February 23, 2009

New article on ‘apartheid’ submitted, accepted for GH website

Following repeat accusations of Israeli 'apartheid' by columnists John Minto and Matt McCarten, a KBRM article was prepared and submitted to major newspapers. The article was accepted by the Gisborne Herald for its website and was also used as the basis for KBRM ad #4.

Apartheid: The missing truth
The most integrated country in the Mideast is... Israel

By Rodney Brooks and Michael Kuttner

Israel has often been accused of apartheid by people ranging from New Zealand columnists John Minto and Matt McCarten to US ex-President Jimmy Carter. Before you accept their conclusion, however, please consider the following facts that are missing from the usual accounts.

Definition. The term apartheid arose in South Africa where Blacks were stripped of their citizenship and denied voting rights, where medical care, education, and other government services were segregated with those provided for Blacks generally inferior. In 1973 the United Nations defined apartheid as a crime in which one racial group systematically oppresses another by denying them the right to life and liberty, imposing living conditions designed to cause their physical destruction, enacting legislation to prevent their participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country, etc. Let us see how this definition applies to Israel.

Israel. In Israel all citizens, including 1.4 million Israeli Arabs, have equal rights and the right to vote. There are Arab members of the Knesset (Israel's Parliament), there is an Arab Cabinet Minister, and there are Arab Israelis in the diplomatic service. There is an Arab High Court Judge and other Arab judges in the lower courts. Arabs peacefully walk the streets anywhere in Israel, mingling with Jews and Christians. Arab citizens of Israel enjoy the same governmental services as Jewish citizens and attend the same universities where they freely mix with the Jewish students. There is no bar to a higher education or entry to professions such as the Law and medicine. The only‘right’ that Arabs do not share in full with Jewish citizens is that they are exempt from compulsory military service. The most telling fact of all is that, according to polls, most Israeli Arabs would rather remain in Israel than become part of a Palestinian state.

A KBRM member from Auckland who emigrated to Israel writes, ‘I have driven with Arab taxi drivers on numerous occasions and engaged in conversations which soon reveal that they definitely appreciate the fact that they live and work in a country in which they feel secure in every respect. I, as a Jewish Israeli, have no problem taking a taxi ride with an Arab Israeli driver, but if I tried to do the same in Bethlehem or Ramallah [cities in the West Bank under Palestinian control] I would be lynched. Working in a hospital I have witnessed first hand how every citizen, regardless of their ethnic origin or religion, is accorded full respect and treated equally. Arab Israelis are employed in our hospitals and are represented in all fields, including surgeons and nurses. 75% of children receiving kidney dialysis at Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem are Arab children. There are facilities provided for their religious requirements.’

This is not to say that the lot of Arabs in Israel is ideal, or that Israel is a completely homogenized society, anymore than are most Western nations (including New Zealand). Residential segregation exists, with Jews generally living in Jewish communities and Arabs in Arab communities. Another KBRM member who lives in Karmiel writes, ‘Karmiel, a city in the Galilee, is surrounded by some suburbs and exurbs with an exclusively Jewish residential population, and also surrounded by many Arab communities where Jewish families do not live. Although residing elsewhere, Arabs are part of the daily life in Karmiel. Arabs and Jews operate businesses in and around Karmiel and move freely together around the city. Karmiel is an integrated community. Is there anything wrong with people who share a common language and culture living together in a homogeneous social community without racial or ethnic strife? It is commonplace throughout the rest of the world, and it is not called ‘apartheid’.’

Other countries. With Israel under constant attack by Arab terrorist groups and with an Arab government in Gaza that wants to drive Israel into the sea, the loyalty of Arab citizens became badly stretched. (This is the reason that Israeli Arabs are exempt from compulsory military service.) It is instructive, therefore, to compare the treatment of Arabs in Israel with the way ‘enemy aliens’ were treated in other countries during a time of war. During both World Wars, most major countries interned its enemy aliens. During WWII, New Zealanders of Japanese, German and Italian descent, including citizens, were interned on Somes Island. Yet no one accused New Zealand of apartheid. Only Israel, whose ‘enemy aliens’ walk the streets with full rights, is so accused.

Gaza. The situation in Gaza is quite different. In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza and evacuated the Jewish villages that were there. Since then there has been no Israeli presence or interference, so ipso facto, there is no apartheid, at least not on the part of Israel. However, the present Hamas government of Gaza has a zero-Jew policy, and any Jews found there would surely be captured or killed. When one compares this with the 1.4 million Arabs who enjoy equal rights in Israel, one can only wonder which side is guilty of apartheid.

The factors cited to justify the claim are the measures imposed when Hamas came to power in 2007, with its open intention and history of trying to destroy Israel — specifically the border restrictions and partial blockade. But how many governments would open their borders to a people who are bent on its destruction? This is not apartheid, it is border security, as practiced by many countries, including New Zealand. Despite the border closure, many Gazans (including children) have been admitted to Israeli hospitals for life saving treatment, with no payment. As for the blockade, it is the first measure recommended by the UN to deter aggression, and has been used by other countries. For example, the US blockade of Cuba was successful in obtaining the removal of Russian missiles from the island. Yet, despite the partial blockade, Israel continues to provide water and power and access to humanitarian aid.

West Bank. Since the Oslo Accords of 1993, Palestinians living in West Bank cities outside of Jerusalem have been under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, not Israel, and the laws are made by Palestinians. However there are Israeli-manned check points and there is a security barrier along the border. While the location of both checkpoints and security barrier is a matter of some dispute, the reason for them is beyond dispute. They are there to stop Palestinians from killing Jews, not to oppress another racial group, or to deny them the right to life and liberty, or to cause their physical destruction. They were installed after a number of suicide bombing attacks had killed hundreds of Israeli citizens, and they would be removed if the need for them disappeared.

Every day 5 million travellers pass through airport checkpoints, experiencing delays that sometimes run into hours. They submit willingly because they know of the danger posed by terrorists, even though the number of actual attacks on airlines has been (thankfully) very small. Yet Israel, which has endured countless terrorist attacks that killed and injured thousands of its citizens, is accused of ‘apartheid’. because it does the same thing. A similar situation exists in regard to the security barrier. While the location of the fence, which is located entirely on the West Bank side, is not beyond criticism, the fence was installed for one purpose and one purpose only: to keep out suicide bombers. It is not there to oppress or destroy the Arab population, and it would come down if the threat of attacks were to disappear.

As with Gaza, the only apartheid in the West Bank is in the other direction. The Palestinian Authority government, like the Hamas government in Gaza, is not. The Jewish villages or settlements in the West Bank are not well-tolerated, to put it mildly, and would be driven out if protection was not provided by Israeli forces.

Conclusion. These facts (and they are facts) show that Israel is one of the most integrated, multi-cultural, tolerant societies in the world with equal rights for all, notwithstanding the hostile circumstances it is in. Its record shines out like a beacon of fairness, compared with the nations around it. One can only wonder about the motives of those who, knowing these facts, accuse Israel of apartheid.

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Dr. Brooks is a retired physicist from the US National Institutes of Health who lives in New Zealand, where he is chairman of Kiwis for Balanced Reporting on the Mideast (kbrm.org.nz). Michael Kuttner is a Wellingtonian who now lives in Israel and who has written a number of Israel-related articles for NZ newspapers.