Misplaced Pages

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74-584: Sara Kershnar and others founded the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network in 2008. The IJAN views Zionism as a racist movement, and Israel as an apartheid state . The charter of the organization states "[w]e are an international network of Jews who are uncompromisingly committed to struggles for human emancipation, of which the liberation of the Palestinian people and land is an indispensable part. Our commitment

148-588: A book chapter about the "apartheid Israel" accusation, the British philosopher Bernard Harrison wrote: "No doubt much more needs to be done. But we are discussing, remember, the question of whether Israel is, or is not, an 'apartheid state'. It is not merely hard, but impossible, to imagine the South African Supreme Court, under the premiership of Hendrik Verwoerd, say, delivering an analogous decision, because to have done so would have struck at

222-626: A large scale. So do the Israeli security forces. There were many political prisoners on Robben Island but there are more Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails." The World Bank found in 2009 that Israeli settlements in the West Bank (which amount to 15% of its population) are given access to over 80% of its freshwater resources, despite the fact that the Oslo accords call for "joint" management of such resources. This has created, according to

296-520: A latent form of apartheid. The concept emerged with some frequency in both academic and activist writings in the 1980s–90s, when Uri Davis , Meron Benvenisti , Richard Locke, and Anthony Stewart used the term apartheid to describe Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. In the 1990s, the term "Israeli apartheid" gained prominence after Israel, as a result of the Oslo Accords , granted

370-713: A name." Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip , areas occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and deemed to be occupied territory under international law , are under the civil control of the Palestinian Authority and are not Israeli citizens. In some areas of the West Bank, they are under Israeli security control. In 2007, in advance of a report from the United Nations Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur John Dugard said that "Israel's laws and practices in

444-564: A pariah state. On 29 December 2009, Israel's High Court of Justice accepted the Association for Civil Rights in Israel 's petition against an IDF order barring Palestinians from driving on Highway 443 . The ruling was to come into effect five months after being issued, allowing Palestinians to use the road. According to plans the IDF laid out to implement the court's ruling, Palestinian use of

518-743: A viable Jewish community in Ottoman Palestine, purchased land, including arid desert and swamps, that could be reclaimed, leased to and farmed by Jews, thus encouraging Jewish immigration. After the establishment of the state of Israel, the Israel Lands Authority oversaw the administration of these properties. On 8 March 2000, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Israeli Arabs had an equal right to purchase long-term leases of such land, even inside previously solely Jewish communities and villages. The court ruled that

592-426: A word that is an accurate description of what has been going on in the West Bank, and it's based on the desire or avarice of a minority of Israelis for Palestinian land. It's not based on racism...This is a word that's a very accurate description of the forced separation within the West Bank of Israelis from Palestinians and the total domination and oppression of Palestinians by the dominant Israeli military." By 2013,

666-647: Is a system of institutionalized segregation and discrimination in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and to a lesser extent in Israel proper. This system is characterized by near-total physical separation between the Palestinian and the Israeli settler population of the West Bank , as well as the judicial separation that governs both communities, which discriminates against

740-428: Is free and compulsory for all citizens, from elementary school to the end of high school, and university access is based on uniform tuition for all citizens. List of military occupations This article presents a list of military occupations , both historic and contemporary, but only those that have taken place since the customary laws of belligerent military occupation were first clarified and supplemented by

814-463: Is going nowhere and the Israeli government is undermining a two-state solution, Roth has concluded Israel's policies in the West Bank have "all the elements of the oppressive discrimination that constitute apartheid". Former Foreign Policy editor David Rothkopf has called Israel an apartheid state. Leila Farsakh , associate professor of political science at University of Massachusetts Boston , has said that after 1977, "the military government in

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888-490: Is no intent to maintain 'an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group'. This is a critical distinction, even if Israel acts oppressively toward Palestinians there." Goldstone also wrote, "the charge that Israel is an apartheid state is a false and malicious one that precludes, rather than promotes, peace and harmony." Amnesty International condemned an Israeli court decision to forcibly evict 500 Palestinian Bedouins from Ras Jrabah in

962-509: Is to the dismantling of Israeli apartheid, the return of Palestinian refugees, and the ending of the Israeli colonization of historic Palestine." It calls for the unconditional freeing of all Palestinian prisoners in Israel . The group also opposes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan , capitalism , and Islamophobia . Prominent members of IJAN include feminist activist Selma James and the late Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer . It comprises groups in

