As the event known as “Israel Apartheid Week” (IAW) kicks off, here are some resources to combat the antisemitic, Soviet-inspired slander that Israel is an apartheid state.
Here are three good pieces which came out today. Robbie Sabel has written a detailed paper published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs debunking the apartheid analogy. Richard (don’t confuse him with Roger!) Cohen has an incisive column in today’s Washington Post. And, in a searing editorial, Canada’s National Post points out that a motion condemning IAW has been unanimously passed in the Ontario provincial parliament (H/T: Robin Shepherd.)
Going further back in the archives, Z Word published a path-breaking essay by South African writers Rhoda Kadalie, a South African Human Rights Commissioner, and Julia Bertelsmann, which challenged the analogy from the perspective of those who directly experienced apartheid in South Africa. I also wrote a monograph for AJC entitled “The Ideological Foundations of the Boycott Campaign Against Israel,” much of which is devoted to exposing the the blatant falsehood that Israel is an apartheid state.
Finally, here’s another chance to see the film I produced last year, “Vilified: Telling Lies About Israel.” The falsehoods we uncovered here will doubtless be repeated at the various IAW events.
News from Britain’s Trades Union Congress (TUC): its annual conference is urging the British government to “a) condemn the Israeli military aggression and the continuing blockade of Gaza; (b) end arms sales to Israel which reached a value of £18.8 million in 2008, up from £7.7 million in 2007; (c) seek EU agreement to impose a ban on the importing of goods produced in the illegal settlements; and (d) support moves to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement which provides preferential trade facilities to Israel.”
This is a guest post by James Mendelsohn, who teaches Law at the University of Huddersfield in the UK.
Just to recap: Jonathan Hoffman wrote a review of Ben White’s book Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide here. Ben White responded here. Hoffman’s rejoinder to White’s response is available here. (Strangely, Jews for Justice for Palestinians seem to have overlooked Hoffman’s rejoinder, but that’s another story.)
Ben Cohen writes: This is a guest post by Jonathan Hoffman. Keen-eyed readers will spot that he links to Ben White’s blog; as a guest writer here, that’s his prerogative. However, the comments policy outlined in my brief post of yesterday, Chutzpah, still stands. Meanwhile, readers wading through accusations of censorship on this blog are referred to this post on Seismic Shock, which elegantly summarizes the situation.
On Z Word last week, I reviewed a new book by Ben White, ‘Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide’.
Earlier today, the unctuous Ben White attempted to leave a comment on Jonathan Hoffman’s piece below. Now, as some of the anti-Zionist nonsense underneath Jonathan’s piece attests, we try to allow a range of comments on this blog. But Ben White? No. While you’ve got to grin at his sheer chutzpah, White needs to understand that the ban on Jonathan Hoffman attending the launch of his ridiculous excuse for a book means that he is, as a direct consequence, not welcome here.
Ben Cohen writes: What follows is an in-depth article by Jonathan Hoffman unraveling the tissue of lies that is “Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide,” by the anti-Zionist propagandist Ben White. Z Word readers should note that Jonathan has been banned from attending a launch for White’s screed hosted by sham British “charity” War on Want.
In November 2008, Z Word published an important article by Anthony Julius. Entitled “False Confessions: How Anti-Zionists Incriminate Zionism”, it points out that doctored quotations are rife in the Israel bashing world: “We are now in the fifth stage. Incriminatory quotations are a staple of anti-Zionism. These quotations are partly the old ones, mostly updated by substituting “Zionist” for “Jew,” and partly new ones. They are a mix of fabricated quotations (including fictitious endorsements from prominent figures such as Nelson Mandela), and genuine quotations that are given undue weight. These quotations serve as substitutes for reasoned argument.” It seems that Julius had had a preview (premonition, more accurately) of this book.
This guest post by Felice Gaer, executive director of the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, was published by JTA. Gaer was a member of the official U.S. delegation at the Durban review negotiations in Geneva in February.
In all the deliberations over the U.N.-sponsored Durban Review Conference on Racism, the one abiding concern has been that the infamous first conference in Durban, South Africa, in August 2001, which degenerated into a cacophony of Israel baiting and outright antisemitism, will be repeated next month in Geneva.
Our old friend Bongani Masuku, the international relations secretary of the South African trade union confederation COSATU, has been in action again at Wits University.
Michael Ignatieff, leader of Canada’s Liberal Party and the author of several books on international politics and human rights (including the highly recommended Virtual War), has written an op-ed for the National Post slamming Israel Apartheid Week.
This article by Israeli diplomat Ishmael Khaldi appears in the Open Forum section of the San Francisco Chronicle.
For those who haven’t heard, the first week in March has been designated as Israel Apartheid Week by activists who are either ill intentioned or misinformed. On American campuses, organizing committees are planning happenings to once again castigate Israel as the lone responsible party for all that maligns the Middle East.
In the wake of the conflict in Gaza, David Stavrou, a freelance Israeli journalist based in Sweden, has written a piece which shows how current Swedish antisemitism - driven by the left but also embedded in the mainstream, and dominated by demands for solidarity with the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah - replicates what we are seeing in many other countries.
Globes, the Israeli business daily, reports that the Histadrut trade union intends to ask the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) for assistance with the planned boycott of Israeli ships by dockers in South Africa. “The union in South Africa is against anything connected to Israel, and in the past even objected to a cooperation agreement we signed with the Palestinian transport workers union,” the paper quotes Transport Workers Union chairman Avi Edri as saying.
“The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa,” writes Naomi Klein. Hers is a monstrous and monumentally stupid argument; it was also inevitable that someone like Klein would make it and that a rag like The Nation would publish it. Read David Hirsh’s expert dissection here.
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