By Doğan Akman
One of the matters with which the organisation, Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) appears to be obsessed is its belief that Israel is an apartheid state despite the existence of all sorts of evidence that demonstrates the absurdity of this notion.
Well, perhaps the latest news from the prestigious Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), might hopefully cure IJV’s pathological belief in the existence of Israeli apartheid. The EIU, the research division of the Economist Group, a UK-based private company, publishes an annual world-wide Democracy Index. The EIU also publishes the weekly newspaper The Economist.
The Democracy Index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy in 165 independent states and two territories. Democracy Index 2022, https://www.eiu.com › campaigns › democracy-index-...
The Index ranks Israel in the 23rd place among the 167 countries and territories in terms of their democratic values and practices.
More specifically, in comparative terms, this ranks Israel ahead of Spain, Portugal, Italy and the U.S. This ranking also makes Israel by far the most democratic country in the Middle-East.
David Schenker, who held the position of Assistant Secretary of State responsible for Middle East affairs until January, 2021 and is currently the principal researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) stated that the report of the EIU “is wholly consistent with what Mansour Abbas, Arab member of the Knesset told in a very recent speech to the WINEP.”
Mansour said:, “Israel is ‘a country of its citizens’”…The intention of those who claim that Israel is an apartheid state and this since 1948,[as did Amnesty International in its most recent report] are in effect saying that Israel never had the right to exist. ….Given the unprecedented participation of Israeli Arabs in the political system of the country, the repetition of this accusation is most unwelcome.” Israel, < Etat Apartheid. Classe plus démocratique, que l’Espagne, l’Italie et les USA, et autant que la France, Dreuz. April 14,2023 (translation edited in style but not in substance)
By way of illustration:
Israeli Palestinians are eligible to sit and do sit in the Supreme Court of Israel and are eligible to be appointed judges to lower courts;
Palestinian workers, whether Israelis or originating from the P.A and Gaza, enjoy and exercise the same legal rights as Jewish Israeli workers;
The sick and ailing Palestinians from Gaza and the P.A- including the P.A. politicians are treated in Israeli hospitals in the same wards as all other patients;
Israeli Palestinian students are readily admitted to and graduate from Israeli universities, while other Palestinian students are given special consideration by way of affirmative action to pursue their studies.: Discrimination entre juifs et arabes: la moitié des licences médicales délivrées au cours des deux dernières années en Israël on été accordées a des étudiants arabes, April 16,2023, read more: https://rakbeisrael.buzz/discrimination-entre--juifs-et-arabes-la-moitie-des-licences-medicales-delivrees-au-cour-des-deux-dernieres-annees-en-israel-ont-ete-accordees-a-des-etudiants-arabes/
I venture to say that had the South African apartheid system operated along the lines in which Israel treats its Palestinian Arab citizens, the word apartheid would have become an ideal of democratic values.
As I wrote this piece, it occurred to me that if it cured IJV’s obsession with the term apartheid in connection with Israel, this may well intensify its other pathological obsessions with its bizarre, misguided, and fallacious characterisation of BDS as a peaceful instrument and its objection to the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
Or maybe G-d forbid, it may help it to embrace and promote a new pathological scheme such as campaigning for the imposition of sanctions on Israel for another of its imaginary sins.
April 20, 2022
Doğan D. Akman is an independent researcher and commentator .He holds a B.Sc. in sociology, an M.A. in sociology/criminology and an LL.B in law. He held academic appointments in sociology, criminology and social policy; served as a Judge of the Provincial Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, and occupied the positions of Crown Counsel in criminal prosecutions and in civil litigation at the Federal Department of Justice. His academic work is published in peer-reviewed professional journals, while his opinion pieces are to be found in various publications and in blogs.