Israel has moved to the right, but it is not an apartheid state

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/26/israel-arabs-not-apartheid?newsfeed=true

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The survey's picture is very different for the secular – who form the majority of Israel's Jews: 73% did not object to having Arabs in their children's school, and 68% would live in an apartment building alongside Arabs.

These are remarkably positive views in light of the effect of the Palestinian suicide bombings during the Second Intifada in driving many Israeli Jews to the right, plus the continuing threats to Israel's existence by Iran and Palestinian militants and their supporters in the world. The firing of rockets and mortars – more than 80 this week – at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip by Hamas and others adds to antipathy towards Palestinians. Rightwing leaders gain support by playing on Jewish fears.

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I know about apartheid. I was born in South Africa and spent 26 years as a journalist specialising in reporting apartheid; I have also written several books about it. I only left South Africa because my newspaper, the Rand Daily Mail, of which I was then deputy editor, was closed down by its commercial owners under pressure from the government. We paid the price for being the country's leading voice against apartheid.

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Whatever attitudes might be claimed for Israel's Jewish public the situation on the ground does not support accusations of apartheid

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Why do I dismiss the apartheid analogies so emphatically? Because I straddle both apartheid South Africa and Israel today and have knowledge of the good and the ill in both societies.

APARTHEID : racial segregation; specifically : a former policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa

Prominent anti apartheid activist .

while there are discriminatory practices and laws they are applied equally to all Israeli citizens

Like the blood libel about Israelis just killing Gazans, this is yet another demonizing narrative.

You want apartheid vs. Palestinians, look no further up north than Lebanon.

Funny you deny it happening there, where Palestinians cannot own land, cannot vote, and cannot be in numerous professions.

thought the Palestinians were pretty much outcasts there as well

on the matter as your comment would imply so what ideas on the matter do you have?

just wondering out loud

maybe the Jordanians and the Syrians don't want them either

and Syria is in chaos at the moment, but thanks for reiterating the complaint that those nasty Arabs won't solve Israels Palestinian problem for it

Why is that exactly?

or is this yet something else you do not wish to discuss?

there are some Palestinian refugees in Jordan mostly from Gaza whom Israel encouraged to move there in the early 1970's when it was attempting to shuffle Gaza's Palestinian population

This snip is about legal conditions in the West Bank



http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=534074

2 peoples being subject to different treatment under the same legal system based on their ethnicity, textbook apartheid

...isn't the least bit careful, and Hamas has zero to do with it due to their strategy of victimizing their citizens. Even Goldstone eventually admitted intentionality to do harm to Palestinians was a bullshit charge.

And really, if it's not apartheid against Palestinians in Lebanon, Jordan, or Syria then what makes you think Israel is any worse than those countries - earning the dreaded apartheid label?



That's right, they're not worse so if it's not apartheid anywhere else in the mideast, it isn't in Israel either. But let's see you try to argue what Israel does is definitely apartheid in comparison to neighboring Arab states.

Go for it!

against Sudanese and Ethiopian refugees as to Jordan, it has allowed millions of Palestinians citizenship so many that almost half of its citizenry are ethnically Palestinian and Syria things there are so anarchy that little can be said except for that the situation is tragic as to your ravings about Arab countries lets take a look at a thing called facts shall we Palestinians in foreign countries such as those you named are refugees from colonial Palestine who were made refuges by the newly born Israel who is now enforcing its own colonial rule over the West Bank

Is that apartheid or not?

As to your claim WRT 2 rules for 2 peoples, the WB settlements have thousands of Arab/Palestinian Israeli citizens living in them as equals. How's that apartheid?

Funny that you claim what Israel does is worse than Lebanese apartheid. Israel is the only nation in the region who has granted Palestinians citizenship & equal rights in Israel (where they vote, serve on the supreme court, etc).

Lastly, the situation WRT refugees now in foreign countries is a result of those nations perpetuating Palestinian misery. You can argue Israel started it, but you cannot possibly blame Israel 60 years later for its perpetuation.

list them and their population of Arabs, or are attempting to weasel the population of East Jerusalem?

if Lebanon is committing apartheid against Palestinian refugees then Israel is committing the same against Black African refugees by imprisoning them for being refugees