Arthur Greene
What is happening in Palestine is what happened in South Africa decades ago.
This is according to two former Israeli ambassadors to South Africa, Ilan Baruch and Dr Alon, who said: “It is time for the world to recognise that what we saw in South Africa decades ago is happening in the occupied Palestinian territories too.”
Baruch and Liel, working as representatives of the state of Israel, went to see firsthand what was happening in Palestine and said it was not so different to South Africa’s system of apartheid.
For 55 years, Israel has occupied Palestinian territories. Within these areas, Israelis live under Israeli civil law, while Palestinians live under military law.
“The system is one of inherent inequality,” write Baruch and Liel, who first published their article in GroundUp.
On their official visits to South Africa, Baruch and Liel saw parallels between this system and the two-tiered system of apartheid in South Africa.
In particular, the Bantustans have parallels with Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands.
Since 1967, Israel has constructed settlements for Israeli citizens across Palestine. These are then connected through highways, waterways and electricity lines back to Israel.
The construction of these settlements has meant the eviction of Palestinian communities who are forced onto smaller and smaller patches of land.
The West Bank is made up of 165 seperate Palestinian tracts of land surrounded by Israeli-controlled territory.
Baruch and Liel argue that because these areas are separated and surrounded by Israel they are more easily controlled by Israel.
Similarly, South African Bantustans were separated territories set aside for South Africa’s black population.
Baruch and Liel write that Bantustans and occupied Palestinian territories both served the purpose of keeping the “undesirable” populations in as small an area as possible.
This allows those in power, whether it be the Israeli state or South Africa’s white minority, to maintain control, they argued.
Image source: @QudsNen
