Peoples Apart: Israel, South Africa and the Apartheid Question

The word 'apartheid' evokes the ideology of racial segregation which dominated South Africa for so many years. Yet opinion-formers, including former US President Jimmy Carter, are increasingly using the word 'apartheid' to describe the situation of Arabs in Israel and the Occupied Territories. It is argued that even within Israel itself the Arab population is excluded from participation in civic life, and that the Palestinian enclaves created by the path of the 'security barrier' in the Occupied Territories are no more than modern day Bantustans.The use of the word 'apartheid' is highly emotive, and has serious implications for international policy. The concept lies at the heart of the growing trade union movement to boycott Israeli products. Yet in the heat of debate, no-one has unpacked the South Africa analogy, and brought on board the expertise of historians, lawyers, journalists and policymakers familiar with the politics of both countries. Now for the first time one of Israel's most celebrated academics, Ilan Pappe, has gathered together these perspectives in an accessible format which lays out the legal, political and social dimensions of apartheid, and provides an authoritative assessment of its relevance to Israel.