Israel Matzav

They call this apartheid?

David HaIvri refutes the charge that Israel is an apartheid state.

In Israel (West Bank area included,) Arab residents enjoy the kind of freedom and security that many in neighboring countries can only dream of - but they generally expect Israel to be better than others. The fact that Arabs are being oppressed, beaten and slaughtered by dictators in Arab countries is of no consolation to Israeli Arabs who are delayed at security checkpoints.

But are security checkpoints a sign of racism or a real security need brought about by terrorists who have come from largely Arab population areas and tried to transport bombs and weapons into largely Jewish population areas? There are security checks at all major airports throughout the world. Are they a form of racism, or a similarly necessary response to a known threat?

Israel has constructed a security separation barrier meant to obstruct the transit of terrorists and their weapons. Anti-Israel propagandists call the security barrier an “apartheid wall.” My question is: how could it be defined as an apartheid wall if there are both Jews and Arabs who live on both sides of the wall? My family and I, along with hundreds of thousands of other Israelis, live on the east side of the wall.

Non-Jewish Israelis - members of Christian, Muslim and Druze faiths (all considered Arabs) - serve in Israel's army and parliament. Members of each of these communities have served as judges in Israeli courts, officers in Israel's police force and other respected positions. Those who fulfill their civil obligations are rewarded with all of the same benefits as Jewish Israelis.

Very few Muslim or Arab countries have Jewish residents at all, due to the great expulsion of Jews from Arab lands that paralleled the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. Most, if not all, Arab countries have laws forbidding Jews to own land or have other basic rights. Even those Arabs who have signed treaties with Israel - Egypt, Jordan and the PA - do not provide rights for Jews in their countries (not that this is very surprising in light of the fact that rights even to Arabs in those countries are very limited.)

The bottom line is that the apartheid charge is a sensationalist one that makes for good media sound bytes, but has no real substance behind it. In fact, it's a libel.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: apartheid state

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:45 PM