Israel Apartheid Week is held anually by people that believe Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is comparable to the racial segregation exhibited in South Africa during its apartheid era.
There is one country in the Middle East that shares the same democratic values as the United States. Israel, a country smaller than the size of New Jersey, was founded in May 1948 as a Jewish, democratic state. Every citizen, regardless of his or her religion, is granted democratic rights and freedoms. The Israel Defense Force and the Government of Israel have spent the past 64 years defending the rights of their citizens. Israel’s citizens include people from a multitude of religions and cultures.
Israel is often falsely accused of being an “Apartheid State.” Apartheid refers to the racial segregation that occurred in South Africa, where “nonwhites” were barred from participating in government, public facilities and educational institutions. In 2009, the United Nations published the Goldstone Report, which accused Israel of committing war crimes during its operation in the Gaza Strip. Richard Golstone, the author of the report, retracted these claims in 2011. The United Nations publicly repudiated the validity of the account and exonerated Israel of its alleged war crimes. The Israeli operation itself was in response to 8,000 missiles fired by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
No other country that borders Israel grants its citizens complete freedom of speech, press, assembly and religion like Israel does. Israeli law forbids discrimination of any person based on their sexual orientation. The Israeli military has always allowed gays to serve openly, even before the United States Congress repealed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” Israelis can, and do, constantly criticize their own government. Just last spring, thousands of social protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv, where peaceful demonstrations took place.
Of course, Israel, like any other country, has its flaws, but its commitment to grant complete freedoms to its citizens is unwavering. Palestinian reporters have more rights in Israel than they do in the Palestinian Authority. At Israeli universities, Muslim and Jewish students learn together in classrooms with both Arab and Israeli professors. In the Israeli Knesset (parliament), there are both Arab and Israeli members. Israel even had its first woman Prime Minister, Golda Meir, in the 1970s.
Until 2002, there was no barrier between Israel and the West Bank. It was only when terrorists targeted innocent civilians within Israel’s borders in the form of suicide bombings on public buses, in shopping malls, restaurants, and night clubs, that Israel took drastic measures to protect its citizens. As a government, Israel established the means to protect the lives of its civilians by employing the use of a security fence and checkpoints along the West Bank-Israel border. During the Second Intifada, over a thousand innocent civilians were killed due to the lack of protection. Today, the security fence has foiled almost every attempted terrorist attack, and Israelis no longer fear using public transportation or eating in restaurants. In its short existence, Israel has progressed more than many countries have in centuries, and it prides itself on the fact that it opposes any non-democratic country.
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Israel did not always let gays serve openly in the military. In fact, up till 1993 gays were considered a potential security threat and were not allowed to serve in classified positions. These orders were cancelled fully only in 1998.
I completely agree with you Ariel. Israel certainly has more freedom than most of its neighbors. It amazes me that there is even a debate in the US whether we should support our only western ally in the Middle East.
this statement is just another case of denial by jews. They don’t tell lies ,don’t steal land & don’t practice ”APARTHEID”
and you expect people to swallow this bunkum.
when world leaders like OBAMA AND SARKOZY accuse NETANYAHU a liar you have to accept it.
r v fletcher you should know that Obama and Sarkozy aren’t perfect.
