest held outside the Batsheva Dance Company performance in Wellington on Saturday night, supporters of Israel have vigorously denied the claim that Israel is an apartheid state. Are they right?

First the background.

Batsheva is an Israeli dance company which is a “cultural ambassador” for Israel. It is largely funded by the Israeli Ministry of Culture & Sport, the City of Tel Aviv and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs who praise the troupe as “ambassadors of Israeli culture”. As such it is part of a wider propaganda strategy by Israel – called Brand Israel – to try to rebrand this controversial state as a liberal democracy where the arts flourish as a way to deflect hostility to Israel’s abuses of Palestinian human rights.

Saturday’s protest – “Boycott Batsheva” – by Palestinian solidarity groups was designed to build support in New Zealand for the international BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign to isolate Israel. Just as New Zealand activists stood with black South Africans against apartheid so we are now standing with Palestinians against Israeli’s racist policies.

At Saturday’s Batsheva event the former honorary Israeli consul in Wellington David Zwartz organised a counter demonstration with some Zionists supported by an evangelical Christian Zionist group who had apparently travelled down from Hawkes Bay. They held placards claiming “Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East” and another rather bizarre placard attacking me personally with the words “HART – Halt All Racist Talk John”.

Zwartz and his followers were most irate at the claim Israeli is an apartheid state and in Israel’s defence they point to Arab Israelis being able to vote and currently there are 12  Arab Israeli’s elected to the Israeli Knesset (parliament).

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However having people elected to parliament is no guarantee of equal rights and nowhere is this more evident than Israel.

Arab Israelis (Palestinians who stayed when Israel was established in 1948) are afforded citizenship rights along with Jewish Israelis but Arab Israelis are not given the status of “nationals” of Israel – a status reserved for Jewish Israelis only. What flows from this racially applied distinction is a myriad of laws which make Arab Israelis second class citizens in the land of their birth – in a word – apartheid.

Jewish families can bring in Jewish relatives from overseas who automatically receive Israeli citizenship and Israeli national status but Arab Israeli families are denied this right. Israel even refuses entry to a husband or wife of an Arab Israeli if that partner is from the West Bank or Gaza. The couple either have to live apart or move out of Israel. Israel doesn’t want more Palestinians in the country.

What this means is any Jewish person who has never sighted the Middle East can migrate and become a citizen of Israel without a problem but an Arab family who has lived in the area for centuries is denied entry to any family members – including those hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were driven out of Israel when the Jewish state was formed in 1948.

As you might imagine the discrimination follows through in land and building both within Israel and in the West Bank. Arab Israelis struggle to get building permits in wider Israel while Land and building opportunities are extensive for Jewish Israelis. Every day Palestinian homes are being bulldozed and Palestinian land seized while illegal Jewish-only settlements are being built on Palestinian land.

Jewish-only roads cross-cross the occupied West Bank, slicing and dicing Palestinian land into discrete areas similar to the bantustans of apartheid South Africa.

Discrimination follows into pretty much every area of life. In education for example the Israeli government spends an average of just $192 per year on each Arab student and $1,100 per Jewish student.

Such statistics were commonplace in South Africa under apartheid and it’s no surprise to see them in Israel. Racism speaks loudly in the allocation of resources.

Israeli denials of apartheid are pointless but continue to be put out in the hope gullible people will accept them at face value. It’s worked for Israel for a long time but not now.

The BDS campaign must be tightened on this rogue, racist, apartheid state.

Next time you hear of a BDS protest – make sure you are on the right side of history with the Palestinian people.

 

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13 COMMENTS

  1. I’m not sure that BDS works. The problem is not Israel, but the Israel lobbies in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Without them Israel would not be able to act as it does.

  2. You are 100% right. At least with South African apartheid, the south Africans were open and upfront about it. With the dishonest, greasy state of Israel it’s covered up and denied.

  3. Well aid, John.

    There’s an old saying; “if it looks like a duck; sounds like a duck; it’s a duck”.

    The examples you gave of separatism in Israel is fairly indicative that a covert apartheid system exists in Israel. Until Israel abandons this kind of separatism and occupation of the West Bank, it will never know peace and security.

  5. Thank god for people like you John Minto for having the guts to stand up against the Zionist Tyranny Most people are asleep and or just down right ignorantly uninformed, unfortunately in this simple country of ours.

  7. Great article John. For many, the Israeli v Palestine issue is misunderstood to be about violence and religion. Not so! Great piece that underpins the reality of what happens to the oppressed on a micro and macro scale under an apartheid regime. BDS is a great worldwide movement that has Israeli politicians and the Zionists attention. Keep up the good work!!

  8. Great article John. I understand why you wrote it. It’s so sad that it’s been written so many times before. Scale it back and you’ve got Charlotte Dawson. What is it with human nature? There’s so much good in the world but whole countries can’t figure out how to be kind to each other.
    Sorry. Having a bad day

  9. We held a demonstration against Batsheva in London where – again – people with tickets decided not to attend the performance.
    I also participated in a BDS campaign against Veolia in North London, after which – after 2 years – they walked away from a £4.7 billion (around US $7.5 billion) waste management contract.
    Don’t let anyone tell you BDS is not working – because it is.
    As for claiming that Israel is a democracy: don’t make me laugh.
    How many Palestinian MKs have ever served in an Israeli government? Answer: None – in over 60 years.
    How many Palestinians in the militarily occupied West Bank get to vote in Israeli elections? Answer: None.
    Israel a democracy? Don’t make me laugh – or vomit !!!!

  10. Instead of worrying about Israel being apartheid you should be worrying about your own country. This Iwi part in the Auck Unitary plan is a form of apartheid. Relationships between maori & euro nz is not too bad but this part of the plan will send us back to pre 1800 hatred. If they think this is the way to speed up Resource Consents then those in council must be as thick as pig shit. Then there will be the costs on top of time. Once someone can see a free buck in it, charges will be the norm and people complain now at the far out costs of getting a house because they will be worse with this stupid idea. When will this country become ” One “. Never as long as things like this cause ripples in the community. It all comes down to appeasement from the council and Bankrupt us Brown.

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