I visited South Africa twice in recent years, both times as the guest of the trade union movement. On my second visit, to Cape Town, I found myself walking along a beautiful beach with a leader of South Africa’s Communication Workers Union. He told me that under apartheid, if he’d be found walking on this beach, he could have been shot. This was a whites-only beach. That’s what apartheid means. It means you can be shot for walking on the wrong beach.
As for “apartheid Israel,” suffice it to say that my two sons were born in a hospital that serves the residents of the Jezreel Valley — Jews and Arabs. The staff, including doctors and nurses, were a mix of all ethnic groups and religions, as were the patients. There was no segregation, no separate facilities, no differences at all in how Jews and Arabs were treated.
Does this mean that Israel is a perfect society, a real paradise on earth for everyone? Of course not.
But if one cannot see the difference between running the risk of being shot for being on the “wrong” beach — and having your child born in a hospital full of Jews and Arabs working together — if you can’t see that difference, you understand nothing at all.
See the whole piece, on Eric Lee’s blog.
Eric’s piece relates to Kim Berman’s open letter to Salim Vally, originally published onEngage.
Salim Vally’s reply is here, on the UJ website
David Hirsh on the UJ boycott; and letter responding to a boycotter; and on how it is progressing at UJ; and Hirsh on the apartheid analogy.
For the Engage archive on the Israel / Apartheid analogy click here.
For the debate around the South African campaign for an academic boycott of Israel, with Desmond Tutu, David Newman, Neve Gordon, David Hirsh, Robert Fine, Ran Greenstein, Uri Avnery, Farid Essack click here.
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