Since the UN Conference on Racism in August 2001, anti-Semites have tried to delegitimize Israel by comparing it to the Afrikaner government that persecuted its black citizens in the hope that this false equation will tarnish Israel's image and encourage sanctions and divestment of Israel.
The comparison between Israel and South Africa is malicious and insults those who suffered under the oppressive regime that ruled there until 1994.
That regime's official policy imposed racial segregation. Whites sought to dominate the non-white population, especially the indigenous blacks, and discriminated against people of color in the political, legal and economic sectors:
Today, Jews
are the majority within Israel, but the non-Jewish minority (Arab, Christians, Bedouin, Druze, Baha'i and others)
enjoy
full citizenship with voting rights and representation
in the government. Israel’s Declaration of Independence even specifically calls upon the Arab inhabitants of Israel to “participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.” The Arab minority comprises 20% of Israel's population.
It is illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of race and Arab citizens of Israel are represented in all walks of Israeli life. Arabs have served in senior diplomatic and government positions and an Arab - Salim Joubran - currently serves as a justice on the Supreme Court.
Israeli Arabs have their own political parties and representation in the Knesset; Arabs are also members of the major Israeli political parties.
In South Africa, laws dictated where non-whites could live, work and travel and the government imprisoned, and sometimes killed, those who protested against these policies. By contrast, Israel allows freedom of movement, assembly and speech and some of the government’s harshest critics are Arab Knesset members.
Arab students and professors study, research and teach freely at Israeli universities. At Haifa University, for example, approximately 20 percent of the students are Arabs.
Israeli society is not perfect - discrimination and unfairness exist there as it does in every other country. These differences, however, are nothing like the horrors of the South African system. Moreover, when inequalities are identified, minorities in Israel have the right to seek redress through the government and the courts, and progress toward equality has been made over the years.
The situation of Palestinians in the territories is different. Many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip openly refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist; by contrast, non-whites never sought the destruction of South Africa, only of the racist regime.
Unlike South Africa, where restrictions were totally racially motivated, Israel's restrictions in the territories - such as checkpoints and the security fence - was forced by incessant Palestinian terrorism. Israel has consistently demonstrated a willingness, however, to ease restrictions when violence subsides.
Meanwhile, Palestinians
from the territories are allowed to work
in Israel and receive similar pay and benefits
to their Jewish counterparts. They are allowed
to attend schools and universities. Palestinians
have been given opportunities to run many
of their own affairs. None of this was true
for South African blacks.
Even such, 98% of the Palestinians in the territories are governed by the rules of the Palestinian Authority, which amazingly do not permit their own resident with freedoms of speech, religion, assembly or other rights taken for granted by Westerners and guaranteed in Israel.
The clearest refutation of the calumny against Israel comes from the Palestinians themselves - when asked what governments they admire most, more than 80 percent of Palestinians consistently choose Israel because they can see up close the thriving democracy in Israel, and the rights the Arab citizens enjoy there.