Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 12:21 PM

Subject: Apartheid, Israeli style.

In her interesting and informative analysis, comparing the Palestine/Israel conflict to that in South Africa, Shira Herzog {" Follow South Africa's lead" June 24} states: " Israel isn't governing the West Bank and Gaza through an apartheid system..". Those who lived under the South African apartheid sysem testify otherwise.

In a broadcast on the BBC, on April 29,2002, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, speaking with first hand experience, was quoted: "South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has accused Israel of practising apartheid in its policies towards the Palestinians." He went on to say:"I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people 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."

Nelson Mandela, not unfamiliar with racist apartheid practices, in one of his early speeches after release from prison, compared blacks in South Africa to Palestinians who are fighting "against a unique form of colonialism."