Apartheid South Africa and Israel comparisons are apt as we approach the 40th anniversary of the illegal Israeli Occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) – racism, violence, colonialism, Bantustans, enslavement.
Because this issue is evidently of major interest to readers of Newsvine, provided below is a detailed 20-point list of Apartheid South Africa-Apartheid Israel comparisons [ the Apartheid Israel comparisons are in square brackets] (for a detailed, documented account see MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12954/42/ ).
1. ultimately deriving from Dutch and thence Afrikaaner colonialism (17th – 20th century) and British colonialism (after formal "acquisition" in 1814 after the Napoleonic Wars; the annexation of Natal, 1843; British importation of Indian and Chinese "5-year slavery" indentured labour, from 1860; and the Boer War 1899-1902 with British concentration camps for Afrikaaners) - [deriving from racist political Zionism in the 19th-21st centuries; massive Zionist colonialism after the 1916 Anglo-French betrayal of the Arabs, 1916 and the further British betrayal of the Arabs by the Balfour Declaration, 1917 – which nevertheless insisted on no detriment to the Indigenous Palestinian inhabitants];
2. the race-based, Whites-only ethnocracy - [ditto Israel; e.g. the offensive and racist use of the name "Israel" rather than, for example, the racially and religiously neutral "West Palestine"; the identification of the Jewish name "Israel" with a racist Apartheid Racist Zionist State is profoundly offensive to decent, non-racist Jews; not even Apartheid South Africa went so far as to use a name such as "New Europe" or "New Holland" (although the latter was applied initially to Australia before it was invaded and colonized by the racist British colonialists with attendant horrendous genocide of the indigenous Inhabitants];
3. Indigenous Africans and non-Europeans were excluded from democracy - [Jewish Israelis rule all of the Holy Land; OPT Palestinians have no say – indeed their own democratically-elected "local" government is rejected by the US, UK and Israel; Arab Israelis, perhaps 20% of the population of Israel, can vote but have virtually no participation in Government];
4. non-Europeans were forcibly expelled from their lands (subject to passive and active genocide, from dispossession and disease at the Cape in the 17th century to outright dispossession in the 19th century and Bantustan confinements in the 20th century) - [Palestinians ditto; 6 million refugees; 4 million registered with the UN; 80,000 flee each year; 85% of Christian Palestinians have been ethnically cleansed];
5. racist genocide as defined by the UN Genocide Convention (Article II sections a-d: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group) - [ditto for Palestinians; ethnic cleansing variously through violence, expulsion, dispossession and appalling imposed "open concentration camp" conditions; 6 million refugees; 4 million refugees registered with the UN; 80,000 flee each year; 85% of Christian Palestinians have been ethnically cleansed];
6. non-Europeans forcibly confined to Bantustans or non-White urban areas - [Palestinians ditto];
7. non-European movement highly constrained - [ditto Israel in the OPT; race-based compulsory carriage ID as in the "pass system" of Apartheid South Africa and Nazi-occupied Europe; road blocks and road use constraints];
8. non-Europeans racially identified by ID - [compulsory ID identifying non-Jewish Palestinians; akin to Nazi insistence on racial ID of Jews etc];
9. profoundly offensive constraints on inter-marriage - [Israeli marriage to Palestinians effectively prohibited because co-habitation in Israel "proper" is prohibited] (utterly disgusting, racist laws];
10. horrendous differential deaths - [post-invasion excess deaths - avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen - in the Occupied Palestinian Territory total 0.3 million – evidence of gross contravention of the Geneva Conventions that insist that Occupiers do everything in their power to preserve the lives of their conquered subjects];
11. horrendous differential infant deaths – [the post-invasion under-5 infant deaths in the OPT total 0.2 million; "annual under-5 infant death rate" 0.47% in the OPT as compared to 0.1% in Israel- evidence of gross violation of Article 38, Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian persons in Time of War: "5. Children under fifteen years, pregnant women and mothers of children under seven years shall benefit by any preferential treatment to the same extent as the nationals of the State concerned."];
12. gross violation of the UN Charter and Geneva, Rights of the Child, Genocide and Universal Human Rights Conventions as outlined above - [ditto Apartheid Israel];
13. possession of nuclear weapons (developed with Israeli help and Anglo-American complicity to back Apartheid obscenity ; discarded after non-racist democracy attained in 1993) [ditto Israel; non-racist democracy has yet to be attained in Apartheid Israel];
14. lethal military, paramilitary police and racist settler attacks on non-European civilians - [ditto Israel, on-going in Gaza and the West Bank];
