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THE boycott of Woolworths over three products that it imports from Israel has caused divisions amongst South Africans, with proponents who feel the Palestinians are experiencing a new form of apartheid and opponents of the boycott who feel Israel is rightfully protecting itself from terrorism. There are also many people who don’t really care and just want to enjoy the convenience of a quality retail outlet, without thinking about politics.
Fin24 user Willie Paterson said that in Rev Edwin Arrison’s opinion piece, “Why I boycott Woolworths”, he went to great lengths to explain why he decided to boycott Woolworths in an effort to convince other people to do the same:
His basic reason is that Israel practises “apartheid 2.0”.
Arrison stated that he “finds the Christian support for Israel completely weird and unacceptable: here is a country that has, through big and small actions, driven out Christians from the Holy Land and yet other Christians find reasons, most of it completely illogical, to support them.”
As a fellow Christian, I would like to challenge Arrison to consider the facts. The truth should always be the first priority to any person of integrity. So firstly, does Israel practice apartheid?
The practice of apartheid cannot be applied to Israel, and to say so is a misuse of the term. War does create unpleasant conditions. Building a security barrier and administering hostile territory until peace is possible is not “apartheid.” It is common sense.
Israel’s security fence was built in response to terrorism. Its purpose is not to separate people by race, religion, or nationality, but to separate terrorists from their targeted victims. Nor does Israel employ apartheid against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinians are not Israeli citizens and do not wish to be. They have their own governments, Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Nor does Israel employ anything resembling apartheid within Israel. While Israel, like all multi-ethnic democracies, struggles to integrate its minorities more fully, its laws and programs try to eradicate, not enforce, disadvantages and discrimination. “Apartheid” applies more appropriately to those who dream of a Jew-free state of Palestine.
Secondly, Arrison’s claim that Israel has “driven out Christians from the Holy Land” can be easily refuted and is available to anybody interested in facts instead of propaganda to serve a particular ideology.
The only place in the Middle East where Christians aren’t endangered but flourishing is Israel. Since Israel’s founding in 1948, its Christian communities (including Russian and Greek Orthodox, Catholics, Armenians and Protestants) have expanded more than 1 000%.
Since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007, half the Christian community has fled. Christian decorations and public displays of crucifixes are forbidden. In a December 2010 broadcast, Hamas officials exhorted Muslims to slaughter their Christian neighbours. Rami Ayad, owner of Gaza’s only Christian bookstore, was murdered, his store reduced to ash. This is the same Hamas with which the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank recently signed a unity pact.
Little wonder, then, that the West Bank is also haemorrhaging Christians. Once 15% of the population, they now make up less than 2%. Some have attributed the flight to Israeli policies that allegedly deny Christians economic opportunities, stunt demographic growth, and impede access to the holy sites of Jerusalem. In fact, most West Bank Christians live in cities such as Nablus, Jericho and Ramallah, which are under Palestinian Authority control. All those cities have experienced marked economic growth and sharp population increase – among Muslims.
Under Israeli auspices, the city of Bethlehem’s Christian population grew by 57%. But under the Palestinian Authority since 1995, those numbers have plummeted. Today, Christians comprise a mere one-fifth of the city’s population.
As a Christian minister, reverend Arrison has a responsibility to lead with integrity. By motivating people to support a highly questionable campaign by using untested and false information he is causing immense damage to his position as a minister.
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