South African Watchdog Declares Israel an Apartheid State
July 7, 2011 15:11 by Simon Plosker
The accusation that Israel is an “apartheid state” is a deliberate misuse of language as part of a larger strategy to erode the Israeli state’s legitimacy and deserves to be confronted. This is particularly true when it occurs in South Africa where the term “apartheid” carries extra emotional and historical weight.
Public opinion will turn sharply against Israel if people believe that it is an apartheid state, just as it did for the real apartheid regime in South Africa. The use of the term is a blatant assault on Israel’s legitimacy by the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement by linking Israel to the reviled South African regime.
So the South African Jewish Board of Deputies was absolutely right to make a complaint to South Africa’s Advertising Standards Authority concerning a radio commercial featuring the voice of Dave Randall, lead singer of the UK rock group Faithless:
Hi, I’m Dave Randall from Faithless. Twenty years ago I would not have played in apartheid South Africa; today I refuse to play in Israel. Be on the right side of history. Don’t entertain apartheid. Join the international boycott of Israel. I support southafricanartistsagainstapartheid.com.
According to the ASA’s ruling, the complainants took issue with the implied claim that Israel is an apartheid state, a factually incorrect and irresponsible comparison, and that the commercial contained a lie amounting to false propaganda. Furthermore, the call to boycott Israel is racist and hateful.
The ASA, however, ruled against the complainants. While some of the ruling was based upon technicalities, the ASA went further in order to justify its decision:
There have been numerous international missions that have observed the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and have concluded that Israel is in contravention of International Law and is an apartheid state.
It further submitted reports by a UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories as well as a copy of the International Court of Justice concerning the wall in Jerusalem. Further to this it submitted copious academic studies, newspaper articles and cartoons concerning Israel. Affidavits from Professor Uri Davis and former Minister Ronnie Kasrils were also attached.
The expression of the view that Israel is an apartheid state in contravention of international law is based on a sound factual matrix and the connection between apartheid South Africa and Israel has been made numerous times in the South African media. The claim is therefore justified and arguably capable of substantiation through this range of documentary sources.
So who are the ASA’s expert sources?
- Could it be the same UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk who only in the last few days posted an anti-Semitic cartoon (see below) on his blog before removing it after being exposed by UN Watch?
- The International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s security barrier never referred to it as an “apartheid wall”. This terminology was adopted by those seeking to delegitimize Israel. So why then, did the ASA also make this false linkage?
- Aside from taking a lead from the media itself, did the ASA rely upon South African cartoonists such as Jonathan Shapiro a.k.a. Zapiro, whose crude anti-Israel cartoons have featured regularly on HonestReporting over the years, earning him a 2007 Dishonest Reporter Award?
- What about Professor Uri Davis, an anti-Zionist so dedicated to attacking Israel that he is actually an elected member of Fatah’s governing council?
- And as for Ronnie Kasrils, his prominent political position has given him a platform to air his extremist views that Israel has no right to exist and his hatred of the Jewish state. Sadly, it appears that he was also able to influence the ASA.
The ASA’s conclusion, not only that there is no case to answer for linking apartheid to Israel, but that Israel is actually an apartheid state, is nothing short of disgusting. That this has happened in South Africa, the victim of genuine apartheid is equally disturbing and demonstrates the extent to which this false comparison has become treated as mainstream opinion.
See our Hot Topics for more on the Apartheid State Libel and how to address this slur.
You can send your considered comments to the South African Advertising Standards Agency – complaint@asasa.org.za
Check out our Home Page for today’s other top stories
Armand Kidouchim
5:55 pm
Jul 07, 2011
Dave Randall from the Faithless group is ”NO Surprise” from the UK.
Once upon the time,….there was a country called United Kingdom,…it is no more!
The NITWITTS in show business like this ”Nitwitt du jour Dave Randall” is just one more in the long list of low IQ corrupt individuals.
Apartheid in Israel? What are these people trying to do ”again moral equivalency” ??????
Jews in South Africa should broacast (TV or Radio) any current day documentary on Israel’s society and its laws to counter these lies once for all.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
34 
0
Chayyim Ish-Teva
7:11 pm
Jul 07, 2011
There is indeed a similarity between apartheid in South Africa and Israel’s attempts to protect its citizens from “Palestinian” terrorism. Do you honestly think that aparheid in South Africa was about a bunch of white people deciding randomly to be nasty to black people? No the historical reality that the political left have so successfully covered up is that apartheid was a policy established by relatively moderate white South Africans for protection against the constant onslaught of murders and robberies committed against them by black South Africans. Whereas the real right wing in South Africa felt that whites should retaliate with guns, the moderates came up with apartheid – the idea of separating whites and blacks with the blacks eventually getting their own independent states. Sound familiar?
