‘Israel Apartheid Week’ Under Attack, But Getting Stronger

by Louisa Worrell
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

This year’s international Israeli Apartheid Week was the largest ever - being held in over 40 cities all across the world - and its level of success was matched with an unprecedented level of repression from university administrations, the Canadian government and Zionist pro-Israel groups on and off campuses. Despite the sometimes-violent nature of this repression, the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel is growing each year and is showing no signs of letting up until apartheid in Israel falls.

Israeli Apartheid Week is a weeklong series of events that spread information and analysis about the nature of Israel as an Apartheid State. The word Apartheid was the name of the government created in South Africa from 1948-1994 that separated the population by Black (majority of population), White, and Coloured. The laws made it legal to treat the "Coloured" population like second-class citizens, and the "Black" (native South African) population like third class citizens, refugees in their own country. This status meant little or no education, no voting rights, poor healthcare, checkpoints and police terror for Africans.

Israel is now recognised around the world by more and more people as imposing a similar apartheid system on Palestinians. This is why Israeli Apartheid week exists: to spread information about this system and promote the boycott of Israeli products. In Canada, one of the main boycotts going on right now is that of major book retailer Chapters Indigo, for its financial support of Israeli soldiers.

The forms of university campus repression this year included the outright banning of the Israeli Apartheid Week poster in two of Ottawa’s universities (Carlton U and U of Ottawa), as well as banning of the group Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) group at York University. SAIA York was also fined $1000 for holding a rally at York U and the SAIA chapter at U of T suffered physical and verbal harassment from Zionist groups and individuals.

As for repression coming down from the Federal level, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff have both denounced the event, and Jason Kenney has pulled funding from the immigration settlement programs administered by the Canadian Arab Federation on the basis of its Palestinian advocacy.

Israeli Apartheid Week is against all forms of discrimination, including Islamaphobia, racism, and anti-Semitism. Despite the repression, the organisers stand strong against the racist Israeli state and takes a similar stand against the Canadian state for its racist genocidal policies towards indigenous peoples to this very day.

End Israeli Apartheid!
Boycott Chapters-Indigo!
Let the Palestinian Refugees Return Home!

If you are interested in getting involved in Israeli Apartheid Week 2010, you can contact iawinfo@apartheidweek.org and check out the movement’s main website: www.apartheidweek.org

CIA Predicts Israel will fall in 20 years

by N. Zahra
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

The American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has released a report predicting the fall of apartheid Israel within the next 20 years. The report points to the unexpected and quick fall of Apartheid South Africa after harsh and organized resistance by people all over the world. Similarly, there is growing support for a one-state solution as the only viable democratic solution in the region. According to an Al-Jazeera report, even American public opinion is rapidly shifting toward such a solution. After Israel’s latest assault on Gaza, public opinion continues to move away from supporting the continuation of Apartheid Israel or even the creation of two separate states. A one-state solution would allow for the return of Palestinian refugees who were driven from their homes in the 1948 catastrophe, as well as a return for 1967 refugees. According to the report, the return of the refugees and an end to apartheid-rule are preconditions for a sustainable peace in the region. The study also predicts that a one-state solution would lead to an exodus of millions of Israelis who hold passports in the U.S., the E.U., and Russia.

While the CIA report cites shifting moral opinion as the cause for the likely end to the apartheid regime, it is important to recognize that is has been the ongoing resistance of Palestinians and their supporters that the anti-apartheid movement is gaining ground. Furthermore, it is important to recognize the need for a sustained and continued resistance against other repressive regimes in the region that are supported by imperialism, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. While the end of Israeli-apartheid would be an incredible triumph of the Palestinian liberation movement, only the end to all forms foreign domination and occupation in the Middle East can open up the possibilities for genuine national liberation.

Hitler's Germany versus Apartheid Israel

Click on the title above to view a photo essay illustrating the parallels between the genocidal regime of Adolph Hitler and the terroristic apartheid regime in Israel.

