Friday, April 23, 2021
Elder of ZiyonB'Tselem polled Israelis about a number of topics, and it heavily publicizing one result.
The question was:
“A regime in which one group controls, and perpetuates its control over another, through laws, practices and coercive/forced means is considered an apartheid regime. In your opinion, does this description fit or it doesn’t fit Israel?”
25% of Israeli Jews said it fits (8%), or somewhat fits (17%.)
So the headlines are saying "25% of Israeli Jews Acknowledge Israel’s Apartheid."
Only one problem: B'Tselem made up that definition for this poll. You can't find that as a definition of apartheid anywhere.
Dictionary definitions of "apartheid" vary between a specific reference to South Africa's racist system of discrimination against Blacks, or a very general definition of segregating groups. None of them say that treating non-citizens differently from citizens is apartheid - which would be absurd, since every nation on Earth does that.
The Rome Statute defines it as "an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime." It specifies racial groups - not national groups.
Israel's laws that specifically prohibit discrimination against any citizen shows that the "other group" B'Tselem refers to cannot refer to anything religious or racial, but only national.
We have a classic case of a leading question. The people answering didn't have a choice to say "I disagree with your premise." This pressures the people being surveyed to accept the definition as stated, and base their answer on that - and some did. But changing the question even slightly would result in a very different result.
Anyone can make surveys to make people say what they want them to say. Anti-Israel groups do this all the time. And here's a perfect example.
