{"id":204668,"date":"2022-02-07T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=204668"},"modified":"2022-02-07T13:31:34","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T13:31:34","slug":"the-news-is-not-that-israel-has-apartheid-but-that-amnesty-dares-say-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/02\/the-news-is-not-that-israel-has-apartheid-but-that-amnesty-dares-say-so\/","title":{"rendered":"The News Is Not That Israel Has Apartheid, but That Amnesty Dares Say So"},"content":{"rendered":"

3 Feb 2022 – <\/em>Does the state of Israel now endorse cancel culture? AP<\/b> (1\/31\/22<\/a>) disclosed that its government called on Amnesty International not to release a report (2\/1\/22)<\/a> that defines that nation\u2019s legal structure as a form of apartheid<\/a>. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said the report endorses \u201clies shared by terrorist organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

CNN<\/b> (2\/1\/22<\/a>) covered the Amnesty report, leading with accusations of antisemitism, the sort of cheap slap that offers little substance but a lot of vitriol. Politico <\/b>(2\/1\/22<\/a>) led also with the report\u2019s condemnation by Israeli officials and pro-Israel groups, not the findings of the report itself. (This isn\u2019t surprising, as FAIR\u201411\/5\/21<\/a>\u2014reported how Politico<\/b>\u2019s German owner mandates its outlets maintain a pro-Israel line.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Politico<\/b> also uncritically quoted Lapid calling the human rights group biased because \u201cAmnesty does not call Syria an \u2018apartheid state\u2019\u201d\u2014as if \u201capartheid\u201d were a generic term for \u201cbad government,\u201d rather than a specific form of racialized oppression. Amnesty\u2019s web section<\/a> on Syria states that all belligerents in the Syrian conflict, including government forces, have \u201ccontinued to commit with impunity serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, and gross human rights abuses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recycled defenses<\/b><\/h3>\n
\n

\"WSJ:<\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal<\/strong>\u2018s charge (1\/31\/22<\/a>) that Amnesty\u2019s report threatens \u201cthe very existence of Israel\u201d echoes its earlier defense (1\/13\/64) of apartheid in South Africa, where \u201ca one-man one-vote would open up the prospect of a black majority expropriating the property and destroying the livelihood of the white minority.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Wall Street Journal<\/b> (1\/31\/22<\/a>) condemned Amnesty\u2019s report, saying it ought to receive \u201cthe world\u2019s opprobrium and sanction\u201d for its \u201cdenunciation of the very existence of Israel as a refuge for the Jewish people.\u201d The Journal<\/b> placed the blame for Israel\u2019s discriminatory laws on Palestinians, because Jewish settlers \u201cin historic Palestine had to fight to survive against Arab militias and national armies that wanted to push them into the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paper peppered its editorial with hoary reminders that \u201cIsrael is a democracy\u201d because Arabs who live inside Israel\u2019s Green Line can vote and run for office. Meanwhile, the disenfranchised Palestinians who live under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza\u2014who are the majority of Arabs in Israel\/Palestine\u2014have only themselves to blame, because they \u201ccould have their own state with comparable rights if they had accepted the concessions that Israel offered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost 60 years ago, the Journal<\/b> editorial board (9\/25\/63) made a similar argument against calls to boycott apartheid South Africa; the conservative daily argued that targeting white-run South Africa was hypocritical, because activists were not also targeting Arab Algeria with \u201cequal disdain.\u201d Historian William Henry Chamberlin wrote in the Journal<\/b> (1\/13\/64) that condemnation of South African apartheid at the United Nations was \u201chighly selective\u201d because of strife in other UN member states, and reminded readers that white Boers had been in the country for \u201cmore than three centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two decades ago, the Journal <\/b>(11\/21\/01<\/a>) promoted Israeli academic Arnon Sofer\u2019s belief that due to \u201chigh Arab birthrates,\u201d there must be complete \u201cseparation\u201d between Jews and Arabs, because \u201cwithout separation, Israel\u2019s Jewish majority, one of Zionism\u2019s pillars, will be undermined.\u201d Now the paper is shocked to see a word that means \u201csystematic separation\u201d being applied to the country.<\/p>\n

