Apartheid week? Palestinian terrorism week

Prof Alan Dershowitz
*http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |* Every year at about this time, radical
Islamic students -- aided by radical anti-Israel professors -- hold an even=
t
they call "Israel Apartheid Week." During this week, they try to persuade
students on campuses around the world to demonize Israel as an apartheid
regime. Most students seem to ignore the rantings of these extremists, but
some naive students seem to take them seriously. Some pro-Israel and Jewish
students claim that they are intimidated when they try to respond to these
untruths. As one who strongly opposes any censorship, my solution is to
fight bad speech with good speech, lies with truth and educational
malpractice with real education.

Accordingly, I support a "Middle East Apartheid Education Week" to be held
at universities throughout the world. It would be based on the universally
accepted human rights principle of "the worst first." In other words, the
worst forms of apartheid being practiced by Middle East nations and entitie=
s
would be studied and exposed first. Then the apartheid practices of other
countries would be studied in order of their seriousness and impact on
vulnerable minorities.

Under this principle, the first country studied would be Saudi Arabia. That
tyrannical kingdom practices gender apartheid to an extreme, relegating
women to an extremely low status. Indeed, a prominent Saudi Imam recently
issued a fatwa declaring that anyone who advocates women working alongside
men or otherwise compromises with absolute gender apartheid is subject to
execution. The Saudis also practice apartheid based on sexual orientation,
executing and imprisoning gay and lesbian Saudis. Finally, Saudi Arabia
openly practices religious apartheid. It has special roads for "Muslims
only." It discriminates against Christians, refusing them the right to
practice their religion openly. And needless to say, it doesn't allow Jews
the right to live in Saudi Arabia, to own property or even (with limited
exceptions) to enter the country. Now that's apartheid with a vengeance.

The second entity on any apartheid list would be Hamas, which is the de
facto government of the Gaza Strip. Hamas too discriminates openly against
women, gays, Christians. It permits no dissent, no free speech, and no
freedom of religion.

Every single Middle East country practices these forms of apartheid to one
degree or another. Consider the most "liberal" and pro-American nation in
the area, namely Jordan. The Kingdom of Jordan, which the King himself
admits is not a democracy, has a law on its books forbidding Jews from
becoming citizens or owning land. Despite the efforts of its progressive
Queen, women are still de facto subordinate in virtually all aspects of
Jordanian life.

Iran, of course, practices no discrimination against gays, because its
President has assured us that there are no gays in Iran. In Pakistan, Sikhs
have been executed for refusing to convert to Islam, and throughout the
Middle East, honor killings of women are practiced, often with a wink and a
nod from the religious and secular authorities.

Every Muslim country in the Middle East has a single, established religion,
namely Islam, and makes no pretense of affording religious equality to
members of other faiths. That is a brief review of some, but certainly not
all, apartheid practices in the Middle East.

Now let's turn to Israel. The secular Jewish state of Israel recognizes
fully the rights of Christians and Muslims and prohibits any discrimination
based on religion (except against Conservative and Reform Jews, but that's
another story!) Muslim and Christian citizens of Israel (of which there are
more than a million) have the right to vote and have elected members of the
Knesset, some of whom even oppose Israel's right to exist. There is an Arab
member of the Supreme Court, an Arab member of the Cabinet and numerous
Israeli Arabs in important positions in businesses, universities and the
cultural life of the nation. A couple of years ago I attended a concert at
the Jerusalem YMCA at which Daniel Barrenboim conducted a mixed orchestra o=
f
Israeli and Palestinian musicians. There was a mixed audience of Israelis
and Palestinians, and the man sitting next to me was an Israeli Arab, who i=
s
the culture minister of the State of Israel. Can anyone imagine that kind o=
f
concert having taking place in apartheid South Africa, or in apartheid Saud=
i
Arabia?

There is complete freedom of dissent in Israel and it is practiced
vigorously by Muslims, Christians and Jews alike. And Israel is a vibrant
democracy.

What is true of Israel proper, including Israeli Arab areas, is not true of
the occupied territories. Israel ended its occupation of the Gaza several
years ago, only to be attacked by Hamas rockets. Israel maintains its
occupation of the West Bank only because the Palestinians walked away from =
a
generous offer of statehood on 97% of the West Bank, with its capital in
Jerusalem and with a $35 billion compensation package for refugees. Had it
accepted that offer by President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ehud Barak=
,
there would be a Palestinian state in the West Bank. There would be no
separation barrier. There would be no roads restricted to Israeli citizens
(Jews, Arabs and Christians.) And there would be no civilian settlements. I
have long opposed civilian settlements in the West Bank, as many, perhaps
most Israelis, do. But to call an occupation, which continues because of th=
e
refusal of the Palestinians to accept the two-state solution, "Apartheid" i=
s
to misuse that word. As those of us who fought in the actual struggle of
apartheid well understand, there is no comparison between what happened in
South Africa and what is now taking place on the West Bank. As Congressman
John Conyers, who helped found the congressional Black caucus, well put it:

"[Applying the word "Apartheid" to Israel] does not serve the cause of
peace, and the use of it against the Jewish people in particular, who have
been victims of the worst kind of discrimination, discrimination resulting
in death, is offensive and wrong."

The current "Israel Apartheid Week" on universities around the world, by
focusing only on the imperfections of the Middle East's sole democracy, is
carefully designed to cover up far more serious problems of real apartheid
in Arab and Muslim nations. The question is why do so many students identif=
y
with regimes that denigrate women, gays, non-Muslims, dissenters,
environmentalists and human rights advocates, while demonizing a democratic
regime that grants equal rights to women (the chief justice and speaker of
the Parliament of Israel are women), gays (there are openly gay generals in
the Israeli Army), non-Jews (Muslims and Christians serve in high positions
in Israel) and dissenters, (virtually all Israelis dissent about something)=
.
Israel has the best environmental record in the Middle East, it exports mor=
e
life saving medical technology than any country in the region and it has
sacrificed more for peace than any country in the Middle East. Yet on many
college campuses democratic, egalitarian Israel is a pariah, while sexist,
homophobic, anti-Semitic, terrorist Hamas is a champion. There is something
very wrong with this picture.