The Associated Press (AP) recently published an article entitled Leading human rights group calls Israel an ‘apartheid’ state, based on a widely reported claim in a document compiled by B’tselem.
Immediately, HonestReporting sprang to action, reaching out to the AP while in parallel publishing this critique (excerpt):
By uncritically portraying this group as a leading proponent of human rights, the media have effectively facilitated the hijacking of the word apartheid by anti-Israeli activists whose goal is to foster doubt about the legitimacy of the Jewish state….
Not a single country other than South Africa has ever been charged by the international community with imposing apartheid on its people. None of the world’s worst human rights violators have been placed in this docket…
By subjecting Israel to a double standard, B’Tselem and, in turn, the media have blurred the fine line between legitimate criticism of Israeli policies and antisemitism.
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To its credit, the AP responded by adding the following three paragraphs to its original piece, thereby providing readers with a more balanced picture of the story:
Eugene Kontorovich, director of international law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum, says the fact that the Palestinians have their own government makes any talk of apartheid “inapplicable,” calling the B’Tselem report “shockingly weak, dishonest and misleading.”
Palestinian leaders agreed to the current territorial divisions in the Oslo accords in the 1990s, and the Palestinian Authority is recognized as a state by dozens of nations. That, Kontorovich says, is a far cry from the territories designated for Black South Africans under apartheid — known as bantustans — to which many Palestinians compare the areas governed by the PA.
Kontorovich said the use of the word “apartheid” was instead aimed at demonizing Israel in a way that “resonates with racial sensitivities and debates in America and the West.”
By uncritically portraying B’Tselem as a leading proponent of human rights, some media outlets have effectively facilitated the hijacking of the word apartheid by anti-Israeli activists whose goal is to foster doubt about the legitimacy of the Jewish state.
But because AP stories are reprinted in many other publications, its update appeared in the Washington Post, ABC News, the LA Times and many others.
We commend the AP for incorporating into its article another voice to ensure that all interpretations of a complex issue are heard.
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