As some of you may remember, I mentioned last week that Israeli Apartheid Week was held in New York. As we’ve all seen from the reaction to former President Carter’s recent book, some people find the use of the word “apartheid” offensive, shocking, or far-fetched. Even within the Palestinian solidarity movement, there has been some discussion of the term’s usefulness and drawbacks. But when looking at the Occupied Territories–where settlers and Palestinians live in different areas, drive on different roads, go through different checkpoings, and are definitely subject to different treatment–it’s hard to argue that the term does not apply. And a South African law professor and UN human rights investigator agrees.
From Professor As’ad Abu-Khalil’s Angry Arab blog :
“The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland’s prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 percent of Americans think that “bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians” are “never justified,” while 24 percent believe these attacks are “often or sometimes justified.” Contrast those numbers with 2006 polling results from the world’s most-populous Muslim countries – Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Terror Free Tomorrow, the organization I lead, found that 74 percent of respondents in Indonesia agreed that terrorist attacks are “never justified”; in Pakistan, that figure was 86 percent; in Bangladesh, 81 percent. Do these findings mean that Americans are closet terrorist sympathizers?”
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http://angryarab.blogspot.com/20…er-2006- by.html