THE APARTHEID PARADIGM: HOW DOES IT APPLY TO PALESTINE-ISRAEL?

Naim Ateek: Boston, MA, October 26, 2007

In the name of Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem and FOS in North America, I would like to welcome you to this weekend conference. Five years ago, under the leadership of the Rev. Canon Richard Toll, coordinator of Friends of Sabeel in the US and a wonderful team of friends in the Boston area, we were able to launch our regional Friends of Sabeel meetings in the United States. It all started in this very UCC Church when Archbishop Desmond Tutu was our keynote speaker.

I would like to recognize with gratitude to God the courage of the Rev. Nancy Taylor, minister of Old South Church, and the Governing Council for allowing us the use of this church and for welcoming us so warmly. I am thankful and proud of our partnership with the United Church of Christ. Being conscious of the difficulties that have confronted us, the words of the letter to Timothy come to mind, “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Since then we have had 21 regional conferences throughout this country. In every one of these meetings, we have lifted the prophetic voice of justice and peace. We believe that it is God’s mandate for every one of us to cry out whenever injustice is done and whenever God’s children are oppressed. In every one of these conferences, we have condemned the injustice and oppression of the Israeli occupation. It is evil and it must end. In every conference, we have condemned violence and terrorism whether coming from the government of Israel and its army or from extremist Palestinian groups. At the same time, we always declared that peace is knocking at our doors. We believe that Israel can enjoy peace and security if and when it takes a good look at itself, recognizes the grave injustice it has committed against the Palestinians and implements international law. We believe that it is possible for Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace side by side. To this end we strive and work.

Tragically, the government of Israel is not listening to the voice of peace and reason. It is important to emphasize that the conflict is no longer between Israel and the Palestinians. It is between the forces of peace and justice in Israel and Palestine and those of violence and domination. We are working together as Palestinians and Israelis, as Jews, Muslims, and Christians that are on one side, the side of justice and international law, and against all those who are on the side of oppression and domination.

Today, the government of Israel is guided by a blind obsession for Palestinian land and by a deep desire to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians and force them to leave the territory. What our people are experiencing is not mere occupation; it is now suppression and de-humanization. In other words, the racism of the government of Israel has become more obviously clear. That is why for quite some time, even Israeli Jewish writers have been using the word apartheid to describe what Israel is doing.

As an example one can cite a recent interview in Ha’aretz with Haggai Alon, who was a senior adviser to Amer Peretz at the Ministry of Defense. Alon described his job as ensuring that the official statements made by the Israeli government regarding its policy toward the Palestinians was in fact implemented. The article quotes Alon saying: The IDF is setting a route for the fence that will not enable the establishment of a Palestinian state and is allowing itself to evade High Court orders to change the route. He claims that the [Israeli] army ‘is carrying out an apartheid policy’ which is emptying Hebron of Arabs, setting up roadblocks without anyone knowing where and how many, Judaizing the Jordan Valley, and cooperating openly and blatantly with the settlers.

President Carter did not haphazardly use the word apartheid in the title of his book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid I am sure he was under pressure to change it. But he chose to keep it because he knew what was happening on the ground under the Israeli occupation.

For some time now, I have been advocating the use of a Hebrew word as a way of describing the Israeli form of apartheid. The word “hafrada” is already used in Israel to indicate the separation desired by the government of Israel and others. In fact, in the Israeli media the wall is referred to as the “hafrada” barrier, i.e. the separation barrier, not the security barrier as it is often referred to in the West. The Israeli public, therefore, is self-identifying a policy of separation. In Afrikaans, the word apartheid literally means separation, though in South Africa it eventually acquired a more sinister and racist connotation. “Hafrada” – separation, today expresses racism in the minds and lives of many Israeli Jews towards Palestinians and Arabs. Already hafrada is conjuring up racist attitudes and not simply a desire for separation.
During the last 40 years, we have had a number of visitors from South Africa including Archbishop Tutu and many others. While witnessing life under occupation, most of them have commented that what they saw in Palestine was far worse than what they experienced under apartheid. One such South African human rights expert, who you will be hearing from shortly, John Dugard, has said: Many aspects of Israel’s occupation surpass those of the apartheid regime. Israel’s large-scale destruction of Palestinian homes, leveling of agricultural lands, military incursions and targeted assassination of Palestinians far exceeded any similar practices in apartheid South Africa. No wall was ever built to separate blacks and whites.

Though many have called the Israeli Occupation worse than the apartheid regime, we are not here to quantify suffering, but to learn and understand what is happening, to confront racism and to seek a strategy that can dismantle it through nonviolent means.

Jeff Halper argues that the word hafrada is inadequate. He has suggested to me the word “nishool” which means dispossession in Hebrew. He believes that Israel’s form of racism goes beyond apartheid because its objective is the total dispossession of the Palestinian people. I would like to suggest using both words. What is going on in the Occupied Territories today is both hafrada and nishool: both separation and dispossession.

From my perspective of faith, this racism and all forms of racism are a crime against God and against our fellow human beings. As apartheid ended in South Africa, so must the hafrada and nishool which have been hoisted upon the Palestinians. The God of justice and peace, the God of mercy and love demands that we combine our efforts together to struggle against the evil of the Israeli occupation. It must end. International law must be implemented in Palestine. Human dignity must be restored to the Palestinians and peace based on justice must be done. We want Israel to live in peace and security within its pre-1967 borders. At the same time we want justice for the Palestinians in accordance with international law and the creation of a Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside the state of Israel. There is no other way. Without justice to the Palestinians on the basis of International Law, no lasting peace is possible.