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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 13 January 2021

Leading human rights group calls Israel an 'apartheid' state

By JOSEPH KRAUSS lutely not."
Associated Press But he acknowledged that
JERUSALEM (AP) — A lead- critics of Israel who had re-
ing Israeli human rights frained from using the term,
group has begun describ- or who had used it and
ing both Israel and its con- been attacked, "will now
trol of the Palestinian territo- conveniently say, 'Hey, you
ries as a single "apartheid" know, Israelis are saying it
regime, using an explosive themselves.'"
term that the country's Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head
leaders and their support- of the Union for Reform Ju-
ers vehemently reject. daism, which estimates its
In a report released Tues- reach at more than 1.5 mil-
day, B'Tselem says that lion people in 850 congre-
while Palestinians live un- gations across North Amer-
der different forms of Israeli ica, says the situation in the
control in the occupied West Bank and Gaza is a
West Bank, blockaded "moral blight" and an "oc-
Gaza, annexed east Jeru- cupation," but not apart-
salem and within Israel it- heid.
self, they have fewer rights "What goes along with say-
than Jews in the entire area ing that, to many in the in-
between the Mediterra- ternational community, is
nean Sea and the Jordan In this Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020. file photo, Israeli border police officers and Palestinians clash during that therefore Israel has no
River. a protest against the expansion of Israeli Jewish settlements near the West Bank town of Salfit. right to exist," he said. "If the
"One of the key points in our Associated Press accusation is apartheid,
analysis is that this is a sin- that is not simply a strong
gle geopolitical area ruled two years later. It considers domination by one racial their political agenda," critique, it's an existential
by one government," said the West Bank "disputed" group." which he said was based critique."
B'Tselem director Hagai territory whose fate should "There is no country in the on a "distorted ideologi- El-Ad points to two recent
El-Ad. "This is not democ- be determined in peace world that is clearer in its cal view." He pointed out developments that altered
racy plus occupation. This talks. Israel annexed east apartheid policies than Is- that Arab citizens of Israel B'Tselem's thinking.
is apartheid between the Jerusalem in 1967 in a rael," said Nabil Shaath, a are represented across the The first was a contentious
river and the sea." move not recognized in- senior adviser to Palestinian government, including the law passed in 2018 that de-
That a respected Israeli or- ternationally and consid- President Mahmoud Ab- diplomatic corps. fines Israel as the "nation-
ganization is adopting a ers the entire city its unified bas. "It is a state based on Eugene Kontorovich, di- state of the Jewish people."
term long seen as taboo capital. Most Palestinians in racist decisions aimed at rector of international law Critics say it downgraded
even by many critics of Is- east Jerusalem are Israeli confiscating land, expelling at the Jerusalem-based Israel's Palestinian minority
rael points to a broader "residents," but not citizens indigenous people, demol- Kohelet Policy Forum, says to second-class citizenship
shift in the debate as its with voting rights. ishing homes and establish- the fact that the Palestin- and formalized the wide-
half-century occupation B'Tselem argues that by ing settlements." ians have their own gov- spread discrimination they
of war-won lands drags on dividing up the territories In recent years, as Israel has ernment makes any talk of have faced since Israel's
and hopes for a two-state and using different means further entrenched its rule apartheid "inapplicable," founding in 1948. Support-
solution fade. of control, Israel masks the over the West Bank, Israeli calling the B'Tselem report ers say it merely recognized
Peter Beinart, a prominent underlying reality — that writers, disillusioned former "shockingly weak, dishon- Israel's Jewish character
Jewish-American critic of roughly 7 million Jews and generals and politicians est and misleading." and that similar laws can
Israel, caused a similar stir 7 million Palestinians live opposed to its right-wing Palestinian leaders agreed be found in many Western
last year when he came under a single system with government have increas- to the current territorial di- countries.
out in favor of a single bi- vastly unequal rights. ingly adopted the term. visions in the Oslo accords The second was Israel's an-
national state with equal "We are not saying that the But until now B'Tselem, in the 1990s, and the Pal- nouncement in 2019 of its
rights for Jews and Palestin- degree of discrimination which was established in estinian Authority is recog- intention to annex up to
ians. B'Tselem does not take that a Palestinian has to 1989, had only used it in nized as a state by dozens a third of the occupied
a position on whether there endure is the same if one specific contexts. of nations. That, Kontoro- West Bank, including all
should be one state or two. is a citizen of the state of Israel adamantly rejects the vich says, is a far cry from of its Jewish settlements,
Israel has long presented Israel or if one is besieged term, saying the restrictions the territories designated which are home to nearly
itself as a thriving democra- in Gaza," El-Ad said. "The it imposes in Gaza and the for Black South Africans 500,000 Israelis. Those plans
cy in which Palestinian citi- point is that there isn't a sin- West Bank are temporary under apartheid — known were put on hold as part a
zens, who make up about gle square inch between measures needed for secu- as bantustans — to which normalization agreement
20% of its population of 9.2 the river and the sea in rity. Most Palestinians in the many Palestinians com- reached with the United
million, have equal rights. which a Palestinian and a West Bank live in areas gov- pare the areas governed Arab Emirates last year, but
Israel seized east Jerusa- Jew are equal." erned by the Palestinian by the PA. Israel has said the pause is
lem, the West Bank and the Israel's harshest critics have Authority, but those areas Kontorovich said the use only temporary.
Gaza Strip in the 1967 war used the term "apartheid" are surrounded by Israeli of the word "apartheid" B'Tselem and other rights
— lands that are home to for decades, evoking the checkpoints and Israeli sol- was instead aimed at de- groups argue that the
nearly 5 million Palestinians system of white rule and diers can enter at any time. monizing Israel in a way boundaries separating Is-
and which the Palestinians racial segregation in South Israel has full control over that "resonates with racial rael and the West Bank
want for a future state. Africa that was brought 60% of the West Bank. sensitivities and debates in vanished long ago — at
Israel withdrew troops and to an end in 1994. The In- Itay Milner, a spokesman for America and the West." least for Israeli settlers, who
settlers from Gaza in 2005 ternational Criminal Court Israel's consulate general Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli can freely travel back and
but imposed a blockade defines apartheid as an in New York, dismissed the consul general in New York, forth, while their Palestinian
after the militant Hamas "institutionalized regime of B'Tselem report as "another rejects the term. "Occupa- neighbors require permits
group seized power there systematic oppression and tool for them to promote tion, yes. Apartheid, abso- to enter Israel.q