H eadlines
Apartheid Continued from Page 1
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, denied the charge
and cast aspersions on HRW
itself, telling The New York
Times that, “The mendacious
apartheid slur is indicative of
an organization that has been
plagued for years by systemic
anti-Israel bias.”
Apartheid, and whether it
is an accurate description of
the Israeli government’s policy
toward Palestinians living
under its control, is a frequent
topic of correspondence from
Jewish Exponent readers. And
for good reason: It is a grave
charge, freighted with history
and sometimes complicated
by countercharges of antisem-
itism toward those who would
make it.

During the recent fighting
between the Israel Defense
Forces and Hamas, as well as
the skirmishes between civil-
ians over the evictions in
Sheikh Jarrah, the charge of
apartheid was made loudly
once more and countered
with the same volume. But in
notes from our readers arguing
either side, it became clear that
few appear to have an accurate
idea of what actually consti-
tutes apartheid.

So what it is apartheid? How
is it defined legally? When
did critics of Israel begin to
describe their actions as apart-
heid, and why? Which actions
by the Israeli government are
critics referring to today when
they use the term apartheid?
And what do the people who
deny the charge present as the
exculpatory evidence?
Prior to the development
of a legal definition, apartheid
was a policy of segregation
and resource distribution in
South Africa. It was intended
to ensure white South Africans
could dominate a country in
which they were a minority.

The term “apartheid” was
developed by Afrikaner clergy
as “a moral project to preserve,
protect and uplift the Afrikaner
nation,” said David Gordon, a
professor of history at Bowdoin
College. The Afrikaners were white
South Africans, typically of
Dutch descent. Apartheid “was
vaguely defined by a polit-
ical party commission prior
to the election in 1948, when
the Nationalist Party, headed
by one of these clergy, came
to power using ‘apartheid’ as
an election slogan,” Gordon
added. What it would come to
mean in reality took more time
to work out.

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Apartheid, instituted in
1948, inaugurated a system
of segregation that deprived
many Black South Africans of
citizenship, barred them from
marrying white South Africans
and gave the state power to
evict millions of them from
their homes. Other non-Af-
rikaner racial groups were
discriminated against, as well.

A system of racial classi-
fication helped the state to
keep non-Afrikaners from
using the same public facil-
ities or attending the same
social events as their Afrikaner
countrymen. It restricted job
opportunities, housing, educa-
tion and movement within the
country. Internal repression of
dissidents could be brutal. And
though the system was eventu-
ally dismantled, the legacy of
apartheid remains.

Apartheid, according to
Ian Lustick, a professor at the
University of Pennsylvania,
was given a legal definition
outside the bounds of South
Africa in 1973. The UN
General Assembly promul-
gated “The International
Convention on the Suppression
and Punishment of the Crime
of Apartheid,” which defined
apartheid as “inhuman acts
committed for the purpose of
establishing and maintaining
domination by one racial group
of persons over any other racial
group of persons and systemat-
ically oppressing them.”
Those “inhuman acts”
included actions like “legis-
lative measures and other
measures calculated to prevent
a racial group or groups from
participation in the political,
social, economic and cultural
life of the country,” as well
as internal suppression of
dissidents, ghettoization and
land expropriation. This was
intended, in part, to define
apartheid as not only a crime
against its victims, but against
humanity. In 2002, the International
Criminal Court issued the
“Rome Statute,” defining
“the crime of apartheid” as
JEWISH EXPONENT
An Israeli security checkpoint. Such restrictions on Palestinian freedom
of movement are central to the charge of apartheid made by some against
Israel. 
Photo by James Emery via Flickr (licensed under CC BY 2.0)
“inhumane acts ... committed
in the context of an institu-
tionalized regime of systematic
oppression and domination by
one racial group over any other
racial group or groups and
committed with the intention
of maintaining that regime.”
So what does this have to do
with Israel?
According to Asaf
R o m i r o w s k y, e x e c u t i v e
director of Scholars for Peace in
the Middle East and a fellow at
the Philadelphia-based Middle
East Forum, applying the term
“apartheid” to Israeli policy
toward Palestinians “speaks to
the lack of understanding and
the lack of education, or under-
standing, of what is actually
happening on the ground in
Israel.” The push to charge
Israel with apartheid, he said,
has its roots in Palestinian
Liberation Organization
propaganda campaigns in the
early 1970s, and has become
the bedrock accusation of
the boycott, divestment and
sanctions movement.

“If you fast forward from
that understanding into the
use of media, and then the use
of social media, and the rapid-
ness of what happened now
in Gaza, it is no surprise that
every group out there, Jewish
and non-Jewish, are accusing
Israel of ethnic cleansing and
apartheid,” Romirowsky said.

He believes that the inclu-
sion of Ra’am, an Islamist party,
in the new Israeli government,
“factually debunks apartheid
altogether.” Romirowsky’s
position, that Israel is not
committing the crime of apart-
heid, is shared by Israel and the
U.S. State Department.

Lustick did not take the
same view.

