Israeli Apartheid Week

The Israeli Apartheid Week takes place every year in February / March in the form of rallies and university events in the United States, Canada, England, South Africa and other countries in 55 cities. The event was first held in Toronto in 2005 and was, according to the organizers ahead of " Palestinians, Jewish anti-Zionists, and South Africans ."

The aim of the series of events, it is according to a statement by the organizers to mobilize international public opinion against the organizers so called " apartheid " Israel and call for a general boycott of Israel and the withdrawal of foreign investment ( Boycott Divestments and Sanctions Campaign ), after the model of the sanctions against the South African apartheid regime in the 1980s. The organizers request the full equality of Israeli Arabs, the removal of the Israeli separation barrier and the end of the Israeli occupation and the " colonization of the occupied territories ." Another issue is the right of return for Palestinian refugees, while the organizers rely on the UN Resolution 194

Among the speakers of the Israeli Apartheid Week belonged to the Knesset member Jamal Zahalka in 2007, and former Knesset member Azmi Bishara. According Zahalka an apartheid situation in the West Bank exists: " There are roads exclusively for Jews, there are checkpoints and a curfew. The population is isolated. The human rights of Palestinians are completely violated. "

Criticism

Critics call the series of events as an open manifestation of anti-Semitism. The Israeli ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, commented in the Daily Telegraph: "Israel is facing an intensified campaign of delegitimization, demonization and double standards. Britain is radically a hotbed of anti-Israeli attitudes and a haven for disingenuous calls for a, one-state solution ' has become - a euphemistic name for the call for the destruction of Israel. "

John Mann, a British Labour MP and chairman of the bipartisan Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, stressed the discriminatory practice of calls for boycotts of Israeli Apartheid Week: " Boycotts help in any way in the production of peace and reconciliation in the Middle East, but ensure that Jewish students, academics and their colleagues at British universities isolated and harassed see. " From the Israeli side, it was as" crude propagandism, pure hypocrisy and cynical manipulation of the student body "means ( crude propaganda, pure hypocrisy and cynical manipulation of the student body ).

The events are mixed according to Manfred Gerstenfeld regular anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism. 2008, about the alleged anti-Israel activist Ward Churchill, a former university professor who had been dismissed for academic misconduct in 2007, during a protest march that the mass murder of the Jews was " not an integral part of the Nazi policy ".

Avi Benlolo, webmaster of friendsofsimonwiesenthalcenter.com described the events as a " fallacy and travesty, did Promotes anti- semitism on Canadian university campuses. " ( In German as: " deceit and travesty, promoting the anti-Semitism at Canadian universities " ) This allegation was of David Naylor, President of the University of Toronto rejected by referring to the unique role of universities, to offer safe space for controversial discussions.