The Israel and apartheid allegations are among the most damaging claims levelled against the Jewish State, accusing the country of practicing systematic apartheid against the Palestinians. The Human Rights Watch Israel apartheid claim, among others, has fuelled this narrative. In early 2022, the Amnesty International Israel report further inflamed the accusations, despite the organization’s well-documented anti-Israel obsession. These allegations are serious, but they are also demonstrably false.
Human Rights Watch and the Israel Apartheid Claim
But despite the claim of apartheid lobbed by such groups, there is no evidence to buttress the allegation that Israel is an apartheid state, and in fact, significant evidence demonstrating that Israel is the polar opposite of how its detractors depict it.
Under apartheid South Africa, interracial marriages were against the law, and Blacks were forced to live in specific neighbourhoods, were denied the right to vote, and suffered manifold abuses to their civil liberties.
Israel’s Democracy and Arab Citizens
Israel is a liberal democracy of nearly 9.5 million people, of which roughly 2.5 million are Arabs (predominantly Muslim, Christian, and Druze). These 2.5 million Israeli Arabs enjoy full civil and democratic rights, including the right to vote and to be elected to political office. Israeli Arabs – who sometimes identify themselves as Palestinians – can live anywhere they want, hold any job they want, and travel freely through the country with just as many freedoms as their Jewish neighbours. In the eyes of Israeli law, all Israeli citizens, regardless of religion or ethnicity, are fully equal. The Israeli Arabs’ civil rights are protected by law, making them full and equal Arab citizens in Israel’s democratic system.
For many years, Arabs have been represented in Israel’s Knesset, or federal parliament, but in Israel’s 2021 election, Ra’am, an Arab Islamist political party led by Mansour Abbas, was elected to Israel’s coalition government. Such an event would have simply been inconceivable in apartheid South Africa. Blacks could not vote, could not hold political office, and certainly could not serve in the government itself.
The Israeli Arabs’ civil rights are so comprehensive and protected that to accuse Israel of Apartheid is simply misinformation.
The Gaza Strip and Israeli Control
In its report, Amnesty International also accused Israel of practicing Apartheid against Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip, and under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
This allegation is also patently false, but for different reasons.
Palestinians who live in both Gaza and under the Palestinian Authority governance are not Israeli citizens, do not pay Israeli taxes, and are not beholden to Israeli civil law.
In 2005, Israel forcibly removed all its civilians and soldiers from Gaza, some of whom had lived there for generations, in an attempt at peace. The enclave is entirely disassociated with Israel, which neither occupies nor controls a square inch of the land.
In 2007, Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group, waged a civil war against its rival Fatah and seized control of Gaza. Therefore, not only is Israel not in control of Gaza, but a separate, independent Palestinian movement has full control over the roughly two million Palestinians who live there.
In the West Bank, the large majority of Palestinians live under the control of the Palestinian Authority, the successor to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was founded in 1964 by Yasser Arafat.
Israel has not legally annexed Judea & Samaria, and the Palestinians who live there live under the civil control of the PA, not Israel.
Furthermore, Israel has made repeated peace offers to the Palestinian Authority, most notably at Camp David in 2000, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered then-PA Chairman Yasser Arafat the entirety of the Gaza Strip, eastern Jerusalem, and virtually all of Judea & Samaria, as an independent Palestinian state. The offer was rejected in favour of a violent uprising, or intifada. The Camp David 2000 peace offer remains one of the most significant demonstrations of Israel’s willingness to achieve a two-state solution.
The last apartheid claim is that Israel’s system of checkpoints in Judea & Samaria effectively means that Palestinians do not enjoy unfettered freedom to travel.
However, these checkpoints are necessary security measures to prevent suicide bombers and other malicious actors from entering Israel and murdering innocent civilians. Had the Palestinian leadership accepted Israel’s previous offer of peace, it would have meant an end to the conflict and a likely end to the checkpoints. These security measures in Israel, including checkpoints in Judea and Samaria, exist solely to protect civilian lives on all sides of the conflict.
As pointed out by Professor Eugene Kontorovich, an expert in International Law at George Mason University, it is the PA, not Israel, which is an active apartheid regime, “where it is impossible for Jews to live in its jurisdiction, and actively campaigns for the expulsion of all Jews from the West Bank.”
Amnesty International’s apartheid smear against Israel is agenda-driven misinformation, and should not be used to support the claim that Israel is an Apartheid state.
Get the Facts on Israel and Apartheid Allegations
The Israel and apartheid allegations pushed by organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are agenda-driven misinformation, contradicted by the civil rights enjoyed by Arab citizens in Israel. From Israel’s democracy and Arab citizens to the realities of Palestinian Authority governance, the evidence is clear: Israel is not an apartheid state.
Contact us today to learn more about the facts behind the Israel and apartheid allegations. Honest Reporting Canada is committed to countering misinformation with evidence.
