Maybe you've heard someone say that Israel is an apartheid state,

that Israel has a policy of segregating and oppressing the minority population within its borders,

like South Africa once did. Maybe you've been so outraged by this information

that you have considered joining the BDS movement, the effort to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel

until it ends its alleged racist policies. I don't blame you. A apartheid is a great

evil and deserves to be fought wherever we find it. But here is the thing, you won't find a

apartheid in the state of Israel. So I'll put it bluntly. The BDS movement is a slick,

propaganda effort built on lies. I think I have the credibility to make this claim.

Having grown up in South Africa and having spent a fair amount of time in Israel,

I know what apartheid is and what it is not. My parents were raised in the real apartheid,

where blacks were, by law, separated from whites at every level from education to drinking

fountains. Blacks couldn't vote, couldn't own land, couldn't live next to or use the same

transportation system as whites. I remember my father telling me about how my grandfather was

kicked and humiliated in public by a young white boy. All he was permitted to say was,

please stop, little boss, that was the world my family lived in, that was the world of apartheid

South Africa. But in Israel, the law is colourblind. Israeli Arabs have the same rights as Israeli Jews.

They ride the same buses, study in the same schools, and are treated in the same hospitals.

Arabs are elected to Israel's parliament, serve as judges, and fight in the Israeli military.

On my first trip to Israel, the group I was with had a Jewish tour guide and an Arab bus driver.

Imagine our surprise having heard that Israel is in apartheid state. This would have been inconceivable

in apartheid South Africa. All these things would be self-evident to anyone who did any kind of

actual research, or even better, visited Israel. Something I encourage everyone to do.

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