The international human rights group Amnesty International released a more than 200-page report labeling Israel as an apartheid state. Israeli critics say that the report basically says the Jewish State shouldn’t exist.
Israel is rejecting what it calls “false allegations” in the Amnesty report.
“Instead of seeking the truth, Amnesty echoes the same lies spread by terrorist organizations,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. “Five minutes of serious examination would be enough to know that the so-called facts in the report published by Amnesty this week are delusion and disconnected from reality.”
Lapid charged that Amnesty doesn’t call Syria or Iran or other “corrupt and murderous” regimes apartheid states.
“I hate to use the argument that if Israel wasn’t a Jewish state, no one in Amnesty would dare argue against it, but in this case, there is simply no other explanation,” he said.
Amnesty’s report, entitled “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity,” says Israel has “has established and maintained an institutionalized regime of oppression and domination of the Palestinian population for the benefit of Jewish Israelis – a system of apartheid – wherever it has exercised control over Palestinians’ lives since 1948.”
A Wall Street Journal editorial calls that “a libel that distorts history. Israel was founded in the wake of the Holocaust with broad international support. The Jews who settled in historic Palestine had to fight to survive against Arab militias and national armies that wanted to push them into the sea…. The report is a denunciation of the very existence of Israel as a refuge for the Jewish people.”
The editorial goes on to say that Amnesty doesn’t explain why Israel has to fight like it does to survive. It briefly mentions Hamas shooting rockets at Israel, but then denounces Israel defending itself.
Apartheid usually refers to the system of racial separation that gave whites superiority over blacks in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s. Amnesty’s report says it “does not seek to argue” that Israel’s policies are “the same or analogous to” South African apartheid, but instead “determines whether it meets the international definition of apartheid as set out by international law and treaties, as a violation of public international law, a serious human rights violation and a crime against humanity.”
Still, Israeli Attorney Anne Herzberg from NGO Monitor says the report is aimed at relitigating the legitimacy of Israel’s existence.
“The apartheid charge against Israel began in the late 1950s, in the early 1960s…and unfortunately the UN has been the primary venue for this attack,” said Herzberg. “It was originally used by Arab delegates in UN debates as well as members of the Soviet bloc.”
Herzberg says a lot of the language comes from Soviet-era propaganda.
“The charge is powerful because it is an easy way to essentialize and exploit anti-Semitic tropes to transform the conflict from one of disputed lands and Arab rejection of a Jewish presence in the Middle East to one of Jewish racism,” she said. “And today, racism is one of the worst accusations one can be charged with.”
Israeli Attorney David Benjamin grew up in South Africa. He says there’s no comparison.
“I was certainly a witness to the iniquities of that terrible system,” Benjamin told CBN News. “And let me be absolutely clear, I’ve been living in Israel for the last 30 odd years and there is absolutely nothing in common between the system of apartheid that applied in the old South Africa and the current situation in Israel.”
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
In a recent visit to Israel, Mike Pompeo further urged that the “future of our nations demands a more forceful assertion of the truth,” specifically addressing the antisemitic lie that Israel is an “occupier.”
“The future of our nations demands a more forceful assertion of the truth. In Israel’s case, it specifically involves confronting a false narrative. That is the very beating heart of modern antisemitism. That beating heart is the lie. It is the lie that the State of Israel is an illegal occupier in the land of Israel,” Pompeo explained. “The lie of occupation provides Israel’s enemies a means to explain away all types of aggression and violence as merely resistance to the occupation. Just listen to what they have to say in the public rhetoric.”
“Given the negative connotation of the term occupier, antisemitic groups around the world use the word as often as possible in their messaging, as they carry out acts of cultural, political, and economic warfare upon Israel and its supporters,” he asserted. “This then leads to the term’s casual repetition by the media and its eventual use by policymakers as well. This presents a real risk. It is clear then that promoting the common misrepresentation of the Jewish state of Israel as an occupier in the land of Israel has become the primary antisemitic canard of the present generation.”
The irrationality with which many have despised the Jews is often puzzling to those who may be unfamiliar with God’s Word. Why has antisemitism flourished throughout history? Why are unsubstantiated and wicked accusations about Israel and the Jewish people often quickly accepted?
One of the numerous examples is the Black Plague in the 1300s. Many at that time pointed the finger at the Jewish population, claiming that they had spiked wells causing the illness. Similar to what took place in Nazi Germany, Jews were then evicted from countries, forced into ghettos, and massacred by a population that was swift to eat up anti-semitic propaganda. Even to this day, we have seen hordes of people who try desperately to blame the Jewish people for the coronavirus!
This madness can only be understood through the lens of Scripture.
Through the Jewish people, God brought the law, giving His creation an understanding of sin, and subsequently, through the Jewish people, God provided humanity a Savior from that sin, Jesus Christ (Romans 9:4-5, 7:7, 10:4, 3:1-2, Matt. 5:17).
The Jewish people and the nation of Israel are interwoven within God’s plan for all mankind, beginning to end. They are, by God’s mercy, the chosen people used to bring about His perfect will and salvation (Luke 2:25-32). It is for this reason that a battle, which is spiritual in nature, is constantly being waged against Israel and the Jews (Eph. 6:12). Satan detests the people through whom God provided His Son, Jesus Christ, who will ultimately defeat him and his followers (Revelation 20:10).
Although the world may look at Israel and automatically see red, to the Believer in Jesus Christ, the reborn State of Israel should arouse awe of God and hope.
Thousands of years ago, God promised that Israel would again become a nation under miraculous circumstances (Ezekiel 36, 37, Isaiah 66:7-8). This is especially important because Jesus told His disciples that when Israel is reborn, one generation would not pass away before His Second coming (Matthew 24:32-34).
Therefore the nation of Israel has been used to bless believers yet again, with the joyful expectation of our Blessed Hope, the soon catching away of the Bride Of Christ to forever be with the Lord in the Rapture of the church (1 Thess. 4:15-18, Titus 2:13, 1 Corin. 15:51-53).
If you do not know Christ, seeing the nation of Israel should promote urgency in you to accept Jesus today. Satan hates Israel, and he hates you also. But God displayed His power to us, through the rebirth of Israel and by countless other means, that we may come to know Him and the saving knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ (John 14:29).
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