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Monday, March 7, 2011

The annual hypocrisy of Idiot Apartheid Week is upon us ...or Why I've come to appreciate "Israeli Apartheid Week"

In Israel, it's time for the annual American Apartheid Week. 

Campuses across the Middle East's only liberal democracy will be holding seminars and protests this year to denounce the apartheid to which the Indigenous populations of the Americas are subject. The natives of the Americas were and are the victims of one of the most effective genocides in history,  their contemporary numbers are fractional compared to their population  prior to the invasion of the Americas by European settlers. The Europeans and their colonialist successors in the "New World" are responsible for the pre-colonial cultures having been mostly destroyed and forgotten.

Even though Indigenous peoples in the Americas have voting rights, they are treated as second class citizens who face discrimination at every turn. The American settlers continue to occupy their lands, reaping wealth from their conquered resources while the true owners of these riches remain impoverished and relegated to non-contiguous Bantustans called "reservations."

Of course there is no American Apartheid Week in Israel. There isn't a country in the world where some people weren't dispossessed in favor of its current population, and grievances regarding that, to some degree, past and present, exist almost everywhere.

Israel is engaged in a land dispute with Palestinians who, while their treatment is exponentially better than the historical sufferings of our First Nations, are still subject to myriad indignities until that conflict is resolved.

But in one of the great ironies that typifies the profound stupidity of North American radicals, they are using facilities built on land stolen from the indigenous population to hypocritically condemn Israel for acting in self-defense.

The rallying cry for activists who opposed South Africa's racist apartheid system was "One man, one vote!" If the real goal of the bigots behind "Israeli Apartheid Week" were that, then they could have declared victory before they started. Israeli Arabs have always had the vote.

People like the discredited Canadian Arab Federation's Khaled Muammar quote Jimmy Carter for support of their position without understanding him or realizing even Carter said, "There is no semblance of anything relating to apartheid within the nation of Israel." While Muammar has made unsubstantiated accusations of racism being at the root of Israeli policy, Carter has stated that Israeli practice in the West Bank "is not based on racism as it was in South Africa, but is based on the desire by a minority of Israelis to acquire land that belongs to the Palestinians."

Those familiar with the agenda of the anti-Israel fanatics who populate "Israeli Apartheid Week" seminars know that they are mostly divided into two camps, radical leftists and Islamists. Within those two camps are two types: those who understand that Israel does not practice apartheid but are happy to attempt to slander what they see as a "Western, imperialist, colonialist outpost in the Middle East," and those who are either too uniformed or too stupid to comprehend the nature of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

These are motley gang who pretend to be "peace activists" and want to send a boat to break a military blockade of Gaza that is designed to prevent Iranian arms shipments that would spark another war. They claim to want to help the "starving" people of Gaza, while denying the reality that Gaza has well-stocked markets, multi-level malls, luxury hotels, and has one of the highest female obesity rates in the world.

Typical of the hypocrisy of holding Israeli Apartheid Week in a country that has eradicated most of its native population is an attitude reflected by Toronto lawyer, Zahra Dhanani.

Dhanani, up until very recently a member of the disgraced Toronto Community Housing Corporation Board, which was compelled to resign en mass by Mayor Rob Ford, gave an interview last year where she decried Israeli actions as "genocide." She may be unaware that "genocide" means the murder of a race. When genocide occurs, the population of the victims drastically declines, as was the case of the native population in Canada, whose land she enables new settlers to occupy through her work as an immigration lawyer. The Palestinian population of Gaza and the West Bank has more than tripled since 1967, which would make that the opposite of genocide.

Hazardous products are required to carry warning labels; unfortunately, hazardous people are not.  But for a week in March, these camps of enraged, obtuse participants at "Israeli Apartheid Week" do society a big favor by separating themselves from the rest of us while engaging in a bigot-fest. In so doing, they let us see who they are and what they truly stand for. They have created a self-imposed Idiot Apartheid Week.

Their annual Idiot Apartheid Week (IAW) helps us all. When you meet someone, instead of having to wait for them to make some idiotic pronouncement to establish if you're dealing with a bigot or a fool, knowing that someone is an IAW participant saves you the time and trouble.


info on this available from Blazing Cat Fur
There actually is apartheid in the Middle East. It's practiced by Israel's neighbours in the form of brutal repression of women and religious minorities and in the legalized murder of homosexuals. But we won't see the characters at Idiot Apartheid Week denouncing those crimes against humanity. That would be inconsistent with their idiocy.


















