As Israel faces international condemnation for its assault on Gaza, we look at growing accusations that Israel is an apartheid state. Hagai El-Ad, executive director of the human rights group B’Tselem, describes the findings of their report that details how Israel is committing “apartheid.” Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is “not complicated,” El-Ad says. “Believe your eyes. Follow your conscience. The reason that it looks like apartheid is simply because it is apartheid.” We get response from Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz and a member of its editorial board, who wrote a recent piece, “We Can Keep Lying to Ourselves on ‘Apartheid,’ but Israel Has Crossed the Line.” We also speak to Noura Erakat, Palestinian human rights attorney and legal scholar.
Nothing from the occupation gets into our daily life. The occupation seems to be somewhere else, beyond the oceans, in another continent, if at all. Israeli life is not affected by the occupation, not affected by the apartheid. We live our lives in our bubble, which is very pleasant and even, I would say, very democratic. And nobody cares to know what happens 15 minutes away from our homes, half an hour away from our homes. Most of the Israelis never travel there. Most of the Israelis are not informed about what’s going on there.
And the information which does get to Israelis is always this official, false information portraying the Palestinians always as the terrorists, nothing but terrorists, and portraying us as the ultimate victims, the only victims. Even now, when we are speaking now, most of the Israelis are sure that the big victims
— source democracynow.org | May 20, 2021