First, let's see how apartheid is defined. We can find the following definitions in Wiktionary:
- The policy of racial separation used in South Africa from 1948 to 1990.
- By extension, any similar policy of racial separation.
As the first definition is not relevant to our issue, I will only treat the second one: racial separation.
Let's see what were the causes for the erection of the wall and then try to investigate whether this has anything to do with racism. According to Wikipedia the main reason for its erection was security, due to terrorists constantly entering Israel through the west bank and exploding in busses, cafes, restaurants and so on. Different Israeli prime ministers are cited there discussing the issue. In addition, a citation from the Israeli high court is also brought in Wikipedia and should be noted here:
"The Israeli Supreme Court made reference to the conditions and history that led to the building of the barrier. In the September 2005 decision,[1] it described the history of violence against Israeli citizens since the breakout of the Second Intifada and the loss of life that ensued on the Israeli side. The court ruling also cited the attempts Israel had made to defend its citizens, including "military operations" carried out against "terrorist acts", and stated that these actions...
Thus, we can see the main reason for the erection of the fence was a security one. To further intensify this we can see the statistics about terror attacks before and after the erection of the fence: Before the building of the fence 293 Israelis were killed and over 1900 were injured by suicide attacks while during its construction only 3 suicide attacks were successful and since its erection the number of attacks has declined by more than 90%!...did not provide a sufficient answer to the immediate need to stop the severe acts of terrorism. . . . Despite all these measures, the terror did not come to an end. The attacks did not cease. Innocent people paid with both life and limb. This is the background behind the decision to construct the separation fence (Id., at p. 815) "
As a person who had lived in Israel both before the erection of the barrier and after it I can tell you that this statistic figure means that all of a sudden you could walk down the street without fearing terror attacks the whole time, you could go to restaurants and cafes without fear and so on. During most of the second Intifada people were afraid to go down to town or ride the bus as they were too scared of terror attacks. Think of it: not going out or riding the bus for weeks because of fear! This has all changed once the fence was erected.
I don't think that anyone can cast doubt about the security improvement the fence had provided. This was the reason for its erection.
As far as racism is concerned let's remember two things:
- Israel and the Palestinian territories are not one country - borders which include fences between countries are very common around the world. Does the fact that you have a border between two countries make you racist?! Are we racist toward Syria because we have a border with them?!
- 20% of the Israeli population are of Palestinian origin - those Arabs can move freely around Israel and between Israel and the Palestinian territories. If the wall is made of racist reasons why do we allow that "race" to enjoy full citizenship?
That's it. I hope it opened some eyes in respect to this issue.
