Peace not Apartheid
The other day I was shocked and pleased to see an interview on CNBC with former President Jimmy Carter discussing his new book: “Palestine: Peace not Apartheid.” The US mainstream media rarely shows an accurate and balanced report of the conflict such as what Carter presented. Almost everything he said is in agreement with peace groups on all sides, human rights groups, and international law. Anne-Sophie remarked that he sounded like me in one of my presentations on my experiences in Palestine. His assertion that the Israeli occupation of Palestinians can be called “apartheid,” is correct. The word in Hebrew that Israelis use to describe the situation is “hafrada,” which means separation, which is what “apartheid” means. Additionally South Africans who visited the region have also made similar claims. Bishop Tutu was recently in Gaza to investigate and condemn the Gaza siege. There was an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by a former anti-apartheid South African that goes into more details of the comparison (pasted below along with another article). However many Democrats have been quick to condemn Carter’s book, because they are afraid to lose their newly found political power in congress and risk losing the future presidential elections, by associating themselves with Carter’s stance. If Americans knew that our tax dollars are being used to perpetuate the Israeli Apartheid against Palestinians and that this is the main source of anger of Arab/Muslims towards the West, perhaps they could convince their congress person to support Carter to help end the occupation and bring peace. The US under Reagan supported Apartheid in South Africa, but as the international community became more informed they eventually were able to push the South African government to end the oppression. So hopefully we’ll be able to compare Palestine to South Africa in that respect too. Meanwhile, why don’t you try picking up Carter’s book and giving it a read. (more…)