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Why Israel Is Nothing Like Apartheid South Africa

(New York Times) Benjamin Pogrund - Last month, an obscure UN agency, the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, whose membership comprises 18 Arab states, issued a report accusing Israel of imitating apartheid South Africa. I lived in apartheid South Africa, which maintained privilege for the white minority and doomed people of color to subservience. For more than a quarter-century, I reported and analyzed the evils of apartheid for the Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg until it was closed under pressure from the government. After a period as a journalist in Britain, I moved to Israel in 1997 and am acutely aware of Israel's problems and faults, but it is nothing like South Africa before 1994. Those who accuse Israel of apartheid have forgotten what actual apartheid was, or are ignorant, or malevolent. Unlike nonwhite South Africans under apartheid, Israeli Arabs have the vote and enjoy full citizen rights. The Supreme Court has an Arab judge. What the BDS movement calls the "apartheid wall" - in fact, mainly a wire fence - was erected between Israel and the West Bank for security reasons, primarily to keep out would-be suicide bombers. Suicide bombings and murders by ramming pedestrians with vehicles never happened in South Africa, yet Israel has had them aplenty. Security concerns have dictated Israel's precautions and responses, not an ideology of apartheid racism.
2017-04-04 00:00:00
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