Palestinian protesters gather near the border wall during clashes with Israeli troops on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip on Sept. 1
-Analysis-
It wasn’t long ago that anyone who used the word “apartheid” to describe the situation in the Palestinian territories risked being accused of antisemitism. This week, the former chief of Mossad, the Israeli secret service, used it — joining a short list of state officials who have taken the leap to make the public accusation.
The taboo has gradually eroded in Israel as a result of the excesses of the extreme right, a key part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's current parliamentary coalition. This is a reflection of the intense political battle unfolding in a polarized Israel. Previously, the situation in the Palestinian territories had been largely absent from the debate. This is no longer the case.
Tamir Pardo, who headed Mossad from 2011 to 2016, described the treatment of Palestinians as comparable to apartheid, the system of institutionalized racism that ruled in South Africa until 1994. “A territory in which two people are governed by two separate judicial systems — that is a state of apartheid,” he said.
Final straw
The final straw was undoubtedly a shocking scene that played out on Israeli television. The country’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, an extreme-right leader who lives in the Kiryat Arba settlement near Hebron in the Palestinian Territories, told an Arab-Israeli journalist: “I’m sorry, Mohammed — my right, and the rights of my wife and children, to travel in Judea and Samaria [the biblical name for the West Bank] is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs.”
If we needed a definition for “apartheid,” the minister found it.
Israel is taking the same path as South Africa did 75 years ago.
Benjamin Pogrund, an Israeli who grew up in South African and fought against apartheid in his youth, has written about how his opinion has changed. In 2014, he wrote a book in which he argued the situation couldn’t be described as “apartheid” — but today, he argues that, in the Palestinian Territories, Israel is taking the same path as South Africa did 75 years ago.
Radical agenda
The consequences of this turning point could be significant. International sanctions were used to fight South African apartheid; today, supporters of sanctions against Israel are in the minority, but they could use the fact that the word “apartheid” is now being used within Israel to make themselves heard.
It’s been a very long time since someone of his stature was so direct.
Above all, the breaking of this taboo returns the Palestinian issue to the debate. For a long time, Israeli society has closed its eyes to what is happening in the Palestinian territories – but with the government’s radical agenda, this is no longer possible.
Moreover, another statement by the former Mossad chief caused surprise: his assessment that the Palestinian issue is more urgent for Israel than a nuclear threat from Iran. It’s been a very long time since someone of his stature was so direct – a sign of the extreme rupture set off in just a few months by Netanyahu and the allies he chose for his government.
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