Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

The U.N. (Hearts) Jimmy Carter
Monday, February 26, 2007

First Carter, now the U.N. A UN human rights envoy has compared Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories to elements of apartheid. The UN's Special Rapporteur, John Dugard, describes the regime as being designed to dominate and systematically oppress the occupied population. And to boot: He's South African!

In a new report, Mr Dugard says: "Israel's laws and practices certainly resemble aspects of apartheid".
He points to what he describes as "unashamed discrimination" against Palestinians in favour of Israeli settlers.
"It is difficult to resist the conclusion that many of Israel's laws and practices violate the 1966 Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination," says the report.

So what's Carter's reaction now? He's tried to climb down from his remarks, saying he was just using the term to be provactive, and that Israel's system was not at all like South Africa's. Now the South Africans are chiming in saying he was right. Of course, the U.N. has never been a place to love Israel. They're more Arabist than Carter. The one-two punch of the term is not likely to elevate it to international standard, but it is likely to do more harm than good -- needlessly puffing up the Palestinians and needlessly distracting the Israelis who can rightly defend themselves from this overreaction.

Labels: Middle East

Posted by B Feiler at 7:00 AM
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