(Roadmap to Apartheid. Ind. documentary, Ana Noguiera and Eron Davidson. 2012)
It is curious that the more Israel
denies apartheid, and the more other states, such as Canada, “condemn”
the BDS movement, the more awareness of the true situation of the
Palestinians increases in the general population.
Fear of BDS
The Israelis know full well the impact
that the label “apartheid” and its associated boycott, divestment, and
sanctions (BDS) movement had on South Africa. Their denials only
reinforce the significance of these events and labels. One prime
example derives from former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren
in his book Ally (Random House, 2015), an account of his life leading
up to but mostly concerning his role as ambassador.
At one point he is discussing all the
difficult questions he receives concerning Israeli/Palestinian
relations. He answers “All questions remained kosher but two.” Kosher
indicates that something is legitimate or admissible for Jewish
concerns. One of the questions that is not kosher is “Isn’t Israel an
apartheid state just like South Africa?” His red-herring counter
argument is that because the Knesset has Arab members as do the armed
forces, then how does that “remotely resemble an apartheid state?” That
line of argument is disingenuous and would be similar to saying there
is no racism in the U.S. because their president is black and so are
many of their military – it is simply an invalid argument.
What Michael Oren really fears is revealed later when he writes:
“Terrorism could not defeat Israel, only stain the Palestinians’ reputation and divert global attention from settlements. But a policy designed to isolate, delegitimize, and sanction Israel could bring about its downfall. ”
For all that Oren writes from his
tribal, uber-patriotic and religious background, he at least recognizes
this as a genuine threat. Yes, the ”terror” certainly diverted
mainstream media attention away from the settlements (good for Israel),
but the BDS movement is obviously having an impact on the Israeli
government and its sycophantic allies (good for Palestine).
Roadmap to Apartheid
The idea of apartheid and the concept
and actions of BDS are fully linked because of the South African
experience. The documentary Roadmap to Apartheid (2012) by Ana
Nogueira and Eron Davidson highlights the parallels between what
happened in South Africa and what is happening in Palestine. Beyond
the parallels, the commentators from South Africa indicate that Israel
is worse than their situation actually was, and – perhaps more revealing
– is that the two countries worked together on military and security
resources, up to and including nuclear weapons.
At the beginning of the movie and
continuing throughout are powerful visual segments comparing actions in
South Africa with near identical actions Palestine. The colonial nature
of settlements, the expulsions of indigenous people, the occupation of
lands, and the set up of separate areas for the indigenous – the actual
apartheid – is well documented. The Boers in South Africa invoked their
‘god given rights’ to the land, and the architecture to enforce that
involved passes and blockages to control the native population.
Similarly in Palestine there are internal ID cards and over 600 manned
checkpoints operating at the discretion of the military. This is
informed by the S.A Council of Churches recognizing the continuous
checking by military junta duties for the soldiers.
Later in the documentary, the amount of
land and its control mechanisms are emphasized. In S.A. 80 per cent of
the population – the blacks – lived in bantustans that were
theoretically “advanced to independence.” The whites in S.A. controlled
over 87 per cent of the land (do the math: 13 per cent for the 80 per
cent population) and described the indigenous population as “foreign
natives.” In parallel 90 per cent of Palestinian land is reserved for
Jews only with the descriptor applied to the indigenous Arabs as
“present absentees.” Both terms are self-contradictory and purely
racist in functional terms. The whole idea, as expressed by Ali
Abunimah, is to create an “artificial majority.”
Demographics and Apartheid
In the context of Gaza, the Israelis
always say how wonderful they were to remove their settlements from Gaza
in 2005. This introduces the “demographic” fear that is counterpart to
the “artificial majority”. Returning to Oren’s work and another
revealing argument is that very demographics:
“Israel needed to establish a reality in
which the maximum number of Jews would live within Israel and the
Palestinians would not be under our rule.”
Thus demographics, settlements, and
apartheid are all combined in the demographic fear of simply being
overwhelmed by another people’s majority.
Returning to the Roadmap to Apartheid,
Gaza is identified as being simply an enormous segregated open air
prison, much like the South African bantustans, and their predecessor
internment camps. As noted by Jeff Halper, “Prisoners have 95 per cent
of the area – the authorities maybe 5 per cent.”
In Gaza, technically, the authorities
have 0 per cent of the land, but effectively control its space 100 per
cent through closed borders, closed air space, severe sea limits, the
destruction of civil infrastructure (sewage treatment plants, power
supply, schools, hospitals) and an almost unbelievable caloric
mathematical formula that calculates how much food is allowed to go into
Gaza, in order to create borderline starvation.
In the words of Dov Weissglass, “The
idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of
hunger.” Yes, severe malnutrition is ideal.
Reason to Fear
Roadmap to Apartheid includes other
topics. One of the major ones is the house demolitions in Jerusalem and
the ramifications of those actions – and the parallels with S.A. It
discusses the military liaisons with the apartheid government of S.A.
Also noted are the discriminatory laws for civil life, the control of
resources including water and farmland, the purpose of the ‘wall’ to
further the segregations and make a contiguous Palestine impossible
(thus the bantustans).
The last part of the documentary
discusses the overall situation, indicating the lack of symmetry between
security and ‘terrorism’ in which an internal and international
resistance is up against a “sophisticated structure of oppression.”
BDS becomes the most effective way, the peaceful route, to overcoming
the oppression. It is a non-violent movement (that ironically has been
derided as being ineffective compared to ‘negotiations’) that proved
effective in S.A. which has become a different and healthier country
(far from perfect due to the dismissing of many ANC goals), including a
Truth and Reconciliation tribunal that softened and dissipated much of
the anger.
South Africa is a united country.
Israel/Palestine is currently a de facto united country, with the
possibility of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel
remaining simply as an ideological means to continue establishing “facts
on the ground” on Palestinian land. South Africa demonstrates that BDS
is a valid method to counter occupation and oppression, and that it can
provide a peaceful means of resolution to the conflict.
Jim Miles is a Canadian educator and a regular
contributor/columnist of opinion pieces and book reviews for The
Palestine Chronicle. Miles’ work is also presented globally through
other alternative websites and news publications. He contributed this
article to PalestineChronicle.com.
The original source of this article is The Palestine Chronicle
Copyright © Jim Miles, The Palestine Chronicle, 2016
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