The New York Post<\/b> (1\/31\/22<\/a>) employed the same type of deflection as the Journal<\/b>, using the tragedy of the Holocaust to justify Israel\u2019s founding. It complained that the report doesn\u2019t mention \u201cJews getting the boot from Gamal Abdel Nasser\u2019s Egypt,\u201d adding that \u201cYasser Arafat does not appear.\u201d (Arafat died 18 years ago, and Nasser in 1970.)<\/p>\n

Echoing other evaluations<\/b><\/h3>\n
\n

\"NYT:<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/strong> has so far not covered the Amnesty report, but when it wrote (4\/27\/21<\/a>) about Human Rights Watch\u2019s similar conclusion, it featured the charge that finding apartheid in Israel \u201cbordered on antisemitism.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While a new stance for Amnesty, the report echoes the evaluation of other human rights experts. Human Rights Watch (NPR<\/b>, 4\/27\/21<\/a>) and the Israeli rights group B\u2019Tselem (1\/12\/21<\/a>) have both accused Israel of maintaining an apartheid system, and the late Bishop Desmond Tutu frequently compared Israel\u2019s occupation to the apartheid system in South Africa he fought to eliminate (FAIR.org<\/b>, 1\/6\/22<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/b>, as of this writing, has not covered the Amnesty report, although it did cover the Human Rights Watch report last year (4\/27\/21<\/a>), leading with how the apartheid charge was \u201cexplosive,\u201d and how at least one HRW representative had said in 2001 that it was wrong to equate Zionism with racism.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/b>, however, has also offered the same kind of deflections against the \u201capartheid\u201d label we are seeing today; its review (1\/7\/07<\/a>) of former President Jimmy Carter\u2019s Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid<\/i> called it \u201ca strange little book\u201d with \u201cmisrepresentations\u201d of Arafat and late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. Falling short of calling Carter an antisemite, the Times<\/b> dismissed Carter for his \u201cawfully narrow perspective,\u201d \u201cRip van Winkle feel\u201d and \u201ctone deafness about Israel and Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amnesty (2\/1\/22<\/a>) states that \u201cmassive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians\u201d add up to what is called \u201capartheid under international law.\u201d All of this comes down to a fundamental truth that while Israel enjoys more plurality and democratic institutions than some of its neighbors, a defining feature of the government is that an individual\u2019s legal and political rights are tied to their national and religious identity, something that should be anathema in a liberal democracy.<\/p>\n

Reflexive hostility to critics<\/b><\/h3>\n

The hostile media responses to Amnesty\u2019s report barely bother to refute the findings. Criticism of Israel\u2019s denial of Palestinians\u2019 rights is deemed a threat to the country\u2019s ability to be an explicitly Jewish state, the Journal<\/b> said. This is an admission of Israel\/Palestine\u2019s existential crisis: A country can be an ethno-state or it can be a democracy, but it can\u2019t be both.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Newsweek:<\/p>\n

Newsweek<\/strong> (8\/4\/21<\/a>) suggests that when Rashida Tlaib talks about \u201cthe structure we\u2019ve been living under right now,\u201d she means Jews rather than capitalism.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The charges of antisemitism being applied to criticism of Israel have become routine. Sonya Meyerson-Knox, senior communications manager at Jewish Voice for Peace<\/a>, told FAIR (11\/5\/21)<\/a> that \u201cdefending Israel\u2019s regime of supremacy and violence does nothing to advance Jewish safety,\u201d and that such rhetoric \u201chelps fuel antisemitism, by reducing people with varying beliefs into a monolithic stereotype.\u201d<\/p>\n

