In a report by Amnesty, published in 2009, it was stated that Israel

allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water

resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful
Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies(3) .Amnesty
International revealed the extent to which Israels discriminatory water
policies and practices are denying Palestinians their right to access
to water. Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the
mountain aquifers belonging to Palestinians.

Seeds of Apartheid within Zionism

The discrimination that the Israelis practice is the logical conclusion of
political Zionism. Racism is imbedded into Zionism. This meant that
Palestinians would suffer many forms of racism and discrimination.
Making the Palestinians disappear lay at the heart of the Zionist dream
and even more crucially it was also a necessary condition for its
realization. Leading Zionists knew very early that if there are other
inhabitants there (in Palestine) they must be transferred to some other place.
We must take over the land. (Menahem Ussishkin, Chairman of the
Jewish Agency 1930)
Zionism has tried to reconcile the irreconcilable, namely to create
a Jewish State in an area that was sparsely populated by Jews.
The necessary and unavoidable fact of creating a Jewish state in
Palestine was the expulsion, transfer and ethnic cleansing of the
indigenous Palestinians. Having gained a demographic majority, Israel
took every measure in its disposal, legal or otherwise, democratic or
otherwise, to maintain its Jewish majority.

We are easily be enticed to read reconciliation and fairness as meaning parity

between justice and injustice. Having achieved our own freedom, we can
fall into the trap of washing our hands of difficulties that others faces. Yet
we would be less than human if we did so. It behooves all South Africans,
themselves erstwhile beneficiaries of generous international support, to
stand up and be counted among those contributing actively to the cause of
freedom and justice. (Nelson Mandela)
As someone who lived in apartheid South Africa and who has visited
Palestine I say with confidence that Israel is an apartheid state. In fact,
I believe that some of Israels actions make the actions of South Africas
apartheid regime appear pale by comparison. (Willie Madisha)
But what is interesting is that every black South African that Ive
spoken to who has visited the Palestinian territory has been horrified and has
said without hesitation that the system that applies in Palestine is worse.
(Professor John Dugard, Former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights
in Occupied Palestine)
Apartheid Israel can be defeated, just as apartheid in South Africa was
defeated. (Winnie Mandela)
When I come here and see the situation [in the Palestinian territories],
I find that what is happening here is 10 times worse than what I had
experienced in South Africa. This is Apartheid. (Arun Ghandi)

1- http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupation/mandella.html
2- Speaking at a conference called Ending the Oppression in Boston, 2002. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/1957644.stm
3- http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/israel-rations-palestinians-trickle-water-20091027

Apartheid Wall

Israeli Zionism conflated ideas of race and religion to a

corrosive end. The Israeli regime is based on an extremely chauvinistic
notion of race and religious supremacy. The worst of both are
powerful forces within the Israeli regime. Modern and progressive
nation states are framed around the notion of civic nationalism and
religious pluralism, an idea that does not privilege one race over
the other, or one religion over another; where the state is a state
of its citizens and not a state for a particular ethnic or religious group.
Modern nation states formed through these corrosive ideals scarred
the 20th century, including in Germany and the South African
apartheid regime.

Apartheid against Palestinians

Apartheid is a crime against humanity.
Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their
liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross
racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically
incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians,
contrary to the rules of international law. It has,
in particular, waged a war against a civilian
population, in particular children.

Comparisons with the Apartheid regime in South Africa

Its unsurprising that many commentators have compared the apartheid
regime in Palestine with South Africa. Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu,
two towering figures in dismantling the South African Apartheid have
been extremely critical of Israeli. They have been joined by many of their
compatriots all pained by the human suffering which they experienced.
Below are some of their statements.
The temptation in our situation is to speak in muffled tones about an
issue such as the right of the people of Palestine to a state of their own.

The Palestinian Return Centre

100h Crown House, North Circular Road, London NW10 7PN, United Kingdom
Tel:+44 (0) 2084530919 Fax: +44 (0) 2084530994
www.prc.org.uk e: info@prc.org.uk

The Palestinian Return Centre

Apartheid against Palestinians

In 2003 Israel passed a National Entry Law which banned Palestinian

citizens of Israel who marry Palestinians from the Occupied Territory
from gaining residency status or citizenship.
There are as many as 100 unrecognized villages which the Israelis
have categorized as non residential and therefore illegal. With no official
status they are cut off from all services including gas and electricity.
Many are demolished and many more are threatened with demolition.

