[img]96|left|||no_popup[/img]Dateline Jerusalem – I am enraged when I hear or read that Israel is an apartheid state.
Once on a tour in Jerusalem, I saw signs by protestors about apartheid. One tourist in my group asked the two young men and one woman holding the signs if they knew the definition of apartheid. None could give an answer. One actually admitted he did not know what the word meant. It is the mantra of those who do not know the definition of apartheid, anti-Semites, and others with the political agenda of delegitimizing Israel's existence.
If those espousing it were to be morally and ethically honest, the racism and segregation they claim is characteristic of apartheid actually would apply to Arab and Islamic rejection of Jewish, Christian, and Palestinian rights in the Middle East. Yet, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas openly has stated that Jews would be banned from any future Palestinian state, there is no outcry.
Apartheid has been defined as a policy of separating groups, as an official policy of racial segregation involving political, legal, and economic discrimination. Yet only Israel is condemned while discrimination and persecution of Christians and Jews in Arab countries is rampant with attacks and murders, burning and desecrating holy sites and places of worship, denial of citizenship, and forced expulsions from Arab nations. Even Palestinians have been denied citizenship by their own Arab “brothers” in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. They have been denied the right to own land in many Arab countries. But in Israel, Palestinians have freedom to become part of Israeli society.
Anywhere They Want
Approximately one-quarter of Israel's citizens are Arabs who enjoy the same rights and freedoms as Jewish and Christian citizens of Israel. All Israeli citizens, regardless of race, religion, creed, sex, or gender have equal rights. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that “Arab Israelis are citizens of Israel with equal rights” and that the “only distinction between Arab and Jewish citizens is not one of rights, but rather of civic duty.” In fact, the only distinction between Israeli Arabs and the rest of the population is that the Arabs do not have mandatory military service. Even women in Israel must serve in the army. Arabs were exempt from military duty so they would not be put in a position of having to fight their Arab brethren. However, Druze and Circassians requested mandatory military duty for their communities, and many Bedouin and other Israeli Arabs often volunteer and serve in elite units.
Israeli Arabs have the right to vote and have their own political parties that are represented in the Knesset (Israel's legislature) where they have freedom to speak and condemn Israeli policies. Israel is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women have the right to vote and hold office. It is not unusual to see Arabs attending classes at the most prestigious Israeli universities, Arab doctors working alongside Jewish doctors in the major hospitals, Arabs holding various government posts such as Israel's Consul General, and sitting on the Supreme Court. But most significant is Israel's policy of freedom of religion. How many Arab or Muslim-majority countries tolerate other faiths? What other Middle Eastern governments protect churches, mosques and synagogues? In fact, Israel is the only country in the Middle East in which there is a growing Christian population.
Does this sound like apartheid to you? At the 2009 Durban Review Conference, an Arab Israeli journalist, Khaled Abu Toameh, criticized Arab Knesset members who claimed Israel was an apartheid state. He said, “And then they come here to tell us that Israel is a state of apartheid? Excuse me. What kind of hypocrisy is this? What then are you doing in the Knesset? If you are living in an apartheid system, why were you allowed, as an Arab, to run in the election? What are you talking about?” Exactly!
Just wanted to vent my frustration about all this apartheid nonsense. Arabs in Israel enjoy more freedoms here than they do in most Middle Eastern countries. Why is it that the policy of “no Jews allowed” is not apartheid and acceptable to the world? I have too many questions with no legitimate responses.
L'hitraot. Shachar