The History of Israel Book

To refer to Israel as an apartheid state offends many given the background to the state's origins and the sense that only the systemic racism that was the South African system from after WW2 until the early 1990 counts as apartheid. This short, sharp and explicitly argued case sets out to show that the label is justified. Like many other analysts of Israel, Ben White draws on the UN's 1973 definition of apartheid ("inhuman acts for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group and systematically oppressing them") to show that it applies.

His argument turns around a number of key characteristics if Israel. The first is that it is a colonial state - that is, that is was built on a place, Palestine, where there existed a previous population who were over-run and expelled. The second is that this indigenous population was systematically expelled from its historic homeland; White makes a compelling case for ethnic cleansing (not that we used that term in 1948/9). The third is that Israel's domestic law systematically prioritises one ethnic group, Jews, over any other in a manner that means that Palestinian citizens of Israel do not have the same citizenship rights or equal treatment as Jewish citizens of Israel. Furthermore, he also shows how the development and implementation of a considerable body of Israel's legal code systematically oppresses and marginalises Palestinians. These matters deal with the creation of the state of Israel as an ethnically exclusive state, and one that defines as its citizens those non-Jews who were born and who stayed there and members of a particular faith group, no matter where they were born.

The second set of characteristics relates to the situation of those Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. The fourth characteristic then is that Israel is systematically settling and taking control of the occupied Palestinian territories in a manner that violates international law both through the creation of colonies/settlements in strategically vital areas of the West Bank and in doing so underlining the viability of any Palestinian state that might be created there. As well as this colonisation of the West Bank, he also draws attention to the 'Partition Wall' an effect of which is the secure more West Bank land under Israeli control. In addition to this colonisation of the West Bank, White also identifies the oppressive circumstances of military rule including the highly restrictive permit system, house demolitions as well as detention, torture and military brutality that undermine Palestinian life.

The final section of the book also identifies a range of civil society organisations working to protect and enhance the situation for Palestinians including both those in Israel/Palestine such as legal rights activists, those opposing house demolitions and the wall and those who organise to commemorate the Nakba, 'the catastrophe' that was the creation of a colonial state in historic Palestine. In addition, he provides advice on forms and styles of international solidarity action.

This is an excellent primer, balancing narrative and analysis with case studies and individual/family stories. There is also an extremely good resource list including international solidarity groups. It is one of the most useful resources I have for the work I do on issues related to Palestine, providing brief summaries of many of the key issues.