The 'Apartheid Slur' on the web
APARTHEID SLUR
Bob Carr out of control
Former federal Labor leader Bill Shorten told The AJN he had made it a practice not to comment about Carr’s comments, “Because you can be here all day.”
By GARETH NARUNSKY
6 May 2021
[...]
Vehemently opposing “any moves towards boycotting Israel”, Labor MLC Walt Secord said the NSW Labor platform “should concentrate on education, health, housing, COVID, reconciliation, the economy, workers and jobs”.
“I was director of communications for Mr Carr when he was premier from 1995 to 2005 – but we have different views on foreign policy,” he added.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies President Lesli Berger said the boycott call “contradicts the Labor Party’s longstanding policy of rejecting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel as antisemitic”.
“Anthony Albanese has described boycotting Israel as ‘beyond the pale’ and ‘counterproductive self-indulgence’,” he said.
“Boycotting goods from the West Bank will jeopardise the livelihoods of the approximately 50,000 Palestinians who are employed in Israeli industries on the same pay and conditions as Israeli workers.
“It’s also relevant that Human Rights Watch is not a credible organisation on Israel-Palestine matters, and its description of Israel as an apartheid state is a baseless slur which trivialises the evils of the apartheid regime and those who suffered under it.
“But perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of this latest push is that it will do nothing to advance a state of Palestine.”
Zionist Council of New South Wales Israel affairs director Arsen Ostrovsky said Carr “seems to have a rather unhealthy obsession with Israel, dominated by his irrational hatred of the Jewish State and willingness to be a pawn of the Palestinian propaganda machine”. ..
https://ajn.timesofisrael.com/bob-carr-out-of-control/
Human Rights Watch 'Israel apartheid' report condemned as 'fiction' - The JC -
Mathilde Frot
Apr 27, 2021 — Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl said the report was a "sham which puts rhetoric above fact."
"They consistently ignore or downplay the fact that Israel’s security measures in the West Bank and around Gaza are the response to well-documented terror activities. The ridiculous ‘apartheid‘ slur in this report is belied by the fact that, as it stands, Israel’s next Government may well rely on the support of Arab parties, voted for by the country’s fully-enfranchised Arab citizens.
"Israel’s Arab citizens have been appointed as ambassadors, professors, Supreme Court judges, hospital directors, and other key roles throughout Israel’s socio-economic landscape. Civil society organisations should be directing their efforts towards reinvigorating the peace process, not trading in false hyperbole that extends the cycle of conflict," she said.
NGO Monitor president Professor Gerald Steinberg, also criticised the report writing in the Jerusalem Post that it comprised “the standard mix of shrill propaganda, false allegations and legal fictions.”
“Exploiting the ‘apartheid’ image for propaganda is a cynical appropriation of the suffering of the victims of the actual apartheid regime,” he also wrote.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem caused a stir a few months ago when they also said they considered Israel an “apartheid regime.”
The UK group Na’amod called on the community to “sit up and listen.”
“Many in our community feel conflicted about the use of the term ‘apartheid’ with reference to Israel-Palestine.
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/human-rights-watch-israel-apartheid-report-condemned-as-fiction-1.516093
Anti-Israel 'Apartheid' Slur Promoted by NYC Mayoral Candidate - Janglo
Apr 19, 2021 — By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel - Trailing badly in the polls, New York City mayoral candi.
https://www.janglo.net/item/LoHOoAAcUsr
Apr 25, 2021 — This document was rescinded by the UN Secretary-General because of its use of the apartheid slur, promotion of BDS, ...
https://www.ngo-monitor.org/reports/hrws-apartheid-demonization-bds-lawfare/
The New Blood Libel of “Medical Apartheid”
Apr 14, 2021 — This newest medical apartheid slur has become a significant driver for efforts to undermine support for the State of Israel in..
https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/the-new-blood-libel-of-medical-apartheid/
The apartheid slur against Israel is... - ZF UK & Ireland - Zionist ...
The apartheid slur against Israel is both an easily refutable lie and an attack on those who suffered under real apartheid in South Africa
The apartheid slur peddled by B’tselem
by Steve Winston | Jan 12, 2021 | Blog
On the 12th January 2021, the Guardian published an op-ed in which the head of the anti-Israel NGO B’tselem asserts that “We are Israel’s largest human rights group – and we are calling this apartheid”.
