2010-05-21

Israel is an apartheid state (and here's why)

Israel's apartheid wall.

What follows is a collection of information resources that are useful for evaluating the applicability of the term "apartheid" to the State of Israel. The term "apartheid" is often defined by dictionaries with special reference to the history of South Africa. More importantly, the term "apartheid" is defined by the International Criminal Court (ICC).


Israel and apartheid
Public Forum Letter
Updated: 04/26/2010 01:59:20 PM MDT

Apartheid is not just about discrimination. It is a matter of international law. Apartheid regimes codify into their domestic laws three pillars of apartheid:
  1. The state adopts a preferred identity, then establishes laws granting preferential status and privileges to the preferred group.
  2. The state segregates the population into geographic areas based on identity. The favored identity receives preferential access to land, water and other resources and benefits. The non-preferred group is confined to ever-shrinking, non-contiguous besieged enclaves.
  3. The state passes security laws to suppress all opposition. Those opposing apartheid are labeled terrorists. Domination is enforced through assassinations, imprisonment (often for years), torture and cruel, inhumane, degrading treatment.
Using these criteria, an international legal team sponsored by the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa recently completed a study that concluded that Israel's practices against Palestinians reach the level of apartheid as measured by international law.

Even those Americans who do not care about justice should be concerned. Apartheid is an international crime, and those giving aid to apartheid states can be found complicit. Given U.S. political and financial aid to Israel, we could find ourselves with one more economic burden -- paying reparations to the Palestinian people.

Frances ReMillard
Kamas

SOURCE: Salt Lake Tribune (http://www.sltrib.com/ci_14961831)


International Criminal Court (ICC)
Definition of "Apartheid"

For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
(a) Murder;
(b) Extermination;
(c) Enslavement;
(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
(f) Torture;
(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
(i) Enforced disappearance of persons;
(j) The crime of apartheid;
(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

"The crime of apartheid" means inhumane acts of a character similar to those referred to in paragraph 1 [above], committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.

SOURCE: http://untreaty.un.org/cod/icc/statute/99_corr/2.htm


Additional references:
In the media:
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1 comments:

Dr Nasir Khan said...

Thank you Rick for your excellent blog and your hard work to expose the Zionist State of Israel and its crimes.

from
Nasir Khan
Nasir Khan blog http://nasir-khan.blogspot.com

Jul 9, 2010 4:04:00 PM

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