Guardian Promotes Apartheid Slur
February 12, 2006 12:00 by ManagingTeam
Despite other newsworthy stories concerning Hamas and Muslim reaction to newspaper cartoons, the Guardian has chosen to publish a lengthy two-part diatribe (see parts 1 and 2) comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa. The false and unfounded portrayal of Israel as an “apartheid state” is certainly not new and has been examined many times by HonestReporting (see below for related communiques). In the past five years, however, this charge has been revived and promoted as part of a deliberate campaign and strategy to demonize and delegitimize Israel. As Professor Gerald Steinberg notes, this was an outcome of the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa.
The attempts to turn Israel into a pariah state like apartheid-era South Africa have encouraged boycott and divestment campaigns and the singling out of Israel for special treatment in international forums as well as tarnishing Israel’s image. This potent political weapon and its emotive terminology is thus used to turn Israel’s security fence into an “Apartheid Wall” and Zionism into a form of racism. Those who deny the Jewish right to self-determination also turn to the South Africa “rainbow state” example to promote an eventual bi-national state of Jews and Palestinians. The logical outcome of this would see Arab demographic dominance and the end of Israel as a Jewish state.
In debunking the comparison between Israel and apartheid, the Jewish Virtual Library states:
Today, within Israel, Jews are a majority, but the Arab minority are full citizens who enjoy equal rights. Arabs are represented in the Knesset, and have served in the Cabinet, high-level foreign ministry posts (e.g., Ambassador to Finland) and on the Supreme Court. Under apartheid, black South Africans could not vote and were not citizens of the country in which they formed the overwhelming majority of the population. Laws dictated where they could live, work and travel. And, in South Africa, the government killed blacks who protested against its policies. By contrast, Israel allows freedom of movement, assembly and speech. Some of the government’s harshest critics are Israeli Arabs who are members of the Knesset.
The situation of Palestinians in the territories is different. The security requirements of the nation, and a violent insurrection in the territories, forced Israel to impose restrictions on Arab residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip that are not necessary inside Israel’s pre-1967 borders. The Palestinians in the territories, typically, dispute Israel’s right to exist whereas blacks did not seek the destruction of South Africa, only the apartheid regime.
Flawed and biased journalism
The Guardian’s feature article is not an op-ed or even an editorial, but the work of Chris McGreal (pictured), the paper’s Israel correspondent whose previous posting was actually in South Africa. McGreal’s politicized agenda towards Israel is dramatically revealed in this article and raises doubts as to his ability to provide accurate and balanced reporting from the region.
McGreal chooses to interview known anti-Israel figures such as the UN’s John Dugard and South African politician Ronnie Kasrils, who has previously called for a boycott of Israel. In addition, marginal figures are quoted, such as supposedly influential Likud Israeli MP Uzi Cohen who calls for the expulsion of Palestinians from PA territories. The reality, however, is that Cohen is the less than influential Deputy Mayor of the Israeli town of Ra’anana and not even a Member of Knesset. Just these examples call into question the credibility of McGreal’s piece.
Letters to the Guardian: letters@guardian.co.uk
Further sources
While HonestReporting has addressed some of the points raised by McGreal’s article, readers are encouraged to use some of the sources listed below to further their knowledge of this complex issue:
- HonestReporting communiques: Not An “Apartheid Wall”, ‘Road Apartheid’ Debunked, The Guardian is Getting “Boering”.
- BICOM, Response to the Guardian’s G2 supplement.
- Benjamin Pogrund, ‘Why depict Israel as a chamber of horrors like no other in the world’, The Guardian, 8 Feb 2006.
– Gerald Steinberg, Abusing ‘Apartheid’ for the Palestinian Cause, Jerusalem Post, August 24, 2004.
– Reader reactions in the Guardian, Feb 8, 2006.
Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.
HonestReporting
Eran
5:17 pm
Jun 06, 2011
Why is he going back to 1927 when Arab gangs started to kill Jews in their Holy Land.
Israel is the eternal home of the Jewish People. It is not an Arab holy land as they claim.
Why not settle the Palestinian people in their ancestors lands????????
Agree or Disagree:
1 
0
The Arab-Islamic bigoted ‘apartheid slur’ / links « arabislamicapartheid
10:34 pm
Jul 11, 2011
[...] Promotes Apartheid Slur – honest reporting [February 12, 2006] http://honestreporting.com/guardian-promotes-apartheid-slur [...]
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0
Lila
3:04 am
May 16, 2012
Arab apartheid / Muslim apartheid are the largest ‘apartheid systems’, that exist today.
Virtually all non-Arabs and/or non-Muslims are second class citizens. Among minorities that feel the wrath of the bigoted Arab-Muslim world are:
* Berbers (native N. Africans, before Arab invasion: Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco).
