8/19/2019 FAQs on Israeli Apartheid

1/2

• In a report by Amnesty, published in 2009, it was stated that “Israel

allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water

resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful

Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies”(3) . Amnesty

International revealed the extent to which Israel’s discriminatory water

policies and practices are denying Palestinians their right to access

to water. Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the

mountain aquifers belonging to Palestinians.

Seeds of Apartheid within Zionism

The discrimination that the Israelis practice is the logical conclusion ofpolitical Zionism. Racism is imbedded into Zionism. This meant that

Palestinians would suffer many forms of racism and discrimination.

Making the Palestinians disappear lay at the heart of the Zionist dream

and even more crucially it was also a necessary condition for its

realization. Leading Zionists knew very early that “if there are other

inhabitants there (in Palestine) they must be transferred to some other place.

We must take over the land”. (Menahem Ussishkin, Chairman of the

Jewish Agency 1930)

Zionism has tried to reconcile the irreconcilable, namely to create

a Jewish State in an area that was sparsely populated by Jews.

The necessary and unavoidable fact of creating a Jewish state in

Palestine was the expulsion, transfer and ethnic cleansing of the

indigenous Palestinians. Having gained a demographic majority, Israel

took every measure in its disposal, legal or otherwise, democratic or

otherwise, to maintain its Jewish majority.

Israeli Zionism conflated ideas of race and religion to a

corrosive end. The Israeli regime is based on an extremely chauvinistic

notion of race and religious supremacy. The worst of both are

powerful forces within the Israeli regime. Modern and progressive

nation states are framed around the notion of civic nationalism and

religious pluralism, an idea that does not privilege one race over

the other, or one religion over another; where the state is a state

of its citizens and not a state for a particular ethnic or religious group.

Modern nation states formed through these corrosive ideals scarred

the 20th century, including in Germany and the South African

apartheid regime.

Comparisons with the Apartheid regime in South Africa

It’s unsurprising that many commentators have compared the apartheid

regime in Palestine with South Africa. Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu,

two towering figures in dismantling the South African Apartheid have

been extremely critical of Israeli. They have been joined by many of their

compatriots all pained by the human suffering which they experienced.

Below are some of their statements.

• The temptation in our situation is to speak in muffled tones about an

issue such as the right of the people of Palestine to a state of their own.

We are easily be enticed to read reconciliation and fairness as meaning parity

between justice and injustice. Having achieved our own freedom, we can

fall into the trap of washing our hands of difficulties that others faces. Yet

we would be less than human if we did so. It behooves all South Africans,

themselves erstwhile beneficiaries of generous international support, to

stand up and be counted among those contributing actively to the cause of

freedom and justice. (Nelson Mandela)

• As someone who lived in apartheid South Africa and who has visited

Palestine I say with confidence that Israel is an apartheid state. In fact,

I believe that some of Israel’s actions make the actions of South Africa’s

apartheid regime appear pale by comparison. (Willie Madisha)

• But what is interesting is that every black South African that I’vespoken to who has visited the Palestinian territory ha s been horrified and has

said without hesitation that the system that applies in Palestine is worse.

(Professor John Dugard, Former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights

in Occupied Palestine)

• Apartheid Israel can be defeated, just as apartheid in South Africa was

defeated. (Winnie Mandela)

• When I come here and see the situation [in the Palestinian territories],

I find that what is happening here is 10 times worse than what I had

experienced in South Africa. This is Apartheid. (Arun Ghandi)

1- http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupation/mandella.html

2- Speakingat aconference calledEnding theOppression inBoston, 2002. Seehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/1957644.stm

3- http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/israel-rations-palestinians-trickle-water-20091027

 Apartheid against Palestinians

“Apartheid is a crime against humanity.

Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their

liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross

racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically

incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians,contrary to the rules of international law. It has,

in particular, waged a war against a civilian

population, in particular children.”

The Palestinian Return Centre

100h Crown House, North Circular Road, London NW10 7PN, United Kingdom

Tel:+44 (0) 2084530919 Fax: +44 (0) 2084530994

www.prc.org.uk e: info@prc.org.uk

Apartheid Wall

The Palestinian Return Centre

8/19/2019 FAQs on Israeli Apartheid

2/2

Apartheid against Palestinians

“I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and

roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers

 prevented us from moving about’’(2)  (Desmond Tutu)

Denition of Apartheid

In 1973, after many decades of condemning the South African regime,

the UN General Assembly adopted the International Convention on

the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. This meant

agreeing on a clear description of the crime of apartheid.

