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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/12/israel-largest-human-rights-group-apartheid
1) I admire @btselem & @HagaiElAd But the whole apartheid conversation is misdirected. First, many Israelis have called the policy in WB and Gaza apartheid for decades, like MK @ofercass. It might be new to Americans but definitely not to Hebrew speakers
1) I admire @btselem & @HagaiElAd But the whole apartheid conversation is misdirected. First, many Israelis have called the policy in WB and Gaza apartheid for decades, like MK @ofercass. It might be new to Americans but definitely not to Hebrew speakers
The article is actually a perfect, sad example of the waning influence of the left within Israel post Oslo. Btselem, like many left groups aren't stirring debates internally anymore. Fact: no Israeli newspaper has reported on this article. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-losing-hope-for-change-top-left-wing-activists-and-scholars-leave-israel-behind-1.8864499
So, the left, like Palestinians, is making last ditch efforts by courting the international community, taking more spaces in the Guardian and NYT. However, Israel hasn't become the pariah state groups like the BDS wanted. In fact, it has gone from strength to strength.
@btselem being delegitimized in Israel is mostly due to right-wing attacks. But eluding to Israel in the green line as Apartheid is a position even the most left Israelis would't accept, something Elad would know.
If that's the case, the article wasn't intended to people in Haifa or Jerusalem, but to people in Berkley and London. Then the question arises: for whom is the article written?
This stir up shows that what liberals outside Israel value most are definitions, (like the anti-zionism debates) because they are so much removed from Israeli life. Israel doesn't exist only in political terms but in sociological: a living society with its own internal discourse.
The discourse that focuses on strict definitions not only detracts from finding solutions but disregards PL and IL voices. Take the 1 state debate ideological debate: not only it barely exists inside Israel, but it also erases over a century of Palestinian national struggle.
Yes, Apartheid has a legal definition, but also occupation has. If anything, Israel's example shows that labeling isn't equivalent to action. This article doesn't detract from the crucial work Bteslem and others are doing, but definitions aren't the end all.
