The Arab Spring and the Islamic takeover of the Middle East provides Israel and her supporters the opportunity to rebrand the current media narrative concerning Apartheid. As usual, Israel's public diplomacy consistently misses the opportunity to expose the hypocrisy of our Arab neighbors. It is an outright lie to claim or to imply that Israel is an apartheid state, yet it is done all the time repeatedly by the Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas and other Arab leaders, and by his supporters in the United States and Europe. This distortion of the truth has been extremely effective in the war of words and has fallen on receptive ears in the international arena, in the media & internet, and on college campuses. As the Arab spring becomes an Islamic tsunami wiping out any semblance of democratic or human rights for the Arab masses, as the leader of Syria, Bashir Assad butchers over 7000 of his own countrymen, now is the time to rebrand the meaning of Apartheid. Now is the time to remind the world that Israel is the only Democracy in the Middle East and that the Arabs living in Israel including Judea and Samaria enjoy more Democratic rights than any Arab living in any Middle Eastern Islamic nation.
According to the 1998 Rome Statute, Apartheid is defined as “Inhumane acts ... committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.” Islamic Sharia law is the prevalent system of law today among the Islamic nations embodying racism by adopting laws of institutionalized discrimination and "legal" racism against anyone who is not a Muslim. This is the authentic narrative of Apartheid today imploring us to rebrand Apartheid. Associating Israel with Apartheid seems more absurd than ever when compared to the violation of human rights in Islamic ruled nations.
Factually speaking, apartheid was the official policy of the South African government that established and maintained racial segregation and racial discrimination against non-whites, and abolished in 1992. The South African non-whites could not vote, and they had to carry a "Pass Book," or they risked being jailed or deported. In addition, non-white South Africans were kept from a wide range of jobs. They had no free elementary through high school education; mixed sexual relationships were restricted and segregated; hospital and ambulance services were segregated; they could not use most public amenities; sports were segregated; and public facilities were labeled for correct racial usage. Non-whites could not enter a building through the main entrance, be a member of a union, or participate in a strike. By contrast, all citizens of Israel have equal voting rights. Arabs have eleven representatives in Israel's Knesset, including an Arab on the Israeli Supreme Court and a full range of other civil and political rights. Arabs in Israel receive equal access and are subject to equal treatment in hospitals. There are no "anti-miscegenation" laws, or other policies of racial segregation.
As we begin the arduous journey of rebranding Apartheid, let's begin by pointing out the similarities between Sharia Law and Islamic gender apartheid. Whats amazing is that whether in isolated enclaves in the heart of European cities or the major cities of Canada, or in the Islamic nations of the Middle East, gender Apartheid is an accepted norm in Islamic societies. Forced marriages for 13 year old girls, honor killings,domestic slavery, rape and torture of women until they convert to Islam, stoning women accused of adultery to death, and female genital mutilation are all only a few of the many examples that are condoned by Islamic gender apartheid. Speaking out against these kinds of Islamic norms as in the case of the Dutch director Theo Van Gogh who was murdered on the streets of Amsterdam by an Islamic terrorist for exposing the abuse of women, all in the name of Islam is what awaits many that publicly expose Islamic Apartheid.
The following are some common laws of Islamic Sharia law which are regularly practiced and can be easily associated with Apartheid;
· A Muslim who leaves Islam (apostate) must be killed immediately
· A Muslim will be forgiven for murder of : a) an apostasy b) an adulterer
· A Muslim will not get the death penalty if he kills a non-Muslim
· Sharia dictates death by stoning, beheading, for sins like killing, adultery, prostitutions; and other Quranic corporal punishments like: amputation of limbs (chopping hands and feet), floggings, beatings and other forms of cruel and unusual punishments even for the sins like: stealing, sexual promiscuity, robbery, burglary etc
· Non-Muslims are not equal to Muslims and must comply to Sharia
· Divorce is only in the hands of the husband and is as easy as saying: “I divorce you”
· Homosexuality is punishable by death
· The testimony of a woman in court is half the value of a man; that is, two women equal to one man
· A woman looses custody of her children if she remarries
Falsly branding Israel as an Apartheid state means something more fundamental: that there is no justification for there being a Jewish state at all, based on hatred and contempt for Jews. By rebranding Apartheid and associating it with the absense of basic human rights and freedom in the Islamic nations of the Middle East, we can transform the accepted narrative to its rightful place