Apartheid

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health care and other rights, such as the right to vote. In a first reaction to the news, the
Association for Civil Rights in Israel said the practice contradicted international human rights
conventions and demanded that legislation should instead be introduced to deny the interior
minister the power to revoke citizenship and rights of residency. 379 If proven guilty of abetting
the murder of civilians, Abu Kishaq should of course be denied full amnesty at an ideal and
just TRC for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But in my opinion he should not have to serve as
much prison time as Ariel Sharon should.
At the same time, a much more extensive program for revoking potential citizenship
was being put into practice. Palestinians from the Occupied Territories who had been caught
working in Israel without a work permit or who were married to people with foreign
citizenship, were to be expelled – to the country of the spouse’s citizenship. As I already
stated in the introduction to this section, the arbitrariness of state powers and the extent of the
racism in their policies with regard to citizenship is most likely unparalleled by any nonapartheid
societies. On July 31, 2003, finally, the law to deny citizenship and permanent
residency to Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens was passed by the Knesset, the parliament
of the Jewish state. Any children over the age of 12 of such couples will also be denied both
citizenship and residency permits and will ultimately also be expelled from Israel – legally.
The law only applies to Palestinians, not to any other ‘foreigners’. It was enforced despite a
‘gamut of international conventions the country has signed’, along with an outcry from a host
of human rights organizations worldwide, and in blatant defiance of the Middle East ‘Road
Map’ to peace, which was supposed to normalize Israeli-Palestinian relations at this time.
Israeli breaches of the truce also continued with targeted killings, and killings of Palestinian
bystanders, as well as continued house demolitions. Some Palestinians fought back as well –
thus also violating the Road Map – but, as usual, not anywhere near to the same extent as the
Israeli violations. 380
When limited Palestinian self-rule was introduced by means of the 1994 Cairo
Agreement, Hanan Ashrawi criticized the agreement for legalizing apartheid in Palestine at
the same time as it was being scrapped in South Africa. She pointed out the irony that the first
sign of Palestinian ‘independence’ in this development was the establishment of a Palestinian
police force, a sign of Bantustan dependence more than anything else. Palestinians should
police themselves, mainly in order to protect Israelis. Not only Israelis and Americans should
be blamed for this, but Palestinians, too, in particular the ones in the PLO leadership who
went along with the process of Bantustanization. 381
The policy of the Israeli government became ‘amazingly similar’ to the Bantustan
program in South Africa, according to an Israeli critic, Akiva Eldar, when a plan for
withdrawing settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip was announced by the Sharon
government in 2004. The government wanted no more responsibility (as if it had ever taken
379 N.N.: Stripping Israeli Arab of Citizenship Causes Outcry, September 10, 2002; Ridberg: Israel Revokes
Israeli Arab’s Citizenship, 2002; Gershberg: Israel Plans to Strip “Terrorists” of Citizenship, 2002; N.N.:
Citizenship Annulment Threats in Israel Draw Fire, August 7, 2002; Hauser: Israel to Charge Fatah Leader
[Marwan Barghouthi] with Murder, 2002; Goldin: Fatah’s Barghouthi Defiant in Israeli Court, 2002; Gershberg:
Palestinian Leader Defiant as Israel Indicts Him, 2002; N.N.: Israelis Scream Abuse at Fatah Leader in Court,
October 3, 2002; N.N.: Israeli Army Destroys Palestinian Militants’ Homes, August 13, 2002; Heller, J.: Israel
Set to Deport Militants’ Relatives to Gaza, 2002; Al-Mughrabi: Israel Dumps West Bank Deportees in Gaza
Vineyard, 2002. Israel also routinely expels Palestinians from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, an area which is
generally poorer and much more densely populated. In this case, neither charges nor trials are deemed necessary
by the Jewish state to justify the punishment by the authorities. ‘Suspicion of militant activity’ is considered the
crime. See N.N.: Israel to Expel Three More Palestinians to Gaza, October 15, 2003; Al-Mughrabi: Israel Expels
West Bank Palestinian to Gaza, 2003; N.N.: Israel Expels Three West Bank Palestinians to Gaza, November 23,
2003; N.N.: Israel Expels Eight Palestinians to Gaza -Sources, December 4, 2003.
380 Goldin: Israeli Citizenship Law Splits Arab Families, 2003; Huggler: Israel’s Marriage Law, 2003; Cook:
Racism Reinforced, 2003; Singh: Slow Ethnic Cleansing, 2002; Williams: Israel Govt Memo Admits Flouting
“Road Map”-Source, 2003
381 Ashrawi: This Side of Peace: A Personal Account, 1995: 292f