1036-595: The Hague Convention of 1907 . As currently understood in international law , "military occupation" is the effective military control by a power of a territory outside of said power's recognized sovereign territory. The occupying power in question may be an individual state or a supranational organization, such as the United Nations . Mykolaiv Oblast: Kharkiv Oblast: Events before the Hague Convention of 1907 are out of scope. Eritrea recaptured

1110-528: The Israel Defense Forces stopped Palestinians from driving on Highway 60 as part of a plan for a separate road network for Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank. The road had been sealed after the fatal shooting of three settlers near Bethlehem. As of 2005, no private Palestinian cars were permitted on the road although public transport was still allowed. In 2011, Major General Nitzan Alon abolished separate public transportation systems on

1184-645: The Negev , saying the judgment showed the "deep discrimination that Palestinian citizens of Israel face under apartheid". There has been a steady extension of Israeli Arab rights to lease or purchase land formerly restricted to Jewish applicants, such as that owned by the Jewish National Fund or the Jewish Agency. These groups, established by Jews during the Ottoman period to aid in building up

1258-547: The Supreme Court of Israel upheld the law by a six to five vote. Chief Justice Aharon Barak sided with the minority, declaring: "This violation of rights is directed against Arab citizens of Israel. As a result, therefore, the law is a violation of the right of Arab citizens in Israel to equality." Zehava Gal-On, one of the founders of B'Tselem and a Knesset member with the Meretz-Yachad party, said that with

1332-512: The 2003 Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law , the 2018 Nation-State Law , and many laws regarding security, freedom of movement , land and planning, citizenship , political representation in the Knesset (legislature), education , and culture . Israel says its policies are driven by security considerations, and that the accusation of apartheid is factually and morally inaccurate and intended to delegitimize Israel. It also often calls

1406-600: The Arabs lived there for a thousand years. In that, I agree with them. Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state." His successor John Vorster held the same view. Since then, a number of sources have used the apartheid analogy. In the early 1970s, Arabic language magazines of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) compared

1480-601: The Bank, "real water shortages" for the Palestinians. In January 2012, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French parliament published a report calling Israel's water policies in the West Bank "a weapon serving the new apartheid". The report noted that the 450,000 Israeli settlers used more water than the 2.3 million Palestinians, "in contravention of international law", that Palestinians are not allowed to use

1554-616: The Galilee were accused of barring Arab applicants from moving in. In 2010, the Knesset passed legislation that allowed admissions committees to function in smaller communities in the Galilee and the Negev, while explicitly forbidding committees to bar applicants on the basis of race, religion, sex, ethnicity, disability, personal status, age, parenthood, sexual orientation, country of origin, political views, or political affiliation. Critics say

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1628-452: The Israeli and Palestinian populations, a policy called Hafrada . While the Jewish settlers are subject to Israeli civil law, the Palestinian population is subject to military law. Settlers also have access to separate roads and exploit the region's natural resources at its Palestinian inhabitants' expense. Comparisons between Israel–Palestine and South African apartheid were prevalent in

1702-425: The Israeli government. Israel has created roads and checkpoints in the West Bank with the stated purpose of preventing the uninhibited movement of suicide bombers and militants in the region. The human rights NGO B'Tselem has indicated that such policies have isolated some Palestinian communities and that Israel's road regime "based on the principle of separation through discrimination, bears striking similarities to

1776-570: The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem concluded: "Israel has created in the Occupied Territories a regime of separation based on discrimination, applying two separate systems of law in the same area and basing the rights of individuals on their nationality. This regime is the only one of its kind in the world, and is reminiscent of distasteful regimes from the past, such as the apartheid regime in South Africa. In 2007,

1850-476: The Israeli population. The term refers to the general policy of separation the Israeli government has adopted and implemented over the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip . Scholars and commentators have compared the word to apartheid , with some claiming the two words are equivalent. The Israeli West Bank barrier ( Hebrew : גדר ההפרדה Geder Ha'hafrada , "separation fence"),

1924-510: The Israeli proposals for Palestinian autonomy to the Bantustan strategy of South Africa. In 1970, an anti-apartheid activist in the UK's Liberal Party , Louis Eaks, referred to the situation in Israel as "apartheid" and was threatened with expulsion as a result. In 1979, the Palestinian sociologist Elia Zureik said that while not de jure an apartheid state, Israeli society was characterized by