See following statement from ZF Chairman Paul Charney, some of which was included in a The Jewish News article here
“In response to the Guardian’s op-ed published today, 12th January 2021, in which the head of the anti-Israel NGO B’tselem asserts that “We are Israel’s largest human rights group – and we are calling this apartheid”, the Zionist Federation of the UK and Ireland wholeheartedly rejects this malicious claim.
The author conveniently omits that Israel is home to over 1.8 million Arabs who have the same rights and freedoms as their Jewish counterparts. The Palestinians who live in the West Bank are under the governance of the Palestinian Authority and those who live in Gaza are under the governance of Hamas. Israel has Israeli Arabs in the Knesset and they are represented throughout Israeli society, from government and the judiciary to healthcare and hi-tech. Perhaps one of the most telling examples of Israel’s pluralistic society is how a record number of Israeli Arabs enlisted in Israel’s IDF during 2020, with many of them serving in combat roles in prominent brigades.
The decades-long conflict has of course created societal issues in Israel that need to be changed, many of which continue to be actively addressed, but to use such a strong and emotive word such as “apartheid” to slander the Jewish state is both dishonest and grossly diminishes the suffering of the many millions of Black South Africans under the real former South African apartheid regime.
It is at times like that this that is incumbent upon all supporters of Israel to remind ourselves and others that Israel is the world’s only Jewish country and accordingly, the majority there is Jewish. The need for a Jewish homeland was recognised and ratified by the international community from 1917 through to Israel’s establishment in 1948.
It is also worth reminding ourselves that a 2017 UN report accusing Israel of apartheid was not supported by the international body’s leadership and was ultimately removed from its website.
This article is nothing more than an attempt to grab the headlines and mislead, but with very little to no substance at all.”
https://zionist.org.uk/the-btselem-apartheid-slur/
Apartheid Slur: Another Journalism Fail at the IBT | Honest Reporting
Mar 20, 2017 — In a shocking piece of unprofessional journalism, the International Business Times attempts to promote the Israeli ..
Israeli Response: Accusations of Apartheid Slur Israel | WBEZ Chicago
Israeli Response: Accusations of Apartheid Slur Israel. By The Archives. Sept. 23, 2009, 2 p.m. CT. Listen. Some critics of Israel allege that Zionism is ...
https://www.wbez.org/stories/israeli-response-accusations-of-apartheid-slur-israel/b8b72c44-ad7f-4c3d-80d9-cc5aedf62410
Neil Macdonald's Apartheid Slur is Inflammatory and Unfounded
2017
Israeli Arabs consistently affirm they would rather live in Israel as a minority than anywhere else in the Middle East as part of the...
https://honestreporting.ca/neil-macdonalds-apartheid-slur-is-inflammatory-and-unfounded
Report: U.N.'s Mideast Agency Obsessed with 'Israeli Apartheid'
Jul 18, 2017 — ... unequivocal stand in March, numerous ESCWA webpages, Facebook posts, and tweets continue to display this same “Israel Apartheid” slur...
https://unwatch.org/u-n-s-mideast-agency-obsessed-israeli-apartheid/
I grew up in South Africa, so believe me when I say: Israel is not an apartheid state
This week on university campuses across the UK, activists are preparing for “Israel Apartheid Week”. This term is not only misleading, but a grave insult to those who were subjugated in South Africa.
BY EPHRAIM MIRVIS
Feb 24, 2016
... Contrast that with Israel, a country whose Arab, Druze, Bedouin, Ethiopian, Russian, Baha’i, Armenian and other citizens have equal status under the law. Anyone who truly understands what apartheid was cannot possibly look around Israel today and honestly claim there is any kind of parity. They would need only to visit Hand in Hand, an organisation that runs schools where Jewish and Arab pupils learn together, or meet the Israeli-Arab judge Salim Joubran of the Supreme Court of Israel. They might note the appointment last month of Mariam Kabaha as the national commissioner for equal employment opportunities in the economy ministry, or hear that just this month, Jamal Hakrush became the first Muslim Arab to be appointed a deputy commissioner of the Israel Police.
Indeed, the difference is so stark that one might argue there is a good case for ignoring the apartheid slur altogether. Yet the tragic reality is that every time the word is used in the context of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the two sides become polarised yet further and peace becomes ever more distant. As the word “apartheid” is an icon for malevolence, it can only be received by Israel with resentment and suspicion. In turn, extremist forces in Palestinian society can only benefit from a reinforcement of the notion that the very existence of Israel is illegitimate. In short, the apartheid slur provides fuel for those who seek to polarise and it obstructs those who seek peace.