For a time after the 1967
war, most of the world, he said,
accepted that Israel ruled over
Palestinians in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip in a manner
consistent with international
law. “But with the extensive
processes of land expropria-
tion and settlement,” Lustick
said, “including the transfer of
almost one-tenth of all Israeli
Jews across the Green Line,
and with declarations by Israeli
leaders that Israel will never
withdraw and never allow
Palestinian independence, the
control of those areas, and of
their populations (who have no
political rights in Israel) have
increasingly and legitimately
been understood as a consol-
idating regime of systematic
discrimination against
Palestinian Arabs in favor of
Jewish Israelis.”
In Lustick’s view, and that
of some independent NGOs
and think tanks in Israel and
abroad, the actions of the
Israeli government constitute
the crime of apartheid. l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Juneteenth Continued from Page 1
Gordon Granger announcing
the emancipation of enslaved
people in Texas, the most
isolated of the southern states
and therefore slowest to
emancipate enslaved peoples.

This declaration, which took
place on June 19, 1865, came
almost 2½ years after Abraham
Lincoln gave the Emancipation
Proclamation, declaring the
end of slavery in the south.

The first Juneteenth celebration
took place in 1866.

Frazier wears many hats.

They are a student at the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical
College and rabbinic intern at
Kol Tzedek synagogue in West
Philadelphia, and as a member
of the Black Jewish Liberation
Collective, have worked
alongside Jews for Racial
and Economic Justice for the
past three years to create a
Juneteenth seder for Black Jews
around the country.

The Juneteenth seder
Frazier organizes is similar to
a Passover one: There are bless-
ings, candle-lightings and the
telling of the story of liberation
from oppression.

Among the familiar rituals,
Frazier incorporates new ones,
such as the telling of ances-
tral stories, starting with the
attendee with the oldest story.

“It’s not just the telling of
the story of Juneteenth, but the
telling of family and ancestral
story, which is really powerful,
particularly for a group of
people who have had our
stories stolen,” Frazier said.

For other Jews, Juneteenth
rituals look different.

Jared Jackson, founder and
executive director of Jews in
All Hues, an advocacy group
for Jews of color, has spent the
past five Juneteenths spending
time with his child, finding
intentional time to go to the
park, toss a Frisbee around and
find joyful moments.

Ideally, Jackson said, June
should be a month of “contin-
uous celebration,” as it’s not
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Lewis Gordon
Courtesy of Lewis Gordon
Moreover, Black Americans
have celebrated Juneteenth for
more than 150 years.

Many white Americans (and
many white Jewish Americans)
are only now learning about
the holiday. As Juneteenth
makes its way into broader
popular culture, it runs the
risk of being commercialized
or diluted.

In the face of this, Gordon
suggested that his celebra-
tions remain for him and his
community. “There’s no such thing as
I hope that as people either learn about Juneteenth, or they start
celebrating Juneteenth, that they become more aware of just how ... we
actually don’t have genuine and real liberation. And I hope that people
are able to, through this holiday, to see that.”
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
KOACH BARUCH FRAZIER
just the month for observing
Juneteenth, but also for
celebrating LGBT Pride Month
and Black Music Appreciation
month. The intersection of these
holidays also serves as a
reminder that oftentimes
the intersection of holidays
also provides opportunities
to highlight intersections in
identities. “There’s no such thing as
a Jew who’s only a Jew,” said
Lewis Gordon, a professor
and head of the philosophy
department at the University
of Connecticut, where he also
holds an appointment in Jewish
studies. “Jews are always Jews
plus.” To Jackson, his identity as
a Black person and a Jew are
inseparable: “So as long as I’ve
lived as a Jew, I’ve lived as a
Black person.”
In the case of Juneteenth
celebrations, Frazier is able
to synthesize the meaning of
Juneteenth with their Jewish
practice of marking time.

“The rabbis gave us such
something that cannot be
co-opted,” Gordon said. “It’s
what the rest of us who see
these historical markers, these
events, these commemora-
tions, it’s what we bring to
them.” Like many Jewish holidays,
Juneteenth is the mingling of
joy and grief, past and present,
ancestors and those around
this year’s table.

It’s an opportunity to reflect
and grow, for those who observe
Juneteenth and those just now
educating themselves about it.

“I hope that as people either
learn about Juneteenth, or they
start celebrating Juneteenth,
that they become more aware
of just how ... we actually don’t
have genuine and real libera-
tion,” Frazier said. “And I hope
that people are able to, through
this holiday, to see that.” l
great spiritual technology,”
Frazier said.

While Jews mark the passage
of time weekly on Shabbat, the
changing of the seasons with
Sukkot and Passover, Frazier
uses the rituals they have culti-
vated for Juneteenth as a way
of denoting not only the efforts
of ancestors to pursue libera-
tion, but also in reflecting on
the devastation of slavery: why
it took so long for enslaved
people in Galveston, Texas, to
hear of their emancipation,
why anti-Black racism is still
so pervasive today.

Current racism is one of
the reasons why Jackson’s
Juneteenth practices, though
a time for ritual and joy, are
subdued. “There’s a thought process,
you know, like if we celebrate
this too hard or too soft, will
it disappear? Or will there
be another ‘whitelash’ or
something like that?” Jackson
said, referencing the portman-
teau of “white” and “backlash,”
coined by CNN commentator
Van Jones.

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