–– Paul Schlehlein
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Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning separation. It refers to a system of segregation based on race, popularized by the white South African government from 1948 to 1994. Though South Africa officially abolished apartheid nearly 30 years ago, many outside the country may be surprised to know that the word “apartheid” is still plastered on countless billboards throughout the largest cities in the land.
But these billboards are not opposing old national grievances. How could they? Today’s blacks dominate South Africa’s population, Parliament, and police.
These signs refer to the supposed Israeli apartheid against Palestinians. Sample signs in South Africa read: “Do the Right Thing. Boycott Apartheid Israel.” Or, “Churches Against Israeli Annexation of Palestinian Land.” Or, “End Israeli Apartheid Now.” Organizations and political party logos emboss these billboards, including the anti-Israel group Africa4Palestine, as well as the ruling party of the ANC, and the SACP—the South African Communist Party.
The United Nations Resolution 3379 states that “the racist regime [Israel] in occupied Palestine and the racist regimes in Zimbabwe and South Africa have a common imperialist origin.”
In October, President Ramaphosa addressed a crowd while waving a Palestinian flag, pledging to them South Africa’s solidarity. The president called Israel’s government “oppressive” and an “apartheid state” and the real reason that recent Hamas attacks unfolded.
This is nothing new. Earlier in 2023, South Africa’s parliament voted to downgrade its diplomatic relations with Israel, due to “apartheid Israel’s” treatment of Palestinians. South Africa has not had an ambassador in Tel Aviv since 2019, the same year the United States officially moved its embassy to West Jerusalem.
This reveals just how far the ANC has come. Many may not know that Nelson Mandela, the ANC’s first president, was given an honorary doctorate from Ben Gurion University while visiting Israel in 1997. With this token, Israel openly publicized their disdain for apartheid and South Africa publicly recognized Israel’s right to exist.
As Christians we must take charges of apartheid seriously, as Scripture opposes all ethnic vainglory. In relation to salvation, Galatians 3:28 says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Scripture is opposed to all racist laws and activities, while also remembering that merely calling something racist doesn’t make it so.
In fact, Israel is not an apartheid state. Such charges are dishonest and defamatory. Here are three reasons why.
Three Reasons Israel Does Not Practice Apartheid
First, Israeli Arabs are active in every level of Israel’s society. This includes military, business, education, and government. Israeli Arabs are 20% of the population and have a higher standard of living than those in other Arab lands. Paragraph 13 of Israel’s Declaration of Independence states that their country would “ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex.”
By contrast, apartheid laws in South Africa stripped blacks of their state citizenship, forcibly removed them from their homes, limited the places where they could work and banned organized strikes. In other words, you’d find segregated busses in South Africa but not in Israel.
Second, Israel faces unique dangers that South Africa did not. There were a modest number of revolutionaries during South Africa’s apartheid regime, but blacks as a whole did not want to kill whites. By contrast, Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2005, is bent on destroying Israel. “From the river to the sea”, is the mantra, another way of expressing Jewish genocide.
Adolph Hitler’s 1925 genocidal manifesto against the Jews is 782 pages. The Hamas Charter of 2017 is considerably shorter and translated into easy-to-read English. Their murderous intentions against Israel are clear as day. One could summarize the document’s 36 articles thus: the essential condition for the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of Sharia law is the complete destruction of Israel in which any negotiated resolution for both Jews and Muslims in Israel will be immediately dismissed.
The skill of Hamas is misery, subjugation, and destruction. Their covenant’s raison d’être is the slaughter of the Jews: “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
Israel is fighting against a religious movement, not chiefly a political one, as Hamas wants to establish an Islamic State. But unlike old South Africa, Israel cannot be guilty of racially motivated, state-sanctioned discrimination against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, as citizens there are racially identical to Arabs who have full rights in Israel.
We cannot accuse Israel of brutality or apartheid when they place restrictions on Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian territories controlled by those who want to destroy the Jews. Nor should we urge Israel to seek immediate peace after the October 7th massacre, as though the US should have signed a peace treaty with Japan immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. As the old adage goes, if the Palestinians laid down their arms, there would be peace. If the Israelis laid down their arms, there would be genocide.
Finally, Israel is the indigenous group. The Jews have lived in the land of Israel for 3,500 years. If today’s popular anti-colonialists are correct, it seems obvious that the Jews should get their land back.
King David made Jerusalem the capital 3,000 years ago. Jesus drove the money changers from Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. The words “Jerusalem” or “Zion” are stamped nearly a thousand times in Scripture. The Koran never mentions this grand city once. The Arabs are the real colonialists who have dispossessed naturalized Jews.
Conclusion
In world history, there has always been hatred against the Jews. From the Moabites to Muhammad, from Pharaoh to Farrakhan, from Nebuchadnezzar to the Nazis, from Tiglath Peleser to Tiberius, from the Ammonites to Al-Husseni, from Haman to Hitler and Hamas, Israel’s enemies have fought to remove the Jews from the face of the earth.
Though God has punished Israel for their many sins, including their rejection of Jesus Christ, he has also preserved them from annihilation. No one can ever exterminate the Jews, for God’s plan for them remains.