"Apartheid Israeli" is simply a mandatory reading for anyone who wants to realize the historical roots of the business of Palestine, the nature of the conflict that is taking place there today, and the improvement of Israel's strategy of repression, colonization, separation and discrimination. Ben White shows the uprising of Israel as a consequence of an cultural cleansing carried out in Palestine in 1948, and besides explores the current structures of the apartheid government imposed upon Palestinians - From the publisher.
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Introduction John Dugard
In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is likely that the rarity with which this is discussed in the West, in peculiar in the United States, strikes the most. It usually remains taboo – unlike human rights in Zimbabwe, Sudan, Burma, Tibet or Cuba. Human rights in South Africa in the apartheid era have sparked a stormy debate in the media, in universities, in churches, on the stock exchange and during open and specialized meetings, but present the subject of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is carefully avoided. This contradicts the image of the situation in Israel itself, in which all these issues are investigated and discussed in the media and in public life. As rapporteur for the peculiar Council on Human Rights (formerly the Committee on Human Rights) on Situations in the Human Rights Area of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, I spoke of home demolitions in the Israeli Kneset forum, human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the building of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and another meetings on further hard aspects of the conflict. But it is not welcome to comment on this in the West.
It seems that it is possible to talk of the essence of problems in Israel without being accused of anti-Semitism, but not in the West. In many places, any harsher criticism of the way Israel treats Palestinians is seen as anti-Semitic.
The deficiency of discussion and debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is simply a serious problem, as this conflict cannot be resolved unless it is full recognised. That's the value of this book. In contrast to many works that are coherent and scientific, but only limited to a group of readers, the book highlights the main problems of conflict while maintaining a short and easy-to-read form of the lecture, without neglecting a serious analysis of Israeli government and practice, as well as, in fact, of historical space. All major problems at the heart of the conflict are addressed: the way Palestinians are treated both in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories; why Palestinians reject the expression of the "Jewish State"; whether Israel is democracy; whether Israel is inactive occupying the Gaza Strip; the destiny of Palestinian refugees; the expansion of Israeli colonies; the now built wall on the Occupied Palestinian Territories; military checkpoints, etc., etc. In short, this book is simply a wonderful starting point for a debate on the conflict.
References to apartheid will be problematic for many people. However, Ben White does not say that apartheid in South Africa and the way Israel treats Palestinians are no different. He says that there are clear similarities between them, that they are akin phenomena. Therefore, he uses the word apartheid Israeli. Israel created its own version of the widely condemned system. White is not afraid to admit that there are differences. Apartheid in South Africa was a government of institutionalized racial discrimination, whereby the white number sought to keep dominance over the black majority, while the Israeli apartheid, the discriminatory Palestinian number in Israel itself and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, where it established a military business regime, is, unlike that apartheid, tolerated by global law. But, as White points out, there are besides similarities. It rightly states that "The common feature of both legal systems remains intentional, expanding and forced expropriation, and securing the control of the best sites with natural resources for 1 group of people at the expense of another."
Maintaining control of Israel/Palestinian provides a number of measures known from the times of apartheid in South Africa: colonization and settlement of indigenous land; the process of fragmentation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and turning them into bantanas; the regulation of freedom of movement by means of a strict strategy of passes and military checkpoints, which resembles the mostly hated strategy of passage in South Africa, but is much more brutal; demolitions of houses, brutality of the army and arrests and prison sentences for political opponents.
But control is besides maintained by means specified as the apartheid government in South Africa: a wall/fence/barrier (whatever you call it), which divides and separates people; a strategy of separate and different roads for Israelis (who decision on the best roads) and Palestinians (who usage mediocre roads); a deliberately premeditated humanitarian crisis that drove Palestinians into a state of misery and despair.
That last difference is most likely the most striking. While the Israeli military business resulted in the demolition of residential homes, hospitals and clinics, harm to power plants, waterworks and another municipal infrastructure, and the drive of Palestinians into poverty, the South African apartheid, desiring to make appearances of equal treatment, built housing houses, schools, universities, economical facilities, hospitals, clinics, and material prosperity of the black population, though denied its political rights. Israel, on the another hand, not only refuses political rights to Palestinians, but at the same time undermines their material situation – thus violating its obligations to global humanitarian law, which it has as an business force.
Israel's policy on the Occupied Palestinian Territories has been condemned in many successive United Nations resolutions and by the global Court of Justice, who in 2004 ruled in its advisory opinion that the wall built by Israel on occupied lands is illegal and should be dismantled. However, the West does not make any serious attempts to force Israel to comply with its global obligations.
White says on record: "Israel has been released from sanctions for violations of global legal standards".
In this respect, the consequence of the global community is fundamentalally different from its consequence to apartheid in South Africa. The UN General Assembly called for extended economical sanctions against South Africa, the safety Council imposed an embargo on arms supplies, all effort was made to force this country to submit to an advisory opinion of the global Court of Justice condemning apartheid in Namibia, and further states, corporations and civilian society imposed various forms of sanctions. This problem must besides be considered if the concept of the regulation of law is to keep any credibility.
Ben White does not avoid controversial topics in his book. It touches problems that many people in the West would like to sweep under the carpet. But the Palestinian issue remains a problem that threatens planet peace and cannot escape. This book presents the burning issues in an accessible way, while offering quite a few information, and hopefully it will increase the awareness of the Palestinian situation. If we do not realize and appreciate its message, a fair solution to this conflict will stay the same destiny as it has been before.
John Dugard is simply a law prof. at the Human Rights Center at the University of Pretoria, an extraordinary law prof. at Duke University, North Carolina, and erstwhile UN peculiar Rapporteur on Human Rights Situations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Map 1: General map of Israel/Palestine
Source: Keith Cook,[w] Jonathan Cook, Blood and Religion, Pluto Press, London, p. xv.Introduction/ Apartheid Israeli
Those who support Israel talk of Zionism as a judaic national free ideology, but for the Palestinians it is equivalent to apartheid, for that is his practice and they have experienced it. [1]
When we first effort to research the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it seems very confusing. The full spectrum of points of view, conflicting versions of past and highly different explanations of the origin of the problem emerges. Why? 1 of the main reasons for this is that Israel’s uprising is already sparked.
In this book, I clearly present the fact about Israel's past and present: cultural cleansing, land plunder, discriminatory government and military occupation..
Reality differs enormously from widespread legends of a small, courageous nation, from the very beginning forced to fight against implacable, bloodthirsty enemies; and a country that made mistakes, but always did everything in its power to accomplish noble goals.
Why the deep split? The pro-Israeli propaganda in the West has a large influence, but there is besides a much deeper reason for it. The various activities of Israel, from the expulsions of the population in 1948 to the separation wall raised 60 years later, were justified by “security considerations”. This would mean that Israel must defend itself and so take concrete, sometimes very unpleasant steps.