1998-782: The Jerusalem Post "compares Israel's relations with the Palestinians to the Nazis' treatment of Jews during the Holocaust". In November 2012, members of the IJAN participated in a protest against a meeting of the Jewish National Fund in Toronto . Irish academic David Landy describes IJAN as one of the few Jewish organizations not to "sideline" anti-Zionism, "believing Zionism to be the underlying problem that must be tackled in order to achieve Palestinian liberation and incidentally reclaim

2072-506: The Jewish commitment to liberation". The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has said that although the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network does not organise "a significant number of events", it has an important role "in creating policy and setting anti-Israel agendas". In 2010, the Jerusalem Post correspondent Jonny Paul characterised IJAN as a "small radical fringe group". Israel and apartheid Israeli apartheid

2146-561: The Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state." In November 2014, former Attorney General of Israel Michael Ben-Yair urged the European Economic Union to endorse the creation of a Palestinian state, arguing that Israel had imposed an apartheid regime on

2220-511: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ruled that the policy was discriminatory. It has been ruled that the JNF must sell land to non-Jews, and will be compensated with other land for any such land to ensure that the overall amount of Jewish-owned land in Israel remains unchanged. In the early 2000s, several community settlements in the Negev and

2294-733: The Middle East' to the only apartheid regime in the Western world". He argues that denying Palestinians both self-determination and Israeli citizenship amounts to a "double disenfranchisement", which when based on ethnicity amounts to racism, and that reserving democracy for privileged citizens and keeping others "behind checkpoints and barbed wire fences" is the opposite of democracy. John Dugard has compared Israel's confiscation of Palestinian farms and land, and destruction of Palestinian homes, to similar policies of Apartheid-era South Africa. A major 2002 study of Israeli settlement practices by

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2368-675: The Network to a conference in Dublin about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. IJAN member and Auschwitz survivor Hajo Meyer, author of The End of Judaism: An Ethical Tradition Betrayed , was a key speaker in IJAN's 2010–11 "Never Again – For Anyone" tour, with talks in the UK and Ireland. In 2011, IJAN was one of a number of organizations that organized a 13-city speaking tour of the United States, which according to

2442-537: The OPT [occupied Palestinian territories] certainly resemble aspects of apartheid." Dugard asked: "Can it seriously be denied that the purpose [...] is to establish and maintain domination by one racial group (Jews) over another racial group (Palestinians) and systematically oppressing them?" In October 2010, Richard A. Falk reported to the General Assembly Third Committee that "the nature of

2516-526: The Palestinian Authority ineligible for the automatic granting of Israeli citizenship and residency permits that is usually available through marriage to an Israeli citizen. This applies equally to a spouse of any Israeli citizen, whether Arab or Jewish, but in practice the law mostly affects Palestinian Israelis living in the towns bordering the West Bank. The law was intended to be temporary but has since been extended annually. In May 2006,

2590-584: The Palestinian territories constitutes systemic discrimination and is in breach of Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination , which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid. The ruling did not specify whether it was referring to racial segregation , apartheid , or both. Elements of Israeli apartheid include the Law of Return ,

2664-418: The Palestinians in a wide range of ways. Israel also discriminates against Palestinian refugees in the diaspora and against its own Palestinian citizens . Since the 1948 Palestine war , Israel has been denying Palestinian refugees who were expelled or fled from what became its territory the right of return and right to their lost properties . And since the 1967 Six Day War , Israel has been occupying

2738-721: The Palestinians limited self-government in the form of the Palestinian Authority and established a system of permits and checkpoints in the Palestinian Territories . The apartheid analogy gained additional traction after Israel constructed the West Bank Barrier . In 2001, an NGO Forum ran separately from the World Conference against Racism in the nearby Kingsmead Stadium in Durban, from 28 August to 1 September. It consisted of 3,000 NGOs and

2812-913: The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reported that Palestinians and Israeli settlers in the occupied territories are subject to different criminal laws, leading to longer detention and harsher punishments for Palestinians than Israelis for the same offenses. Amnesty International has reported that in the West Bank, Israeli settlers and soldiers who engage in abuses against Palestinians, including unlawful killings, enjoy "impunity" from punishment and are rarely prosecuted, but Palestinians detained by Israeli security forces may be imprisoned for prolonged periods of time, and reports of their torture and other ill-treatment are not credibly investigated. Dugard has compared Israeli imprisonment of Palestinians to policies of apartheid-era South Africa, saying, "Apartheid's security police practiced torture on

