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"I Fought Apartheid in South Africa - Israel Is Not Apartheid"

(Jerusalem Post) Malcolm Hedding - Apartheid was a totalitarian system of governance - not unlike many of the regimes in the Arab world today. A white minority subjugated the overwhelmingly black population. It was ideologically driven and obsessed with racial superiority. Black people could not vote, own property or even move freely inside their own country. There is absolutely nothing equivalent to this in the dispute between the Palestinians and Israel today. Within Israel itself, Arabs and Jews share the same shopping malls, benches, hospitals, theaters and, in many cases, suburbs. The privilege of voting is given to all and the Knesset has 13 Arab members. Jews and Arabs often work together at construction sites, businesses, hotels and elsewhere. Israel is a democratic state and is definitely not governed by a totalitarian minority. In the disputed territories, some 98% of the Palestinian Arab population now lives under the governance of their own Palestinian Authority. True, Israel has adopted security measures that curtail their movement, but these have been necessitated by the conflict and are legitimate acts of self-defense, rather than acts of racial discrimination. The truth is the apartheid accusation is just another smokescreen in the war against Israel. I should know because I grew up in the dark apartheid era in South Africa and stood against it to my peril. As a minister in South Africa, the writer participated in the struggle against apartheid in the 1980s and was threatened with detention without trial. Today, he is executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.
2010-03-12 09:31:34
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