November 23, 2009
By Benyamin Solomon, Israel Insider journal
Israeli Apartheid Week [IAW] is one of the most poisonous propaganda events the world has ever seen. Here, I will totally discredit their about page. The quotes below are from the about page of IAW. You'll see my refutation below.

"Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events held in cities and campuses across the globe. The aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement."

What I respond with is that "IAW is an annual international series of" propaganda "events held in cities and campuses across the globe". Israeli Apartheid doesn't exist. Arabs and Jews go on the same buses, villages and schools. Apartheid is the Africaan word for separation and referred to the racist system in South Africa where the black majority was persecuted and treated as second-class citizens. In Apartheid South Africa, many black people rose up for their rights and were killed and massacred for it. In fact, there is all kinds of Apartheid systems in Middle Eastern countries [including the Palestinian Authority] excluding Israel; sexual Apartheid, gender Apartheid, religious Apartheid and racist Apartheid. As seen from the about page, IAW seeks to encourage a boycott of and divestment from tiny Israel, which just seeks to defend itself. So IAW is among the divestment movement that seeks to divest and boycott one of the only democracies in the Middle East. The irony is that these same idiots and propagandists from the divestment movement wine like little babies when it comes to the sanctions on the Hamas regime after their 2006 election victory in order to end their terrorism and to turn them into a movement willing to make peace with Israel. They wine that the Palestinians are being punished because Hamas was democratically-elected. Hey, Israel's leaders are also democratically elected, and unlike Hamas, they BEHAVE democratically.

"Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) took place in more than 40 cities across the globe. IAW 2009 happened in the wake of Israel's barbaric assault on the people of Gaza. Lectures, films, and actions made the point that these latest massacres further confirm the true nature of Israeli Apartheid. IAW 2009 continued to build and strengthen the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement at a global level."

Israel's "barbaric assault on the people of Gaza"? Do you mean Operation Cast Lead, where Israel, like always, sought to minimize the killing of civilians and where Hamas hid among civilians; in schools, hospitals, houses and mosques? No country would tolerate the rocket attacks Israel dealt with. For 8 years [it was 7 years when Israel launched Operation Cast Lead], the people in southern Israel dealt with rocket attacks on a daily basis. They increased as a result from the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, where Israel withdrew from all of Gaza and expelled every Jew. Operation Cast Lead was saying, "fEnough was enough" and was an attempt to stop the rocket attacks once and for all. It didn't go long enough. During Operation Cast Lead, Israel sent countless of flyers and telephone calls warning civilians to leave since Israel would bomb those areas. IAW is one of those rewarding Hamas and other rejectionist terrorist groups for hiding among civilians. Hamas and those other terrorist groups do it because they know that if Israel does respond, more innocent people are likely to die since they'll be in danger. And then all sorts of idiots in the west and propagandists will be saying that Israel acted "disproportionately" and would be denouncing Israel. IAW is among those who do that. While Israel tried to get the innocent civilians out of the area so they'll be spared while Israel launched her counter-terrorism operation, Hamas encouraged them to stay and got more innocent civilians into the area. Yet you see the propagandists and idiots from IAW completely silent about that. To them, only Israel is to blame. To them, these so-called massacres "confirm the true nature of Israeli Apartheid". IAW bragged that they "continued to build and strengthen the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement at a global level." So they continued to build and strengthen a movement that is silent when it comes to real human rights violations and which singles out only heroic democratic Israel for defending itself.

"Join us in making 2009 a year of struggle against apartheid and for justice, equality, and peace."

