SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Palestinian workers queue up along the separation barrier often called the apartheid wall by critics as they wait to clear an Israeli military checkpoint. (Photo: delayed gratification/Flickr/cc)
'No One Can Censor Reality': Human Rights Group Pushes Back After Israel Retaliates Against 'Apartheid' Label
"Israel cannot be considered a democracy, for it works to advance and perpetuate the supremacy of one group of people, Jews, over another, Palestinians."
Jan 17, 2021
The prominent Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem on Monday defiantly defended its position that Israel is an apartheid state after the country's education minister banned members of groups that call the Jewish state "false, derogatory names" from entering its schools.
Last week, B'Tselem published a position paper that cited "a wide array of Israeli policies" it said are "advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group--Jews--over another--Palestinians" before concluding that "we must look at the full picture and see it for what it is: apartheid."
While not specifically naming B'Tselem, Education Minister Yoav Galant on Sunday sent a letter to his office's director and to school district managers nationwide directing them to deny entry to "groups that act in contradiction with the education system's goals, including calling Israel false, derogatory names, opposing Israel as a Jewish, Zionist, and democratic state, discouraging meaningful service in the Israel Defense Forces, or acting to harm or humiliate IDF soldiers during or after their service."
On Monday, B'Tselem said Galant's directive would not stand in the way of its work, and that it had already delivered a virtual lecture on Israeli apartheid to a school in Haifa that day.
"B'Tselem is determined to keep with its mission of documenting reality, analyzing it, and making our findings publicly known to the Israeli public, and worldwide," the group said in a statement sent to Al Jazeera. The statement continued:
[The] education minister... while ordering schools to ban B'Tselem, claims that he is against 'lies' and for a 'Jewish and democratic' Israel. But it is Minister Galant who is lying, as Israel cannot be considered ademocracy, for it works to advance and perpetuate the supremacy of one group of people, Jews, over another, Palestinians, within a single, bi-national polity. This is Israel's apartheid regime. No one can censor reality.
The Arab legal rights group Adalah told Al Jazeera Monday that it has appealed to Israel's attorney general to cancel Galant's directive, claiming it was issued without the proper authority and that it is an effort to "silence legitimate voices."
"The Israeli education minister has no legal authority to prevent human rights organizations from meeting with students simply because they have criticized the definition of Israel as a Jewish Zionist state," Adalah said. "Minister Galant's order prevents students from receiving an education that exposes them to legitimate, diverse, pluralistic opinions and positions--particularly those from civil society and human rights organizations."
Prominent international critics have long called Israel's exclusively Jewish settlements--which, like the occupation, are illegal under international law--its segregated roads, separation wall and other infrastructure, and other policies and actions in both the occupied territories and inside Israel a form of apartheid.
Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, the South African civil rights leader who helped lead his country's fight against the apartheid regime imposed by its former white supremacist government, has repeatedly called Israel an "apartheid state" and has voiced strong backing for the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Another Nobel laureate, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter--who brokered the historic 1978 Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt--in 2006 accused Israel of "worse... apartheid than we witnessed even in South Africa."
In 2017, a United Nations agency for the first time called Israel an apartheid state when the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia concluded that "Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole."
That domination applies not only to Palestinians in the occupied territories but also to those living as Israeli citizens who purportedly enjoy the same civil rights as Jews. However, even Israel's staunchest defender, the United States, has repeatedly accused it of practicing "institutional racism" toward its Arab citizens, who comprise one-fifth of the nation's population.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The prominent Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem on Monday defiantly defended its position that Israel is an apartheid state after the country's education minister banned members of groups that call the Jewish state "false, derogatory names" from entering its schools.
Last week, B'Tselem published a position paper that cited "a wide array of Israeli policies" it said are "advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group--Jews--over another--Palestinians" before concluding that "we must look at the full picture and see it for what it is: apartheid."
While not specifically naming B'Tselem, Education Minister Yoav Galant on Sunday sent a letter to his office's director and to school district managers nationwide directing them to deny entry to "groups that act in contradiction with the education system's goals, including calling Israel false, derogatory names, opposing Israel as a Jewish, Zionist, and democratic state, discouraging meaningful service in the Israel Defense Forces, or acting to harm or humiliate IDF soldiers during or after their service."
On Monday, B'Tselem said Galant's directive would not stand in the way of its work, and that it had already delivered a virtual lecture on Israeli apartheid to a school in Haifa that day.
"B'Tselem is determined to keep with its mission of documenting reality, analyzing it, and making our findings publicly known to the Israeli public, and worldwide," the group said in a statement sent to Al Jazeera. The statement continued:
[The] education minister... while ordering schools to ban B'Tselem, claims that he is against 'lies' and for a 'Jewish and democratic' Israel. But it is Minister Galant who is lying, as Israel cannot be considered ademocracy, for it works to advance and perpetuate the supremacy of one group of people, Jews, over another, Palestinians, within a single, bi-national polity. This is Israel's apartheid regime. No one can censor reality.
