6 ms·

It is truly offensive to what black africans endured under apartheid, to compare Israel with South Africa. My guess is that the people who say such things have

It is truly offensive to what black africans endured under apartheid, to compare Israel with South Africa. My guess is that the people who say such things have never visited Israel and never visited South Africa under apartheid. 'African-American student leaders from a variety of historically black colleges and universities took out full page ads in numerous American college newspapers Thursday, displaying an “Open Letter to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP),” to convey that they were offended by SJP’s use of the term “apartheid” at recent Israel Apartheid Week events at campuses across the country.' http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=215811 http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=215811 Ever wonder where a millenium of European anti-semtism disappeared to following 1945? It transmogrified itself into prejudice against Israel. There are countries that truly are comparable to apartheid (e.g. Saudi Arabia, where non-muslims are not permitted to enter Mecca). But it is always democratic Israel that gets equated with apartheid, not undemocratic, discriminatory Saudi Arabia.

guelo 15y ago
Palestinians aren't allowed to enter huge portions of the West Bank, including big sections of Hebron where only 500 Jewish settlers live among 300,000 Palestinians. There are whole highways that are Israeli only. Jewish settlers steal private land and then are defended by the IDF as has happened in Nabi Saleh. One set of rules is enforced on Palestinians and another for Israelis living in the same area. That is the definition of apartheid.
- tkahn6 15y ago
  'Palestinian' denoting citizenship rather than race. I can 100% assure you that there are Druze and Bedouin checkpoint soldiers. South African apartheid discriminated based on the race of South African citizens. Israeli only roads because Palestinians are not Israeli. They are Palestinian. The word youre looking for is occupation.
  - guelo 15y ago
    The only requirement to become an Israeli citizen is a religious claim. Apartheid based on religion vs race is not much better. I consider the occupation terminology BS because there has been no progress on the two state solution for 50 years. It is one country defacto ruled by Israel. Israel tries to claim the Palestinian territories as a weird hybrid state, not independent but not part of Israel, just so they can claim to be democratic, but they are not.
    - reissbaker 15y ago
      The only requirement to become an Israeli citizen is a religious claim. Unless you misunderstand the meaning of "requirement," you're either misinformed or making things up. There are plenty of Christian and Muslim citizens of Israel. There are even Muslim Israeli Arabs in the Knesset, Israel's version of the Parliament. In short: being Jewish is not a "requirement" of citizenship.
      - guelo 15y ago
        What I was referring to was the Israeli Law of Return that gives citizenship to any Jew that applies. But as far as Arab Israelis, they are discriminated against in all sort of ways including discrimination encoded into laws. Israel proudly claims to be a Jewish state and they intend to keep it that way by discriminating against Arabs in any way they see as necessary.
        electromagnetic 15y ago
        > What I was referring to was the Israeli Law of Return that gives citizenship to any Jew that applies. So the country established by all the western powers as a home for Judaism shouldn't permit Jews citizenship based on religion? You're an idiot and you can't comprehend it and are publicly flaunting it. Seriously read a book with a viewpoint not espoused by a neo-nazi group and you might actually learn something about the Israel-Palestine issue. Israel isn't the only country that's actively discriminating against Arabs, they're just the easy one to point to. Let's forget that the Caucasus are in the middle of a religious war led by Arab religious sects attempting a religious coup in many parts of Russia. Let's forget that the Jews have been persecuted for thousands of years and Israel is surrounded by people trying to kill them simply because their Jews. Hey no shit, those ancestors of the jews who survived all their families being killed and robbed don't like that shit. Who knew! You're complaining because Israel isn't being considerate to the poverty stricken Palestine that elected a terrorist organization as its leaders and that fire mortars into Israeli cities and use UN outposts so Israel can't return fire. Hey here's news to Palestine not spending money on things that destroy themselves could get you out of poverty. Sorry I give Israel kudos because if any country was launching mortar strikes on US cities it would have been carpet bombed to rubble inside a week and with or without a religious or racial motives, no one would be complaining.

guelo 15y ago

Palestinians aren't allowed to enter huge portions of the West Bank, including big sections of Hebron where only 500 Jewish settlers live among 300,000 Palestinians. There are whole highways that are Israeli only. Jewish settlers steal private land and then are defended by the IDF as has happened in Nabi Saleh. One set of rules is enforced on Palestinians and another for Israelis living in the same area. That is the definition of apartheid.

tkahn6 15y ago
'Palestinian' denoting citizenship rather than race. I can 100% assure you that there are Druze and Bedouin checkpoint soldiers. South African apartheid discriminated based on the race of South African citizens. Israeli only roads because Palestinians are not Israeli. They are Palestinian. The word youre looking for is occupation.
- guelo 15y ago
  The only requirement to become an Israeli citizen is a religious claim. Apartheid based on religion vs race is not much better. I consider the occupation terminology BS because there has been no progress on the two state solution for 50 years. It is one country defacto ruled by Israel. Israel tries to claim the Palestinian territories as a weird hybrid state, not independent but not part of Israel, just so they can claim to be democratic, but they are not.
  - reissbaker 15y ago
    The only requirement to become an Israeli citizen is a religious claim. Unless you misunderstand the meaning of "requirement," you're either misinformed or making things up. There are plenty of Christian and Muslim citizens of Israel. There are even Muslim Israeli Arabs in the Knesset, Israel's version of the Parliament. In short: being Jewish is not a "requirement" of citizenship.
    - guelo 15y ago
      What I was referring to was the Israeli Law of Return that gives citizenship to any Jew that applies. But as far as Arab Israelis, they are discriminated against in all sort of ways including discrimination encoded into laws. Israel proudly claims to be a Jewish state and they intend to keep it that way by discriminating against Arabs in any way they see as necessary.
      - electromagnetic 15y ago
        > What I was referring to was the Israeli Law of Return that gives citizenship to any Jew that applies. So the country established by all the western powers as a home for Judaism shouldn't permit Jews citizenship based on religion? You're an idiot and you can't comprehend it and are publicly flaunting it. Seriously read a book with a viewpoint not espoused by a neo-nazi group and you might actually learn something about the Israel-Palestine issue. Israel isn't the only country that's actively discriminating against Arabs, they're just the easy one to point to. Let's forget that the Caucasus are in the middle of a religious war led by Arab religious sects attempting a religious coup in many parts of Russia. Let's forget that the Jews have been persecuted for thousands of years and Israel is surrounded by people trying to kill them simply because their Jews. Hey no shit, those ancestors of the jews who survived all their families being killed and robbed don't like that shit. Who knew! You're complaining because Israel isn't being considerate to the poverty stricken Palestine that elected a terrorist organization as its leaders and that fire mortars into Israeli cities and use UN outposts so Israel can't return fire. Hey here's news to Palestine not spending money on things that destroy themselves could get you out of poverty. Sorry I give Israel kudos because if any country was launching mortar strikes on US cities it would have been carpet bombed to rubble inside a week and with or without a religious or racial motives, no one would be complaining.