FOR ISRAEL'S ARABS IT IS NOT APARTHEID
Khaled Abu Toameh
Hudson New York, March 9, 2010

An Arab member of the Knesset who goes all the way to the US and Canada to tell university students and professors that Israel is an apartheid state is not only a hypocrite and a liar, but is also causing huge damage to the interests of his own Arab voters and constituents.

If Israel were an apartheid state, what is this Arab doing in the Knesset? Doesn't apartheid mean that someone like this Knesset member would not, in the first place, even be permitted to run in an election? Fortunately, Arab citizens can go to the same beaches, restaurants and shopping malls as Jews in this "apartheid" state. Moreover, they can run in any election and even have a minister in the government for the first time.

In this "apartheid" state, the Arab community has a free media that many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip envy. Ironically, an Arab newspaper in Nazareth or Haifa that is licensed by Israel enjoys more freedom than the media controlled by Hamas and Fatah, as well as most corrupt Arab dictatorships.

Ironically, this Knesset member who is complaining about apartheid enjoys more privileges than most Jews and Arabs in Israel.... His parliamentary immunity allows him to enter areas that ordinary Jewish and Arab citizens do not have access to.... This Knesset member also can sometimes even break the law by visiting "hostile" countries like Syria and Lebanon and holding public meetings with Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.

True, the Arab community inside Israel has long been facing real problems that need to be dealt with urgently. The main problem was and remains discrimination by the establishment, especially when it comes to employment, infrastructure and allocation of public funds and lands. Nonetheless, the Arab citizens are not struggling for separation from Israel. Rather, they are fighting for integration, equality and better services and treatment. The Arab citizens are happy to live in Israel, where they have always had an average of 10 representatives in the Knesset.

By denouncing Israel as an apartheid state, the Knesset member who flew to North America is actually helping those who are trying to avoid the real problem: Discrimination. By focusing on the issue of apartheid, he is actually diverting attention from the real problem and betraying the interests of his own people.

The Arab citizens of Israel would like to see their representatives sitting in parliament and fighting for equality and better services for the Arab sector than participating in Israel Apartheid Week at a university in Ottawa or Toronto.

It is hard to understand how the participation of an Arab Knesset member in Israel Apartheid Week on a university campus in the US or Canada helps the cause of the 1.4 million Arab citizens of Israel. In fact, this could cause damage to the Arab citizens and their battle against discrimination. The Arab Knesset member's presence on these campuses plays into the hands of those Israelis who accuse the Arab citizens, the majority of whom remain loyal to the state, of being a "fifth column" and an "enemy from within." The more the Jews are afraid of their fellow Arab citizens, the more the latter will suffer.

The best way to undermine radicals like this Knesset member is by offering the Arab citizens equal services and full rights. Yes, Israel is not an apartheid state. But Israel must wake up and start dealing seriously with the problems of the Arab minority before it is too late.

[On March 10, 2010, Balad MK Jamal Zahalka spoke at an Israeli Apartheid Week event at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.-Ed.]

EXPOSE "APARTHEID" CHARGE'S REAL AGENDA
Malcolm Hedding
Jerusalem Post, March 11, 2010

Day by day, the anti-Israel alliance is seeking to make the apartheid label stick to Israel . We see this at present in the fortnight of global agitation known as "Israel Apartheid Week." But no one should be fooled-the real agenda behind branding Israel an "apartheid state" is the disappearance of the Jewish state altogether.

The real apartheid state of South Africa was rightfully dismantled by the early 1990s. It was first discredited, then delegitimized and finally dismantled to the elation of the world and the enslaved black majority who had lived under its brutality. However, to describe Israel in these terms is, quite frankly, immoral and wicked. Yet on university campuses worldwide, this is becoming a very popular cause.

Radical leftist academics and politicians are teaming up with extremist Muslim elements to pursue this goal. They want to equate Israel with the original apartheid state, yet most of these people know absolutely nothing about apartheid. They have no knowledge of the "inner workings" of the apartheid system and couldn't even tell you the basic facts about it. But the word itself is an extremely powerful weapon against Israel-since it conjures up notions of hatred, discrimination, brutality, racism and prejudice.

Essentially, apartheid was a totalitarian system of governance-not unlike many of the regimes in the Arab world today. A white minority subjugated the overwhelmingly black population. It was ideologically driven and obsessed with racial superiority. The superior whites could not mingle with or even sit on a bench with the inferior black peoples. Even the education system was "dumbed down" for black people because they were deemed mentally inferior.

The towns and cities were "white by night" as all "blacks" had to be removed to their shanty towns, which served as cheap labor ghettos for the nation. The black people could not vote, own property or even move freely inside their own country. Various instruments of state were used to ruthlessly enforce a total segregation, including the police, military and judiciary. In short, it was Aryanism in a new form.

There is absolutely nothing equivalent to this in the dispute between the Palestinians and Israel today. Within Israel itself, Arabs and Jews share the same shopping malls, benches, hospitals, theaters and, in many cases, suburbs. The educational institutions do not have a deliberately "dumbed down" Arab curriculum and the privilege of voting is given to all. The Knesset has Arab members, and Jews, Arabs and Palestinians often work together at construction sites, businesses, hotels and elsewhere. Most important of all is the fact that Israel is a democratic state. Not a perfect one, but it does have democratic institutions and is definitely not governed by a totalitarian minority!...

Actually, the real nature of this conflict has very little to do with politics or race, and everything to do with theology. By this I mean a radical jihadist theology that considers the whole Land of Israel and not just the West Bank as part of the "House of Islam." This theology dictates that all this land must be returned to Islamic rule, by force if necessary. This has absolutely nothing to do with apartheid....

