Is Israel an Apartheid State?

On February 1, 2022, Amnesty International published a report accusing Israel of apartheid against Palestinians. “The investigation details how Israel enforces a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people wherever it has control over their rights. This includes Palestinians living in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as displaced refugees in other countries,” according to Amnesty.org.[1]

A few months prior, on September 22, 2021, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) held a conference commemorating the twentieth anniversary of its 2001 conference against racism held in Durban, South Africa. The conference, called the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, likewise accused Israel of apartheid and equated Zionism to racism. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said the conference “was intended to fight racism, but in reality it did the exact opposite, encouraging hate and antisemitism.” [2] For this reason, the United States and thirty-three other countries skipped this year’s commemorative session.[3]

In this article, we will unpack the claims that Zionism is racism and Israel is an apartheid state. First, we will look at the definitions of Zionism, racism, and apartheid. Then we will examine Israel’s actions and laws in light of these definitions to show why we believe Zionism does not constitute racism and why Israel does not practice apartheid.

Definition of Zionism

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Zionism is “an international movement originally for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine and later for the support of modern Israel.”[4] The Jewish Virtual Library defines Zionism as “the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, which holds that Jews, like any other nation, are entitled to a homeland.”[5]

Before 1948, Zionism remained a dream in the hearts of Jewish people around the world—especially those facing persecution in Europe. That dream began to become a reality in 1922 when the League of Nations adopted the Mandate for Palestine, a legal document establishing the basis for a Jewish nation to be built in the region of Palestine. Soon afterward, Great Britain created an Arab state, called Transjordan (modern-day Jordan), on 78 percent of the region of Palestine. In 1947, the United Nations put forth a resolution to divide the remaining 22 percent of land into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Arabs rejected the resolution, and the Jewish people accepted it, declaring national independence in May 1948.[6]

Thus Zionism—the dream of creating a nation for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland—became a reality, and the modern definition of Zionism morphed into the notion of supporting Israel’s right to exist. Does Israel’s existence, then, lead to racism and the charge of apartheid?

Definitions of Racism and Apartheid

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines racism as both “a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” and “the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another.”[7] The latter definition is akin to apartheid, an accusation that some bring against Israel for its treatment of Palestinians.

The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid defines apartheid as “inhumane acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.”[8] Thus, apartheid constitutes government-instituted oppression against its citizens based on race, as was the case with South Africa’s racist policies against its non-white citizens from 1948 to 1994.[9]

So, is Zionism—supporting Israel’s right to exist within its borders—a form of racism? The answer depends on whether the charge of apartheid is true. If the Israeli government systemically oppresses some of its citizens based on race, then Israel is a racist nation, and supporting Israel’s right to exist (Zionism) might be akin to racism. Therefore, the next question we must ask is, “How does Israel treat its citizens of different races?”

Israel’s Racial Diversity

Israel’s Declaration of Independence states that “THE STATE OF ISRAEL [sic] will…ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.”[10] Here, in Israel’s founding document, we see a legal precedent for fair treatment of all citizens, regardless of race, religion, or sex.

After Israel’s founding, these words became a reality for Jewish people of many different races fleeing persecution. Jewish people from Europe, the Soviet Union, the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, Ethiopia, and more fled to Israel for freedom from oppression because of their ethnicity and religion, joining the indigenous Jewish and Arab populations that lived in the land for thousands of years. Thus, Israel became “one of the most diverse countries in the world with over half of its population being from Africa, India, and other areas of the Middle East.”[11]

Israel is made up of more than four million Jewish men, women, and children—both dark- and light-skinned—from more than 100 countries and about one million Muslim and Christian Arabs, Druze, Baha’is, Circassians, and other ethnic groups.[12] In fact, the majority of Jewish people in Israel today are Mizrahi, descendants from Middle Eastern or North African countries. Only about 30 percent of Israel’s Jewish population are Ashkenazi, of white European Jewish descent.[13] As one Israeli Mizrahi wrote,

