Opinion

I know Israel practices apartheid because I helped enforce it

Rafael Silver left Israel because he could no longer be a part of a system that practices apartheid against the Palestinian people. "I have seen it in action with my own eyes," he writes. "I have enforced it during my military service in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip and supported it as an Israeli taxpayer."

I am a Jew.  I am an Israeli citizen.  I am a veteran of a combat unit in the Israeli army. I left Israel in 2001 and immigrated to Canada where I became a Canadian citizen because I felt that I could no longer be a part of a system that practices apartheid against the Palestinian people.  I do not use the word apartheid lightly but instead reluctantly.  I choose to use this word to describe the reality the Palestinian people have been enduring for generations because I have seen it in action with my own eyes.  I have enforced it during my military service in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip and supported it as an Israeli taxpayer.  

The separate roads for Jews that Palestinians in the West Bank are not allowed to use.  The granting of the full gamut of laws and protections of the Israeli state that are given to Jewish settlers in the West Bank yet denied to Palestinians who are living literally right next door. Living under military rule in the West Bank applies only to Palestinians.  This means that restrictions on travel, limited access to water, arbitrary arrest and detention of civilians, confiscation of land, demolition of homes, and the application of collective punishment are applied only to Palestinians and not to Jews. The frequent use of deadly force by Israeli security forces exclusively against Palestinian civilians is a regular occurrence. Even a basic human right recognized the world over, that of family reunification, is denied only to Palestinians. 

Rafael Silver
Rafael Silver (Photo courtesy of the author)

Even within Israel proper, the system of apartheid is baked into the structure of the state in almost every aspect of life.  I know because I have benefited from such an apartheid system within Israel as a Jewish citizen who enjoyed rights that were not afforded to Palestinian citizens of the same country. As a Jew born outside of Israel, I was granted citizenship on the day of my arrival in the country under the Law of Return which applies exclusively to Jews.  Palestinians who were driven from their lands during the wars of 1948 and 1967 have no such right to return.  Even Palestinian citizens of Israel cannot return to their villages that were destroyed as a result of those wars but instead must find housing elsewhere.  As a Jew, even if I am not a citizen, I am entitled to purchase housing anywhere within the state; however, a Palestinian citizen of Israel is not allowed to purchase real estate if it sits on land under the control of the Jewish National Fund. As a Jewish citizen of Israel, I am protected by law against discrimination — be it in housing, employment, or educational opportunities.  Palestinian citizens of Israel have no such protections.  As a member of the Jewish people, I have the full legal weight of the state behind me to allow me to express my collective national rights and expectations. Palestinian citizens of Israel have no such national or collective recognition.  Even my ancestral language, Hebrew, is recognized as the only official language in Israel.  Arabic, the language of the Palestinian people, is not.  

A system that applies separate laws and practices to one group of people yet denies it to another based solely upon ethnicity is apartheid by definition.  It was the case in South Africa in the past and it is the case in Israel today.  The first step to righting an historic wrong is to recognize the reality in front of us.  No society, no state can make a claim of supporting democracy and universal human rights where justice is denied to some while granted to others.  Israel is no exception to this rule.  

Independent Jewish Voices of Canada has recently initiated a public awareness campaign called Together Against Apartheid to inform and educate the Canadian public about the reality facing millions of Palestinians.  Only through increased awareness and broader knowledge about the systemic inequities and injustices facing Palestinians can Canadians begin to influence our government’s policies and actions.  I urge you to join this campaign as I have, in any capacity that you can.  Remaining silent is complicity and allows the discrimination, oppression and injustice to continue.  Raise your voice and make a difference.

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The point needs to be made clear that Israel’s discrimination is NOT based on ethnicity but on religion. Israel has no problem with any ethnicity, culture, nationality as long as the individual is a follower of Judaism, or, in the case of the Zionists, has some ancestor who was a follower of Judaism even if they no longer practice the religion.

We know this because in 1947, the newly created colonial State in Palestine, called Israel, offered immediate citizenship to all Arab Palestinian Jews, thereby demonstrating that being culturally Arab was not a problem, and neither was it a problem being Palestinian – the only problem was being a non-Jew.

This is the sole reason why Israel has failed to do what every other nation founded through the colonisation of someone else’s country has done – create one State shared equally by the indigenous people and the Israeli European colonists. If Canada, Australia, the US or any other nation founded through colonisation did to the indigenous people of the land they stole what Israel does to the Palestinians in the name of religious bigotry there would be outrage.

Quite why anyone, even in 1947 thought a State could be set up in Palestine which by its nature would always refuse to allow freedom, rights and justice to non-Jews, was ever going to work is the question. The Zionists, ironically atheists in the main, got away with it 74 years ago but the world has outgrown such primitive and racist concepts.

Time to end the fantasy that Jews need their own State when most do not, never did and never will live in UN Mandated Israel, and create one State shared by the Palestinians and their European colonisers. More so because, why would one religion in all of human history get the right to set up their own State? No religion has a right to homelands, self-determination or States and that includes Judaism. It always did include Judaism which is why the Zionists worked so hard to create the myth that Jews, remarkably, magically, were more than a religion and that an oxymoron like an atheist Jew could exist.

Time to end the Israeli colonial venture in the name of justice for the people of Palestine who have suffered long enough.

Most significant!
China denounces Israel’s illegal settlements and urges UN to focus on Palestine – Middle East Monitor
“China denounces Israel’s illegal settlements and urges UN to focus on Palestine”Middle East Monitor, March 24/22
“Israel’s ongoing illegal settlement expansion has been slammed by China during a UN briefing on the situation in Palestine. Beijing’s representative at the world body insisted that settlements are a violation of international law and urged the international community to support the Palestinian people.
“‘We call on Israel to halt the expansion of settlements, stop the eviction of Palestinians, stop the demolition of Palestinian homes, and create conditions for the development of Palestinian communities in the West Bank, as called for in [Security] Council Resolution 2334,’ said Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the UN.
“Adopted unanimously in 2016, Resolution 2334 states that Israel’s settlement activity constitutes a ‘flagrant violation’ of international law and has ‘no legal validity’. It demands that Israel should stop such activity and fulfil its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
“‘Settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory violate international law, disrupt the contiguity of the occupied Palestinian territory, squeeze the living space of the Palestinian people, and affect the prospects for achieving the two-state solution,’ continued Jun.
“The Chinese envoy also expressed concerns over the deterioration of security in Palestine and the plight of children. ‘The protection of children in conflict settings is not an empty slogan, but an unshakable moral responsibility and an international obligation that must be fulfilled. We call for a thorough investigation of the recent violence and for effective accountability.'”
“He also urged the international community to continue to help Palestine alleviate its fiscal crisis, improve its economy and people’s livelihood, and tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. Underscoring the need to keep the focus on Israel’s occupation, he stressed that the Palestinian question should not be marginalized, much less allowed to be pending for a long time.
“‘China will continue to work with the international community to make unremitting efforts and contribute China’s share to a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine,’ the envoy added.”

“Thank Only through increased awareness and broader knowledge about the systemic inequities and injustices facing Palestinians can Canadians begin to influence our government’s policies and actions.”
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Rafael Silver, thanks for your voice. The times they are a changing.

Circumstances are not however only a function of awareness and knowledge. Most Members of Congress have been educated over the years. Also, many Jews and Americans are informed yet don’t step up because Palestinians still suffer from a black hat image. Crafted by those who seek to deny their rights. Criticising political murders will turn a page and bring in needed allies, especially now living in one state is a foregone reality.

The separate roads for Jews…

I stopped reading right here. What more could be expected of someone who puts forward the “Jew Roads” canard.