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2016/02/i-grew-south-africa-so-believe-me-when-i-say-israel-not-apartheid-state
Apartheid slur driven by hatred and lies - The Canadian Jewish News
Apartheid slur driven by hatred and lies. By. thecjnadmin. - March 4, 2015
https://www.cjnews.com/perspectives/opinions/apartheid-slur-driven-hatred-lies
Explaining John Kerry’s apartheid slur
Image without a caption
By Nennifer Rubin
Columnist
May 19, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. EDT
Secretary of State John F. Kerry raised the ire of Israel and its supporters with his assertion that if Israel didn’t make a deal with the Palestinians, it could turn into an apartheid state. Unfortunately, too few supporters of Israel explained why the slur was so destructive and so wrong.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2014/05/19/explaining-john-kerrys-apartheid-slur/
Kerry’s Apartheid Slur
Threat Assessment
by Jonathan S. Tobin
Kerry’s Apartheid Slur
June, 2014
The odds were always against Secretary of State John Kerry’s effort to revive the Middle East peace process. But he did not take what most observers saw as his inevitable failure with the grace expected of a diplomat. Days after the Palestinian unity pact signed between the Fatah and Hamas factions ended all hope of progress, Kerry spoke to a closed meeting of the Trilateral Commission and, as he has done in the past, placed the responsibility for the collapse on Israel.
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/jonathan-tobin/kerrys-apartheid-slur/
The Apartheid Slur: An Intellectual Affront and Obstacle to Peace · Anti-Semitism By Gil Troy - March 15, 2013
... a flurry of absurd anti-Israel activities inaccurately comparing Israel to the old South Africa with its reprehensible racist apartheid regime. We need to fight this modern blood libel passionately and intelligently, what Daniel Patrick Moynihan called this “Big Red Lie,” noting its Soviet and Palestinian origins as a propaganda play in the United Nations, not a serious intellectual analysis on universities.
Whenever I hear of an Apartheid Week on campus I am appalled. I would endorse a week boosting Palestinian nationalism. But a week devoted to demonizing Palestinians’ enemies curdles their collective soul, feeding the destructive nihilism at the heart of their national movement. Golda Meir’s truism still applies: Apartheid Week suggests that too many Palestinians still hate Israeli kids more than they love their own, and are more committed to destroying the Jewish state than building their own.
https://brandeiscenter.com/the-apartheid-slur-an-intellectual-affront-and-obstacle-to-peace/
Daphne Anson
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Black Students Blast the "Israeli Apartheid" Slur
"This action is in response to Palestinian Civil Society's call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it begins to abide by international law," runs the leaflet thrust into my hand recently by the elderly stalwart of the local Palestine Solidarity Campaign branch who was picketing a neighbourhood supermarket and demanding that it stops stocking Israeli produce and that customers give that produce a miss.
"For decades it has ignored all appeals to stop its illegal unjust and inhumane treatment of Palestinians both within Israel and the Occupied Territories," continues the leaflet.'As the South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said, Israel is practising apartheid in its policies towards the Palestinians. "It reminds me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa.
https://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/04/black-students-blast-israeli-apartheid.html
James Taranto - News, Articles, Biography, Photos - WSJ.com
Best of the Web Today: Carelessness or Candor? April 28, 2014 09:01 pm ET. The " apartheid" slur has a long history. Prev Page. Page. 62.
https://www.wsj.com/news/author/james-taranto%3Fpage%3D62
The `Israeli-apartheid` slur - OPINION | Politicsweb
The 'Israeli-apartheid' slur. Don Krausz |. 13 November 2016. Don Krausz responds to Iqbal Jassat's allegations against that country.
https://www.wbez.org/stories/israeli-response-accusations-of-apartheid-slur-israel/b8b72c44-ad7f-4c3d-80d9-cc5aedf62410
Israel and the "Apartheid" Slur | John C. Landa Jr. | The Blogs
Mar 15, 2015 — Earlier this month Louis Farrakhan, leader of The Nation of Islam, argued in a speech that the 9/11 World Trade Center ...
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/israel-and-the-apartheid-slur/
The apartheid slur - The Jerusalem Post
By VIC ALHADEFF. MARCH 22, 2012
— Comparing Israel to South African system insults victims of apartheid regime
https://jpost.com/jerusalem-report/israel/the-apartheid-slur/
'Apartheid' slur is a ploy, Mr Kasrils - IOL
Sep 12, 2011 — 'Apartheid' slur is a ploy, Mr Kasrils ... I refer to the letter of Mr Ronnie Kasrils (“Palestine tribunal will help Israelhttps://www.iol.co.za/amp/the-star/apartheid-slur-is-a-ploy-mr-kasrils-1135399
ARCHIVES: AUGUST 2009
Center Field: Treat the apartheid slur – the “A-word” – like the “N-word”
By Gil Troy, Jerusalem Post, 8-25-09
Since Neve Gordon published his controversial Los Angeles Times op-ed “Boycott Israel” on August 20, critics have called for officials at Ben Gurion University, his academic home, to punish him or to risk losing donations.
