B’tselem
Although it does not employ any lawyers, B’tselem is a self proclaimed Jerusalem-based nonprofit organization which claims to document Israeli human rights abuses.
It frames Israel’s status as a Jewish state open to Jewish immigration as a form of “Jewish supremacy.” They also ignore Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which explicitly promises equal social and political rights to all, regardless of race or religion.
בְּצֶלֶם
EXPOSING
B’TSELEM’S
“APARTHEID“ LIBEL
بتسيلم
WHAT IS B’TSELEM?
This Jerusalem-based nonprofit wrote a report (left) claiming to document Israel’s alleged human rights violations.
It framed Israel’s status as a Jewish state open to Jewish immigration as a form of “Jewish supremacy.” It ignores Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which explicitly promises equal social and political rights to all, regardless of race or religion. But to B’tselem, that is just a method the “Israeli regime uses to advance Jewish supremacy.” Its fraudulence is meant to inflame and misinform.
The “Jewish supremacy” trope was featured in former KKK leader David Duke’s book and his Ph.D. thesis: “Zionism as a Form of Ethnic Supremacism.”
B’tselem isn’t likely to be influenced by people like David Duke (even if it once employed a Holocaust denier). Instead, it tries to appeal to American audiences by asserting that if you hate white supremacy, you should hate Israel.
Most of the report focuses on the mundane reality that non-citizens don’t have the same rights as citizens, just as non-citizens of any other country don’t have the same rights as citizens. This is because citizenship, by definition, discriminates.
In Israel, Jewish and Arab citizens can vote in national elections. Non-citizens can’t. All citizens can freely enter their country. Non-citizens are regulated. These aren’t exactly the foundations of apartheid, although B’tselem holds them up as such. But who, exactly, are the citizens and non-citizens mentioned in the report.