2886-571: The United States, Canada, India, Argentina, and several European countries. During the Gaza War (2008–2009) six members chained themselves to the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles, California , while around 40 others protested in front, shutting it down for two hours. Members of IJAN participated in a protest in London at the same time. In 2010, Ireland's national trade-union federation invited

2960-746: The WBGS would be cut into eight main areas, outside which Palestinians could not live without a permit." John Dugard has said these laws "resemble, but in severity go far beyond, apartheid's pass system". Jamal Zahalka , an Israeli-Arab member of the Knesset , has also said that this permit system is a feature of apartheid. Azmi Bishara , a former Knesset member, argued that the Palestinian situation had been caused by "colonialist apartheid". B'Tselem wrote in 2004, "Palestinians are barred from or have restricted access to 450 miles [720 km] of West Bank roads", and has said this system has "clear similarities" to South Africa's apartheid regime. In October 2005,

3034-504: The West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS) expropriated and enclosed Palestinian land and allowed the transfer of Israeli settlers to the occupied territories." She notes that settlers continued to be governed by Israeli laws, and that a different system of military law was enacted "to regulate the civilian, economic and legal affairs of Palestinian inhabitants". She says, "[m]any view these Israeli policies of territorial integration and societal separation as apartheid, even if they were never given such

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3108-532: The West Bank and the Gaza Strip , which is now the longest military occupation in modern history, and in contravention of international law has been constructing large settlements there that separate Palestinian communities from one another and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state . The settlements are mostly encircled by the Israeli West Bank barrier , which intentionally separates

3182-588: The West Bank, permitting Palestinians to ride alongside Israelis. Settlers have protested the measure. The IDF order was reportedly overturned by Moshe Ya'alon who, responding to pressure from settler groups, issued a directive that would deny Palestinians passage on buses running from Israel to the West Bank. In 2014, the decision was said to be made on security grounds, though according to Haaretz , military officials say that Palestinian use of such transport poses no security threat. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni asked Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to examine

3256-551: The West Bank. In 2015, Meir Dagan , a former head of the Mossad , argued that continuing Prime Minister Netanyahu's policies would result in an Israel that is either a binational state or an apartheid state. In 2003, a year after Operation Defensive Shield , the Israeli government announced a project of "fences and other physical obstacles" to keep Palestinians from crossing into Israel. Several figures, including Mohammad Sarwar , John Pilger , and Mustafa Barghouti , have called

3330-500: The analogy between the West Bank and Bantustans of apartheid-era South Africa was widely drawn in international circles. In the US, where the notion had previously been taboo, Israel's rule over the occupied territories was increasingly compared to apartheid. Hafrada ( Hebrew : הפרדה literally 'separation') is the Israeli government's official term for the policy of separating the Palestinian population in Palestinian territories from

3404-589: The associated controls on Palestinians' movements posed by West Bank Closures , and Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza have been cited as examples of hafrada . Aaron Klieman has distinguished between partition plans based on hafrada , which he translates as "detachment", and hipardut , translated as "disengagement". Since its first public introductions, the concept-turned-policy or paradigm of hafrada has dominated Israeli political and cultural discourse. In 2009, Israeli historian Benny Morris said those who equate Israeli efforts to separate

3478-453: The ban's legality and Weinstein immediately demanded that Ya'alon provide an explanation for his decision. Israeli security sources were quoted saying the decision had nothing to do with public buses and that the goal was to supervise entrance into and exit out of Israeli territory, thereby decreasing the chance of terrorist attacks inside Israel. Critics on the left called the policy tantamount to apartheid, and something that would render Israel

3552-527: The charge antisemitic, which critics have called weaponization of antisemitism . In 1961, the South African prime minister and architect of South Africa's apartheid policies, Hendrik Verwoerd , dismissed an Israeli vote against South African apartheid at the United Nations, saying, "Israel is not consistent in its new anti-apartheid attitude ... they took Israel away from the Arabs after

3626-691: The fence was completed, "along a route that will include all settlement blocs (in keeping with Binyamin Netanyahu ' s demand), underscores the continuity of the bantustan concept. The fence creates three bantustans on the West Bank: Jenin-Nablus, Bethlehem-Hebron, and Ramallah. He called this "the real link between the Gaza and West Bank plans". In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled in an advisory opinion that

