Anti-Israel activists often accuse Israel of being an ‘Apartheid State’, but what is ‘Apartheid’?

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz: “Apartheid means hundreds of attacks by settlers targeting Palestinian property, livelihoods, and lives, without convictions, charges, or even suspects. Apartheid means uncounted Palestinians jailed without trial, shot dead without trial, shot dead in the back while fleeing and without just cause.”

We start with a quote from Adolf Hitler’s Chief Propagandist for the Nazi Party, Joseph Goebbels.

“The essence of propaganda is simplicity and repetition. Only those who can reduce problems to the simplest formula will in the long run achieve fundamental success in influencing public opinion.” (Joseph Goebbels, from his diary, Jan. 29, 1942).

Apartheid, or “apartness” in the language of Afrikaans, was a system of legislation that upheld segregation against non-white citizens of South Africa.

After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all-white government immediately began enforcing existing policies of racial segregation.

Under apartheid, non-white South Africans - a majority of the population - were forced to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities. Contact between the two groups was limited.

Apartheid in South Africa

Racial segregation and white supremacy had become central aspects of South African policy long before apartheid began.

The controversial 1913 Land Act, passed three years after South Africa gained its independence, marked the beginning of territorial segregation by forcing Black Africans to live in reserves and making it illegal for them to work as sharecroppers.

Opponents of the Land Act formed the South African National Native Congress, which would become the African National Congress (ANC).

The Great Depression and World War II brought increasing economic woes to South Africa, and convinced the government to strengthen its policies of racial segregation. In 1948, the Afrikaner National Party won the general election under the slogan “apartheid” (literally “apartness”).

Their goal was not only to separate South Africa’s white minority from its non-white majority, but also to separate non-whites from each other, and to divide Black South Africans along tribal lines in order to decrease their political power.

Apartheid becomes law

By 1950, the government had banned marriages between whites and people of other races, and prohibited sexual relations between Black and white South Africans.

The Population Registration Act of 1950 provided the basic framework for apartheid by classifying all South Africans by race, including Bantu (Black Africans), Colored (mixed race) and white.

A fourth category, Asian (meaning Indian and Pakistani) was later added. In some cases, the legislation split families; a parent could be classified as white, while their children were classified as colored.

A series of Land Acts set aside more than 80 percent of the country’s land for the white minority, and “pass laws” required non-whites to carry documents authorizing their presence in restricted areas.

In order to limit contact between the races, the government established separate public facilities for whites and non-whites, limited the activity of non-white labor unions and denied non-white participation in national government.

Apartheid and separate development

Hendrik Verwoerd, who became prime minister in 1958, refined apartheid policy further into a system he referred to as “separate development.”

The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 created 10 Bantu homelands known as Bantustans. Separating Black South Africans from each other enabled the government to claim there was no Black majority and reduced the possibility that Black people would unify into one nationalist organization.

Every Black South African was designated as a citizen as one of the Bantustans, a system that supposedly gave them full political rights, but effectively removed them from the nation’s political body.

In one of the most devastating aspects of apartheid, the government forcibly removed Black South Africans from rural areas designated as “white” to the homelands and sold their land at low prices to white farmers.

From 1961 to 1994, more than 3.5 million people were forcibly removed from their homes and deposited in the Bantustans, where they were plunged into poverty and hopelessness.

The subject of Apartheid

The subject of Apartheid, is a complex and sensitive term to define, and its definition and implementation have changed radically through time. It all depends from which side anti-Israel activists, UN and Human Rights organizations argue.

Apartheid as implemented in South Africa, explored the process and implications of oppression and segregation by color and race, which does not apply to the Israeli government.