Image: MEMO
Faizel Patel – 27/05/2021
Thembisa Fakude, a researcher at the Al Jazeera Center for Studies says Israel should not be called an apartheid state, because it is worse than an apartheid state.
Fakude was speaking to Radio Islam about the differences between Apartheid South Africa and Apartheid Israel and why Israel has committed worse atrocities against Palestinians than what South Africans experienced under the National Party.
Fakude says he grew up in Soweto at the height of apartheid in South Africa and the township did not experience what Palestinians are at hands of Israeli occupation forces.
“Soweto was to a large extent regarded as an experimentation of apartheid. We never had F16 helicopters bombing Soweto. Nor did we have the sophisticate armoury equivalent to what Israel has used in the past twelve days in Gaza. So, based on that alone, what can say safely that apartheid and Israel shouldn’t be compared because Israel is worse than apartheid.”
Fakude says while it is easy and convenient for many people to compare apartheid with Israel, there is a danger of losing the discussion.
“If this discussion was to be taken to the UN Security Council or the UN General Assembly, Israel might just argue and correctly so might just win the argument to say that ‘we are not and apartheid state, nor we do we resemble an apartheid state.’ So, that’s one trapping we should avoid, notwithstanding of course what’s happening in Israel is worse than apartheid.”
Fakude says Israel’s administration and the way they deal with the Palestinians is a “hybrid of all that is evil.”
“It’s racism, its imperialism, its fascism is a combination of all the things that we’ve seen happening in the world. Not only did we see them happening during the Nazi Germany or do we see fascism in other parts of Europe during the times of Mussolini etc. So, it’s a combination of all that and I think it deserves a separate independent free standing definition.”
Fakude says having spent time in the West Bank, Israel, Palestinian refugee camps in the Middle East, including Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon, the human rights abuses, inhumane living conditions, military checkpoints, settler-only roads, and even different car registration places making it easier to shoot and otherwise harass Palestinians were never seen in apartheid South Africa.
Listen to the interview with Thembisa Fakude
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