Israel Apartheid Week is reported to be growing on college campuses;
its participants must have never spent any time in Jerusalem.
Arab families often visit Gan Sacher and other Jerusalem parks.
This is apartheid?
Hospitals are fully integrated; staff, patients, and visitors.
This is apartheid?
Shopping malls are open to all customers.
These ladies hailed a taxi on King George Street
after a successful shopping day at Ben Yehudah Mall.
Arab women shop on Jaffa Street on a regular basis,
often shopping alone.
This is apartheid?
Arab women walk freely in old neighborhoods,
and in new areas. This is apartheid?
However, with small children in hand,
women may not be able to move around quite so easily.
It is not simple for anyone to get a driver’s license in Jerusalem,
but the option is available to all.
Arab girls wait to ride on a regular public city bus.
As the world media focused on stone throwers,
this family was walking in nearby Baka.
There are fewer photos of Arab men,
because unless they are with women dressed in traditional clothes
it is often hard to pick them out in a crowd.
Yes there are serious problems, but
no legislation exists that discriminates against blacks.
Holy sites are open to people of all faiths.
Democratically elected Arab members in the Knesset speak,
vote and can propose laws.
Jerusalem may have plenty of problems,
but this is not apartheid.
The doofuses behind Israel Apartheid Week failed to notice that their event falls right at the start of Buycott Israel Month (www.buycottmonth.com).
Also, given that the Apartheidists behind Israel Apartheid Week are so enamored with Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), they may find this little story of unintended consequences enlightening: http://www.divestthis.com/2010/03/running-numbers.html
Watch as our Arab cousins try to enter Jerusalem; they get pulled over and have to wait, don’t vote, and don’t have free travel. Photos at the Gilo checkpoint would probably tell a very different story.
It must be apartheid because those pictures include Jewish people. Without the Jewish people, there’d be no apartheid, right? (Or so goes the twisted anti-logic…)
With the Jews it’s togetherness, without them it is Apartness.
This was great, Sharon! I will send this to my brother
Excellent photo essay, thanks for posting this 🙂
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