“Apartheid”
Is Israel an apartheid state?
In the last few years, it’s become common to hear Israel called an “apartheid state” — a label that alleges that Israel maintains an oppressive legal system like the one once used in South Africa that institutionalized segregation, discrimination, and domination based on race.
Is there any truth to the charge? In apartheid-era South Africa, black citizens were totally disenfranchised, subject to oppressive laws that controlled every aspect of their behavior, and completely segregated from the ruling white minority. In Israel, on the other hand, Jewish and Arab citizens have equal protection under the law, enjoy freedom of religion and speech, and possess full voting rights. (In fact, Israel’s 120-member parliament, the Knesset, currently includes 12 Arab Israeli members.)
The Israel-South Africa comparison is so inapt that it would be laughable if it weren’t so insulting. What could possibly motivate those who apply this label and its evil connotations to the only democracy in the Middle East? Benjamin Pogrund, a South African Jew now living in Israel who saw firsthand the oppression and misery caused by the apartheid system in his native country, sums it up: “‘Apartheid’ is a lazy label for the complexities of the Middle East conflict. If it can be made to stick, then Israel can be made to appear to be as vile as was apartheid South Africa and, therefore, seeking its destruction can be presented to the world as an equally moral cause.”
Using human terms, Pogrund describes the vast difference between apartheid-era South Africa and Israel: “Two years ago, I had major surgery in a Jerusalem hospital,” he says. “The surgeon was Jewish, the anesthetist was Arab, the doctors and nurses who looked after me were Jews and Arabs. 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? Of course not.”
Those who protest “Israeli apartheid” usually have a noticeable lack of public indignation to express toward those countries and regions where real human rights violations are all too common. In Saudi Arabia, for example, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly simply don’t exist and women are second-class citizens (and that’s being generous). In Iran, politically motivated killings and kidnappings are common, ethnic and religious minorities harshly repressed, and freedom of the press is non-existent. In Zimbabwe, government security forces imprison, torture, and murder opponents. In Hamas-controlled Gaza, as well as parts of the West Bank controlled by the Palestinian Authority, a residual community of Christians is regularly harassed, intimidated, and even subject to murder by radical Islamists. During 2009, the regimes in both Gaza and Saudi Arabia expressed their approval of crucifixion as a punishment under the law.
But those who protest “Israeli apartheid” are silent about all that. Why? Because their real agenda is not to improve the plight of Palestinians, but rather to attack Israel. The “apartheid” slur is just another tool for Israel’s enemies to delegitimize and undermine the Jewish state’s right to exist. The comparison of Israel, the Middle East’s only democracy, to the brutal discrimination of a fallen, evil regime is false. Those who offer it simply reveal their own agenda.
What do you think?
4:18 pm
No person of any discernment believes that Israel is an apartheid state. Those making these claims are attempting to mask their anti-semitism in a cloak of concern for human rights – and yes, this includes you, Mr. Carter. God protect and richly bless the sovereign state of Israel.
7:39 am
cheryl- i think you are totally out of touch with reality; the palestinians DO suffer under the apartheid system by israel. i have been their numerous times and been an eye-witness to the discrimination and humiliation the palestinians suffer on a daily basis. israel has every right to exist but side by side to the palestinians who must share their now occupied lands
9:51 pm
Within the borders of internationally recognized Israel there is discrimination against Arabs but it would be faulty to label this “apartheid” in reference to the past South African racist state.
On the other hand, in the occupied Palestinian Territories (and I speak first hand experience in the West Bank), there is clearly “apartheid-like” system. Separate and unequal systems of roads; checkpoints; Settlements comprising 15% of the population getting 80% of the water; unequal protection under the law, including frequent settler attacks upon unarmed Palestinians; the very fact of Israeli settlements which are illegal under international law; land confiscation and expulsion of Palestinians; restrictions on movement even including marriage; the “wall.”
Even in Israel proper, the law of return grants immediate citizenship to any Jew….something not granted to non-Jews.
I find it extremely disturbing that Christians and Jews in ideological blindness justify and bolster an oppressive national policy that dehumanizes, demonizes, and steals from the non-Jewish inhabitants of the Occupied Territories. As for the Christians, I cannot fathom how this squares with the teachings and example of Jesus!
–Allen Johnson (my name by permission)
Dunmore, West Virginia
9:09 pm
I agree with Allen. I am a huge supporter of Israel. The country and it’s people are amazing and a tremendous beacon and resource for the entire world. That said, this article is disingenuous by mischaracterizing the charge of apartheid to the recognized borders of israel proper. It is clear from the first comment that this type of distortion reinforces exactly the myths that this site claims to try to break down. Jimmy Carter knows that Israel is not an apartheid state inside the 1947 borders. He was only referring to the occupied territories. Nowhere in the article does the author cite ANYONE that makes the claim that 1947 Israel is an apartheid state.