15. huge violence against neighbouring African states (horrendous loss of life associated with Apartheid South African involvements in Namibia, Angola, the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique plus armed interference in Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho and the Comoros) - [1950-2005 excess deaths in neighbouring countries practically or completely occupied by Israel total 24 million; 1950-2005 excess deaths in countries actually militarily attacked by Israel total 43 million];
16. illegal occupation of Namibia as well as de facto impositions on Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana - [illegal Israeli occupation of parts of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the OPT; continuing illegal Israeli occupation of Syria and all of the OPT including the Old City of Jerusalem - an obscene and continuing violation of the Torah, and specifically of the Decalogue; abusive occupation of part or all of all of its neighbours over the last half century];
17. paranoid defence of violent, racist Apartheid by supposed threat from the majority Africans, Indians and part-Europeans (a threat that has not been realized after the advent of non-racist democracy; indeed the real post-1993 tragedy has been immense excess mortality due to HIV/AIDS and government incompetence) - [notwithstanding Racist Zionist (RZ) propaganda, 80% of Holy land homicides are committed by Jewish Israelis];
18. the current "annual murder rate" in South Africa is a shocking 496 per million (mostly of Africans, 10 times greater than the in the US or Israel) [the averagepost-2000 "annual homicide rate/million" for Palestinians is 261.2 (Palestinians by Israelis), 11.2 (Palestinians by Palestinians) and 272.4 (in total; as compared to 53.7 for the US and 44.8 for Israel i.e. large-scale racist killing by Israeli State Terrorism];
19. endemic racism has been addressed by education, the Truth Commission and reconciliation processes - [horrendous Israeli racism against Palestinians in word and deed whereas a remarkable 70% of Palestinians want a one-state solution for the Holy Land];
20. Apartheid South Africa eventually (under considerable international pressure) finally negotiated a non-racist peace with equity, justice and reconciliation) - [the racist Zionist (RZs) running Apartheid Israel with the full backing of racist Anglo-American US, Canadian, UK and Australian Bush-ites and US State Terrorism (USST) are committed to occupation, theft, ethnocracy, theocracy, racism and violence – and quite clearly in practice accept that a few hundred Israeli deaths each year from deliberate, Racist Zionism-provoked Palestinian violence is a price worth paying for continued illegal Occupation].
The fundamental problems in both Apartheid South Africa and Apartheid Israel were racist ideology and racist colonialism followed by racist dispossession, disempowerment, displacement, deprivation and regional ethnic cleansing of the Indigenous Inhabitants.
South Africa found a simple solution of NON-RACISM and this could also be so in the Holy Land when the Israelis (Arabs and Jews) get rid of their Racist Zionist (RZ) , Israeli State Terrorist (IST) political leadership that acutely threatens Israel and indeed threatens all Jews world-wide who are tarred with the brush of Racist Zionism (RZ) , Israeli State Terrorism (IST), US-Israeli State Terrorism (USIST) and the horrendous human rights abuses of Apartheid Israel (AI).
Indeed humane and well-intentioned people (including Jewish Israelis) have suggested eminently sensible proposals for non-racist PEACE in the Holy Land with equity, justice and reconciliation (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/9253/254/ , http://mwcnews.net/content/view/533/254/ and http://mwcnews.net/content/view/5175/42/ ).
hi
the situation between israel and the palestinians is a lot more different- i think you are right - the occupation is very bad, and israel has a lot more to do on it- mainly stopping it now!. don't forget that there is a lot of violence of both sides, and it will be a lot more difficult to end the confrontation.
you didnt mention the fact that at 1947 the UN had already offered a two states model in palestine - under UNSCOP - United Nations Special Committee of Palestine, but the Palestinian representatives didnt want two countries side by side, they wanted to have ALL of it, so they gathered all of the armies they could get - Sirya, Egypt, jordan and went to fight israel - they lost it at the end, but they are not as "cean" as you portrait them.
18. the current "annual murder rate" in South Africa is a shocking 496 per million (mostly of Africans, 10 times greater than the in the US or Israel) [the averagepost-2000 "annual homicide rate/million" for Palestinians is 261.2 (Palestinians by Israelis), 11.2 (Palestinians by Palestinians) and 272.4 (in total; as compared to 53.7 for the US and 44.8 for Israel i.e. large-scale racist killing by Israeli State Terrorism];
Can yiu clarify this please? You refer to the current annual murder rate in South Africa. SA today is not an apartheid state, so why use current figures in your comparison?
Is it true that Palestinians and Israelis can not co-habit?
