Global Apartheid – Israel

Kieran McNaney

When people hear the word “Apartheid”, the first thing that comes to mind most likely would be South Africa. In schools across America, students are taught about the plight of apartheid in South Africa and civil rights movements that occurred around the world during the 20th Century. One place that many people may never believe apartheid exists in is Israel; however, it does. The archaic battle between Israelis and Palestinians is well-known by most citizens around the world. What people might not know is that the Israelis have been continuing steps towards institutionalizing apartheid for the past six decades. The following information will prove that apartheid and discrimination are not monochromatic, but in fact unprejudiced in their contents and repercussions.
Since the early 1950s, the Israeli government has been passing laws to limit and discriminate against Palestinians in such a manner that it has been compared to Nazi Germany, South Africa, and America in the 1800s. According to the article, “Israeli Apartheid: The South African Comparison” on GlobalExchange.org, “The South Africans' experience with apartheid makes them sensitive to the Palestinian plight. They recognize the same patterns in the South African and Palestinian experience: limited or no citizenship rights, segregation, arbitrary detentions, collective punishment, and other injustices based on race, nationality, ethnicity, or religion.” In the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Israel recognizes any Palestinian authority; however, Israeli police infest these areas at will and enforce their own power upon residents. The article continues to state, “The occupied territories are under Israel's economic and military stranglehold; Palestinians can't work, go to school, or even leave their home without Israeli permission. At the same time, they are confined to shrinking pieces of land as Israel seizes the most desirable locations and Jewish settlements surround Palestinian cities and towns. Although the idea of a truly independent state was likely never any more realistic than an independent Bantustan in South Africa, it is now a near impossibility.”
The following are laws passed by the Israeli Government to segregate and discriminate against the Palestinians in the nation:

• Absentee Property Law (1950) – Placed property of Palestinians that fled or leave their land in the hands of the Israeli government
• Nationality/Citizenship Law (1952) – Those who are Jewish or have converted to Judaism are automatically citizens of Israel; however, non-Jewish Palestinians are considered to not be citizens. To become a citizen of Israel, one must prove residency and pass several tests. Citizenship is granted by the Minister of the Interior at his own discretion.
• Validity of Acts and Compensation Law (1953) – Confiscation of more than 400 Palestinian villages and utilization as Jewish settlements and military installations justified by this act.
• Section 7A(1) of the Basic Law: The Knesset (1958) [passed 1985] – Forbids political parties and candidates from elections if they represent anything that denies the State of Israel as a nation for the Jewish people.

In 1988, a Jewish settler murdered a Palestinian child in cold blood and was sentenced to community service and a suspended six month term in jail. The judge who made the sentence stated that the decision he made was based on the fact that different nationalities need different punishments for their crimes. With this being said, apartheid in Israel is an ongoing problem that does not seem to have an end.

Bibliography

http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/sovereign/sover/emerg/2003/0630law.htm

http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/palestine/apartheid.html

http://www.onepalestine.org/resources/Israeli_Apartheid_Laws.html