Israel, it is known, has an apartheid policy against the Palestinians living under its occupation, as well as against Israelis of Arab origin. It practises an openly violent form of apartheid against the people living under its occupation.

Israeli soldiers and settlers continuously humiliate Palestinians at every given opportunity, whether in their towns and villages or at the hundreds of roadblocks. Every town and every village in the West Bank can be described as a detention centre since all entry and exit points are tightly sealed off, with Israeli soldiers guarding and enforcing their rules on whoever passes through the points they control.

The Israeli military and police turn a blind eye to the heavily armed Jewish settlers’ physical attacks against the Palestinians while they are roaming through the West Bank. The Israeli military authorities continue to create “Jews-only” roads in the occupied territories and punish any non-Jew who dares to use them. Vehicles are given distinctly separate licence plates for Jews and non-Jews so that they can be easily identified.

The punishment for entering the “Jews-only” roads could be confiscation of the vehicle or heavy fines. But there are no signs saying that these roads are “only for Jews” because, as Israelis themselves say, Israel does not want someone to take a photograph of such signs and circulate it around the world, thus establishing that there is indeed apartheid in Israel.

The Israeli authorities impose blanket curfews and seal off entire West Bank areas when Jewish settlers hold any celebration. Israelis are not permitted to transport Palestinians in a vehicle registered in the name of a Jew without a permit from the occupation authorities. But the Palestinians who have no choice but to work for the settlers are exempted from the ban.

Those who cross the bridges across the River Jordan are subjected to such a treatment that many wish they had an alternative other than returning to experience the humiliation and abuse. Well, that is the whole idea. Israel wants to drive out as many Palestinians as possible from their homeland through whatever means it has at its disposal.

Former US president Jimmy Carter observed that Israeli policy in the West Bank represented instances of apartheid worse even than those that were once applied in South Africa.

“When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank, and connects the 200-or-so settlements with each other with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa,” he had said.

Carter was commenting in his book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”, which he said was meant to spark US discussion of Israeli policies. He came under strong criticism, not only from Israelis but also from leaders of the Jewish community in the US, for the book and his subsequent comments in which he said he stood by his position as stated in the book.

Israel applies another form of apartheid while dealing with its Arab citizens, who represent some 24 per cent of its 7.7 million population. Israel, which likes to describe itself as the “sole democracy” in the region and says all its citizens are equals, discriminates against its Arab citizens through many means.

Arab Israelis do not have proportionate representation in the Israeli parliament and their needs

for services in the health and education sectors as well as social and community development are more often than not treated as low-priority issues. They are also treated with suspicion and humiliated by Israeli officials and soldiers alike.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is an ardent advocate of stripping a large number of Arab Israelis of their citizenship and placing them under Palestinian sovereignty as part of a land-swap arrangement within the context of a final peace agreement.

It has also been confirmed that many in the Israeli society — the whites of Israel, to be more precise — are practising apartheid against black African Jews. A demonstration held last week in Kiryat Malachi, near the port of Ashdod, brought focus on the African Jews’ suffering discrimination in Israel. Attended by more than 2,000 black Jews, mainly of Ethiopian origin, the event highlighted the fact that Kiryat Malachi’s established residents are unwilling to rent out or sell them apartments. Some residents even signed agreements committing themselves not to sell or rent out apartments to members of the Ethiopian community.

A report presented last year showed that students of African Jews are confined to certain schools, with others are denied admission.

The discrimination is underlined by the approach of many white Israelis whose attitude is: “We don’t think you match our lifestyle and we’re not sure about your Jewishness either.”

In response to charges of racial discrimination, Israeli Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver told the black African Jewish community: “Say thank you for what you got.”

It rings a bell. Wasn’t that what we used to hear in apartheid South Africa?