MICHELE ENGELBERG
The Weinbergs (Eli and his family) have indeed played a role in the anti-apartheid Struggle, but for a descendant of theirs to equate apartheid with Zionism is to show that he doesn’t know the meaning of at least one of those terms, because they are NOT the same.
As mentioned in a previous letter, apartheid in South Africa was a legal system, enforced by the government in which according to Wikipedia: “Non-white political representation was abolished in 1970, and starting in that year black people were deprived of their citizenship” which was also characterised by segregation, pass laws, forced removals, etc.
Apartheid was a racist system enforcing racial segregation.
There are no racially enforced laws in Israel. There are no benches reserved for a specific group of people. There are no separate toilets. Israeli Arabs, Jews, Christians, Druze, etc have equal votes, access to education, access to the same hospitals and medical care that all Israelis have access to, etc. People are not discriminated against based on their genetic make-up.
Therefore the accusation that Israel practises apartheid is false.
The procedures in place that affect Arabs living in the West Bank or Gaza are simply there to protect Israelis from terrorism. The security fence is not racist.. It is a matter of security. It has reduced the number of terror attacks by approximately 90 per cent.
Is it wrong for the Israeli government to protect Israeli lives? As witnessed by everyone the world over, when Israel left Gaza, the Gazans immediately destroyed infrastructure and sent rockets flying into Israel. Is it unreasonable for Israel to be apprehensive about removing all restrictions from the West Bank – which is much larger than the Gaza Strip?
How can Israel be criticised for doing things to protect itself? But only Israel is criticised. In fact, that is racism! To criticise an entity for doing exactly what other entities would do in the same situation is a double standard and therefore that is racism against Israel, also known as anti-Semitism.
To top it all off: “We hope… for justice in Palestine so we can all live together in peace.” Why is only “peace in Palestine” mentioned? What about peace in Israel? Or does the author of that letter not recognise Israel? And where is the peace partner?