3700-457: The government may not allocate land based on religion or ethnicity or prevent Arab citizens from living wherever they choose: "The principle of equality prohibits the state from distinguishing between its citizens on the basis of religion or nationality", Chief Justice Aharon Barak wrote. "The principle also applies to the allocation of state land.... The Jewish character of the state does not permit Israel to discriminate between its citizens." In

3774-428: The intent not as malign. The Israeli Pupils' Rights Law of 2000 prohibits educators from establishing different rights, obligations and disciplinary standards for students of different religions. Educational institutions may not discriminate against religious minorities in admissions or expulsion decisions or when developing curricula or assigning students to classes. Unlike in apartheid South Africa, in Israel, education

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3848-710: The law gives the privately run admissions committees wide latitude over public lands, and believe it will worsen discrimination against the Arab minority. The Knesset passed the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law in 2003 as an emergency measure after Israel had suffered its worst ever spate of suicide bombings and after several Palestinians who had been granted permanent residency on the grounds of family reunification took part in terrorist attacks in Israel. The law makes inhabitants of Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and areas governed by

3922-524: The mid-1990s and early 2000s. Since the definition of apartheid as a crime in the 2002 Rome Statute , attention has shifted to the question of international law . In December 2019, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination announced it was reviewing the Palestinian complaint that Israel's policies in the West Bank amount to apartheid. Since then, several Israeli, Palestinian, and international human rights organizations have characterized

3996-420: The minorities as intrinsically suspect, and legally prohibits their access to land or allocates civil service positions or per capita expenditure on education differentially between dominant and minority citizens." In June 2008, after the law was extended for another year, Amos Schocken , the publisher of the Israeli daily Haaretz , wrote in an opinion article that the law severely discriminates when comparing

4070-433: The occupation as of 2010 substantiates earlier allegations of colonialism and apartheid in evidence and law to a greater extent than was the case even three years ago." Falk called it a "cumulative process" and said "the longer it continues...the more serious is the abridgment of fundamental Palestinian rights." Israeli Defense Minister and former prime minister Ehud Barak said in 2010: "As long as in this territory west of

4144-500: The principle of equality and in many ways reminiscent of the Apartheid regime in South Africa". The group reversed its previous reluctance to make a comparison to South Africa because "things are getting worse rather than better", according to spokeswoman Melanie Takefman. Palestinians living in non- annexed portions of the West Bank do not have Israeli citizenship or voting rights in Israel but are subject to movement restrictions by

4218-586: The racist apartheid regime that existed in South Africa until 1994". The International Court of Justice stated that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees the fundamental rights of the Palestinian population of the occupied territories, and that Israel cannot deny them on the grounds of security. Marwan Bishara , a teacher of international relations at the American University of Paris , has said that

4292-588: The restrictions on the movement of goods between Israel and the West Bank are "a de facto apartheid system". Michael Oren argues that none of this even remotely resembles apartheid, since "the vast majority of settlers and Palestinians choose to live apart because of cultural and historical differences, not segregation, though thousands of them do work side by side. The separate roads were created in response to terrorist attacks—not to segregate Palestinians but to save Jewish lives. And Israeli roads are used by Israeli Jews and Arabs alike." A permit and closure system

4366-492: The resultant West Bank barrier an "apartheid wall". Supporters of the barrier consider it largely responsible for reducing incidents of terrorism by 90% from 2002 to 2005. Some Israelis have compared the separation plan to the South African apartheid regime. Political scientist Meron Benvenisti wrote that Israel's disengagement from Gaza created a bantustan model for Gaza. According to Benvenisti, Ariel Sharon 's intention to disengage from Gaza only after construction of

4440-494: The rights of young Israeli Jewish citizens and young Israeli Arab citizens who marry, and that its existence in the law books turns Israel into an apartheid state. Separate and unequal education systems were a central part of apartheid in South Africa, as part of a deliberate strategy designed to limit black children to a life of manual labor. Some disparities between Jews and Arabs in Israel's education system exist, although according to The Guardian they are not as significant and

4514-502: The road was to remain limited. In March 2013, the Israeli Afikim bus company announced that, as of 4 March 2013, it would operate separate bus lines for Jews and Arabs in the occupied territories. Heribert Adam and Kogila Moodley wrote in 2006 that Israeli Palestinians are "restricted to second-class citizen status when another ethnic group monopolizes state power" because of legal prohibitions on access to land, as well as