Cutting donations to a university because of an outspoken professor or suspending that professor for his views is as shortsighted and self-destructive as an Israeli citizen endorsing a boycott of his own country. Maybe I am perverse, but I relish these moments to demonstrate that Israel has freedom of speech and Israeli campuses have academic freedom – unlike their neighbors.
At the same time, it is important to denounce Gordon and others for perpetuating the apartheid smear against Israel. Everyone who cares about peace in the Middle East and truth in the world must stop making the false comparisons between the difficult national conflict pitting Israelis against Palestinians and the ugly racist regime that discriminated against South Africans of color for decades.
In his article, Gordon proclaims: “The most accurate way to describe Israel today is as an apartheid state.” This may be the trendiest, most politically correct, and most demeaning way to describe Israel today, but for a professor of politics to claim that it is “the most accurate way” is absurd. The unconscionable, inaccurate apartheid label insults anyone who supports the modern Jewish state of Israel as well as everyone who suffered under South Africa’s evil apartheid system.
Apartheid was a racist legal system the Afrikaner Nationalists dominating South Africa’s government imposed after World War II. The Afrikaners’ discriminatory policies began with their racist revulsion for blacks, reflected in early laws in 1949 and 1950 prohibiting marriages and sexual relations between whites and non-whites. Apartheid quickly developed into a brutal system that attempted to dehumanize South Africa’s majority nonwhite population.
Beyond the historical definition, international law emphasizes that apartheid involves intentional, mandated racism. In 1973 the United Nations General Assembly defined apartheid as “the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.”
The fact that Israel’s Declaration of Independence – and founding document – promises to “uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex,” proves that Israel rejects racism and by definition cannot be accused of apartheid.
Injecting “racism” into the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a sloppy attempt to slander Israel with the accusation du jour. It is a statement as trendy and unhistorical as equating Zionism with European colonialism, another folly given Jews’ historic ties to the land of Israel. Since the Nazi attempt to annihilate Jews as a “race,” the Jewish world has recoiled against defining Jews as a “race.”
Zionism talks about Judaism, the Jewish people, the Jewish state. The Arab-Israeli conflict is a nationalist clash with religious overtones. The rainbow of colors among Israelis and Palestinians, with black Ethiopian Jews, and white Christian Palestinians, proves that both national communities are diverse.
In a world organized by nation states, singling out Jewish nationalism, meaning Zionism, as racist is so ridiculous even the United Nations ultimately rescinded its infamous 1975 resolution. The application of the apartheid label is an attempt to ostracize Israel by misrepresenting some of the difficult decisions Israel has felt forced to make in fighting Palestinian terror. Israel’s opponents are trying to transfer onto Israel the civilized world’s justifiable contempt for South African oppression.
This charge is particularly ironic coming from so many Arab states, which perpetuate discriminatory citizenship policies against Christians, women, gays and even other Arabs from different regions. But the charge is particularly insidious because it is the centerpiece of the current attempt to demonize Zionism and eradicate Israel. Anyone who claims to be unaware that apartheid is a loaded term forfeits all credibility on the subject of the Middle East and Africa.
Unfortunately, Neve Gordon is not the only Israeli to use the “A-word.” It has entered the conversational midstream. Even when someone from the center says “I oppose a particular policy because I fear it would then make Israel an ‘apartheid state,'” the ugly linkage between Israel and the “A-word” is reinforced.
I do not believe in government sanctions, but I do believe in shunning. People who use the “A-word” in casual conversation or in formal discourse should be named and shamed for insulting Israel, South Africa, and their audience with historically inaccurate demagoguery that slanders the Jewish people.
In the United States, people no longer use the “N-word,” the derogatory term for blacks that once was ubiquitous in American discourse. Americans acknowledge the slur’s emotional power and the lingering scars from its widespread use. We should start avoiding the “A-word” and confronting those who use it – before it is too late.
http://web.archive.org/web/20090828042304/http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/troy/entry/treat_the_apartheid_slur_the
https://giltroyzionism.wordpress.com/2009/08/
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