Rebutting Arguments About Israel's Colonialist Origins

Dore Gold
Global Law Forum
02 August '10

Last month, 35 years ago in July 1975, a decision was passed at the First World Conference on Women in Mexico City that laid the groundwork for the most hostile UN decision that was ever ratified against Israel: The decision that was passed on November 18 of that year defining Zionism as a form of racism. The campaign that led to this decision was predicated to a large extent on many previous decisions linking Zionism to the colonialist movements. For example, in 1973, the UN General Assembly had already managed to condemn the "unholy alliance between Portuguese colonialism, South African racism, Zionism and Zionist imperialism". In Mexico City, the Conference on Women called for the "liquidation" of all colonialism, neocolonialism, foreign conquest, Zionism and apartheid.

In 1991, the UN General Assembly rescinded its 1975 decision comparing Zionism to racism, but what has survived and has even intensified in subsequent years was the comparison between Zionism and apartheid. What must Israel do to rebuff this trend? What must be the center of gravity of Israeli arguments? In his Johannesburg speech in 2008, former Knesset Member Azmi Bishara revealed that there are two components in the accusations that he disseminates worldwide connecting Israel to apartheid: racial separation and colonialism.

In other words in order to contend with those who call Israel an apartheid state, it does not merely suffice to demonstrate to the world the that no racial separation exists in Israel or that there are Arab Knesset members (as opposed to the situation in South Africa during the Apartheid era) or that Arab Israelis and Palestinians use the very same Israeli hospitals (whereas under the apartheid regime the blacks were not permitted entry into white hospitals). It is also compulsory to address the second aspect of the accusation against Israel-the argument that it constitutes a colonialist entity. While Israel must continue emphasizing the first point, currently for many people worldwide, the driving force of the present anti-Israeli wave is the colonialist narrative.

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