Harry W. Weber: So you think Israel is an Apartheid State?

About a week ago Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, attended a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels.  Suddenly someone burst into the room shouting that he was making a citizen’s arrest of the foreign minister due to his participation in the execution of Israel’s “apartheid” policies, calling Israel an “apartheid state” -- before he was unceremoniously evicted.

The question is: was that person factually correct in labeling Israel an apartheid state?  Let’s examine the facts.  But before we do that, let’s establish the definition of “apartheid”.  The term refers to a system of legal racial separation which dominated the Republic of South Africa from 1948 to 1993.  Under apartheid, the various races were segregated into various regions, and discrimination against people or color was not only acceptable but also legal, with whites having access to better housing, employment, education and health care.  Blacks were not permitted to vote or participate in the government of the country.

Now let us take a look at Israel.  The question is: are Arabs treated in Israel in a manner similar to the manner in which blacks and Asians were treated in South Africa?  Here are the facts as I, an American Jew living in Israel, see them on the ground -- in the places that I see and frequent on a regular basis.  I see eleven Israeli Arabs who are members of the Knesset.  They shout and rant the most vile and violent anti-Jewish and anti-government outbursts that one can imagine, and the worst punishment meted out to them is an eviction from the Knesset chamber for that session alone.  How many blacks were members of the South African Parliament?  We all know the answer -- zero!  I see Arab doctors working in every hospital in Israel.  I see more Arab pharmacists in the pharmacy of my local HMO than I see Jews.  The building which houses my office is also the address for two Arabs dentists, and since they are located in Netanya, a predominately Jewish city, it is a very safe bet that almost one hundred percent of their clientele is Jewish.  How many black doctors, dentists and pharmacists were licensed to practice in South Africa? And of that total how many were permitted to treat white clients?  Again -- zero!  There are Arabs judges in Israel.  In fact, the chief judge in the trial of the former president of Israel was none other than an Arab.  And no one even raised an eyebrow at such a situation.  Did a black man ever judge a white man in South Africa?  Never!  And let’s not forget the fact that there are tens of thousands of Arab university students throughout Israel, and in every university.  How many blacks attended universities in South Africa?

So, is there any apartheid in Israel?  Yes, there is.  While Arabs are allowed, as citizens, to purchase houses wherever they please (there are Arab minorities in the predominately Jewish cities of Acre, Ramle, Jaffa, Carmiel, Safed and Netanya,  there is not one single Jew living in any Arab town or village in the entire country!  Believe it or not!  And the reason is simple.  Any Jew moving into an Arab town is assured that his house will be set afire the very same night.  This is exactly the fate of several Jews who bought houses in the Druze village of Peki’in.  Their houses were destroyed, they barely survived, a riot ensured, the locals kidnapped a policewoman for several hours till calm was finally returned to the village.  And all this in a village famous for its hospitality to Jews -- as long as they remain guests and not residents.  That is the apartheid in Israel!

Anyone visiting Israel knows all this to be true.  What is also true is that in Judea and Samaria, the heart of ancient Israel -- where the Hebrew prophets lived and where the Jewish patriarchs travelled the length and breadth of the land -- the local Arabs decided after the Six-Day War that it would be nice to be called “Palestinians”, and as such, demand that “Palestine” -- Judea and Samaria -- be granted statehood.  That no one saw them as a separate people before 1967 is irrelevant.  That they have no unique national history, religion or customs is also irrelevant. That only two countries ever recognized the territory as belonging to Jordan or to any other Arab state is also irrelevant.  The new “Palestinian” dogma became: the Jews conquered the land, therefore, we, the new Palestinians want it back (but you never had it in the first place!) to set up another enemy to Israel -- on the east.

In those disputed lands -- for over forty years -- Arabs have committed murder and theft on a massive scale against Jews.  As a result, the Israelis had to set up checkposts and roadblocks to control the traffic of weapons and the free movement of terrorists.  Andin order to protect the lives of Jews who decided to live in the homeland of their forefathers, the Army had to set up separate roads -- for Jews and for Arabs.  This was done only after hundreds of Israelis were attacked in drive-by shootings at the hands of Arabs terrorists.

Arab cities and towns in Judea and Samaria have complete local autonomy -- without a Jew ever entering their outskirts.  In fact, if a Jewish driver ever mistakenly enters an Arab town in Judea and Samaria, he is immediately bombarded by rocks, and is in danger of being lynched.  Just such a fate befell two Army reservists a decade ago as they got lost and entered Ramallah.  No one can ever forget the blood- drenched hands of the “proud” killers of these two men as they waved to the cheering crowd.  On the other hand, Arabs enter Jewish towns and cities in the most casual, care-free and confident manner one can imagine.  The contrast between the two situations is admittedly grating to many Jews.

Apartheid you say?  Yes, there is apartheid.  Arabs want Judea and Samaria to be “Judenrein” -- “clean” of all Jews.  Most of them believe that Jews have no right to live in the only place on earth that G-d has declared to be theirs -- and only theirs.  Not only do they want Jews out of Judea and Samaria, they also want them out of Haifa, Tel Aviv, Netanya and Jerusalem.  In South Africa’s apartheid, the whites tolerated the blacks, permitted them to live, only apart.  The Arabs are much worse. They want to eliminate all the Jews of Israel -- from the hills of Judea and Samaria to the white sands of the Mediterranean Sea.  Is that apartheid?  No!  That is a wish for genocide, and the promoters of that policy can only be described as “Palestinazis!”

Harry W. Weber is a C.P.A. (U.S., Israel), M.B.A., and a political commentator whose articles have appeared on many websites.