Israel confronts the A-word

Israelis howled in protest against Jimmy Carter’s recent book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," and its critique of discriminatory Israeli policies. But Carter wasn’t the first to make the analogy with the racial separation policies once practiced in South Africa. A few Israeli leftists have long used the A-word to draw critical attention to their country’s treatment of Palestinians.

Today the word popped up on signs brandished by demonstrators who blocked Israel’s Highway 443 during the morning rush, before police cleared them away and made three arrests. "Caution: Apartheid Road," one sign read. The grievance: Israel bans Palestinian vehicles from the highway, which cuts through the West Bank to connect Jerusalem with the Israeli town of Lod.

The protesters, numbering several dozen, are with a coalition of Jewish and Arab organizations that favor Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. One Jewish activist, Hadar Grievsky, told Israel’s Army Radio: "There is a policy here of apartheid. Highways are built on roads that were seized from Palestinians and are accessible only to Jewish drivers."

Army Radio’s audience no doubt cringed. Most Israelis, including many on the left, argue that Israel’s separation policies are based not on racism but on a need for protection against suicide bombers. The Israeli military says the prohibition of Palestinian traffic on the road is temporary and subject to security considerations.

The protesters suspect that the ban has a hidden purpose — to pave the way to Israel’s annexation of more West Bank land. If the state were interested only in protecting Israeli lives, they say, it could limit the travel of Israelis on roads cutting through the West Bank and build roads inside Israeli territory instead. In making this argument, the protesters use the term apartheid to mean "acts that are used as a means for establishing and maintaining domination of one racial group over another."

Thursday’s highway blockade drew an acid comment from Otniel Schneller, a right-wing member of Parliament, who dismissed its anti-apartheid theme as the work of outside agitators. "A lot of anarchists come from overseas, funded by terror, and do whatever they want," he told Israel Radio. "We must demand that the police not let these anarchists into Israel to light fires and to ruin the atmosphere we are trying to create."

— Richard Boudreaux in Jerusalem