Hot debate. What do you think?
6 
13
Asher Garber
7:24 pm
Jul 07, 2011
I’ve never heard of the UK band “Faithless”. This must be part of their publicity campaign, and being good at counting, I am sure big Dave Randall thought to himself, “You know, there are more than 10 times the number of Muslims than there are Jews, so I’m going to cater my [crappy, lame, and hardly interesting] music to them.”
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
26 
1
Steven L
7:54 pm
Jul 07, 2011
I never understood and still do not understand. Muslim Arabs are the only one responsible and still practicing today slavery towards black Africans and yet this is totally ignored by African leaders. I guess for the leaders of black Africa, petro$ is worth the price of slavery.
Most countries accusing Israel of apartheid are doubly ignorant. They have no idea of the meaning of the word and they have never put a foot in Israel.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
36 
0
Michal Ravdin
8:13 pm
Jul 07, 2011
The SouthAfrican “dog” probabely forgot the simptoms of Apartheid in his country. There were no blacks in the parliament or in any public position, no black students in any university together with whites, everywhere there were signs saying “entrance forbidden for blacks”, no black doctors, if there were any, were allowed to work in hospitals treating whites.
I wonder if the watchdog knows anything about the situation in Israel regarding Arabs.
I wonder if he is bribed to spread those lies.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
28 
1
greenber
8:29 pm
Jul 07, 2011
To say Israel is an apatheid state is to confess that the ” territories” are not really “Palestinian” but part of Israel. Thank you for understanding that. It is the only point on which we agree.
MG
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
18 
0
Steven Kalka
9:11 pm
Jul 07, 2011
This sounds like Goebbel’s Big Lie technique. If you repeat the same lie over and over again, it’s accepted as gospel truth by the gullible.
The Shakespearean phrase, “A tale told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” applies to this ‘apartheid’ charge.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
23 
0
Yair
9:52 pm
Jul 07, 2011
Arabs have the right to choose what to do with the first 2-3 years of their adulthood. Most Jews don’t. Which ethnic groups are legally discriminated against, again?
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
9 
1
Chayyim Ish-Teva
10:37 pm
Jul 07, 2011
@Michael Ravdin, actually there were many blacks in universities, there weren’t signs all over the place saying no entrance to blacks, blacks had their own governments in their homelands. I lived under apartheid in South Africa for 27 years. The radical left successfully demonized white South Africans for simply wanting to live in safety and not be robbed and murdered by barbarians and are now trying to demonize Israeli for not wanting to be murdered by Arab terrorists. There are more differences than similarities between Israel and South Africa but please people stop the evil nonsense of calling white South Africans racists and pratting about “racist apartheid” when as in Israel it was never about race it was about a civilized victims trying to protect themselves from a constant uncivilized aggressor without having to resort to exterminating the aggressor in the hope that peace could eventually be achieved.
The main problem with apartheid was that it was severely short sighted and did not deal with the reality that black South Africans were very rapidly becoming westernised and forsaking their old culture of tribal conquests and robbery. It did not cater in a sensible manner for the relatively large ethnic groups who were neither westernized white nor tribal black. But to portray apartheid as evil white people persecuting innocent black people is bullshit and just as evil as the demonization of Israelis.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
16 
2
Victor Meyer
12:06 am
Jul 08, 2011
South Africa was undeniably at its peak performance during the Afrikaner Era. The gravest error was Apartheid. Had that never been socially engineered, South Africa would still have been a haven among the nations of the world. Most people would’ve fallen to their rightful place in society according to their productivity, etc. A large Middle Class would’ve been present. The reality today is a huge chasm that exists between rich and poor.
However, to label Israel an ‘Apartheid’ state is unfounded. When will the world stop coming against and attempting to divide the Holy Land? Political leaders will do well to heed the words of God Himself in a promise made to Abra[ha]m as recorded in Genesis 12:3…
“I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
18 
0
Allen Suss
3:06 am
Jul 08, 2011
Dave Randall will, I assume be prepared to play in such free countries as Syria, Iran, Sudan and perhaps even in Libya, beacons of freedom. Even Tibet might be a nice place to perform.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
19 
0
Fabian
6:10 am
Jul 08, 2011
I have seen the group appear on all Arab-Anti-Israel bigotry-blogs. They are connected to D. Tutu, who in 2002 uttered anti-Israel slurs.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
11 
0
Fabian
6:21 am
Jul 08, 2011
Ahmad shukairy Arab-nazi invented the apartheid slur in 1961 (“Politics, lies, and videotape: 3,000 questions and answers on the Mideast crisis – Page 392 – Yitschak Ben Gad – (SP Books,) 1991 – 479 pages), he helped the (ally of Adolf Hitler, al-Husseini, better known as the) Mufti and aided in extermination of Jews in WW2 according to testimony in Congress. [Congressional record: proceedings and debates of the United States Congress: Volume 113, Part 12 - United States. Congress - Govt. Print. Off., 1967 - Page A-525]
Agree or Disagree:
2 
0
Fred
7:58 am
Jul 08, 2011
What about the many Muslim/Arab countries that dislike Jews or will not let them in their countries.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
6 
0
Trevor Fletcher
8:30 am
Jul 08, 2011
Just see how Hamas treats the PLO and vice versa. Smells of the real South African type apartheid, just not based on skin colour. We could also look at Syria , Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey etc. to learn about ethnic discrimination.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
4 
0
Don Drop and go on fishing
8:43 am
Jul 08, 2011
Message to asasa.