The Arab legal rights group Adalah told Al Jazeera Monday that it has appealed to Israel's attorney general to cancel Galant's directive, claiming it was issued without the proper authority and that it is an effort to "silence legitimate voices."
"The Israeli education minister has no legal authority to prevent human rights organizations from meeting with students simply because they have criticized the definition of Israel as a Jewish Zionist state," Adalah said. "Minister Galant's order prevents students from receiving an education that exposes them to legitimate, diverse, pluralistic opinions and positions--particularly those from civil society and human rights organizations."
Prominent international critics have long called Israel's exclusively Jewish settlements--which, like the occupation, are illegal under international law--its segregated roads, separation wall and other infrastructure, and other policies and actions in both the occupied territories and inside Israel a form of apartheid.
Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, the South African civil rights leader who helped lead his country's fight against the apartheid regime imposed by its former white supremacist government, has repeatedly called Israel an "apartheid state" and has voiced strong backing for the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Another Nobel laureate, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter--who brokered the historic 1978 Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt--in 2006 accused Israel of "worse... apartheid than we witnessed even in South Africa."
In 2017, a United Nations agency for the first time called Israel an apartheid state when the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia concluded that "Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole."
That domination applies not only to Palestinians in the occupied territories but also to those living as Israeli citizens who purportedly enjoy the same civil rights as Jews. However, even Israel's staunchest defender, the United States, has repeatedly accused it of practicing "institutional racism" toward its Arab citizens, who comprise one-fifth of the nation's population.
The prominent Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem on Monday defiantly defended its position that Israel is an apartheid state after the country's education minister banned members of groups that call the Jewish state "false, derogatory names" from entering its schools.
Last week, B'Tselem published a position paper that cited "a wide array of Israeli policies" it said are "advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group--Jews--over another--Palestinians" before concluding that "we must look at the full picture and see it for what it is: apartheid."
While not specifically naming B'Tselem, Education Minister Yoav Galant on Sunday sent a letter to his office's director and to school district managers nationwide directing them to deny entry to "groups that act in contradiction with the education system's goals, including calling Israel false, derogatory names, opposing Israel as a Jewish, Zionist, and democratic state, discouraging meaningful service in the Israel Defense Forces, or acting to harm or humiliate IDF soldiers during or after their service."
On Monday, B'Tselem said Galant's directive would not stand in the way of its work, and that it had already delivered a virtual lecture on Israeli apartheid to a school in Haifa that day.
"B'Tselem is determined to keep with its mission of documenting reality, analyzing it, and making our findings publicly known to the Israeli public, and worldwide," the group said in a statement sent to Al Jazeera. The statement continued:
[The] education minister... while ordering schools to ban B'Tselem, claims that he is against 'lies' and for a 'Jewish and democratic' Israel. But it is Minister Galant who is lying, as Israel cannot be considered ademocracy, for it works to advance and perpetuate the supremacy of one group of people, Jews, over another, Palestinians, within a single, bi-national polity. This is Israel's apartheid regime. No one can censor reality.
The Arab legal rights group Adalah told Al Jazeera Monday that it has appealed to Israel's attorney general to cancel Galant's directive, claiming it was issued without the proper authority and that it is an effort to "silence legitimate voices."
"The Israeli education minister has no legal authority to prevent human rights organizations from meeting with students simply because they have criticized the definition of Israel as a Jewish Zionist state," Adalah said. "Minister Galant's order prevents students from receiving an education that exposes them to legitimate, diverse, pluralistic opinions and positions--particularly those from civil society and human rights organizations."
Prominent international critics have long called Israel's exclusively Jewish settlements--which, like the occupation, are illegal under international law--its segregated roads, separation wall and other infrastructure, and other policies and actions in both the occupied territories and inside Israel a form of apartheid.
Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, the South African civil rights leader who helped lead his country's fight against the apartheid regime imposed by its former white supremacist government, has repeatedly called Israel an "apartheid state" and has voiced strong backing for the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Another Nobel laureate, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter--who brokered the historic 1978 Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt--in 2006 accused Israel of "worse... apartheid than we witnessed even in South Africa."
In 2017, a United Nations agency for the first time called Israel an apartheid state when the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia concluded that "Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole."
That domination applies not only to Palestinians in the occupied territories but also to those living as Israeli citizens who purportedly enjoy the same civil rights as Jews. However, even Israel's staunchest defender, the United States, has repeatedly accused it of practicing "institutional racism" toward its Arab citizens, who comprise one-fifth of the nation's population.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.