Comment, by Ismail Zayid, on CBC News,Feb. 1, 2007. on President Carter and Israeli apartheid

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Ismail Zayid

Israel's apologists are attacking President Carter for telling some of the truth about Israel's apartheid practices in the occupied Palestinian territories. In fact, he overlooked Israeli racist practices against its own Muslim and Christian citizens.

Be that as it may, there is no better authoratative confirmation of Israel's apartheid policies than the testimonies of people who lived under Apartheid South Africa, and witnessed, in turn, Israeli policies. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and John Dugard told it as it is:

"I've been very distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us blacks in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about...The current divestment effort is the first, though certainly not the only, necessary move in that direction. {Archbishop Desmond Tutu, The Guardian, April 29, 2002}

On, [Nov. 29, 2006], the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran the following op-ed, by John Dugard, a South African former anti-apartheid leader. He is currently the Special Rapporteur on Palestine to the United Nations Human Rights Council. He not only compares Israeli policies to apartheid, but says that in many ways Israeli policies are worse than South African apartheid was.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and John Dugard knew what they were talking about.

Posted February 1, 2007 04:52 PM