(Jerusalem Post) Gerald M. Steinberg - Apartheid in South Africa involved the enforced separation of whites and blacks. Since 1948, apartheid has also been a feature of the widespread Arab rejection of Israel as the nation state of the Jews. Last week the Lebanese Olympic team refused to share a bus with the Israeli team at the Rio Olympics. This is similar to the refusal to allow blacks in South Africa before 1994, or in the U.S. before the civil rights movement, to sit with whites on buses. In cultural and sporting events, Arabs and Iranians have gone to great lengths to avoid being "contaminated" by Israelis, suddenly withdrawing from events. Contact with Israelis is treated as a form of impurity, and petty apartheid remains the norm. Yet the self-appointed guardians of human rights, including NGO superpowers such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, are silent when Israelis are the victims. The writer, professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University, heads NGO Monitor.
2016-08-11 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive