Ha’aretz dude: Israel is an apartheid state
[I said the other day to our libertarian friend that you could comb
the U.S. press for anything as remotely critical of Israel as you see
in Ha’aretz. Here’s a nice example from our friends across the sea.]
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20070831rubinsteinapartheid.html
British Zionist group cancels Ha’aretz columnist after ‘apartheid’ comment
By Dinah A. Spritzer Published: 08/31/2007
PRAGUE (JTA) — The British Zionist Federation canceled a London
appearance by Ha’aretz columnist Danny Rubinstein the day after he
called Israel an “apartheid state” at a United Nations conference on
Palestinians.
Rubinstein, the Israeli newspaper’s Arab affairs editor and a member
of its editorial board, told an audience of some 350 that “today
Israel is an apartheid state with different status for different
communities,” according to sources at the event, held at the European
Parliament in Brussels.
He went on to say that Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, East
Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel each had “a different status,”
according to a summary of his speech by a United Nations Web site.
Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Schwammenthal told JTA he was so
shocked by what he heard that he later confirmed the comment with
Rubinstein.
“I asked him if he really thought Israel was in a state of apartheid
and he answered ‘yes,’ ” Schwammenthal said.
Rubinstein also said “Hamas won the election of the international
community and Israel cannot ignore that” and argued that the security
fence Israel was building could not be justified, sources said.
The British Zionist Federation issued a statement Friday saying it
had read about Rubinstein’s quotes in a JTA news report Thursday and
verified the comments with him the next day. According to the Zionist
federation, the result was a “mutual decision” to cancel Rubinstein’s
event.
“Criticism of Israeli policy is acceptable,” the Zionist federation’s
chairman, Andrew Balcombe, said in a statement. “However, by using
the word ‘apartheid’ in a U.N. conference held at the European
Parliament, Danny Rubinstein encourages the demonization of Israel
and the Jewish people. I believe he was naive to attend the U.N.
conference. Indeed his own newspaper Ha’aretz had earlier reported
that Israeli and E.U. lawmakers had attacked the U.N. meeting for
having a completely one-sided, anti-Israeli agenda.”
The Zionist federation’s conference, titled “Israel at 60,” was held
Friday to Sunday in London.
Rubinstein, who did not return a call seeking comment, made his
remarks during a forum that pro-Israel nongovernmental organizations
such as B’nai B’rith, UN Watch and NGO Monitor described as Israel-
bashing sessions run by the U.N. Committee on the Exercise of the
Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. The pro-Israel groups
say the U.N. committee has a long history of opposing Israeli interests.
Pro-Israel critics say the name of the U.N. conference,
“International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-
Palestine Peace,” was misleading, as solutions for peace were not on
the agenda and only speakers with harsh words for Israel were given
an opportunity to present their views.
At this year’s event, attendees gave an ovation to members of the
Neturei Karta, the fervently Orthodox sect that vehemently opposes
Israel’s existence and participated in a highly publicized gathering
of Holocaust deniers in Iran.
Observers said that during one workshop, Richard Kuper, spokesman of
the London-based European Jews for a Just Peace, argued that Israel
supporters emphasize the conflict in Darfur to direct attention away
from Israel’s human rights violations. Several other speakers at the
forum called for boycotts of Israel.
Seven members of the European Parliament published a letter to the
International Herald Tribune Friday saying that “despite the
neutrally sounding title of its conference,” it “has a proven record
of anti-Israel bias, spreading propaganda that presents only the
Palestinian narrative, including the delegitimization of Israel — a
U.N. member state.”
Susanna Kokkonen, political director of the European Coalition for
Israel, which represents five Christian organizations and works
closely with members of the European Parliament who advocate Israeli
interests, said the two-day conference last week had “an atmosphere
that was thick with hate towards Israel.”
“I was most shocked to hear an editor from Ha’aretz condemn Israel in
a way that was worse than the Arab speakers,” Kokonnen said.
Rubinstein shared the podium with British Parliament member Clare
Short, who reportedly said apartheid in Israel was worse than in
South Africa.
“Israel doesn’t want a two-state solution, and the E.U. is allowing
the state of apartheid to continue,” she told attendees, according to
several observers. “We have to start sanctions against Israel.”
Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based U.N. Watch, an
organization with ties to the American Jewish Committee, said that by
agreeing to speak at the conference, Rubinstein was lending it
legitimacy.
“It’s disturbing that a leading Israeli journalist is participating
with a Soviet-era enterprise whose sole aim is to assault Israel
morally, legally and financially,” Neuer said. “But that he would
full-throatedly join the jackals and call Israel ‘an apartheid state’
is an outrage.
“Though Rubinstein was officially presented by the U.N. as a member
of the Ha’aretz editorial board, we trust that the newspaper does not
condone the delegitimization of Israel.”