I believe their [those accusing Israel of apartheid] misrepresentations are part of a strategic campaign to taint Israel as an extension of privileged and powerful white Europe, thereby justifying any and all attacks on it. This way of thinking signals a dangerous trend that positions Israel as a colonialist aggressor rather than a haven for those fleeing oppression….Any erasure of the Mizrahi experience negates the lives of 850,000 Jewish refugees [expelled from Arab countries in the wake of Israel’s independence] just like them, who…were treated as “dhimmis,” [non-Muslim, second-class citizens forced to pay an extra tax in order to live in Muslim countries]…Demographic ignorance also works to deny the existence of almost 200,000 descendants of Ethiopian Jews who were threatened by political destabilization in the early 1990s and airlifted to Israel in a daring rescue operation.[14]

Although no country is perfect, Israel—as the only democracy in the Middle East—grants all its citizens, regardless of race, religion, gender, and even sexual orientation, equal rights. Sixty-five percent of Israel’s Arab citizens chose to vote in Israel’s 2020 election; Arab politicians make up the third most powerful coalition in Israel’s legislative branch; an Arab political party currently serves as part of Israel’s governing coalition; and Arabs have served in cabinet positions and on Israel’s Supreme Court.[15] In fact, Arabs in Israel, especially Arab women, enjoy far more civil liberties in Israel than in any Arab country. As one Jewish writer put it, “To call Israel—with its Arab justices, parliamentarians, diplomats, academics and business leaders—an apartheid state is to not know the meaning of apartheid.”[16]

Even Arab citizens in Israel prefer to live under Israeli rule rather than under Palestinian leadership, as indicated by a 2021 poll conducted by the Palestine News Network. The network surveyed 1,200 Arab (Palestinian) residents of East Jerusalem asking whether they preferred Israeli or Palestinian Authority rule over Jerusalem. The results were telling: 93 percent (1,116 residents) said they preferred Israeli rule. Eighty-four residents said they preferred Palestinian Authority governance, while maintaining their Israeli identity cards; and only five residents said they would choose Palestinian Authority identity cards.[17]

Responding to Amnesty International’s accusation of Israeli apartheid, one Arab Israeli citizen, Yoseph Hadad, put it this way:

What about Israeli Arabs like me? We live under the democratically elected government of Israel with equal rights like any Jewish citizen. No matter how many times Amnesty International tries to erase my identity for trying to advance their political agenda, that doesn’t make it the truth. . . . Instead of promoting cooperation and a vision for a better future, organizations like Amnesty International delegitimize the only democratic state in the Middle East.[18]

Responding to the report as an Israeli Jewish human rights activist, Hananya Naftali wrote, “Amnesty International will probably never report on the real apartheid against Israelis. While Palestinians can freely enter Israel with the proper documents, I, an Israeli Jew, am banned from entering Gaza or other Palestinian cities.”[19]

The West Bank and Gaza

Now, let us address the elephant in the room: What about Arabs in the Palestinian territories? Is Israel committing apartheid against them?

First, let us examine the legal status of the territories by revisiting the brief history discussed earlier. In 1922, the League of Nations legalized the creation of a Jewish state in the region of Palestine (modern-day Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza). Then, 78 percent of the region became the Arab state of Jordan. In 1947, the United Nations resolved to partition the remaining 22 percent of the region into an Arab state and a Jewish state. The Jewish people accepted the resolution, and the Arabs rejected it, not wanting the creation of a Jewish state. Soon afterward, five Arab armies surrounded the new Jewish nation to attack it, violating the prohibition of wars of aggression.

After this 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip, and Jordan occupied the West Bank until Israel regained control over the territories in 1967 after another war of self-defense. Since then, Israel has chosen to govern the West Bank and Gaza in accordance with the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC).

