Why is Israel scared of accusations of apartheid?
Why is
Israel scared of accusations of apartheid?
By: Nathan Feldman
Recently,
the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) released a human
rights report on Israeli practices that concluded, from Reuters, that “Israel
has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a
whole”. This report, published by Richard Falk, is the first of its kind
originating from the UN. Soon after, the Israeli government, the Trump
administration, and the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres pressured Rima
Khalaf, the head of ESCWA, to rescind the report. She refused and instead
resigned in protest through a series of actions thoroughly outlined by Glenn
Greenwald of The Intercept (article
linked at bottom).
Now, my
personal view is that this report is both accurate and long overdue, and it was
a pleasant surprise that a UN agency was finally recognizing the harsh reality
of apartheid Palestinians face every day. While ideologues from all sides could
debate this fact indefinitely, many legitimate responses were available to
Israel and the Trump administration that were not used. The Trump
administration could have merely issued a statement in line with its own
ideological beliefs slamming the report as “offensive”, the Israeli government
could have merely likened the report to “Nazi propaganda”, and allowed
discussion to continue. The Secretary General of the UN could have, for his
part, distanced himself from the report without taking further action. But
these parties did not stop there.
Instead,
Antonio Guterres, in acquiescence to the Israeli and US governments, decided to
pressure ESCWA to rescind its report from the Internet entirely, which it
eventually did. This was a blatant act
of censorship against 18 Arab and Muslim majority nations, an act sure to inflame
governments and individuals across the Middle East and North Africa. Blatantly
censoring a human rights report for taking a particular ideological stance on a
topic brings us just another step closer to authoritarianism both at home and
abroad. The ease with which President
Trump was able to censor this report should especially concern other groups
which he and his administration have targeted for their stance on Israel across
the political spectrum from J Street to pro-BDS organizations. If the UN is not
a valid stage for these groups to voice their concerns, where should they seek
to address Israel’s ongoing apartheid and occupation?
Ironically,
this act of censorship only serves to confirm the beliefs of those sympathetic
to the Palestinian cause, and rightly so. Moving forward, we at UMD SJP intend
to hold Israel and other institutions complicit in the occupation accountable
through our campus boycott effort and through open forums in which we discuss
the conditions Palestinians must deal with every day of their lives. We will
not succumb to bullying campaigns from outside groups wishing to silence our
message.
The original UN report can be found here:
Referenced Links:
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/18/trump-administration-ousts-un-official-to-protect-israel-from-criticism/Sign out BDS petition here:
https://www.change.org/p/president-loh-and-the-sga-support-boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-at-umd?recruiter=687453245&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
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