|
Trending Topics
|
Deconstructing Apartheid Accusations Against Israel
[Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs] Interview with Prof. Gideon Shimoni - The historical context of the Jewish-Arab conflict in the Middle East is fundamentally different from that between the whites' Afrikaner ideology of apartheid and the blacks in South Africa. The latter was a system of discrimination and inequality based upon racial criteria; a system of domination by a minority over a majority and refusal to negotiate a bilaterally agreed solution. Furthermore, while for Palestinians, violence aimed primarily at civilians has been the first choice for many decades, for the African National Congress it was the last resort and never aimed intentionally at the murder of civilians. Many anti-Zionists apply identifiable double standards of judgment to Israel traceable to the characteristic anti-Semitic premise that all things Jews do are inherently evil, including their nationalism. Prof. (Emeritus) Gideon Shimoni is a former head of the Hebrew University's Institute of Contemporary Jewry.