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U.S. Anti-Israel Activity
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| Equating Israel to Apartheid
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Posted: August 30, 2007
The US Campaign argues that Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians are akin to apartheid. Its literature also refers to Israel’s occupation of Palestine to “Bantustantization,” the apartheid South African practice of separating black South Africans from the ruling whites.
On January 28, 2007, at an anti-war march in Washington DC, Noura Erakat, the group’s then National Grassroots Organizer/Legal Advocate, hosted a workshop entitled “Israeli Apartheid: Is Jimmy Carter Right?” The workshop praised Jimmy Carter’s book, “Palestine Peace not Apartheid,” and attempted to alert attendees of the current “apartheid” practices being carried out by the Israeli government. Since March 2007, Erakat has been working with the Government Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on domestic policy, chaired by presidential hopeful Rep. Dennis Kucinich.
During its fifth annual conference in Dearborn, Michigan, in 2006, members officially adopted an anti-apartheid framework modeled after the strategies used in the 1980s against South Africa’s apartheid regime. The group called for divestment, boycotts and sanctions of Israel and Israeli-made goods.
Comparisons between Israel and Apartheid South Africa are also commonplace on the group’s Web site, at their rallies and in their educational materials. For example, the resource section of their Web site includes six fact sheets, a series of colorful posters featuring President Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela and many articles explaining Israel’s “illegal apartheid practices.” The Web site says that this information is not easily accessible because of the “Israeli-controlled media.”
At another protest in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC in 2006, Erakat led chants that included, “Palestine has been occupied since 1948” and “Divest from apartheid Israel.”
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