15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Truths that need to be retold by every generation, for the haters will always be with us.

Anonymous said...

"The Europeans and their colonialist successors in the "New World" are responsible for the pre-colonial cultures having been mostly destroyed and forgotten."


Is this not a reason to prevent this from happening again in the modern world?



""One man, one vote!" If the real goal of the bigots behind "Israeli Apartheid Week" were that, then they could have declared victory before they started. Israeli Arabs have always had the vote."


The issue is quite obviously the democratic rights of Palestinians under Israeli military occupation. They have been denied self-determination.

Richard K said...

The issue is the conflict between trying to establish secure borders for Israel while allowing Palestinians self-determination. They are possible as long as the Palestinian side commits to an actual peace, which it has so far failed to do with any credibility. The rest is simply a question of border disputes.

Miltary occupation is not the same as the eradication of culture and genocide that happened to our native population. Comparing the situation here to Israel or for that matter comapring Israel to South Africa is diingenuously used by bigoted propagandists or in the case of people who buy into that BS, it betrays a complete lack of comprehension of the history and realities that they're talking about.

None of this is very surprising. A great deal of the anti-Israel movement is engaged, not because of any genuine understanding or even real interest in the issue, but because it's become a social club for marginalized radicals.

Anonymous said...

Winston Churchill once said " A lie will travel halfway around the world before truth has a chance to put its pants on". This is true about the idiots that populate the anti-Israeli hate mongers groups.

Anonymous said...

Israel is not trying to establish "secure borders", in fact israel has never defined it's borders.

Also, the palestinians have been revealed to have compromised on everything in negotiations. borders, refugees, sovereignty, settlements...israel won't even stop building settlements. how is it all the palestinians fault?

to then say it is the people being critical of israel that are uninformed, or just wanting to belong to a social club, is disingenuous at best and is simply ignoring the substance of the argument by labeling it "crazy" addressing the actual arguments or issues.

you also set yourself up for the counter argument that you are engaging in the exact same kind of hypocrisy you dismiss palestinian supporters for. i.e. supporting your side at all costs, dismissing any evidence that doesn't support your own views as crazy, dismissing relevant facts, arguments based on flimsy evidence and not using sources or evidence to back up your claims.

Richard K said...

Where did I say it was "all the Palestinians' fault"? You seem to have not comprehended what you read, and instead projected your own bias into it, which kind of does make you crazy.

There's plenty of blame to go around, but trying to place all the blame on Israel by an effort to deligitimize it suggests these people and you have no real interest in peace, but are just posturing, which is impossible to respect.

Anonymous said...

"... possible as long as the Palestinian side commits to an actual peace, which it has so far failed to do with any credibility. The rest is simply a question of border disputes."

how else am i supposed to interpret that? isn't that ignoring the record that clearly shows israel/US blocking any sort of peace agreement? Whether by vetoing UN resolutions that condemn settlements, using military force, attacking protesters, blockades, building settlements, etc.

i'm just going by what i read in the israeli press!

Also, you responded to my post exactly as predicted: by calling me crazy, no interest in peace, posturing...disregarding the point about not defining borders and israels actions regarding rejecting palestinian compromise on negotiations.

Richard K said...

I don't think you clearly understand the nature of the conflict very well, and uh.. yeah, committing to an actual peace is kind of a prerequisite for having one as opposed to say, having thousands of people come out and celebrate that a terrorist slashed the throats of 3 children aged 11, 4 and 3 months as happened a few days ago.

While that attack happened in the West Bank, it is Gaza that's more troublesome because while the attack itself was managed by fanatics who don't represent the PA leadership, it was the masses and the leadership in Gaza that overtly celebrate such barbarity.

But I'll confess, you have a great parlour trick there. You say crazy, irrational stuff and then successfully predict that people will call you crazy. What do you do for an encore? Cover yourself in feces and then predict that people will say you stink?

Anonymous said...

well, in what way has israel committed to peace? by violating ceasefires and continuing to steal land and illegally expand it's borders, refusing to even negotiate?