The response that the report ignores Palestinian misdeeds overlooks that the group has, in fact, condemned Hamas\u2019 human rights abuses (e.g., 3\/27\/15<\/a>, 3\/18\/19<\/a>). These pieces insist that when Israel is criticized, we change the subject to how bad Palestinian leaders are and how their predicament is ultimately their own doing. This is a continuation of a trend in media that offers not just pro-Israel coverage, but outright hostility toward other points of view.<\/p>\n

For example, New York Times<\/b> columnist Bret Stephens (9\/23\/21<\/a>) not only condemned several congressmembers for decoupling US funding for an Israeli missile defense system from a \u201cmust-pass bill to keep the US government afloat,\u201d but insisted that they should suffer \u201creputational cost for this supremely foul piece of political grandstanding.\u201d Even treating support for the Israeli military as open to debate in a democratic forum is supposed to put you beyond the political pale.<\/p>\n

Newsweek<\/b> (8\/4\/21<\/a>) amplified the accusation that Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American congressmember from Michigan, spoke in coded antisemitism when she linked Black suffering in Detroit to Gazans living under occupation. The accusation that she was insinuating that Jewish ringleaders were causing the world\u2019s suffering was a stretch, but that was the price she paid for having the gall to link injustice in her district to injustice to her fellow Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Growing rejection of apartheid<\/b><\/h3>\n
\n

\"JTA:<\/p>\n

Jewish Telegraphic Agency<\/strong> (7\/13\/21<\/a>): \u201cMany American Jews agree with statements by some of Israel\u2019s harshest critics on the left.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

With leading human rights groups using the \u201capartheid\u201d label on Israel\u2019s treatment of Palestinians, that terminology will be a bigger part of the Middle East discussion. That might be why the response has been so harsh. \u201cThe past decade has seen American public opinion in support of Palestinian human rights grow at an exponential rate across ages and religions,\u201d said Meyerson-Knox.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Gallup (3\/19\/21<\/a>) reported that \u201cthe percentage wanting more pressure placed on the Palestinians has fallen to 44%, while the proportion wanting more pressure on Israel has increased from 27% to 34%.\u201d Last summer, a poll (Jewish Telegraphic Agency<\/b>, 7\/13\/21<\/a>) of US \u201cJewish voters taken after the Israel\/Gaza conflict\u201d found that \u201ca sizable minority believe some of the harshest criticisms of Israel\u201d: \u201c34% agreed that \u2018Israel\u2019s treatment of Palestinians is similar to racism in the United States,\u2019\u201d and \u201c25% agreed that \u2018Israel is an apartheid state.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jewish Voices for Peace\u2019s Meyerson-Knox added that, \u201cThe significance of Amnesty\u2019s report in continuing to shape public opinion cannot be overstated,\u201d because \u201cthe chorus of internationally respected voices calling for an end to Israeli apartheid is simply too loud to be ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ari Paul has reported for<\/em> the Nation, the Guardian, the Forward, the Brooklyn Rail, Vice News, In These Times, Jacobin and many other outlets.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Research assistance: Luca Goldmansour<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – fair.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 Feb 2022 – Does the state of Israel now endorse cancel culture? AP (1\/31\/22) disclosed that its government called on Amnesty International not to release a report (2\/1\/22) that defines that nation\u2019s legal structure as a form of apartheid. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said the report endorses \u201clies shared by terrorist organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":204670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[1634,2221,120,1030,87,267,1029,487,2414,2415,2416,378,234,771,1027,2417,85,2418,109,287,1572,985,880,292,70,126,1025,886],"class_list":["post-204668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-amnesty-international","tag-checkpoints","tag-conflict","tag-fatah","tag-gaza","tag-geopolitics","tag-hamas","tag-human-rights","tag-israeli-apartheid","tag-israeli-army","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-journalism","tag-media","tag-nakba","tag-oslo-accords","tag-palestine-israel-apartheid-wall","tag-palestine-israel","tag-palestinian-rights","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-settlers","tag-social-justice","tag-state-terrorism","tag-un","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-west-bank","tag-zionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}