Joining you guys will be a great idea if you throw away the BS about Israeli Apartheid and instead focus on the real Apartheid and backwardness in the Arab and Islamic world. If you guys really care about the Palestinian people so much, then why not condemn Hamas's human rights violations? Why not condemn what Hamas does to people like Asma al-Ghoul? Why not call on Palestinian mobs and leaders to not lynch people suspected of collaborating with Israel or Homosexuals? Why not call for an end the death threats Palestinians face if they sell land to a Jew? Why not condemn the persecution Christians suffer from the Arab Muslim Supremacist Palestinian Authority and from the growing Islamo-Fascist influence, which is promoted by groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad? Why not call on Hamas and other terrorist groups to stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields after launching their barbaric terrorist attacks on Israel? Why not call for an actual democratic leadership that focuses on peace with Israel and on building a civil democratic society instead of the one Palestinians have, which is a leadership that chooses war and terrorism and which chose that for decades? The Palestinian leadership choosing war and terrorism against Israel deprived the Palestinian people of a democratic society that coexists peacefully with Israel. And why not protest against the terror regime of the Palestinian Authority and the Arab countries in choosing to keep the Arab refugees in dirty camps in order to manipulate people's emotions against Israel and to manipulate the refugees suffering in order to get more hatred of Israel among the refugees?
Also, if they truly fought for justice and against Apartheid, how about they protest against barbaric killings by Islamo-fascism? Why not protest against the lack of rights women and non-Muslims have in Arab countries and in countries ruled by Islamo-Fascist regimes? Why not protest against the honor killings, which isn't even treated like a serious crime in Arab and Muslim countries [as well as in the Palestinian Authority]? After all, honor killing victims are Arabs and Muslims themselves, as well as Palestinians. Is IAW really "making 2009 a year of struggle against apartheid and for justice, equality, and peace"? No. What IAW is doing is bashing Israel. Israel is not an Apartheid state and isn't running an Apartheid system. Israel's policies in the territories isn't coming from any racist ideology. What the Apartheid regime sought to do in Apartheid South Africa was to have white racist domination shoved down the throats of black South Africans. What Israel seeks to do is to protect her people [both Jews and Gentiles alike] from terror, whether they're in Israel proper or in the territories [the Israeli and Jewish victims of terror in the territories weren't just settlers, but also those who traveled through them]. So Israel's response is justified. Though it is true that it does cause inconveniences and frustrations to Palestinians. At the same time, Israel seeks to minimize those inconveniences and frustrations. It must be known that the Israeli only [not Jew only] roads, checkpoints and other restrictions didn't come about until the second intifada or were used in extreme cases. From 1967-Oslo, with perhaps an exception of the first intifada, resulted in the restrictions coming down. Israeli rule was pretty much the only time Palestinians got a taste of real freedom. Palestinians were able to develop the fourth fastest growing economy, had an expansion in the school system, illiteracy dropping and basic necessities becoming nearly universal. Since Palestinians had better access to health care [even access to Israeli hospitals even today]. And diseases were nearly, if not totally, eliminated. So Israeli policy actually saved Palestinian lives. This is very far from Apartheid. So IAW isn't fighting for justice or against Apartheid [if it were, it would protest against the barbaric policies of Islamo-Fascism, the Palestinian Authority and Arab and Muslim countries, as well as calling for democratic reforms]. Many Arab and Muslim reformers risk their lives and are imprisoned for courageously fighting for democracy. Look at what's happening in Iran right now. People are being shot just for demonstrating for democracy. And Iranian pro-democracy protesters themselves stated that Hamas was helping the Iranian regime to suppress the pro-democracy protests. Yet IAW is totally silent and chooses instead to bash the only true democracy in the region. Go read the Stand With US publications "Apartheid Today" and "Apartheid South Africa vs. Democratic Israel". You'll see who really has an Apartheid system and who doesn't.

What courageous Arabs say about Israeli Apartheid Week
"Do Israel's Arab citizens suffer from disadvantage? You better believe it. Do African Americans 10 minutes from the Berkeley campus suffer from disadvantage - you better believe it, too. So should we launch a Berkeley Apartheid Week, or should we seek real ways to better our societies and make opportunity more available."
-Ishmael Khaldi in his thought provoking eye-opening column "Lost in the blur"

"Here is an idea: Let’s substitute Israel Apartheid Week with Palestine Democracy Week, where Palestinians would be urged and encouraged to demand an end to financial corruption and bad government."
-Palestinian columnist Khaled Abu Toameh in his column "What does 'Pro-Palestinian' really mean"