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February 4, 2007
Former Israeli Minister of Education Shulamit Aloni argues that apartheid is already happening in the West Bank under Israeli rule. I quote:
Jewish self-righteousness is taken for granted among ourselves to such an extent that we fail to see what's right in front of our eyes. It's simply inconceivable that the ultimate victims, the Jews, can carry out evil deeds. Nevertheless, the state of Israel practises its own, quite violent, form of Apartheid with the native Palestinian population.
Yet Jimmy Carter is being criticized and called anti-Semitic and rascist by Israeli's for using the term "apartheid" in describing Israel's treatment of the Palestinians in their own land. This kind of criticism avoids the key issue: Carter's argument that Israeli policy toward the Palestinian population in the West Bank is akin to South African policy toward the non-White majority during the apartheid era.
Shulamit Alo comments on this phenomenon are interesting. He says that:
The US Jewish Establishment's onslaught on former President Jimmy Carter is based on him daring to tell the truth which is known to all: through its army, the government of Israel practises a brutal form of Apartheid in the territory it occupies. Its army has turned every Palestinian village and town into a fenced-in, or blocked-in, detention camp. All this is done in order to keep an eye on the population's movements and to make its life difficult. Israel even imposes a total curfew whenever the settlers, who have illegally usurped the Palestinians' land, celebrate their holidays or conduct their parades.
It would appear that liberal Jewish Americans (and liberal Jewish Australians) seem to find it emotionally difficult to accept that Israel has done terrible things to the Palestinian people.
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Gary, You might find this site interesting as well. I got it through a newsletter that I subscribe to.
1. www.ifamericaknew.org