* Copts (indigenous Egyptians suffer from both: Arab racism and Islamic bigotry).
* Kurds (Examples include: [Saddam's] Iraq and Syria.
* Blacks, in Arab lands or in Arab ruled Africa like the genocide in the Sudan and slavery in both Sudan and in Mauritania.
* Asians, particularly in the Gulf Arab states. [Sex slaves or "plain" slaves).
* Maronites-Christians [Native Lebanese] suffer from both Arab ethnic racism and religious bigotry, like the massacres in the 1970s by local Muslims and by Palestinian/Syrian forces.
* Assyrians, are/have been persecuted both racially and religiously. Still very much marginalized in Iraq, for example.
* Iran is not an Arab country but racism is huge against Kurds, Jews, Turkmens, etc. So is anti-non-Muslim bigotry against Christians, Bahai, Zoroastrians and other in the Islamic republic.
* Turkey is also a Muslim non-Arab country and Kurds, Greeks, Armenians and other ethnicities have been through much suffering, genocide. Still there’s great wide racism against non-Turkish ethnic groups including racism against Alevis and against Kurds. Turkey’s policy in Cyprus has also been recognized as a real Apartheid by many. All non-Muslims are automatically branded as “foreigners” at the “moderate” Islamic supremacy of Turkey.
* Chinese, Indians, Christians and other non-Malay, in Malaysia; Chinese, Christians in Indonesia, have long been subject to persecution, race-riots, discrimination, racism and bloodshed.
* Non-Muslims or the ‘wrong kind of Muslims,’ in Pakistan; Iraq; Afghanistan, are oppressed and targeted in deadly attacks.
* All non-Muslims in ‘Islamic Apartheid state’ of S. Arabia.
* Asians [slaves!] in the Gulf Arab states.
* Bedoons in Kuwait.
* Al-Akhdam in Yemen.
* Gypsies in Jordan.
—
Islamic-Arab “Palestine” apartheid:
* Ahmadiyya Muslims are harshly persecuted in (Pakistan and in) the “Palestinian” Apartheid authority and/or by Hamas.
* Descendants of slaves of the Bedouins are still stigmatized by racist “Palestinians”.
* Christians are discriminated, persecuted against [especially since Y. Arafat's Islamization of Bethlehem], by Palestine authority and Hamas regime.
—
From anti-Jewish Apartheid:
- The Arab racist apartheid against the Jews attempted genocide ever since the 1920s, (Like Mufti of “Palestine” at his incited massacres, and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood who called simply ‘to kill Jews’).
- Chased out a Million Jews in the late 1940.
- Has boycotted and demonized [every logical defensive action is branded "racist"] the Jewish democratic-free-equal-to-all state only because it’s the “other”. It is neither Muslim nor purely Arab.
- The Arab racist world continues to play with Arab-Palestinians (grandchildren of Arab immigrants) like ping-pong against Israel.
—
AND THE BEACON OF APARTHEID HAS THE AUDACITY TO CHARGE MULTI-RACIAL ISRAEL’S BEAUTIFUL DEMOCRACY [THAT OFTEN GIVES PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT FOR ITS ARABS OVER JEWS] WITH THIS TERMINOLOGY?
THE ARAB DECEPTIVE PROPAGANDA MACHINE THAT ACTS AS IF ARAB-ISLAMIC GENOCIDAL CAMPAIGN IS NOT OBVIOUS TO DETERMINE ISRAEL’S EXTRA SECURITY MEASURES [INCLUDING AN ANTI-TERROR / ANTI-MASSACRES WALL].
As if we don’t know the ‘Arab oil lobby’s power’ over the UN and other major international organizations and some African officials to go along with the Arab propaganda.
Despite some non-Arabs who jump on this wagon out of: ignorance, of confusion complex, or of sheer bigotry, never forget, that this entire “apartheid, racism” label was pushed by Arab racists, ganging up in the UN since 1975.
Even promoter of the apartheid-slur [which was actually invented in 1961 by A. Shukairy, who was the henchman and spokesman for the infamous Mufti al-Husseini the Mufti, notorious for being A. Hitler's ally and adviser on exterminating the Jews. Shukairy also called to throw the Jews into the sea] J. Carter admitted on CNN: “I recognize that Israel is a wonderful democracy with freedom of speech and equality of treatment under the law between Arab Israelis and Jewish Israelis.” edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0612/12/acd.02.html
Incidentally, the lying Pallywood machine also created a fake “memorandum” claiming that N. Mandela ever uttered this crappy analogy.
Last but not least:
Isn’t it true that the anti-Jewish “apartheid” slur campaign is: 1) to demonize Jews and 2) to hide the real apartheid practiced by the Arab-Islamic world?
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0