Israeli Apartheid: More Than a Metaphor
By Leila Shebaro
Published: Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Israeli Apartheid Week is an annual series of events devoted to raising awareness about Israeli apartheid and furthering the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and international trade and financial sanctions. Many question our use of the term “apartheid,” but it is more than a catchy metaphor. It is a literal comparison.
“Apartheid” was broadly defined by the United Nations as a system of certain “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.”
For all the talk about the conflict and inequality between Israelis and Palestinians being about pride and religion, Israeli treatment of Palestinians is about one thing: racism — deeply ingrained, institutionalized and systematic.
Israel was founded on a process of “ethnic cleansing” known as the Nakba, which entailed the violent expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. In many cases, Jewish villages were built in their place. In many others, the land was left to simply grow into forests.
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