Meretz MK Moshe Raz provided legitimacy to a conference aimed at delegitimizing and demonizing Israel in the Knesset, Tuesday.
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Also in attendance were individuals with fanatical views, the smug and arrogant representatives of human-rights organizations like Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Yesh Din: Volunteers for Human Rights, and Breaking the Silence. They read aloud data from dry reports about the activities of either Israeli security forces or the government in the territories, which they referred to as "apartheid."
"The charge that Israel is an apartheid state is a false and malicious one that precludes, rather than promotes, peace and harmony," wrote none other than former judge Richard Goldstone on describing Israel as an apartheid state in The New York Times on Oct. 31, 2011. "In Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute."
"As long as Israel's citizens remain under threat of attacks from the West Bank and Gaza, Israel will see roadblocks and similar measures as necessary for self-defense, even as Palestinians feel oppressed," Goldstone wrote,
He continued: "The mutual recognition and protection of the human dignity of all people is indispensable to bringing an end to hatred and anger. The charge that Israel is an apartheid state is a false and malicious one that precludes, rather than promotes, peace and harmony."
Joint Arab List MK Aida Touma-Suleiman, who hosted the conference, claimed right-wing hegemony and the end of the two-state solution had led many to conclude the term "occupation" was no longer appropriate.
"The racism and the practices adopted in the territories are flowing into the state's borders," she said. "The goal: to carry out creeping annexation – that is creeping apartheid," she said.
After all, as long as there is one Jew with rights in the Land of Israel, there will be apartheid, am I right? The fact is that Israel is a free and democratic country, something the conference itself is a testament to, yet every single accusation is flung at the state: colonialism, racism, apartheid, etc. The goal is for there to be a large portion of the country where no Jew can set foot.
It seems Israelis needed to be free of any feelings of guilt or self-flagellation, following the series of wars aimed at putting an end to the state's existence since 1948. The correct response to Touma-Suleiman's and Raz's initiative would be to say: Little propagandists, we know exactly what kind of dirty wares you are peddling.
While serving as Foreign Ministry Director-General five years ago, Dore Gold headed an official delegation to South Africa that saw the two countries sign a series of bilateral accords.
"No one said we were an apartheid state," Gold said in response to Tuesday's conference. "There are those who claim it, but the fact is it wasn't said at any opportunity, and we were a high-ranking delegation."
Had they believed Israel was an apartheid state, they probably wouldn't have been willing to welcome the delegation and maintain ties.
"Unfortunately, there are Israelis who are joining this party," Gold said. "And there is nothing that boils my blood more than this accusation."
According to Gold, even Robert L. Bernstein, one of the founders of Human Rights Watch, whose representative Omar Shakir spoke at the conference via Zoom, "has long rejected their work. He has serious reservations about them."
The use of the term "apartheid" to demonize Israel began with Soviet propaganda following the 1967 Six-Day War, and in particular Yuri Ivanov's book "Caution: Zionism!" Just like with those infamous protocols of the elders of Zion, this lie also refuses to die.
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