P.O.Box 46081, London W9 2ZF jfjfp@jfjfp.org
Understanding the conflict
I. Israeli society: ethnicity and apartheid
A number of comparisons have been made recently between developments in Israel and/or the occupied territories and apartheid. Some are concerned simply with what distinctions are necessary to maintain 'a Jewish state', others make direct comparisons with the apartheid regime in South Africa. A selection of discussion pieces on this theme follows.N.B. the dividing line between these articles and those in the 'general analyses and commentaries' in Section H above, is not always that clear).
Articles dealing specifically with the situation of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel are collected together in section 2 below
Section 1: The analogy with apartheid
Section 2: Palestinian Arab citizens of IsraelSection 1: The analogy with apartheid
11. Is it Apartheid?Moshé Machover, November 2004
Machover argues that using the term apartheid to describe Israel can be dangerously misleading.
10. Israel and the apartheid lie
Benjamin Pogrund
Saying that apartheid lives on in Israel is a potent but vicious lie that could diminish the value of the term
Guardian, Monday, Oct 25, 2004
9. The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem
John Dugard, Special Rapporteur, Commission on Human Rights
United Nations African Meeting in Support of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Cape Town, 29 and 30 June 2004
8. Long-term sieges
Amira Hass
On the far-reaching significance of Israel's siege policy and the institutionalization of the pass system for travel through the West Bank.
Ha'aretz June 15, 2002
c. 1,000 words
7. At war with ourselves
Lily Galili
Ha'aretz, n.d. on article but c.June 2002
c. 2,300 words
6. Zionist Ideology, the Non-Jews and the State of Israel
Report by Ur Shlonsky
'A new ethnic definition of a Jew was introduced in 1995 by the Israeli statistical bureau introduced the parameter "population group", a category with two values: "Jews and Others" and "Arabs"...'
c. 2,600 words
5. Demagography as the enemy of Democracy
Boaz Evron
Ha'aretz 11 September 2002
'The very term Jewish is becoming a legal fiction. It has no common cultural, linguistic or even religious content - certainly not a 'national' one. It is nothing more than a distinction between those who have full civil rights without duties in a country that they exploit, and second-class (secular) citizens, or third-class (all the rest) residents.'
4. A Jewish Demographic State
Uri Avnery
Gush Shalom, 12 October 2002
c. 1,100 words
'In reality, this is not a "Jewish democratic state" but a "Jewish demographic state". Demography overcomes democracy in all fields of action. An Arab citizen feels at every turn, since childhood, that he has no part in the state, that he is, at most, a tolerated resident.'
3. A Jewish demographic state
Lily Galili
Ha'aretz 27 June 2002
'[T]he issue of demography is forcing both the right and the left to grapple with the difficult dilemma at the heart of the state's character. Can Israel be a Jewish and a democratic state?'
2. The Analogy to Apartheid
Ian UrbinaMiddle East Report 223, Summer 2002
1. Apartheid in the Holy Land
Desmond Tutu
The Guardian, April 29, 2002
Section 2: Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel
See the JfJfP fact sheet The Arab Citizens of Israel
1. Social, Economic and Political Status of Arab Citizens of IsraelThe Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens of Israel (Mossawa)
2. Fact Sheet: Discrimination in Israeli law
The Arab Association for Human Rights
'As well as offering limited provisions for equality or political participation to members of the Palestinian Arab minority, the law in Israel subjects them to three types of discrimination: direct discrimination against non-Jews within the law itself, indirect discrimination through "neutral" laws and criteria which apply principally to Palestinians, and institutional discrimination through a legal framework that facilitates a systematic pattern of privileges.'
c. 2,300 wordsThere are further factsheets on Land and Policy Planning in Israel, The Arab Bedouin of the Negev, and The Unrecognised Villages.
3. The Or Commission report into the shooting of Palestinian citizens of Israel in September 2003, official summary
4. Arab communities verging on 'catastrophe', leaders warn, Yair Ettinger
5. A family argument
Meron Benvenisti
Ha'aretz date?, 2002
c.750 words
The sigh of relief heaved by the anti-racism fighters over the defeat of the Druckman Law that would have allowed the establishment of communities for Jews created a false sense of victory that repressed and ignored an entire system of official discrimination against sectors that do not belong to the Jewish group - the Bedouin, the internal refugees, "unrecognized villages," cities and towns suffocating because of lack of room to expand, economic discrimination and racial prejudice camouflaged as "concern for security."
6. Report shows up land bias in favor of Jewish communities
Ruth Sinai
Ha'aretz, 11 December 2002
'While residents of Arab local authorities make up 12.5 percent of the country's population, the jurisdictions of those local authorities comprise only 2.56 percent of the state's territory...'
c.450 wordsAli Abunimah
The Electronic Intifada, 28 January 2004
c.1,300 words'The JNF advertises itself as "the caretaker of the land of Israel, on behalf of its owners-Jewish people everywhere." As such, it provides one of the main mechanisms through which Israel's system of ethnic segregation and discrmination is enforced, because land that the JNF purports to "own," especially land that was forcibly taken from Palestinians, can by JNF statutes only be leased or sold to those Israel recognizes to be Jews.'
8 . The enemy within: Right and Left are uniting to exclude Israeli Arabs from the political process
Azmi Bishara MK (Member of the Knesset)
A discussion of 'the current legitimisation of Israeli racist rhetoric and its transformation into both a popular and an official political culture'.
c. 2,300 words
9. In the hot seat
Al Ahram, 8-14 nov 2001
Stripping outspoken Knesset member Azmi Bishara of parliamentary immunity clearly reflects Israel's idea of democracy when it comes to the Palestinian minority, writes Jonathan Cook
c. 1,200 words
10. An ominous prelude
Al Ahram, 28 Feb- 6 March 2002
Azmi Bishara, the most prominent Palestinian politician in Israel, was put on trial in an Israeli court yesterday for the second time in less than three months -- charged with supporting a terrorist organisation. Jonathan Cook reports from Nazareth
c. 1,000 words
