ISRAEL IS WORLD'S LAST APARTHEID STATE
By Wadi Muhaisen, Rocky Mountain News, 7/5/02
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86
_1247781,00.html
According to Israeli historian Benny Morris - a harsh critic of Yasser
Arafat - in 1948, the newly created state of Israel succeeded in
demolishing 385 of the 475 indigenous Palestinian towns and villages that
pre-dated the creation of the Jewish state.
Israel was unable, however, to forcibly expel or kill all the original
inhabitants of historic Palestine, and reluctantly granted those remaining
a form of "citizenship" (unlike the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza
living under Israeli military occupation for the last 35 years).
Nevertheless, the benefits of Israeli "citizenship" are not applied equally
and depend exclusively on one factor - one's religion.
Leader of the official opposition in Israel's parliament, Yossi Sarid, was
quoted in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz on April 23, 2002, commenting on
Israeli concern over the electoral successes of racist French leader
Jean-Marie Le Pen: "I don't know why people here are so disturbed when we
see the rise of a right-wing nationalist fascist in France and we aren't
disturbed when we see it happen in our country.
"The decision, for example, to cancel child allowances for Arabs in our
country is a Le Pen approach; but when we do it it's OK."
Consider unemployment services in the historically Arab city of Nazareth,
which is experiencing an influx of Jewish immigrants.
At the employment bureau, there are two lines for job seekers - one for
Jews and one for Palestinian Christians and Muslims…
Ironically, Israel's so-called "Law of Return" is what prevents Palestinian
Christian and Muslim refugees from ever returning to live in their
ancestral homes.
The fact that many of them still hold deeds to their family's homes, and
were never compensated for their theft, is completely irrelevant under
Israeli law.
These refugees are never allowed to live in the place of their birth and
the birth of their ancestors for one reason and one reason only - they are
not Jewish…
For the sake of regional stability and American values, it is time we use
our financial leverage with Israel to demand an end to its blatantly racist
apartheid system.
Wadi Muhaisen of Denver is an expert in international and comparative law,
and served as a legal adviser at the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
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