Dear Sir / Madam,
From the news:
Arthur Goldreich, who died Tuesday, May 24, 2011, at 82 in Tel Aviv, fought in the pre-state Jewish underground in Israel before returning to S.A. in 1954 to fight against apartheid.
A few days ago your club decided in all it’s wisdom to declare the State of Israel an “Apartheidsstate”.
Well, that’s the way you see it, and there might be a couple of circumstances that you feel are pointing in that direction.
Given this I like to ask you to answer a question that haunts me a bit:
“Why in hell decided a dedicated fighter against Apartheid in Suid-Afrika to find shelter in Israel, after escaping from prison in S-A? (1963)
And never bothered to return to S-A after the Apartheid finished.
Why stay in a country that, according to you, is an Apartheidsstate?
He, as an expert on, and victim of apartheid, unlike you, decided to stay in Israel.
Why didn’t he return to S-A to settle in a country without apartheid?”
May be he decided the crime rate in S-A too high, against the security the Israeli State offered him?
May be he found apartheid still exists in Suid-Afrika?
—–
Apart from the fact that you ain’t got the power to declare things:
Actually I have to disagree with you for declaring the State of Israel an “Apartheidsstate”, as the main reason for their actions is given in by their urge to protect their people, and survive as a nation in the presence of hostile neighbors.
Such sometimes calls for unpleasant actions in order to achieve that goal.
I admit that some actions sometimes seem to be a bit ridiculous, but considering the costs involved I don’t believe they take them in order to harass them people.
——
Israel exists since 1948, and you have to live with it, whether you like it or not.
By coincidence being the same year (1948) as apartheid became policy in Suid-Afrika, after the HNP did win elections.
—–
The Boer should say: “Jy praat ‘n bietjie kak, jy.”
Enjoy your live, and don’t bite your nails.
Kind regards,
xxxxxxxx
P.S.
Is Suid-Afrika better or worse since the end of Apartheid?
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
5 
0
robert donaldson
9:59 am
Jul 08, 2011
the country that has ousted any form of self reliance from the past regimes of work and pay your bills has been disbanded in SA.
whilst you Dave Randall from Faithless rave about apparthied, all i can see is hate behind a false front towards a prosperous Israel, that came out of dust and sand before they arrived in 1948. That wee country now called Israel,.. Gods people,.. have worked and laboured away driving away many of the ills that now befall such once prosperous places like SA and Rodesia ooops Zimbabwee.
It appears only those that call nasty names to Israel are after all envious and appathetic in their work ethics.
Why not bless Israel and you will be blessed for it is written;
The Call of Abram
1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”[
So there be your answer.
Gods blessings into your life…..
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
Brent Pudsey
1:34 pm
Jul 08, 2011
Israel allows for free speech and still has an Arab population within its boarders. It has shown tolerance in many ways , one for example being the Sharey Zedok medical centre which has provided medical care to individuals on both sides of the conflict and has treated Palestinians. How can a nation such as this be called tyranical and be compared to a nation which sponsored class and racial division such as South Africa during its Apatheid?
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
Suzie Witbooi
3:09 pm
Jul 08, 2011
Writing as a black South African who has lived in Israel and who continues to live in SA, I can only put this latest calumny down to willful ignorance. Anyone who is not an anti-Zionist propagandist and has any knowledge of the two countries would never equate Apartheid with present day Israel.
Read the black anti-Apartheid activist, and staunch Zionist, Rhoda Kadalie’s article
Franchising Apartheid, why South African push the analogy.
http://www.z-word.com/z-word-essays/franchising-%25E2%2580%259Capartheid%25E2%2580%259D%253A-why-south-africans-push-the-analogy.html
Agree or Disagree:
2 
0
hakohen gadol
3:53 pm
Jul 08, 2011
as we say in israel – fools never die, they just change places. just add him to the growing list
Agree or Disagree:
1 
0