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Abusing "Apartheid" for the Palestinian Cause
(Jerusalem Post) Gerald M. Steinberg - Although the comparison between Israel and the apartheid regime that ruled South Africa is entirely fictitious, demonization efforts that repeat this analogy are the embodiment of the new anti-Semitism that seeks to deny the Jewish people the right of equality and self-determination among the nations. Zionism and the revival of national sovereignty in the Jewish homeland are not manifestations of European colonialism, in contrast to the white settlers who created Johannesburg and Pretoria. While Black labor was exploited in slavery-like conditions under apartheid, in contrast, Palestinians were dependent on Israeli employment due to their own internal corruption and economic failures. While South African apartheid was based on denial of sovereignty for the Black population, Israelis accepted the "two-state solution" from the beginning, including the 1947 UN partition plan. Arab citizens of Israel have the same democratic rights as Israelis, including full parliamentary representation and free speech - in sharp contrast to the Blacks under apartheid, or minorities in most Arab countries. The racism and denial of legitimacy characteristic of apartheid are actually applicable to Arab and Islamic rejection of Jewish rights. In the Middle East, Jews are a tiny and oppressed minority, struggling to maintain cultural identity and survive in a hostile and violent environment. The writer directs the Program on Conflict Management at Bar-Ilan University and is the editor of the NGO Monitor.