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Israel is in no way an apartheid state | Cape Argus

Kenneth Moeng Mokgatlhe

Independent writer and polical analyst

Cape Argus, 5 October 2023

REFERRING to Israel as an apartheid state similar to South Africa between 1948 and 1994 is far-fetched and dubious.

It is a preposterous and empty political statement to label Israel an apartheid state because I have personally seen Jews, Arabs, Africans (Ethiopian Jews) and Druze living together in a country that does not have divisive laws in favour of one race against the other.

What I have seen and agree with, which is widely reported on, is the occupation of the West Bank by the Israeli army for several decades.

Many Israelis are genuinely against the occupation of the West Bank; however the political leadership from both Palestinian and Israeli sides has failed to sit around the table and reach a peaceful consensus.

It is shocking to learn that the Dutch Reformed Church Western Cape synod has followed and anti-Semitic trend that Israel should be declared an apartheid state when they asked their mother body to consider their opinion at its October 2023 synod.

Apart from preaching about forgiveness and reconciliation behind the pulpits, churches have a societal role to facilitate confrontation between individuals or groups and contribute towards transformation in relationships where there is conflict.

It is myopic to be misled into believing that demonising Israel by referring to them as “bad guys” would help the Palestinian people. Egypt, Washington, and other political actors have been taking an active lead in harmonising the tension between the Israelis and Palestinians.

These political actors have not been encouraging or fuelling further divisions as they are committed to seeing an end to Israel-Palestine political impasse, which has lasted for several decades.

An apartheid state as we knew and understood it referred to “separating or setting apart”; it was a racist policy by the National Party (NP) which advocated for separating or dividing people based on pigmentation.

Referring to Israel an apartheid state trivialises the trauma, calamity, and suffering that black South Africans experienced during white minority rule between 1948 and 1994.

I am flabbergasted whenever I hear people falling for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction group (DBS) in victimising the Jewish state as being an apartheid state.

On my visit to Israel, I never seen boards or signs separating Arabs, Jews, whites, Africans, and Druze as we know happened in South Africa, where. white people were privileged to receive the highest standard of services, and black people were subjected to inferior treatment.

Israel is a Jewish state; it is not a secret that Jews are in the majority in Israel, therefore the laws and policies, are influenced by the culture of Jewish people, but they do not discriminate against non-Jewish people.

Botswana is a country with the majority of the population being Batswana, which therefore means that Setswana as a language will be the official language, while the culture of Batswana will be at the centre of the formulation of polices and laws. Why is Israel denied the right to self-determination?

In 2018 I visited the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, where I saw members from all races that could be drawn from in Israel.

There are many political parties led by people of all races: I’ve seen Arabs, Jews, and Druze serving in the Israel Defence Force, demonstrating their loyalty to Israel as the country of their birth.

Israel was declared a state in 1948, but it does not mean that Jewish people do not have history or are not indigenous to that piece of land.

The Union of South Africa, which was the forerunner of the South African government, started in 1910 between the English and Afrikaner, but it doesn’t mean that there were no people in this part of southern Africa before 1910.

So in Israel, the formulation of the Jewish state took off in 1948, but many battles were fought and a lot of people lost their lives for the Jewish people to end up with their own country.

As a black youth from a rural background who’s been offered a life-time opportunity to study master’s in African studies from the middle of this month at Israel’s Ben Gurion University, I do not agree that Israel is an apartheid state because I’ve never encountered anyone being treated unfairly because of the colour of their skin.

It is nonsensical and unfounded that Israel is an apartheid state.