Under the LOAC, Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank are not citizens of Israel, so they are not governed under domestic Israeli law. The Palestinian territories have their own governing authorities. Israel, under the LOAC, has enacted certain security measures to protect its Jewish and Arab citizens against repeated rocket attacks, suicide bombings, shootings, knife attacks, etc. coming from the Palestinian territories. Israel is legally allowed and obligated to take such security measures under the LOAC. Such measures cannot be categorized as apartheid since Arabs within the territories are not Israeli citizens, the measures are legal under the LOAC, and Israel treats its Arab citizens equally, revealing its military measures in the territories are not racially motivated but security motivated.[20]

In conclusion, we believe Israel—with all its faults and failures—is not a racist regime carrying out apartheid and that to be a Zionist—to support Israel’s right to exist—is not akin to racism. In the words of the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King, who knew something about racism, “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.”[21]

by Jennifer Miles

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[1] “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity,” Amnesty International, February 1, 2022, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/.

[2] Caitlin Hu, “The United Nations held a major meeting on race. Why the US and the UK skipped it,” CNN, September 23, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/23/americas/durban-unga-us-uk-intl-latam/index.html

[3] “34 countries shun UN’s commemoration of controversial Durban Conference,” Times of Israel, September 22, 2021, https://www.timesofisrael.com/34-countries-shun-uns-commemoration-of-controversial-durban-conference/

[4] Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “Zionism,” accessed October 26, 2021, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Zionism.

[5] “Zionism: Is Zionism Racism?” Jewish Virtual Library, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/is-zionism-racism

[6] “Apartheid or Antisemitism?” American Center for Law and Justice, accessed October 21, 2021, http://media.aclj.org/pdf/Apartheid-or-Antisemitism—Detailed-Analysis.pdf

[7] Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “racism,” accessed October 26, 2021, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism.

[8] International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid art. II, 30 Nov. 1973, 1015 U.N.T.S. 243 as cited in “Apartheid or Antisemitism?” American Center for Law and Justice, accessed October 21, 2021, http://media.aclj.org/pdf/Apartheid-or-Antisemitism—Detailed-Analysis.pdf

[9] Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “apartheid,” accessed October 26, 2021, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apartheid.

[10] “The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 14, 1948, https://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/declaration%20of%20establishment%20of%20state%20of%20israel.aspx.

[11] “Zionism is racism,” American Jewish Committee, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/Zionism-is-racism

[12] “Zionism: Is Zionism Racism?” Jewish Virtual Library, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/is-zionism-racism

[13] Hen Mazzig, “Op-Ed: No, Israel isn’t a country of privileged and powerful white Europeans,” Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-mazzig-mizrahi-jews-israel-20190520-story.html

[14] Ibid.

[15] Shaheryar Gill, “U.N. Targets Israel: Apartheid or Antisemitism?” American Center for Law and Justice, September 22, 2021, https://aclj.org/israel/un-targets-israel-apartheid-or-antisemitism

[16] David J. Michaels, “Importance of fighting the ‘Zionism is racism’ smear,” Jerusalem Post, June 2, 2021, https://www.jpost.com/opinion/importance-of-fighting-the-zionism-is-racism-smear-669934

[17] “Poll: 93 percent of eastern Jersualem Arabs prefer Israeli rule,” JNS, December 14, 2021, https://www.jns.org/poll-93-percent-of-arabs-prefer-israeli-rule-in-jerusalem/.

[18] Yoseph Hadad, “Amnesty tries to distort my Arab identity and dismantle Israel—opinion,” Jerusalem Post, February 7, 2022, https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-695337.

[19] Hananya Naftali, “The biggest lie of the deacade—opinion,” Jerusalem Post, February 20, 2022, https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-695895.

[20] “Apartheid or Antisemitism?” American Center for Law and Justice, accessed October 21, 2021, http://media.aclj.org/pdf/Apartheid-or-Antisemitism—Detailed-Analysis.pdf

[21] “Zionism: Is Zionism Racism?” Jewish Virtual Library, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/is-zionism-racism