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An Israeli forces member stands near a military vehicle near the Jalamah checkpoint, July 4 2023. Picture: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS
Terry Crawford-Browne is spreading blatant lies and misinformation about Israel (“Israel is an apartheid state”, August 1).
Israel does not possess “more than 50 apartheid laws”. Further, he claims Israel is recognised as an apartheid state by “the nation state law”. These are both blatant lies. There is no record of any apartheid laws on the Israeli books.
Richard Goldstone, a now retired SA Constitutional Court judge, has stated that “in Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute”.
Crawford-Browne is playing fast and loose with facts and spreading dangerous misinformation due to a personal hatred for Israel.
In reality, Israel is one of the most diverse, liberal and tolerant countries in the Middle East. No other Middle Eastern nation comes close to affording all individuals the same rights, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or gender.
Equating the West Bank or Gaza to a “bantustan” is grossly simplistic and deceptive. The West Bank, by the Palestinians’ own desire, is an autonomous polity. Gaza is its own independent country, which democratically elected a terrorist organisation as its governing party.
These are not segregated homelands as in apartheid SA. These countries want to be separate from Israel, with extremists in their ranks openly wanting to take over all of Israel and enact genocide against the Israeli people.
There are border controls between Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Is South Korea an apartheid state for enforcing separation from North Korea? Is the US an apartheid state for enforcing separation from Mexico?
Add to this the fact that the West Bank and Gaza have been used to wage constant wars with genocidal intent against the Jewish people and Crawford-Browne’s claims become even more naive and dangerously misleading.
Israel has a right to exist. It protects the rights of all its citizens, while protecting them from terrorists and invaders. This does not make it an apartheid state. It makes it a moral one.
Nicholas Woode-Smith Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Misinformation on Israel
Terry Crawford-Browne is spreading blatant lies and misinformation about Israel (“Israel is an apartheid state”, August 1).
Israel does not possess “more than 50 apartheid laws”. Further, he claims Israel is recognised as an apartheid state by “the nation state law”. These are both blatant lies. There is no record of any apartheid laws on the Israeli books.
Richard Goldstone, a now retired SA Constitutional Court judge, has stated that “in Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute”.
Crawford-Browne is playing fast and loose with facts and spreading dangerous misinformation due to a personal hatred for Israel.
In reality, Israel is one of the most diverse, liberal and tolerant countries in the Middle East. No other Middle Eastern nation comes close to affording all individuals the same rights, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or gender.
Equating the West Bank or Gaza to a “bantustan” is grossly simplistic and deceptive. The West Bank, by the Palestinians’ own desire, is an autonomous polity. Gaza is its own independent country, which democratically elected a terrorist organisation as its governing party.
These are not segregated homelands as in apartheid SA. These countries want to be separate from Israel, with extremists in their ranks openly wanting to take over all of Israel and enact genocide against the Israeli people.
There are border controls between Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Is South Korea an apartheid state for enforcing separation from North Korea? Is the US an apartheid state for enforcing separation from Mexico?
Add to this the fact that the West Bank and Gaza have been used to wage constant wars with genocidal intent against the Jewish people and Crawford-Browne’s claims become even more naive and dangerously misleading.
Israel has a right to exist. It protects the rights of all its citizens, while protecting them from terrorists and invaders. This does not make it an apartheid state. It makes it a moral one.
Nicholas Woode-Smith
Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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