An Apartheid Regime That Kills to Survive

• TEHRAN (FNA)- On Thursday, July 19, Israel’s parliament approved the Jewish Nation-State law to declare Israel “the national home of the Jewish people.” The bill also downgraded Arabic from an official language to simply one with a “special status.”

If this move doesn’t prove Israel is imposing an apartheid regime of racial discrimination on the Palestinian people, we don’t know what else could. Even long before the vote, Israel had established an apartheid regime that dominated and prosecuted the Palestinian people as a whole. The only difference now is that Tel Aviv has made it public and official.

On the basis of numerous reports by the United Nations plus scholarly inquiry and overwhelming evidence by human rights groups and aid agencies, Israel has been and still is guilty of the crime of apartheid. Numerous reports by the UN suggest that the strategic fragmentation of the Palestinian people is the main method through which Israel imposes apartheid, with Palestinians divided into groups oppressed through distinct laws, policies, practices and religion.

This visible apartheid plus the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territory is contrary to International Law. Belligerent occupation in itself is not an unlawful situation; it is accepted as a possible consequence of armed conflict. But this is a rule applied in the case of countries, not a regime that has created itself through invasion and occupation. There was no Israel 70 years ago; some armed people raided a nation called Palestine and occupied their land and renamed it as Israel. In addition, even in the case of countries, under the law of armed conflict, occupation is intended to be only a temporary state of affairs. The problem is that Israel’s illegal occupation has even mutated into a prolonged illegal affair that breaches the rights of the Palestinian people.

The question of Israeli racism is not new. On 10 November 1975, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring that ‘Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination’ (Resolution 3379). The racist character of Israel was also confirmed as being similar to that suffered in South Africa (Durban Conference 2001). More recently the UN General Assembly concluded that ‘Israel subjects the Palestinian people to an institutionalized regime of domination amounting to apartheid as defined under international law’.

There are options open to the international community and international organizations to address the criminal behavior of Israel. But they choose to remain willing bystanders to the oppression of the people of Palestine. There is no reason to think this time it will be otherwise.

The picture is clear though. Israel also lies and kills to survive. Palestinian protesters killed two months ago during the Great March of Return by the Israeli military were not armed. In Israel, the media is still broadcasting disinformation, using edited videos. But it is clear there was no crossfire during the peaceful protests, just Israeli fire.

Still, much of the Israeli public not only justifies what the soldiers did, but argue the army should have bombed all those protestors along the Gaza border. The Israeli soldiers are armed to the teeth, while Palestinian protesters are empty-handed. The armed soldiers are the invaders, not the victims.

The truth is the protestors did not plan nor execute any attack. They were brutally attacked by the Israeli army. Many were killed and wounded just because they wanted to return to their homes form where they were forcefully moved during the previous conflicts. Besides, Gaza’s besieged residents sorely need international aid, since the quota of goods allowed through by Israel (which, along with Egypt exercises total control of Gaza’s borders) is very limited and even cut off.

Taken together, the latest move at the Israeli parliament serves as further proof that Israel is a regime based on racial segregation. As long as this continues, Israel will always justify the killing of others. Israel will also justify the killing of those who will take to the streets in the coming days and weeks in protest against this new racist and discriminatory law, so any future deaths are excusable as well!!!

In reality, there is no democracy in Israel, not just for Arabs, but even for the Jews who are from Western or Eastern origins; Ashkenazis are first and Sephardic Jews are second-class citizens. The few Arab members of the Parliament are there to make a mockery of democracy and citizenship rights as they are not even seen as third-class citizens and the new Israeli nation-state law is there to declare exactly the same. To survive as a Jewish state, Israel has to be a totalitarian state to its core. This is a regime that combines the worst features of the Indian caste system, the apartheid model in South Africa, and the French occupation of Algeria. What a disgrace.