Call Apartheid in Israel by Its Name
Citizenship here is reminiscent of South Africa's in the past: Jews are 'white' citizens, Arabs in Israel have 'colored' (in other words, partial) citizenship; and Palestinians in the territories have 'black' citizenship, without political rights.
Oren Yiftachel Feb 11, 2016 6:23 AM
Recently, an interesting argument has been held in Haaretz between Michael Sfard and Gideon Levy. Sfard claims “The occupation will end suddenly” (Haaretz.com, January 22), while Levy suggests that “One day the occupation won’t end” (January 24) and that Israel “can continue with the occupation as long as it likes, so why should it end?”
Maybe both are right. An analysis of the geopolitical situation on the West Bank shows the occupation hasn’t been an occupation for a long time. It has not been defeated or liquidated, but rather has developed into the next stage: civil colonial control, accompanied by a creeping process of apartheid into the entire area controlled by Israel between the Jordan and the sea.
The Israeli left, which is fighting this outrageous situation, needs to get in sync with the change in reality, and adopt new terminology: No longer “occupation,” a condition that doesn’t exist anymore, and which at any rate can be legal, but “apartheid,” which is coming into being before our eyes, and constitutes a grave international crime.
Occupation is a situation of temporary military control, and takes place beyond the sovereign borders of the country. The characteristics of Israeli rule in most of the West Bank are the opposite: Control is civilian, permanent (according to the statements of Israel’s leaders), and domestic.
Hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens live in the West Bank (including Jerusalem beyond the Green Line); most of the area of the West Bank is under the control of Israeli bodies; Israelis in the West Bank are tried according to Israeli law and vote for the Knesset. Over 250 square kilometers of Palestinian land, private and public, are registered to the state, and they are marketable real estate in Israel.
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