Journalist Benjamin Progrund denounced the claim that Israel is an apartheid state by comparing his experiences living in apartheid South Africa and Israel, in a speech given on Friday, March 3, 2006.
"Whatever it is and how ever ugly it is, it is not apartheid," Progrund said.
The two states are similar only by how each state attempts to control minorities. But how the two states do that is very different, Progrund said.
Apartheid is defined as racial separation and discrimination. It also means a belief in white racial superiority, Progrund said. Apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994, and Israel was first accused of being an apartheid state in 2000, he said.
Progrund said apartheid can be very powerful if used in the correct way but is often used incorrectly.
"The word has power and if its usage is appropriate, it provides a potent political weapon," Progrund said. " ... wrong usage has cheapened the word."
Progrund said he does not understand why Israel is accused of being an apartheid state because "most countries have minorities. Its how those countries deal with minorities is the issue."
"Why single out Israel?" Progrund asked. "Rather we should weep for the human condition throughout the world."
Progrund said that South Africa cannot be compared to Israel because in South Africa skin color determined people's lives from birth to death.
"[Apartheid] was imposed by law and backed by a rigid system of state," he said. "Blacks were non-persons in white South Africa."
In Israel, discrimination between Arabs and Israelis occurs despite "basic equality in law," Progrund said. Israelis and Arabs are seen together "all the time" in Israel, which would never happen in South Africa, he said. Progrund added that Arabs have the right to vote in Israel while blacks in South Africa did not.
"The vote means citizenship and the power to change," Progrund said.
Progrund said that change is possible and happening in Israel. In South Africa the whole political system had to be destroyed because change was not possible.
The South Africa apartheid experience "could and should be put to use," Progrund said. Israel should learn how to live with minorities and that "armed might and oppression" cannot crush a people's desire for freedom, he said.
Progrund currently lives in Israel. He worked as a journalist in South Africa from 1958 to 1985. While in South Africa Progrund was jailed for refusing to disclose the identity of sources, prosecuted for possession of banned newspapers and for reporting on the conditions of jails for blacks and political prisoners. Progrund was also denied a passport for five
years.
