For most Americans, the word apartheid brings to mind the ruling white minority’s dominance and oppression of the majority black population in South Africa, which was characterized by segregation and racial inequality. Blacks were denied their basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, and the right to peaceful assembly.
Due in part to international pressure which included boycott and sanctions, apartheid in South Africa was brought to an end. But today the same system exists in Israeli occupied Palestine, where the majority Arab population, both Christian and Muslim, are segregated from the ruling Jewish minority.
Like the blacks of South Africa, Palestinians are denied the right to a nationality, freedom of movement and residence, and peaceful assembly. Their peaceful anti-apartheid demonstrations are met with violent military action and arrests. In the West Bank, they’re evicted from their homes which are bulldozed and replaced by Jewish-only neighborhoods that are walled off and serviced by roads accessible only to Israelis. The walls, roads and Jewish neighborhoods cut the Palestinians off from their families, farms, jobs, schools and hospitals. In addition, Palestinian neighborhoods receive inferior public services and significantly less water than Jewish neighborhoods.
Apartheid is a crime against humanity which the world will no longer tolerate. Starting March 1, the sixth International Israeli Apartheid Week takes place in more than 40 cities around the world. Israeli Apartheid Week features a series of events to educate people about Israel’s apartheid system and build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns designed to bring an end to their occupation of Palestine.
To learn more, visit the Apartheid Week website;
see the American Friends Service Committee website’s short video “Israel-Palestine: A Land in Fragments”
http://www.afsc.org/israel-palestine/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/76850
and read President Jimmy Carter’s book; “Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid” http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743285034/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0743285026&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1HPQBHKWJN7BCW3H3T67