Apartheid?
Another aspect of the Palestinianist delegitimization and disinformation campaign is the pernicious comparison between Israel and apartheid South Africa. It is a claim which has no basis in fact.
There are many instances where Israelis and Arabs work and play together in peace, and there are frequently stories in the newspapers about Israeli hospitals treating Palestinian children or Israeli medics rushing to help injured Palestinians. In fact, over 100,000 Palestinians received medical care in Israel during 2011. In the same year, more than 100 Palestinian doctors were interns at Israeli hospitals. Even in times of conflict, Israeli army policy is as follows: “The treatment of the Palestinian population is first and foremost a moral and professional obligation for every one of us.”
As Benjamin Pogrund, the South African-born author, observes: “Jewish and Arab babies are born in the same delivery room, with the same facilities, attended by the same doctors and nurses, with the mothers recovering in adjoining beds in a ward.” He also observed that Jews and Arabs share meals in restaurants and travel on the same trains, buses and taxis, and visit each other’s homes. “Could any of this possibly have happened under apartheid,” he asked. “Of course not.”
There are numerous other examples that explode the apartheid myth. For instance, following the 5.3 tremor in the Middle East in May 2012, it was reported that Israel had already set up a mechanism to channel aid to the Palestinians in the event of an earthquake. And if Israel was an apartheid state, why would Israelis and Palestinians work together in the Jordan Valley to produce agricultural goods that are sold abroad? If Israel was prejudiced against Palestinians, why would it bother to establish a Israeli-Palestinian Chamber of Commerce?
Apartheid in South Africa was based on color separation of “white” and “non-white”. The white population in South Africa was a minority. But the State of Israel (excluding the West Bank, which I address below) is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial democratic state. It is teeming with Jews from Europe, Ethiopia, Russia, America and the Middle East. A fifth of the Israeli population are Arabs, the majority of whom are Muslims. There is a host of tiny minorities, such as the Druze and the Bedouin. (It is also worth mentioning that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where there is religious freedom.)
All citizens of Israel have access to state services. Arabs sit in the parliament and on the Supreme Court. There are several Arab representatives in the parliament. Arabic is an official language in Israel. Even Miss Israel of 1999 was an Arab. Under apartheid black South Africans could not vote and were not citizens of the country in which they are the overwhelming majority of the population.
Everybody in Israel is equal before the law. Racial discrimination/segregation is outlawed. Inevitably, there are cases of low level cases of discrimination as there are in the UK, Canada, France etc. In South Africa, inequality was enshrined in law.
Doctor Mohammed Wattad, an Arab citizen of Israel and a member of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, has this to say: “In an apartheid regime, there is no possibility of judicial review, because the judges are appointed by the regime and all serve one ideology. This is not the case in Israel ... There is a very strong, independent Supreme Court in Israel. In an apartheid regime, there is no place to go to argue against the government.”
As things stand, the West Bank (historically known as Judea and Samaria) is not part of sovereign Israel. During the 1993 Oslo Peace process, it was mutually agreed to divide the West Bank into regions – A, B and C. 98% of Palestinian live in Palestinian-governed areas, A and B.
Arabs who live on the West Bank are allowed to work in Israel, and attend schools and universities. In contrast, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has said that not a single Jew will be allowed to live in a future Palestinian state on the West Bank.
The security barrier, erected to keep out terrorists, is 95 per cent fence and 5 per cent wall. The sections of concrete wall are only erected to prevent terrorist and sniper attacks on Israelis. The barrier corresponds roughly with 1949 Armistice line. Restrictions are only imposed because of the very real threat of terrorism. There is no racial motive in the application of checkpoints.
In East Jerusalem, Palestinian residents have permanent residency rights in the city. They carry Palestinian identity cards issued by the Palestinian Authority and elect members of the Palestinian Authority. They are entitled to social and health benefits, and are eligible for Israeli citizenship. Those that become Israeli citizens can vote in municipal elections.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are under the full civil and security control of Hamas, which governs the area as an autonomous entity. Israel dismantled all the Gaza settlements in 2005 but maintained the blockade because of the election of Hamas and rocket attacks on southern Israel. Despite the blockade, Gazans are able to produce their own vegetables, olives, citrus, beef and dairy products. Primary exports from Gaza are cut flowers and fruit. Gaza's real GDP grew by more than 25% during the first three quarters of 2011 and exports are expanding. Since withdrawing from the Gaza in 2005, Israel supplies Gaza with 50% of its electricity, and provides 49,610 tons of cooking gas and 136,097,330 liters of fuel a year. In addition, it provides one million tons of aid a year. This includes 160,000 tons of wheat , 14,000 tons of rice, 8,000 tons of clothes and footwear, and 2,000 tons of milk powder and baby food, and equipment for Gaza's flower industry. There is not a single civilian good that cannot enter Gaza. Israel even supplies LCD televisions, Mercedes cars, Hyundai jeeps, Jacuzzi tubs and frost-free refrigerators. Gaza has a five-star hotel, fancy restaurants, a luxury shopping mall, vibrant markets, and a thriving beach community.