You conveniently seem to forget that Operation Cast Lead was responsible for killing over 1400 Palestinians, most of whom were innocent women and children. Although Richard Goldstone later stated that he didn’t believe Israel intentionally targeted civilians, this was 2 years after the original report was written. Further, the other 3 authors of the report whole heartedly disagree with his change in opinion and stand by their original assessment. You say it was based on over 8000 rocket attacks into Israel, but the truth is that the majority of those rockets are crudely made and result in little to no serious damage. How many Israeli’s actually died as a result of those rocket attacks? The problem with Israel isn’t that it’s supposedly an apartheid state, it’s that the level of retaliation they choose to use on Palestinians borders on barbaric. Have you ever seen the camps inside of the Gaza Strip or the West Bank? There are literally thousands of people crammed together in conditions that resemble the favelas in Brazil. These are people who can’t get jobs because Israel doesn’t grant them work passes and are forced to live in poverty and squalor. Wouldn’t you be angry if you were forced into that situation?You’re also ignoring the underlying cause of Palestinian anger: Israel forced these people from their homes during it’s “great war of independence” and in the years since then has treated them as sub-human. If you look at Israel’s history and its founding, you’ll see that close to a million people were displaced from their land and thousands more were killed, all in the name of founding a country on stolen land. Israel might have their historic claim to that land, but that doesn’t excuse their treatment of the people who had lived there for hundreds of years prior. The Intifadas were the result of years of frustration at Israel for its treatment of Palestinians, and although over 1000 Israelis were killed during the second intifada, over 5000 Palestinians were killed during that same period. The fact of the matter is that Israel has consistently dished it out worse than they received, plain and simple.
and @GetReal, you obviously don’t understand the relationship between us and Israel if you think there’s no reason for debate. This is a country that has stolen classified intelligence information from us via their spy network and then has the audacity to A) deny it for years, and B) try to lobby for the spy’s release! We give Israel billions of dollars annually, no questions asked, mainly because they have one of the largest and strongest lobbying groups in the country, not because we have some kind of mutually beneficial relationship with them. We told them to stop building settlements in the west bank and they flat out ignored us and the rest of the UN. When the rest of the world thinks you’re doing something wrong, wouldn’t you say theres probably a good chance that you are? Would you want to be allies with someone who acquired nuclear weapons without the consent of the global community and has said they would use them if they felt threatened? Granted the middle east itself is a powder keg of a situation, that doesn’t mean that Israel has the right to the be the one who lights the fuse.
It’s easy to see it only one way when you’re the victor huh? Get your head out of your a** and try walking a mile in someone else’s shoes for once.
@You’re kidding right?…Let’s start with basic history. In May 1948, literally every surrounding Arab country attacked Israel from all sides. Yes, many Arabs were forced from their homes and many fled from all the violence. The remaining Arabs were granted Israeli citizenship after the war culminated. Let’s not leave out the fact that over a million Jews were forced out of their communities in countries like Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Egypt and had no other place to go but Israel, where they lived in tents or “pachonim”-tin houses. Fast forward to Operation Cast Lead, where Israel responded to the thousands of rockets fired by Hamas, a terrorist organization, in the Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, many Palestinians were killed because Hamas deliberately fired rockets from preschools and hospitals, as well as used children as human shields. It is true that not as many Israelis have been killed from these rockets, but the IAF only retaliates when these rockets are fired. Let’s also look at it from the Israeli side. When a rocket is fired, a loud siren that projects the words “tzeva adom” or “color red” is heard throughout the targeted area. People in the city of Sderot have 15 seconds to run to a shelter, and if they don’t have time, they lay on the ground, putting their hands over their heads. Imagine mothers walking their children to school and having to face that. Kindergartens and schools have been forced to build concrete shelters over playgrounds, and I don’t know about you, but if I were sitting here at Union, having even one rocket hit from a few miles away, I would make sure that our government does everything in its power to respond. In the summer of 2005, Israel forcefully removed its own citizens out of the Gaza Strip in hopes for peace with the Palestinians. Instead, Hamas took power and have now fired over 10,000 rockets. That is why Israel is forced to retaliate. Now, you asked if I’ve ever seen the camps in the Gaza Strip or West Bank. Well, in fact, I have been to the West Bank on many occasions, and I can tell you that Ramallah’s economy is growing exponentially, and Israel also pours millions of dollars into the PA economy. They also deliver hundreds of truck loads of aid to Gaza daily (over 30,000 a year). Much of that aid is used in the manufacturing of home-made missiles. The Israeli government is also forced to pay millions of dollars in providing bomb shelters for each home in the “sha’ar hanegev” region in Israel. I can tell you that it is not fun having to run to a bomb shelter in the middle of the night. Israel also takes on the responsibility of transporting Palestinians to hospitals from both the West Bank and Gaza. You also mention Palestinians not being granted work permits. There are about 57,000 Palestinians who hold work permits, and this is fact. About 90,000 Palestinians are employed by Israelis in total. One of the main differences between Israel and Hamas, for example, is that Israel does not target innocent civilians. A terrorist strapping a bomb to his back and walking into a packed Tel Aviv night club, killing dozens of young, innocent people deserves a strong response.