The Apartheid Convention declares that apartheid is a crime against

humanity and that “inhuman acts resulting from the policies and practices

of apartheid and similar policies and practices of racial segregation and

discrimination are international crimes”. (Article 1)

The crime of apartheid –“which shall include similar po licies and practices

of racial segregation and discrimination as practiced in southern Africa” –

as covering “inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and

maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other

racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them”. (Article 2)

The convention lists the acts that fall within the ambit of the crime. These include

murder, torture, inhuman treatment and arbitrary arrest of members of

a racial group; deliberate imposition on a racial group of living conditions

calculated to cause its physical destruction; legislative measures that

discriminate in the political, social, economic and cultural fields; measures

that divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate

residential areas for racial groups; the prohibition of interracial marriages;

and the persecution of persons opposed to apartheid.

Israel’s Policy of Apartheid within 1948 Lands

 As a Zionist state, the state of Israel, contrary to other states, regards itself

as a State of the Jewish people the majority of which is not concentrated

within its borders. The state is not therefore a state for its citizens, likefor example Britain, France or the USA. Moreover it is a state for all Jews

worldwide most of whom have no historical connection to the land.

Citizenship and Nationality in all democracies are interchangeable terms

but in Israel they have a very real ideological porpoise. All Israeli citizens

have equal rights in the ory but only its Jewish citizens are na tionals. There

is no such thing as Israeli nationality. At face value the discrimination is

not apparent in Israel’s unique relationship between the state and its citizens.

This however is part of a strategy to veil the apartheid system that exists

within Israel. Apartheid in 1948 lands exists in the following ways:

• Following expulsion of Palestinians from their land Israel consolidated in

law the expulsion and dispossession which previou sly was carried out through

violence. Israel enacted several laws such as the Absentee property law

of 1950 and the 1953 law of acquisition which confiscated land belonging

to Palestinians for the benefit of Jews. All in all 30 laws were passed

that transferred land belonging to Palestinian citizens to state (Jewish)

Ownership.

• There is an Israeli two - tier structure which discriminates against its non

Jewish citizens. A combination of quasi non- governmental organizatio ns like

the Jewish National Fund (JNF), World Zionist Organization (WZO) and the

Jewish Agency (JA) and the body of laws in the state of Israel insures that

nearly all the land is used for the benefit of Jews only.The body created to

oversee the management of 93% of land in Israel is not a public body that

works for the benefit of all its citizens. The lo yalty of the JNF, WZO, and JA are

to the Jewish people. The JNF as owners of the land does not have a duty to

protect the equality of all citizens.

• Palestinians under the Israeli regime endured military rule for 20 years.

Under this regime they experienced pervasive intrusion into their freedom.

They were required to obtain travel permits, subjected to curfews and po-

litical arrests. While military rule ended in 1966 they are restricted from

purchasing land and many more are evicted due to the policy of so called

‘Judaization’. Areas like the Negev which are sparsely populated by Jews

are populated with new Jewish settlements following expulsion of the native

inhabitants of the land.

• Even in 2008 the Israeli government allocated only 4% of its budget to the

Palestinian communities even though they comprised 20% of the population.

• In 2003 Israel passed a National Entry Law which banned Palestinian

citizens of Israel who marry Palestinians from the Occupied Territory

from gaining residency status or citizenship.

• There are as many as 100 “unrecognized” villages which the Israelis

have categorized as non residential and therefore illegal. With no official

status they are cut off from all services including gas and electricity.

Many are demolished and many more are threatened with demolition.

Israel’s Policy of Apartheid in the OccupiedPalestinian Territory (OPT) 1967

Following its occupation of the remaining Palestine (West Bank,

East Jerusalem and Gaza) in 1967, Israel was confronted with a

different challenge. Without the opportunity to forcefully expel large

numbers of Palestinians, unfeasible in terms of Israel’s international

relations, Israel had to live with a massive Palestinian majority. In

order to maintain dominance over land a nd resource and in order to keep

Palestinians weak and fragmented, Israel needed to develop an

apartheid regime in the OPT. During the last 40 years Israel has integrated

the OPT with its pre 1967 territory through a matrix of control. It has used

the following mechanisms to enforce its apartheid regime and take

control of Palestinian territory.

• Through various mil itary orders designed to ease takeover of Palestinian

territory and property Israel has engaged in a massive colonization of

Palestinian Land.

• Israel has continuously defied international law and built exclusive

Jewish settlements.

• Integral parts of the apartheid regime are the bypass roads which

again are exclusive for Jewish use. The roads regime, which is based on

separation through discrimination, bears clear similarities with the racist

apartheid regime that existed in South Africa.

• The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has illegally expropriated Arab land in East

Jerusalem for a rail line from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Although the rail runs

through Palestinian neighborhoods in the occupied territory, Palestinians

will be barred from using the network.

• Checkpoints operate as an obstacle to Palestinian freedom andmovement. There are 637 checkpoints which belongs to a system which

is unwilling to give up the occupied territory of the West Bank.

• In 2003 Israel constructed a separation wall which the International

Court of Justice in 2004 in a landmark stamen judged to be illegal. 75%

of the wall falls within Palestinian territory. The wall is a very powerful

sign of apartheid.