Israeli apartheid (phrase)/sandbox

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Israeli apartheid is a controversial phrase used by some Palestinian-rights activists and in turn it is cricitized for its depiction of Israel's policies by its negative associations.

The phrase seeks to deligitimize Israel's right to exist by creating the assosiation between the policies of the Israeli government towards Palestinians to those of the apartheid-era South African government - in hope that such a comparison will lead to boycott of Israel and to its demise as the Jewish homeland

1 Origins
- 1.1 Analogy
- 1.2 Usage
2 Criticism
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Origins

The analogy was used as early as 1987 by Uri Davis, an Israeli-born academic and Jewish member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in his book Israel: An Apartheid State (ISBN 0-86232-317-7) which provided a comparison of Israel and South Africa. The highly controversial 2001 World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa adopted resolutions describing Israel as an "apartheid state" [1]. Nobel Peace Prize winner and South African anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu wrote in 2002 that the situation in Israel reminded him about his experiences with South African Apartheid [2].

[edit] Analogy

Proponents of this term argue that Israel systematically discriminates against Palestinian living in the Israeli-occupied territories.

[edit] Usage

The term "Israeli apartheid" has been used by groups protesting the Israeli government, particularly student groups in Britain, the United States and Canada, where "Israeli apartheid week" is held on many campuses. The term is also used by those advocating sanctions against Israel or disinvestment in Israel echoing the 1980s campaign for sanctions and disinvestment as economic tools to pressure apartheid-era South Africa.[3]

[edit] Criticism

On the other side it is argued that calling the country an "apartheid state" is inaccurate for a number of reasons but mostly ignoring Israel's security situation has forced it to impose restrictions on Palestinians living in the West Bank (and in Gaza until Israel left the area) and these conditions are not imposed on Israeli Arabs (that is Palestinians who are residents and citizens of Israel living within the state's pre-1967 borders and in East Jerusalem)[4].

The resolutions adopted by the World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa were ascribed by many critics to anti-semitic motives because the critics felt that Israel was singled out from all other human rights issue around the globe at the time. [5]