With the US-Israel relationship, the US does give about 3 billion dollars in aid a year to Israel. You left out the fact that 75% of this is invested back into the US economy. You also say Israel “flat out ignored” the US when they told Israel to stop building settlements. Well, in 2010, Israel held a 10 month moratorium on settlement building in hopes of direct peace talks with the PA. Israel also leaves an open invitation for direct peace negotiations, but the PA constantly refuses to simply come to the table.
If you’re goal is to delegitimize a government or a nation, I would turn to Syria, where the government has been slaughtering thousands of its own people in the streets. Assad’s regime is backed by Iran, which also backs Hamas and Hezbollah, in Lebanon. I would much rather the US stay allies with Israel rather than Iran, who threatens to wipe an entire nation off the map and will create a nuclear arms race in the Middle East if it reaches its goal of creating nuclear weapons.
I know it sounds like I’m saying Israel is a perfect country and can do nothing wrong. I know this is not true, but the citizens of Israel do live in a free society, where they are granted the rights of protesting their government and are constantly working to make improvements. You can’t say the same for any of the surrounding countries.
Granted rights of protesting their government? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/world/middleeast/12israel.html?_r=0
This is an example of something the Israeli people can protest, but I don’t think a patriot of any country would support someone boycotting it.
@ You’re Kidding Right?: What do you mean the “camps” inside Gaza? Israel forcefully removed every single Jew living in the Gaza Strip in 2005. Gaza is now ruled by the terrorist militant group Hamas. Israel has no ruling authority over Gaza (although Israel DOES provide Gaza with water and electricity, but that’s a different story…).
And to say that we give Israel $3 billion annually “no questions asked” is factually wrong. Israel is required to spend at least 75% of its foreign aid in the United States, and the foreign aid package ends up being a net-positive for the American economy. We also give foreign aid to Egypt, whose current president is a member of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood organization. You’re Kidding Right?, since you are so quick to denounce foreign aid to Israel, would you also denounce foreign aid to Egypt?
Israel is imperfect, but it is a free democracy surrounded by authoritarian governments that deny its citizens basic human rights. Criticism of Israel is legitimate, but only when Israel is held to the same standards as other nations. Anti-Israel sentiment is NOT synonymous with antisemitism. But when the Jewish state is held to higher standards than other states, THAT is antisemitism. You’re Kidding Right?: you have every right in the world to criticize Israel for its imperfections. But when you do so without contextualizing the situation – which you failed to do in your comment above – you appear to be holding Israel to an impossibly high standard.
Yes, Palestinians were displaced during the War of Independence. Of course, this is unfortunate. But this was done to create the one Jewish state in the world in the wake of the slaughtering of 6 million Jews. There are 22 Arab states and 50 Muslim-majority states in the world. Furthermore, present-day West Bank used to be part of Jordan and Gaza was occupied by Egypt. Why aren’t these countries willing to take in Palestinian refugees?
I want to be very clear and state that criticism of Israel is legitimate. I criticize decisions of the Israeli government everyday and am constantly frustrated by it. But it is NOT legitimate to hold Israel to a higher standard than the rest of the world.
Ariel Gomberg: thank you for writing a reasonable, thoughtful article. Pro-Israel activism at Union is important.