Is Israel An Apartheid State?

fragmentation of the palestinian society and the dispossession of their lands are key pillars of israel's apartheid system to maintain domination and control but there's more the unequal structure of nationality and status restrictions on freedom of movement use of military rule denial of right to political participation or the right to peaceful protest and cruel separation of families all add to the complex system that we see today this video makes the heavy accusation that israel is in fact an apartheid state but is it true it's really important to get the bigger picture of the israeli-palestinian conflict and our five-minute video does just that maybe you've heard someone say that israel is an apartheid state that israel has a policy of segregating and oppressing the minority population within its borders like south africa once did maybe you've been so outraged by this information that you have considered joining the bds movement the effort to boycott divest and sanction israel until it ends its alleged racist policies i don't blame you apartheid is a great evil and deserves to be fought wherever we find it but here's the thing you won't find apartheid in the state of israel so i'll put it bluntly the bds movement is a slick propaganda effort built on lies i think i have the credibility to make this claim having grown up in south africa and having spent a fair amount of time in israel i know what apartheid is and what it is not my parents were raised and a real apartheid where blacks were by law separated from whites at every level from education to drinking fountains blacks couldn't vote couldn't own land couldn't live next to or use the same transportation system as whites i remember my father telling me about how my grandfather was kicked and humiliated in public by a young white boy all he was permitted to say was please stop little boss that was the world my family lived in that was the world of apartheid south africa but in israel the law is colorblind israeli arabs have the same rights as israeli jews they ride the same buses study in the same schools and are treated in the same hospitals arabs are elected to israel's parliament serve as judges and fight in the israeli military on my first trip to israel the group i was with had a jewish tour guide and an arab bus driver imagine our surprise having heard that israel is an apartheid state this would have been inconceivable in apartheid south africa all these things would be self-evident to anyone who did any kind of actual research or even better visited israel something i encourage everyone to do bds doesn't want you to research or visit israel it depends on the ignorance of its audience sadly on american college campuses bds has a significant presence it succeeds by playing on the good intentions of good people through deliberate deception in short they lie and lies really make me angry because lies empower evil lies about blacks empowered apartheid in south africa lies about jews made the holocaust possible and lies about israel um is leading a lot of good-hearted young people into opposing the only country in the entire middle east that doesn't segregate and oppress its minority population just ask the next egyptian copt or iraqi christian you meet on campus so the question people should really be asking is what does the bds movement want the answer is simple they want to destroy israel they can't do it militarily so they try to do it through lies they say that jews have no historic claim to israel lie they say that israel treats its arabs as second-class citizens lie they say that israel doesn't want peace with its arab neighbors lie if you tell lies and you tell them often enough people who don't know the truth start to believe them the bds movement's leaders barely tried to hide the charade they will lie and say that they only want a palestinian state living side by side with israel and then they say this we oppose a jewish state in any part of palestine ending the occupation doesn't mean anything if it doesn't mean upending the jewish state itself that's from omar bogoty a founder of bds bogoty lives in israel so you might expect that he said this from inside an israeli prison like nelson mandela during south africa apartheid you would be wrong bogoty is a phd student at israel's tel aviv university where he enjoys the same rights as every israeli my parents could only dream of that kind of freedom is israel a perfect country no there are as many perfect countries as they are perfect people but to call it an apartheid state is not only an insult to the only democracy in the middle east and the only country with equal rights for all its minorities it's also an insult to the actual victims of apartheid like my parents and all those who suffered under it i'm olga mishwa for prager university you