Dear Mr President, theres no apartheid in Israel – TimesLIVE

The truth is that there is no apartheid in Israel. All its citizens are equal before the law, have the right to vote, and serve at every level of government. At this very moment it is the Arab-led parties in parliament that hold the balance of power and will determine who will form the next government. Israel is a vibrant, liberal democracy with an aggressively free press, complete freedom of speech and association, and the full equality of all its citizens enshrined in law, and there is no segregation of public facilities.

Of course, as in any free society there are human flaws and prejudices as there are here in SA but, as we know from bitter experience, that is not the same as legally enforced discrimination.

The truth is that this conflict also has nothing to do with the situation at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Christians, Jews and Muslims can safely practise their faiths, and have free access to all the holy sites.

The status quo at Al-Aqsa has remained unchanged in decades. And though the mosque sits atop the Temple Mount, Judaisms holiest site, the Israeli government has given custody over the site to a Muslim trust who manage it as a Waqf (an inalienable religious endowment), and bans prayer by Jewish visitors to the site.

The truth is that the ongoing conflict has nothing to do with the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and the denial of the Palestinian peoples right to self-determination, as you put it in your letter.

Mr President, if this were so, this conflict would have been resolved decades ago.

There have been many opportunities to establish a Palestinian state beginning with the UN resolution in 1947 partitioning the area into a Jewish and Arab state. Then there were the years from 1948-1967 when the territories of the West Bank and Gaza were under the control of Jordan and Egypt respectively.

For almost two decades, the world, the UN, and the Palestinian leadership had the opportunity to establish a Palestinian state when the territories were under Arab control but they didnt. There was no occupation then; and yet no Palestinian state, and no real demand for one.

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Dear Mr President, theres no apartheid in Israel - TimesLIVE