by Amina Akoo
Apartheid:
(Afrikaans for “Apart-ness” or “Separation”) Apartheid was the racist era faced by South Africa. The racist laws were introduced by the White ruling government of that time. These laws created segregation and restrictions for everyday living unto the non-whites (i.e. Blacks, Indians, and Coloreds). Apartheid created superiority for the white man, thus making the non-white inferior.
The DOMPAS (or Identity Document of the non-white) was constantly checked by the white policemen. Curfews were ___ to indicate a “time out” for the non-whites. Certain developed areas had cordoned off the non-whites. Signs were placed all over the country allocating WHITE ONLY suburbs, beaches, shops, restaurants, entrances, parks, benches, etc.
Occupation:
“Occupation means a reality of unending violence. It means being surrounded by an abusive foreign army that enforces a social system indistinguishable from Apartheid; confiscation of land that is given to hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers in Jewish-only communities linked by Jewish-only roads; home demolitions; torture; cities cut off from each other, closed down on a regular basis. It means living in a massive prison.”
Hussein Ibish, communications director of the American-Arab anti Discrimination Committee, in Los Angeles Times, October 18, 2000.
The purpose of this comparison is to outline the difference between APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA and APARTHEID ISRAEL.
Apartheid South Africa is as straight as the word’s definition: Separation. Apartheid is an entirely diverse level of racism and inhumane intolerance. When Israel began to occupy Palestine and implemented racist Apartheid laws and acts, it was neither to separate nor to create superiority. It was, as clear analysis of the historic timeline since the very first 1948 attack in Palestine shows, to expel the existing native inhabitants. To wipe out a nation. To eradicate their very existence.
To repeat what the Americans did to the Red Indians, and the Australians to the Aborigines.
Are we fully acknowledging what Israel is doing to Palestine and allowing history to repeat itself, again?
What about the notion of:
“Learn from the mistakes of the past, for the betterment of the future.”
Anggiology 