Canadian Imperialism’s Support for Israel’s War on Gaza

by Steve da Silva Basics Issue #12 (Jan/Feb 2009)

As Basics Issue #12 was going to print, nearly a 1000 Palestinians in Gaza had already been slaughtered by Israel, with well over four thousand injured and some 25,000 displaced. Three hundred counted among the dead were innocent children.

Israel - one of today’s most barbaric states, second only to the United States - would not last long in the international system without the ongoing diplomatic and military support of Western imperialist powers. And it’s for this reason that Canadians, should be turning their attention to where they live if they want to help bring an end to the carnage in Gaza.

The Canadian government has been one of the most staunch supporters of Israel’s onslaught in Gaza to date. On January 6, 2009, former Global Television news anchor and current Thornhill Member of Parliament and minister of state for Foreign Affairs Peter Kent said that ““Hamas bears a terrible responsibility for this and for the wider deepening humanitarian tragedy”, thus blaming the Palestinians for Israel’s attacks against them. Canadians may recall how back in 2006 Stephen Harper himself expressed the same degree of support for Israeli state terrorism when he referred to Israel’s 33-day rampage against Lebanon as a “measured response” to the alleged kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah.

Then, on January 12, 2009, as the 47-member UN Human Rights Council voted 33-to-1 in favour of condemning Israel’s illegal and barbaric war on Gaza (with 13 abstentions – all by European Union countries), Canada was the lone voice opposing the condemnation of Israel.
Meanwhile, the new federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has been trumpeting the same degree of support for Israel: “Canada has to support the right of a democratic country [Israel] to defend itself.” Evidently, the only rights Ignatieff is concerned with is the right of one of the most militarized countries in the world to obliterate the existence of a people to whom democracy has been completely denied. The fact that Hamas was democratically elected by the Palestinian people in 2006 and that Canada was the first country in the world to refuse recognition to Hamas appears to Ignatieff to be no contradiction in his thinking.

Meanwhile, the NDP’s Jack Layton has opportunistically played both sides by stating that “The continuing airstrikes by Israel on civilians in the Gaza strip and the ongoing rocket attacks on Israeli civilians are serving to compound the existing civilian disaster and further harm chances for a negotiated peace.” Such a position is a cop-out because it completely ignores the fact that Israel has maintained a life-crippling blockade on Gaza since the election of Hamas in 2006, and that calls for Hamas to end missile strikes into Israel need to also address the economic warfare against Gaza.

Canadians who want to help the people of Gaza – in addition to appealing to the direct calls for solidarity and aid that are coming directly from the Palestinians – need to begin seriously challenging Canadian imperialism from here at home. The apartheid state of Israel would not be able to survive without the support of countries like U.S., Canada, and EU members. If we really want to make a difference for the people of Gaza, Canadians need to start finding ways to mobilize themselves independent of these forces for real structural changes in Canada’s domestic and foreign policies.

60 years of Israeli Apartheid, 60 years of Palestinian struggle

by Louisa Worrell
Basics Issue #9 (May 2008)

On May 17th, dozens of Palestinian flags flapped over the gathering at Queen’s Park, where about a 1000 people gathered at 1pm to listen to speakers from the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid and other allied organizations. People were gathering to commemorate the 60th anniversary of “Al Nakba”, which is Arabic for “the catastrophe”. In 1948, during Israel’s “war of independence” over 750, 000 Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes, terrorized by Zionist militias to make way for what we now know as Israel.

This year marks what Israel calls its 60th anniversary. In Toronto, there have been many campaigns carried out by Zionist organizations and their allies to brand Israel as the only democratic country in the Middle East, while covering up all the violence that goes on in witin its borders.

May 17th was a counter to that branding, stating that Israel is an Apartheid state based on the differential set of laws that Palestinians and Israelis live under. This protest was supported by Jewish organizations, the Palestinian community, high school students, Arab and Muslim organizations, First Nations community representatives, and many other allied community organizations.

It was an example of the solidarity that can be achieved when people come together for a cause. For more information, people interested to learn more about Israeli apartheid and Palestinian resistance to it can visit www.caiaweb.org.


To commemorate Al Nakba, Palestinians painted the sky of Jerusalem black by flying 21,915 black balloons, one for each day of Israel’s existence.