Supporters of Israel Apartheid drives should instead take aim at Hamas, along with other terrorist regimes seeking to destroy the Jewish state and slander its citizens, and subject their own citizens to human rights violations. A gay man from the West bank, now living in Tel Aviv for 12 years, and featured in Haaretz, for example, arrived in Israel at age 14 because, he says: “If I returned to Nablus, it would be like throwing paper into a fire.” He rarely goes back to visit his family for fear of attack and torture by Palestinian police. As even interim Canadian Liberal Leader Bob Rae noted in a release this past week: “Israeli Apartheid Week continues to defy logic and the cause of social justice.” He went on to state that organizers of IAW choose to ignore the appalling massacres and human rights violations currently going on in Syria and Iran.
Apartheid in Israel does not exist; however, gender apartheid , in which women are treated as things, but things that carry your honor; and apartheid against gays — as well as racism and slavery against blacks, Palestinians and non-Muslims — are all commonplace in the Muslim world. In Saudi Arabia, some roads are marked for Muslims and others for non-Muslims, while Bibles are not even allowed into the country. In Lebanon, Palestinians are unable to become citizens or work a number of jobs, and are kept in overcrowded and wretched ghettos called “refugee camps.” As Canada’s Immigration Minister Jason Kenney noted about Israel Apartheid Week: “There is a point at which well-intentioned debate is overrun by hatred and intolerance; creating a toxic environment that prevents meaningful dialogue on important issues from taking place.” This intimidation and toxicity has no place on the campuses of our Western societies.
Originally published by Stonegate Institute www.stonegateinstitute.org