I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and

roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers
prevented us from moving about(2) (Desmond Tutu)

Definition of Apartheid

Israels Policy of Apartheid in the Occupied

Palestinian Territory (OPT) 1967

In 1973, after many decades of condemning the South African regime,

the UN General Assembly adopted the International Convention on
the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. This meant
agreeing on a clear description of the crime of apartheid.
The Apartheid Convention declares that apartheid is a crime against
humanity and that inhuman acts resulting from the policies and practices
of apartheid and similar policies and practices of racial segregation and
discrimination are international crimes. (Article 1)
The crime of apartheid which shall include similar policies and practices
of racial segregation and discrimination as practiced in southern Africa
as covering inhuman 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. (Article 2)
The convention lists the acts that fall within the ambit of the crime.These include
murder, torture, inhuman treatment and arbitrary arrest of members of
a racial group; deliberate imposition on a racial group of living conditions
calculated to cause its physical destruction; legislative measures that
discriminate in the political, social, economic and cultural fields; measures
that divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate
residential areas for racial groups; the prohibition of interracial marriages;
and the persecution of persons opposed to apartheid.

Israels Policy of Apartheid within 1948 Lands

As a Zionist state, the state of Israel, contrary to other states, regards itself
as a State of the Jewish people the majority of which is not concentrated
within its borders. The state is not therefore a state for its citizens, like
for example Britain, France or the USA. Moreover it is a state for all Jews
worldwide most of whom have no historical connection to the land.
Citizenship and Nationality in all democracies are interchangeable terms
but in Israel they have a very real ideological porpoise. All Israeli citizens
have equal rights in theory but only its Jewish citizens are nationals. There
is no such thing as Israeli nationality. At face value the discrimination is

not apparent in Israels unique relationship between the state and its citizens.
This however is part of a strategy to veil the apartheid system that exists
within Israel. Apartheid in 1948 lands exists in the following ways:
Following expulsion of Palestinians from their land Israel consolidated in
law the expulsion and dispossession which previously was carried out through
violence. Israel enacted several laws such as the Absentee property law
of 1950 and the 1953 law of acquisition which confiscated land belonging
to Palestinians for the benefit of Jews. All in all 30 laws were passed
that transferred land belonging to Palestinian citizens to state (Jewish)
Ownership.
There is an Israeli two - tier structure which discriminates against its non
Jewish citizens. A combination of quasi non- governmental organizations like
the Jewish National Fund (JNF), World Zionist Organization (WZO) and the
Jewish Agency (JA) and the body of laws in the state of Israel insures that
nearly all the land is used for the benefit of Jews only.The body created to
oversee the management of 93% of land in Israel is not a public body that
works for the benefit of all its citizens. The loyalty of the JNF, WZO, and JA are
to the Jewish people. The JNF as owners of the land does not have a duty to
protect the equality of all citizens.
Palestinians under the Israeli regime endured military rule for 20 years.
Under this regime they experienced pervasive intrusion into their freedom.
They were required to obtain travel permits, subjected to curfews and political arrests. While military rule ended in 1966 they are restricted from
purchasing land and many more are evicted due to the policy of so called
Judaization. Areas like the Negev which are sparsely populated by Jews
are populated with new Jewish settlements following expulsion of the native
inhabitants of the land.
Even in 2008 the Israeli government allocated only 4% of its budget to the
Palestinian communities even though they comprised 20% of the population.

Following its occupation of the remaining Palestine (West Bank,

East Jerusalem and Gaza) in 1967, Israel was confronted with a
different challenge. Without the opportunity to forcefully expel large
numbers of Palestinians, unfeasible in terms of Israels international
relations, Israel had to live with a massive Palestinian majority. In
order to maintain dominance over land and resource and in order to keep
Palestinians weak and fragmented, Israel needed to develop an
apartheid regime in the OPT. During the last 40 years Israel has integrated
the OPT with its pre 1967 territory through a matrix of control. It has used
the following mechanisms to enforce its apartheid regime and take
control of Palestinian territory.
Through various military orders designed to ease takeover of Palestinian
territory and property Israel has engaged in a massive colonization of
Palestinian Land.
Israel has continuously defied international law and built exclusive
Jewish settlements.
Integral parts of the apartheid regime are the bypass roads which
again are exclusive for Jewish use. The roads regime, which is based on
separation through discrimination, bears clear similarities with the racist
apartheid regime that existed in South Africa.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has illegally expropriated Arab land in East
Jerusalem for a rail line from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Although the rail runs
through Palestinian neighborhoods in the occupied territory, Palestinians
will be barred from using the network.
Checkpoints operate as an obstacle to Palestinian freedom and
movement. There are 637 checkpoints which belongs to a system which
is unwilling to give up the occupied territory of the West Bank.
In 2003 Israel constructed a separation wall which the International
Court of Justice in 2004 in a landmark stamen judged to be illegal. 75%
of the wall falls within Palestinian territory. The wall is a very powerful
sign of apartheid.