Jane Hirschmann’s parents fled Germany after Hitler came to power. Later Germany gave her father reparations for a lost business and granted Hirschmann and her children and grandchildren citizenship. “I wonder why the 750,000 Palestinians forced from their homes and land in 1948 when Israel was founded are not entitled to the same treatment my family received after WWII ended. But the war on Palestinians was never over. Instead, Israel continues to this day its policy of ethnic cleansing, as evidenced by the current expulsions in Sheikh Jarrah and other parts of East Jerusalem,” she writes.

“[T]he occupation is not temporary, and there is not the political will in the Israeli government to bring about its end,” write Alon Liel and Ilan Baruch. “It is time for the world to recognize that what we saw in South Africa decades ago is happening in the occupied Palestinian territories too… and take decisive diplomatic action… and work towards building a future of equality, dignity, and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”

An important difference between apartheid in South Africa and Israel is that South Africans openly embraced white supremacy as law and apartheid. In the case of Zionism, the untruth of inequality is anything but transparent. It has been disguised and denied by a relentless barrage of shifting alibis, exculpations, mitigations, as well as heavy demonization of critics.

Israel just wiped out entire families in Gaza in the name of apartheid. So this is not the time to tone down the “rhetoric” about Israel in the west. This is precisely the time to articulate these grave matters. These are not petty matters – these are crimes against humanity.

It is Israel and its supporters — not liberal celebrities, dissenting members of Congress, leftist and/or Muslim protesters, and student activist groups — that are responsible for not only carrying out a racial war of aggression against stateless refugees who are locked under its brutal and illegal rule, but of attempting to involve Jewish Diaspora communities in that racial war through lobbying efforts and crushing internal Jewish community dissent.

The “apartheid” accusation against Israel from leading human rights groups had a very serious intention: to change the western understanding of what is taking place in Israel. There is only one state between the river and the sea, the occupation is 54 years old and Israeli leaders have no intention of reversing it, so Israel must grant equal rights to all under its governance. But western media and liberal Zionists are determined to make the charge disappear, as they cling to the fantasy that there can still be a Palestinian state in the land east of the green line, and a “Jewish democracy” to the west.

Enabled by Human Rights Watch’s April finding, mainstream media figures are coming out and saying that Israel practices apartheid– lately Ali Velshi, John Oliver explain the Gaza onslaught by saying the a-word. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also said “Apartheid states are not democracies” over the weekend.

An update from Palestine as Israeli attacks continue and Norman Finkelstein talks about Human Rights Watch’s new apartheid report.

After B’Tselem’s ground-breaking reporting accusing Israel of practicing apartheid, Human Rights Watch follows suit. But have either credited the Palestinians who made the claim first?

Liberal Zionists Aaron David Miller, Daniel Kurtzer, and Eric Alterman are surely afraid that Israel will be ostracized in the manner that South Africa was due to the Human Rights Watch report finding the crime of apartheid. And their response is, Israel is nothing like South Africa, and cannot be ostracized.