This law seems horrendously racist. What is the justification given for it?
As to using current SA crime figures, I think that does not make sense if you're comparing Apartheid SA with current Israel.
Gideon - would a more accurate description of the law be "Palestinians, regardless of marital status, are not guaranteed citizenship in Israel?"
The couple was not forbidden from cohabiting - that was the effect of the man's lack of Israeli citizenship.
Yes, they tried to live in Israel, but Osama was not allowed to live there because he was not a citizen, unlike Jasmine.
Forty years ago even under the notorious, racist White Australia Policy an international mixed race couple was allowed to marry and co-habit in Australia (I know this because I recently attended the 40th wedding anniversary and the white, blue-eyed husband sang the Scottish song "Ho-ro my nut-brown maiden").
Clearly, Australia has different citizenship policies than Israel.
ditto Israel; e.g. the offensive and racist use of the name "Israel" rather than, for example, the racially and religiously neutral "West Palestine"; the identification of the Jewish name "Israel" with a racist Apartheid Racist Zionist State is profoundly offensive to decent, non-racist Jews; not even Apartheid South Africa went so far as to use a name such as "New Europe" or "New Holland" (although the latter was applied initially to Australia before it was invaded and colonized by the racist British colonialists with attendant horrendous genocide of the indigenous Inhabitants
Are you @!$%#ing kidding me?
You purport to be educated about the history of the area - you should be well aware the name "Palestine" comes from the name "Philistia" given to the area by the Romans to embarrass and subjugate the Jews in Judea and Israel. The name "Philistine" is still an insult today, and you somehow claim that naming the area "West Palestine" will be racially and religiously neutral?
Not to mention that the two involved parties are the Israelis and the Palestinians - naming the area after the Palestinians will certainly show an unearned and undeserved bias in their favor.
6. non-Europeans forcibly confined to Bantustans or non-White urban areas - [Palestinians ditto];
7. non-European movement highly constrained - [ditto Israel in the OPT; race-based compulsory carriage ID as in the "pass system" of Apartheid South Africa and Nazi-occupied Europe; road blocks and road use constraints];
8. non-Europeans racially identified by ID - [compulsory ID identifying non-Jewish Palestinians; akin to Nazi insistence on racial ID of Jews etc];
Need I continue to remind you of the many Arab Muslim, Druze or Christian Israeli citizens who have full rights in Israel who aren't European? What about non-European Jews, such as Sephardim, Mizrahi Jews and the Falashas (Ethiopian Jews)?
it would akin to naming Apartheid South Africa, as in my example, as "New Holland", "Afrikaanerdom" or "Europia" after the colonizers - even the racist Apartheiders didn't go that far;
That is very inaccurate. Israel was a historical name of the area, your examples were not.
"Palestine" (regardless of Roman intentions 2 millennia ago) is the name recognized by 6,500 million human beings, 5 million Palestinians living in the Holy Land and millions of Palestinian refugees excluded for ever from even living in Prison conditions in their Homeland by Apartheid Israel.
Likewise, "Israel" is the name recognized by a similar number of people living in the area, as well as most others around the world - Israel is an internationally-recognized nation and has been for almost 60 years.
Further, from an orthodox Jewish and indeed correct 2 millennium historical perspective it is a falsehood because it falsely identifies a secular, substantially agnostic State with Torah-observant Jews (the true meaning of Israel for 2 millennia). Indeed orthodox Judaism ejects the very concept as a pre-Messianic Israel as blasphemy and heresy.
No, no, no and NO!
You find fault with the name "Israel" speaking only for a minority, but the orthodox Jews who view a pre-Messianic Israel as blasphemy and heresy is a tiny minority. I would venture to say that 95% of Orthodox Jews believe that Israel is a religiously legal state.
Also, I would hardly call Israel "secular" - religious courts are in charge of (Jewish) weddings and follow Jewish law for these weddings and divorces.
The name "Israel" was applied in 1948 without the consent, agreement or even consulting of the majority Indigenous Inhabitants
I believe that Jews were in the majority of the 1948 Partition borders, to which "Israel" was originally applied. It isn't Israel's fault that her neighbors attacked and were repelled.
Also, your argument regarding the name is absurd, when was the last time your country/state/province/county/city/town/college/whatever "consulted" with you regarding the name? Get Australia to hold a referendum regarding changing the name to an aboriginal name, and then talk to me. Otherwise, you are holding Israel to a double standard.
One other thing, Gideon: How are Israel's actions "slow genocide" if the Palestinian population continues to grow?
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