Israel is not an apartheid state. The level of freedom exercised by Arabs in Israel is head and shoulders above the treatment of Arabs in neighboring countries. Indeed, most surveys show that Israeli Arabs are happy to live in the Jewish and would not want to move to an independent Palestine.
Everybody in Israel is equal before the law. Racial discrimination/segregation is outlawed. Inevitably, there are cases of low level cases of discrimination as there are in the UK, Canada, France etc. In South Africa, inequality was enshrined in law.
In contrast. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has said that not a single Jew will be allowed to live in a future Palestinian state on the West Bank.
As things stand, the West Bank (historically known as Judea) is not part of sovereign Israel. During the 1993 Oslo Peace process, it was mutually agreed to divide the West Bank into regions – A, B and C. 98% of Palestinian live in Palestinian-governed areas, A and B.
Arabs who live on the West Bank are allowed to work in Israel, and attend schools and universities.
The security barrier, erected to keep out terrorists, is 95 per cent fence and 5 per cent wall. The sections of concrete wall are only erected to prevent terrorist and sniper attacks on Israelis. The barrier corresponds roughly with 1949 Armistice line. Restrictions are only imposed because of the very real threat of terrorism. There is no racial motive in the application of checkpoints. It is true, however, that checkpoints do make life difficult for the Palestinians living in the West Bank.
In East Jerusalem, Palestinian residents have permanent residency rights in the city. They carry Palestinian identity cards issued by the Palestinian Authority and elect members of the Palestinian Authority. They are entitled to social and health benefits, and are eligible for Israeli citizenship. Those that become Israeli citizens can vote in municipal elections.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are under the full civil and security control of Hamas, which governs the area as an autonomous entity. Israel dismantled all the Gaza settlements in 2005 but maintained the blockade because of the election of Hamas and rocket attacks on southern Israel. Despite the blockade, Gazans are able to produce their own vegetables, olives, citrus, beef and dairy products. Primary exports from Gaza are cut flowers and fruit. Gaza's real GDP grew by more than 25% during the first three quarters of 2011 and exports are expanding. Since withdrawing from the Gaza in 2005, Israel supplies Gaza with 50% of its electricity, and provides 49,610 tons of cooking gas and 136,097,330 liters of fuel a year. In addition, it provides one million tons of aid a year. This includes 160,000 tons of wheat , 14,000 tons of rice, 8,000 tons of clothes and footwear, and 2,000 tons of milk powder and baby food, and equipment for Gaza's flower industry. There is not a single civilian good that cannot enter Gaza. Israel even supplies LCD televisions, Mercedes cars, Hyundai jeeps, Jacuzzi tubs and frost-free refrigerators. Gaza has a five-star hotel, fancy restaurants, a luxury shopping mall, vibrant markets, and a thriving beach community.
Israel is not an apartheid state. The level of freedom exercised by Arabs in Israel is head and shoulders above the treatment of Arabs in neighboring countries. Indeed, most surveys show that Israeli Arabs are happy to live in the Jewish and would not want to move to an independent Palestine.
There are many instances where Israelis and Arabs work and play together in peace, and there are frequently stories in the newspapers about Israeli hospitals treating Palestinian children or Israeli medics rushing to help injured Palestinians. In fact, over 100,000 Palestinians received medical care in Israel during 2011. In the same year, more than 100 Palestinian doctors were interns at Israeli hospitals. Even in times of conflict, Israeli army policy is as follows: “The treatment of the Palestinian population is first and foremost a moral and professional obligation for every one of us.”
There are numerous other examples that explode the apartheid myth. For instance, following the 5.3 tremor in the Middle East in May 2012, it was reported that Israel had already set up a mechanism to channel aid to the Palestinians in the event of an earthquake. And if Israel was an apartheid state, why would Israelis and Palestinians work together in the Jordan Valley to produce agricultural goods that are sold abroad? If Israel was prejudiced against Palestinians, why would it bother to establish a Israeli-Palestinian Chamber of Commerce?
Israelis and Palestinians are at loggerheads over many things, but there are numerous cases where both sides work together for the common good.
Of course, crying apartheid is a sure-fire and cynical way of raising the Palestinian profile abroad. But I suspect it is also born out of a sense of frustration that Palestinian leaders have proved incapable of working with Israel to establish a viable state on the West Bank.
For example, in the past 13 years or so, the Palestinian leadership has been given at least three major opportunities to establish an independent state. Yasser Arafat walked away from the Camp David talks in 2000 despite being promised 92% of the West Bank, 100% of Gaza and east Jerusalem. Talks held in Taba in 2001 also broke down due to Arafat’s insistence that the Palestinians control the Western Wall. A resolution was also put forward by Ehud Olmert in 2008, in which the Palestinians would receive Gaza, the majority of the West Bank, parts of east Jerusalem, safe passage between the West Bank and Gaza, and the dismantling of settlements in the Jordan Valley and eastern Samaria. Unfortunately, Mahmoud Abbas did not give a final response on the matter and negotiations ended.
And in September 2012 when defense minister Ehud Barak floated the idea of a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank, Palestinian leaders begged the Israeli government not to leave the territory. Nabil Abu Rudineh, chief aide to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said the Palestinians "object" to any unilateral action that will lead to "the formation of a Palestinian state in temporary borders."