Israel and Apartheid?

I am a little late in posting this to the blog, since one of the articles I am posting was written two weeks ago, and the other written five days ago.  My lack of internet at the moment is keeping me from responding speedily.

I, however, felt compelled to include two articles written about the issue of Apartheid in Israel.  Many organizations working to end the Israeli occupation have adopted the term Apartheid in describing the practices of the Israeli occupation against Palestinians.  Often I feel uncomfortable with the use of the term Apartheid in the context of Israel and Palestine, because the term Apartheid conjures up the specific situation of discrimination in South Africa.  While there are many racist and discriminatory policies that Israel implements, in many cases these actions are different than in South Africa and do not lend to a direct comparison.

Photo c/o www.sfpr.uwaterloo.ca

I, however, was offended by the article written and published in the New York Times by Richard Goldstone entitled Israel and the Apartheid Slander, who claimed: “In Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute: ‘Inhumane acts ... committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.’”  He glosses over the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza stating: “But here too there is no intent to maintain ‘an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group.’”  He writes off the issues of the wall, home demolitions, discrimination of Israeli Arabs, and denies the existence of systematic oppression.

I am thankful for the following response, Judge Goldstone’s offensive apology for apartheid, by Udi Aloni, an Israeli writer and filmmaker, which points to the systematic oppression of the Israeli government. He states: “The main difference between the two is that in South Africa apartheid was an explicit tenet of the judicial system, while in Israel the entire judicial system conceals and cleanses the praxis of government-led apartheid.”  He continues to explain the ways in which Israel has a policy of systematic oppression.

I encourage you to read both articles to learn about the use of the word Apartheid in Israel.  On my part, I agree with Udi Aloni, although oppression is not an explicit tenet of the judicial system in Israel, Israel has systematized oppression in its policies towards Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel.

© Devon Forster