One of the "victims of Israeli apartheid" - Member of Knesset (MK) Hanin Zoabi - is to speak at a Columbia University panel on: "Israel, Racism and Apartheid."
The fact that she is a member of the country's governing body - despite promoting anarchy - makes a lie of any claims that Israel is an "apartheid" state.
Not by race, not by religion, not even by politics.
What about the fence?
If the fence separating terrorists in the Palestine Authority areas makes Israel an "apartheid" state, then the U.S., with its fence to try to keep out Mexicans - those with weapons and drugs and those who simply want more money in their jeans - is an "apartheid" state.
What about jobs?
My daughter's apartment building in Yavne - distant from any PA-controlled area, was built largely by workers from the PA-controlled areas who legally enter Israel each day to earn wages far above those they can earn at home. (Israel no longer is the "Zionist state" envisioned by the pioneers of the first and second aliyot where Jews did all the jobs; now low paying, hard labor jobs go to imported workers - some from the PA-controlled areas, others from Pacific rim countries. I think that is bad for Israel, but the Israeli Jew of today simply won't do the work.)
What about the military?
In order to "get ahead" in a job, a male must have served in the Israel Defense Force (IDF). If he was an officer, so much the better. There ARE a few Arabs - Muslims and Christians - in the IDF; there are many Druze in the IDF, a few making general grade. Unfortunately, most Muslim Arab men avoid the IDF - unlike a Jewish Israeli, they are not drafted into the IDF. These same Muslim Arab men also refuse national service (in lieu of military service) EVEN IN THEIR OWN COMMUNITIES!
What about education?
Look at MK Zoabi's CV: She studied philosophy and psychology at the University of Haifa, earning a Bachelors of Arts, and received a Masters of Arts in communications from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She was the first Arab citizen of Israel to graduate in media studies, and established the first media classes in Arab schools. She also worked as a mathematics teacher and worked as a school inspector for the Israeli Ministry of Education. (Source: Haneen Zoabi biography also Knesset overview)
Muslim students dominate Haifa University and are represented in ALL Israeli universities and scientific institutions.
What about trade?
When Hamas in Gaza stops firing missiles at Israeli civilian targets, the border is opened and goods flow IN BOTH DIRECTIONS - Gaza farmers ship produce to Israel and the PA.
What about travel?
Israeli Arabs are limited in their international travels only by the countries that accept Israeli travel documents. Arabs from PA-controlled areas routinely get permission to enter Israel to travel internationally via Israel's main airport or to Jordan via the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge. Israeli Arabs DO visit countries that are sworn to Israel's destruction, but they pay a price on their return (interrogation by Israeli security forces). (Consider the reception an American citizen gets when returning to the States from North Korea or Iran. No difference.)
What about medical care?
There is NO distinction made between an Israeli Jew and an Israeli Arab in Israeli public hospitals. (First hand experience.) Muslims from the PA-controlled territory and Hamas-controlled Gaza are treated in Israeli hospitals and allowed to return home unmolested. The PA's dictator's mother was recently treated in an Israeli hospital. Citizens of neighboring countries - notably Lebanon and Syria - are routinely treated at Israeli hospitals DESPITE their countries being in a state of war with Israel.
UNLIKE THE PA-CONTROLLED AREAS there are NO restrictions on where anyone can live in Israel. Muslims do tend to congregate in their own communities, just as almost all groups of people with common interests; but they are NOT restricted to any area. Jews are not welcome in PA-controlled areas and the PA's leadership has repeatedly vowed that a Palestinian state would be free of Jews.
DON'T TELL ME
ISRAEL IS AN
"APARTHEID" STATE.
Apartheid (Afrikaans pronunciation: [ɐˈpartɦɛit]; an Afrikaans word meaning "the state of being apart", literally "apart-hood") was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP), the governing party from 1948 to 1994. Under apartheid, the rights, associations, and movements of the majority black inhabitants and other ethnic groups were curtailed and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained. Apartheid was developed after World War II by the Afrikaner-dominated National Party and Broederbond organizations. The ideology was also enforced in South West Africa, which was administered by South Africa under a League of Nations mandate (revoked in 1966 via United Nations Resolution 2145),until it gained independence as Namibia in 1990. By extension, the term is currently used for forms of systematic segregation, established by the state authority in a country, against the social and civil rights of a certain group of citizens, due to ethnic prejudices.