Israel built a security barrier, which in some built-up areas consists of a wall. It was not built to segregate people or discriminate against them, but to protect its own citizens from attack. In this connection, the security fence has been highly successful though even Israelis admit it is regrettable.

Nevertheless, Israel's detractors love to deride the "apartheid wall." These same radical leftists espouse democracy but will not allow Israeli officials and scholars to exercise their democratic right to free speech. This is exactly what the apartheid thugs in South Africa did. They violently brought public meetings to an end if anyone opposed their view. They were scared to death that someone might just have a more truthful and compelling argument than theirs. The democratic rights they claim for themselves, they deny to others.

For sure the Palestinians have suffered, but to place the blame entirely at Israel's door is folly. Their failed and corrupt leadership, missed opportunities and willingness to support violence and terror are also central causes of their suffering. The truth is the apartheid accusation is just another smoke screen in the war against Israel. I should know because I grew up in the dark apartheid era in South Africa and stood against it to my peril.

(Malcolm Hedding, Executive Director of the International Christian
Embassy Jerusalem, participated in the struggle against apartheid
in the 1980s.)

LET'S HAVE A REAL APARTHEID EDUCATION WEEK
Alan Dershowitz
Jerusalem Post, March 7, 2010

Every year at about this time, radical Islamic students-aided by radical anti-Israel professors-hold an event they call "Israel Apartheid Week." During this week, they try to persuade students on campuses around the world to demonize Israel as an apartheid regime.... As one who strongly opposes any censorship, my solution is to fight bad speech with good speech, lies with truth and educational malpractice with real education. Accordingly, I support a "Middle East Apartheid Education Week" to be held at universities throughout the world. It would be based on the universally accepted human rights principle of "the worst first." In other words, the worst forms of apartheid being practiced by Middle East nations and entities would be studied and exposed first. Then the apartheid practices of other countries would be studied in order of their seriousness and impact on vulnerable minorities.

Under this principle, the first country studied would be Saudi Arabia. That tyrannical kingdom practices gender apartheid to an extreme, relegating women to an extremely low status. Indeed, a prominent Saudi imam recently issued a fatwa declaring that anyone who advocates women working alongside men or otherwise compromises with regard to absolute gender apartheid is subject to execution. The Saudis also practice apartheid based on sexual orientation, executing and imprisoning gay and lesbian Saudis. Finally, Saudi Arabia openly practices religious apartheid. It has special roads for "Muslims only." It discriminates against Christians, refusing them the right to practice their religion openly. And needless to say, it doesn't allow Jews the right to live in Saudi Arabia....

The second entity on any apartheid list would be Hamas, the de facto government of the Gaza Strip. Hamas too discriminates openly against women, gays and Christians. It permits no dissent, no free speech and no freedom of religion. Every single Middle East country practices these forms of apartheid to one degree or another.... The Kingdom of Jordan, which the King himself admits is not a democracy, has a law on its books forbidding Jews from becoming citizens or owning land. Despite the efforts of its progressive Queen, women are still de facto subordinate in virtually all aspects of Jordanian life.

Iran, of course, practices no discrimination against gays, because its president has assured us that there are no gays in Iran. In Pakistan, Sikhs have been executed for refusing to convert to Islam, and throughout the Middle East, honor killings of women are practiced, often with a wink and a nod from the religious and secular authorities.

Every Muslim country in the Middle East has a single, established religion, namely Islam, and makes no pretense of affording religious equality to members of other faiths. That is a brief review of some, but certainly not all, apartheid practices in the Middle East.

Now let's turn to Israel. The secular Jewish state of Israel recognizes fully the rights of Christians and Muslims and prohibits any discrimination based on religion (except against Conservative and Reform Jews, but that's another story!). Muslim and Christian citizens of Israel (of which there are over a million) have the right to vote and have elected members of the Knesset, some of whom even oppose Israel's right to exist. There is an Arab member of the Supreme Court, an Arab member of the Cabinet and numerous Israeli Arabs in important positions in businesses, universities and the cultural life of the nation....

There is complete freedom of dissent in Israel and it is practiced vigorously by Muslims, Christians and Jews alike. And Israel is a vibrant democracy.

What is true of Israel proper, including Israeli Arab areas, is not true of the occupied territories.... I have long opposed civilian settlements in the West Bank, as many, perhaps most, Israelis do. But to call an occupation, which continues because of the refusal of the Palestinians to accept the two-state solution, "apartheid", is to misuse that word. As those of us who fought in the actual struggle of apartheid well understand, there is no comparison between what happened in South Africa and what is now taking place on the West Bank....

The current "Israel Apartheid Week" on universities around the world, by focusing only on the imperfections of the Middle East's sole democracy, is carefully designed to cover up far more serious problems of real apartheid in Arab and Muslim nations. The question is why do so many students identify with regimes that denigrate women, gays, non-Muslims, dissenters, environmentalists and human rights advocates, while demonizing a democratic regime that grants equal rights to women (the chief justice and speaker of the Parliament of Israel are women), gays (there are openly gay generals in the Israeli Army), non-Jews (Muslims and Christians serve in high positions in Israel) and dissenters, (virtually all Israelis dissent about something).

Israel has the best environmental record in the Middle East, it exports more life saving medical technology than any country in the region and it has sacrificed more for peace than any country in the Middle East. Yet on many college campuses democratic, egalitarian Israel is a pariah, while sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, terrorist Hamas is a champion. There is something very wrong with this picture.