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Former
President Jimmy Carter's new book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," is
igniting controversy for its allegation that Israel practices a form of
apartheid.
As a South African and former anti-apartheid advocate who visits the
Palestinian territories regularly to assess the human rights situation
for the U.N. Human Rights Council, the comparison to South African
apartheid is of special interest to me.
On the face of it, the two regimes are very different. Apartheid was a
system of institutionalized racial discrimination that the white
minority in South Africa employed to maintain power over the black
majority. It was characterized by the denial of political rights to
blacks, the fragmentation of the country into white areas and black
areas (called Bantustans) and by the imposition on blacks of restrictive
measures designed to achieve white superiority, racial separation and
white security.
The "pass system," which sought to prevent the free movement of blacks
and to restrict their entry to the cities, was rigorously enforced.
Blacks were forcibly "relocated," and they were denied access to most
public amenities and to many forms of employment. The system was
enforced by a brutal security apparatus in which torture played a
significant role.
The Palestinian territories ¬ East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza ¬
have been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. Although
military occupation is tolerated and regulated by international law, it
is considered an undesirable regime that should be ended as soon as
possible. The United Nations for nearly 40 years has condemned Israel's
military occupation, together with colonialism and apartheid, as
contrary to the international public order
In principle, the purpose of military occupation is different from that
of apartheid. It is not designed as a long-term oppressive regime but as
an interim measure that maintains law and order in a territory following
an armed conflict and pending a peace settlement. But this is not the
nature of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Since 1967 Israel has
imposed its control over the Palestinian territories in the manner of a
colonizing power, under the guise of occupation. It has permanently
seized the territories' most desirable parts ¬ the holy sites in East
Jerusalem, Hebron and Bethlehem and the fertile agricultural lands along
the western border and in the Jordan Valley ¬ and settled its own Jewish
"colonists" throughout the land.
Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories has many features of
colonization. At the same time it has many of the worst characteristics
of apartheid. The West Bank has been fragmented into three areas ¬ north
(Jenin and Nablus), center (Ramallah) and south (Hebron) ¬ which
increasingly resemble the Bantustans of South Africa.
Restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by a rigid permit system
enforced by some 520 checkpoints and roadblocks resemble, but in
severity go well beyond, apartheid's "pass system." And the security
apparatus is reminiscent of that of apartheid, with more than 10,000
Palestinians in Israeli prisons and frequent allegations of torture and
cruel treatment.
Many aspects of Israel's occupation surpass those of the apartheid
regime. Israel's large-scale destruction of Palestinian homes, leveling
of agricultural lands, military incursions and targeted assassinations
of Palestinians far exceed any similar practices in apartheid South
Africa. No wall was ever built to separate blacks and whites.
Following the worldwide anti-apartheid movement, one might expect a
similarly concerted international effort united in opposition to
Israel's abhorrent treatment of the Palestinians. Instead one finds an
international community divided between the West and the rest of the
world. The Security Council is prevented from taking action because of
the U.S. veto and European Union abstinence. And the United States and
the European Union, acting in collusion with the United Nations and the
Russian Federation, have in effect imposed economic sanctions on the
Palestinian people for having, by democratic means, elected a government
deemed unacceptable to Israel and the West. Forgotten is the commitment
to putting an end to occupation, colonization and apartheid.
In these circumstances, the United States should not be surprised if the
rest of the world begins to lose faith in its commitment to human
rights. Some Americans ¬ rightly ¬ complain that other countries are
unconcerned about Sudan's violence-torn Darfur region and similar
situations in the world. But while the United States itself maintains a
double standard with respect to Palestine it cannot expect cooperation
from others in the struggle for human rights.
John Dugard is a South African law professor teaching in the
Netherlands. He is currently Special Rapporteur (reporter) on Palestine
to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2006/11/29/1129edcarter.html
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