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4588-413: The root of the entire system of apartheid, which was nothing if not a system for separating the races by separating the areas they were permitted to occupy." In 2006, Chris McGreal of The Guardian said that as a result of the government's control over most of the land in Israel, the vast majority of land in Israel is not available to non-Jews. In 2007, in response to a 2004 petition filed by Adalah,

4662-485: The route is based on security considerations. Henry Siegman , a former national director of the American Jewish Congress , has said that the network of settlements in the West Bank has created an "irreversible colonial project" aimed to foreclose the possibility of a viable Palestinian state . According to Siegman, in accomplishing this Israel has "crossed the threshold from 'the only democracy in

4736-610: The ruling "The Supreme Court could have taken a braver decision and not relegated us to the level of an apartheid state." The law was also criticized by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch . In 2007, the restriction was expanded to citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Adam and Moodley cite the marriage law as an example of how Arab Israelis "resemble in many ways 'Colored' and Indian South Africans". They write: "Both Israeli Palestinians and Colored and Indian South Africans are restricted to second-class citizen status when another ethnic group monopolizes state power, treats

4810-495: The situation as apartheid, including Yesh Din , B'Tselem , Human Rights Watch , and Amnesty International . This view has been supported by United Nations investigators, the African National Congress (ANC), several human rights groups, and many prominent Israeli political and cultural figures. The International Court of Justice in its 2024 advisory opinion found that Israel's occupation of

4884-451: The term "apartheid" was calibrated to avoid specific accusations of racism against the government of Israel, and carefully limited to the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. In a letter to the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix, Carter made clear that he was not discussing the circumstances within Israel but exclusively within Gaza and the West Bank. In a 2007 interview, he said: "Apartheid is

4958-405: The two populations with apartheid are effectively trying to undermine the legitimacy of any peace agreement based on a two-state solution . In 2023, former Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth said his organization had long refrained from interpreting the reality on the ground in terms of apartheid as long as there was a chance the peace process would succeed. Since, in his view, the process

5032-411: The underground aquifers, and that Israel was deliberately destroying wells, reservoirs and water purification plants. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the report was "loaded with the language of vicious propaganda, far removed from any professional criticism with which one could argue intelligently". A Begin–Sadat Center for Strategic Studies report concludes that Israel has fulfilled

5106-540: The unequal allocation of civil service positions and per capita expenditure on educations between "dominant and minority citizens". In 2008, 53 Stanford University faculty members signed a letter saying that "the State of Israel has nothing in common with apartheid" within its national territory. They argued that Israel is a liberal democracy in which Arab citizens enjoy civil, religious, social, and political equality. They said that likening Israel to apartheid South Africa

5180-401: The wall is illegal where it extends beyond the 1967 Green Line into the West Bank . Israel disagreed with the ruling, but its supreme court subsequently ordered the barrier to be moved in sections where its route was seen to cause more hardship to Palestinians than security concerns could justify. The Israeli Court ruled that the barrier is defensive and accepted the government's position that

5254-517: The water agreements it has made with the Palestinians, and the author said the situation is "just the opposite of apartheid" as Israel has provided water infrastructure to more than 700 Palestinian villages. In 2008, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel concluded that a segregated road network in the West Bank, expansion of Jewish settlements, restriction of the growth of Palestinian towns, and discriminatory granting of services, budgets, and access to natural resources are "a blatant violation of

5328-568: Was a "smear" and part of a campaign of "malicious propaganda". South African Judge Richard Goldstone , writing in The New York Times in October 2011, said that while there exists a degree of separation between Israeli Jews and Arabs, "in Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute". He wrote that the situation in the West Bank "is more complex. But here too there

5402-513: Was attended by 8,000 representatives. The declaration the NGO Forum adopted was not an official document of the conference. The final NGO document called "for the reinstitution of the UN resolution equating Zionism with racism " and "the complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state". Former US President Jimmy Carter wrote the 2006 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid . His use of

5476-533: Was introduced in 1990. Leila Farsakh maintains that this system imposes "on Palestinians similar conditions to those faced by blacks under the pass laws . Like the pass laws, the permit system controlled population movement according to the settlers' unilaterally defined considerations." In response to the Al-Aqsa Intifada , Israel modified the permit system and fragmented the WBGS [West Bank and Gaza Strip] territorially. "In April 2002 Israel declared that

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