Benjamin Pogrund asks: An Apartheid State? Israel is a democracy in which Arabs vote

ISRAEL HORIZONS - Spring 2006 

AN APARTHEID STATE? Israel is a democracy in which Arabs vote

By Benjamin Pogrund

The word "apartheid" became widely known through the South African election in 1948 as the expression of Afrikaner nationalist policy. It can be defined as racial separation and discrimination, institutionalised by law in every aspect of everyday life.

The description of Israel as an “emerging apartheid state” began during the regional conferences leading up to the UN anti-racism conference in Durban in August/September 2001. The anti-racism conference of NGOs adopted resolutions condemning Israel as an “apartheid state” and calling for an international policy of total isolation, “as in the case of South Africa which means the imposition of mandatory and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes (and) the full cessation of all links….” There were also repeated references to “genocide” in descriptions of Israel’s behavior towards Palestinians, plus denunciations of Zionism, Israel’s founding philosophy, as “racism,” in a transparent attempt to reinstate the now rescinded 1975 UN resolution condemning Zionism.

The conference of governments that immediately followed the NGO meeting rejected virtually every one of the attacks on Israel. Later, South Africa’s deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, spoke of the “disgraceful events” surrounding the NGO conference and said: “I wish to make it unequivocally clear that the South African government recognises that part of that component was hijacked and used by some with an anti-Israel agenda to turn it into an anti-Semitic event.”

So, how does Israel stand in regard to the apartheid and racist claims?

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