By Esther Korson
There are attempts to de-legitimize Israel on many fronts. The problem is that when lies are told often enough by supposedly authoritative organizations, they are eventually accepted as facts. The Arab press is expert at anti-Israel rhetoric on a daily basis. But other things are happening as well.
On the 26th of February, the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Palestinian-based global campaign against Israel) sponsored an Israel Apartheid Week on 200 university and college campuses worldwide, claiming that the Arab population in Israel is treated like the blacks were treated in apartheid South Africa. Pro-Israel students are trying to fight back by disseminating information that debunks the comparison between apartheid South Africa and the situation in Israel. One of the most effective tools was a video clip from a South African member of parliament, Kenneth Meshoe, who has lived under apartheid and believes that any such equation of Israel with South Africa under apartheid is absurd. I love it when individuals are willing to stand up and really make a difference!
I love what he had to say. “As a South African who was born under apartheid, I know what apartheid is. I’ve experienced it. My parents experienced it. But having been to Israel on a number of occasions, I know that nothing is happening in that country that I have either seen or read that can be at all compared to apartheid in South Africa. For example, when I had to see a white doctor who was prepared to have black patients, I would have to go to a back room where black patients of white doctors went who were never allowed to enter through the same door that was used by white people. Now compare that to Israel. A few years ago a black pastor friend of mine went to Israel where he had an accident and had to be hospitalized. When he came back to South Africa, he said to as many people as he could that the people who are talking about apartheid in Israel are talking nonsense. “When I was in that hospital in Israel,” he tells people, “on my right was sleeping a Jew and on my left was a ‘Palestinian’ Moslem and in between that Jew and that Moslem was this black South African”. In private the ‘Palestinians’ he was with in the hospital said to him, “The Israel-is-an-apartheid-state thing’ is what politicians are saying. It is not what we as Palestinian Arabs are experiencing on the ground!”
Meshoe continued, “We all need to recognize that saying that what is happening in Israel is like apartheid South Africa is minimizing the suffering the black South Africans endured. They are taking the sting out of the pain that we suffered in South Africa during the real apartheid. As a member of the South African parliament and in the name of millions of my fellow black citizens of that country we know what apartheid really was and I therefore ask those in the US, Europe and anywhere else in the world, who charge Israel with practicing apartheid, to please stop doing so. You are damaging the truth. You are damaging any chance for peace in the Middle East, and most of all, you are destroying the memory of the real apartheid. The charge that Israel is an apartheid state is a lie about the real Israel, and it is a lie about the real apartheid.”
Since I personally travelled to South Africa three times during those terrible, dark and oppressive apartheid days, I saw first hand what Kenneth Meshoe was saying.
http://youtu.be/v27sNLIEOes
Here is something that really happened in Israel. This is something that you might already know—or not! But when it became known among the Arab Israeli population that a security fence was about to be built separating the so-called ‘West Bank’ from the rest of Israel, necessitated after the years of terror perpetrated against us by the Arabs during the First and Second Intifada’s, what do you think their reaction was? Almost all of the Arabs holding Israeli identity cards and living at that time across the green line rushed back to Jerusalem en masse. When the fence was built, they wanted to be on the Israeli side of the fence—not on the ‘Palestinian’- controlled side! They admit, although not publicly, that living under Israeli rule gives them a higher standard of living and more freedom and more opportunities than citizens in any Arab nation is afforded.
Here’s something else that is interesting! The BDS is trying to have Israeli products banned in as many places and in as many shops as possible across the world. But guess what? According to a report put out by the ‘Palestinian’ Authority, 70% of the PA’s imports were from Israel, because the residents overwhelmingly preferred purchasing Israeli products, stating that they are popularly priced and of a higher quality than local products or products from Arab countries. So the PA Arabs refuse to boycott Israeli products!
On the 27th of February, the day after “Israel Aparthied Week” began, Amnesty International called on the world communities to halt all arms deals to Israel because of its supposed treatment of the ‘Palestinians’. In its annual report the organization also suggested Israel may be guilt of war crimes. This is especially astonishing in view of the real war crimes committed by the Assad regime in Syria where more than 150,000 of its own citizens have been murdered!
Believe it or not, the report against Israel was 87 pages in length and was called “Trigger Happy”. It accuses the Israeli army and the police forces of excessive and reckless violence in operations in Judea and Samaria. It is an unverified and a very one-sided report blasting Israel, saying that in 2013, 22 ‘Palestinian’ civilians were killed by police forces. Nowhere in the report is ‘Palestinian’ terrorism against Israel mentioned or the number of Israeli civilians purposefully targeted and killed as a result of ‘Palestinian’ attacks.
Dr. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor and professor of political studies at Bar Ilan University reported on Thursday, “The Amnesty report is a huge compilation of myths. For example, they quoted ‘Palestinian’ eyewitnesses as accusing Israel of being trigger happy as the driver of a bull dozer that was out killing Israelis by running them down was shot and killed in order to stop him. That’s the level Amnesty has sunk to. It is an organization that is in deep trouble. This is a political organization and it’s destroying human rights. There is absolutely no mention of the major increase in the number of terror attacks against Israelis. They don’t care about us and that is part of the problem. This is really a discriminatory organization.”
There is an important lesson that I learned from the Lord in terms of all the anti-Israel propaganda that is constantly disseminated across the face of the earth. I would like to tell you that story in full in my next blog so stay tuned! It will surprise you, to be sure, and hopefully encourage you as well in your love for this little nation. But in the meanwhile, I’ll leave you with the following Scripture:
“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn”
Isaiah 54:17
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