I too have seen first hand in Israel the prejudice against Palestinians, sometimes harsh and totally unwarranted. It is understandable how such feelings develop and become entrenched, just as it is understandable how Palestinian prejudice against Jews has developed. Both are wrong and the authors of this site should strive to bring out the full truth and not just the pieces that support their agenda.
2:47 pm
Read your history. I think the Israelis are particularly generous and forgiving considering the fact that they have been attacked and persecuted for years without cause. Believe the propaganda if you will, but some of us know the truth. The Palestinians are reaping what they sow. Israel has every right to defend itself. I cry for your soul because there are no atheists in hell; you will be a believer when you get there.
2:05 pm
I agree with your thought’s and I keep praying to our Lord to keep in peace and protect Israel of all his neighbor enemies.
7:45 am
ginny- i am a scholar of the history of the holy land in particular, and you are mistaken that the palestinians have persecuted the jewish people- ever. the holocaust had absolutely nothing to do with the palestinians. so how you draw this conclusion is beyond my wildest dreams!
8:53 pm
Jimmy Carter has a history of stupidity. No reason to expect anythiong different now. I am a white South African who grew up during the apartheid era. I am also thankful to say that our family was in no way supportive of the apartheid government and as a result were often called “Kaffir Boeties,” which was a derogatory term used in those days for anyone who spoke against the system. I am thankful that with many others we eventually were able to vote out the system and finally see a democratic government in place. So I believe I am qualified to say that in no way does Israel resemble an apartheid regime. If anything, Israel is constantly under attack from the Arab nations, and sometimes, as in the case of Carter, even the West.
A terrible shame, but unfortunately a sign of the times as prophesied by Daniel, Ezekiel and other Old Testament prophets. Let us pray for Israel, and as many are doing this Purim, lets us preach from the book of Esther, and encourage the Christian world to fast and pray for Israel, that the Lord once more will come to the aid of His beloved Israel and deal with the enemy of Israel as He did with Haman in Esther’s time. God Bless Israel
3:32 am
I find that it’s crazy to call Israel an apartheid state! I know that those who call it so are driven by anti-Semitism. I’ve been to Israel, and Arabs, Jews, and foreigners live together. I bet no one wants to live in Gaza or in the so called “West Bank”.
Israel is a Jewish state, it has never rejected anyone who was not Jewish. It grants automatically citizenship to Jewish people. That’s quite normal. It’s like the French government granting immediate citizenship to people of French descent. What’s wrong with that? It’s their choice to do so. No, Israel is no apartheid country — very far from it! Let’s talk about Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries where non-Muslims are treated as 2nd class citizens. That’s more apartheid-like to me.
5:43 am
How far from the truth is a statment that Israel is an Apartheid state. I have had the wonderful experience of being on a Christian tour of the Holy Land , with a wonderful active Jewish tour guide and a bus driver who was a Muslim who said his prayers everyday, even while we were doing the Rosary on the bus! What a witness to the Lord and a very positive statement of the freedom that is in Israel.
7:06 am
The persecution of the Jews is the result of jealousy going back to Ishmael. It is with sadness that now many so-called Christians have joined in the hatred. If they were truly right with God only love of His Chosen People would follow. Christ came to make the Jew and Gentile one. So many churches are now promoting “Replacement Theology”, a teaching in direct opposition to what Christ and His true followers taught. We are not to be haughty against the Jew, seeing that they are the natural olive branch. God is perfectly capable of bringing them back to Himself without any help from anyone else.
Does this mean that every move Israel makes is correct? No, but it does mean that we on the outside are to leave the judgment to God because He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Let us get our own house in order!
7:25 am
Lets prioritize. Wikipedia lists 47 Muslim countries. Their laws are oppressive. Their culture is oppressive. Let’s deal with tiny Israel after the Muslim lands all become democratic. Or at least when they let women drive. One Jewish country and the haters are up in arms. They cannot tolerate a Jewish state because… why exactly?
2:00 pm
Israel is not an apartheid state because the Palestinians are not Israeli citizens.
This situation of the west bank being under a military rule is going to end some day, Israel doesn’t intend to keep it that way for ever (as was the aspiration of south Africa at the time).
9:08 am
Israel: Prove it and stop using the Old Testament as an excuse.
12:42 am
I don’t believe Israel is an Apartheid state.The truth is all countries in the world have some form of dicrimination against certain groups even in America which boasts of being democratic.Take the case of black emigrants in Europe in countries like France Germany and England. We all saw how the French Police dragged a womwn on the ground with a baby strapped on her back.
If there is some “discrimination ” on the part of Isreal towards the Palestinians is only natural given their history to act with caution. Arabs have continuiously shown the hate Israel and are ready to be used by the fanatical islamists to harm Israel. No one can be expected to embrace the enemy without taking precautions. Israe has a right to screen and question the palestinians for their own safety and the world should stop being hippocritical