And, are you confusing the protests for hamas/fatah unity as being instead a celebration of the murders? not aware of any demonstrations in support of the murders, do you have a link to that?

also, what about settler violence/murders/"price tag"? not to mention the thousands of civilians killed by the IDF over the years. certainly that is just as bad!

and if what i'm saying is so crazy, why aren't you addressing the issues i'm bringing up directly?

again they are: israeli/US refusal to negotiate even with PA concessions revealed in palestine papers, continued settlement activity, continued blockades that involve non military assets that target the population, direct military attacks, etc, etc.

To say these aren't major factors preventing a peace deal is disingenuous at best.

Richard K said...

Here you go, check out the links in this item. I'm sure if you rush over to Gaza, you'll be able to get your piece of candy too.

http://eyecrazy.blogspot.com/2011/03/israeli-apartheid-week-in-gaza.html

Anonymous said...

so where in that article do you get "thousands" taking to the streets supporting the murders?

Also while the murders are horrible, that isn't the subject we were discussing, nor a major stumbling block to a peace deal. and you've still avoided addressing the real issues i've stated above, opting instead to simply change the subject or make personal attacks against me.

what is it that i'm saying that is "crazy, irrational"? if it is so crazy it should be easily refutable with a factual argument rather than insinuating i support the killing of innocent israeli civilians.

also the personal attacks on me

Richard K said...

None of anything you say make, by any intelligent argument, Israel an "aparthied" country. So if you want to talk about not addressing an issue, why don't you find out information about what you're actually proposing, and stop lying about how a national and land dispute is allegedly a "racial" dispute.

None of anything you've said have anything to do with Israel being an "aparthied" country. It's just some irrational (or deceitful - take your choice) digression that you're engaging in to avoid admitting a bigoted effort to lie about the nature of the conflict.

Anytime someone points out that Israel isn't an aparthied state, you IAW nuts start going, "but violence and UN resolutions and blah blah blah blah..", none of which have anything to do with Israel being an "apartheid" country. And there's an even longer laundry list of grievances that Israel has against the Palestinians.

So what's crazy is your inability to focus on the actual point. You brought up lots of grievances the Palestinians have, some are legitimate, and some aren't. But not a single one has anything to do with the point you're trying to make of Israel practicing apartheid.

I'll tell you what, why don't you go devote yourself into helping Canadian natives on a reserve if you're so convinced that Israel is an apartheid state, since you're enjoying the fruits of a near genocide thousands of times worse than anything Israel's ever done to squat on the stolen land you're enjoying in North America. Or better still, hand over your deed to the descendants of its original owners who were robbed of it.

Don't worry, I don't really expect you to face your hypocrisy and do that.

Anonymous said...

since when were we talking about apartheid? i was addressing a claim you made in your comments (which you are still avoiding, i might add)...

again trying to smear the messenger by making a vapid claim i'm an "iaw nut" and that i have no concept of first nations long history of oppression (which is what made me think about israel in a new light in the first place) is a nice way to try and avoid the subject though...

Richard K said...

I see, and what exactly was your point? You decided to post a series of anti-Israel arguments on a post about the hypocrisy of the "Israeli Apartheid" lie and you ask "since when were we talking about apartheid?"

You must be one of the least coherent loons in your group.

One of the reasons I am a firm believer in free speech and unlike a lot of socialist websites, don't ban or censor political comments is because sooner of later, people like you reveal themselves to be what they really are. Someone who equates the intentional murder by slashing the throats of a 4 month old child, an 3 year old an an 11 year old to unintentional deaths in military action (which happens in every military conflict in trhe world) is a moral imbecile. I have no respect for you or your opinion, and won't bother to respond to you anymore, but go ahead, continue to expose how vile you and your ideological brethren in the IAW gang are..

Anonymous said...

do i really need to point it out again?

"The issue is the conflict between trying to establish secure borders for Israel while allowing Palestinians self-determination. They are possible as long as the Palestinian side commits to an actual peace, which it has so far failed to do with any credibility. The rest is simply a question of border disputes."

i pointed out some evidence showing that stance is factually incorrect. Instead of dealing with that you call me names, talk about murders, first nations...even after several posts you still refused to deal with the subject.

I think anyone reading this can see you made every effort to avoid discussing the points i brought up and tried instead to avoid them, change the subject and slander me. my question is, why can't you simply address the facts directly if they are so much on your side?