Side by side comparison of South African and Israeli Apartheid:
Palestine South Africa Apartheid
Israeli Apartheid and South African Apartheid are not exactly the same thing. As a result of the South African experience, the international community defined and ratified several conventions on apartheid. Israel as an apartheid state refers to Israel’s breaches of international law, especially the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (GA Resolution 3068 Link http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html), when the UN defined apartheid beyond the historic example of South Africa as a crime against humanity. It is to this definition that
we hold the state of Israel accountable. This essay explores and compares South African and Israeli apartheid.
The comparison between apartheid in South Africa and Israel has a long history and has been made in international and Israeli media by human rights groups, academics and politicians. One example is the 2011 Russell Tribunal on Palestine. Israeli treatment of the Palestinians amounts to a single integrated regime of apartheid. http://kairossouthernafrica.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/the-russell-tribunal-on-palestine/
The analogy was first made in connection with South Africa’s close relationship with Israel during the apartheid years and based on the comparison of similarities and differences between the treatment of non-whites in South Africa between 1948 and 1994 and non-Jews in Israel/Palestine. Apartheid is an Afrikaner word which also means separation. The term came into use in the 1930’s, and from 1948 until 1994 became the official policy of the white South African government, referring to the system of segregation institutionalized to maintain the supremacy of white South Africans over non-whites. Non-whites were given citizenship in Bantustans and then were systematically deprived of any rights within the state of South Africa. Citizenship and rights in South Africa were primarily reserved for whites. See timeline of apartheid here http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/discrim/race_b_at_print.asp
The International Community began noticing the human rights infringements in South Africa in the 1960’s. The term “Apartheid” was officially named a crime against humanity in 1966 by the United Nations General Assembly. The U.N. defined Apartheid as “inhumane acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group over persons of another racial group and systematically oppressing them.” The National Security Council adopted a stance against Apartheid in 1984 as a criminal act. Link to 1966 and 1984 UN resolutions 2202a XXI.
http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html
