8 | MAY 27 • 2021 

essay
Israel Under Attack: A Community Briefing
T

his has been a tragic 
and terrifying time for 
the people of Israel. 
It has also been an extraor-
dinarily difficult time for 
Jewish people across the 
world, as well as 
for anyone who 
hopes for peace.
My perspec-
tive is somewhat 
unique. As an 
Israeli citizen 
currently living 
in Detroit, thou-
sands of miles away from my 
home, my friends and loved 
ones, I have witnessed first-
hand the profound concern 
and anxiety of this amazing 
Jewish community. I also 
know and understand the 
experience of Israelis, now liv-
ing through this conflict. 

Rockets from terrorists in 
Gaza inflicted great damage 
and trauma in Israel, and trag-
ically, there wsere a number 
of casualties. I am deeply sad-
dened by the loss of innocent 
lives.
Of greater concern to me, 
and many Israelis, is the vio-
lence in the streets — the civil 
unrest that is threatening the 
delicate Arab-Jewish relations 
within Israeli society. There is 
a growing sense of despair that 
irreparable damage already 
has been done in these violent 
intercommunity incidents 
over the past few days. This is 
a heartbreaking development. 
We must be unequivocally 
clear — there is no justification 
for racist violence perpetrated 
against any citizen of Israel.
For many years, Federation 

has funded projects that have 
made great strides in developing 
intercommunity trust, respect 
and collaboration in mixed 
cities such as Lod as well as in 
our Partnership Region in the 

Central Galilee, home to both 
Jewish and Arab communities. 
I pray that when calm returns, 
we can rebuild these essential 
ties between Jewish and Arab 
neighbors.

Yiftah Leket

Tamar Shooval attends a peace rally in the Partnership 2Gether region 
with her Arab neighbors and daughter. The sign reads “Together 
Forever.” 

PURELY COMMENTARY

continued on page 11

continued on page 11

essay
Appropriating ‘Apartheid’ to Bash Israel 
Human Rights Watch defames the sacred memories of South African victims.
H

uman Rights Watch 
accuses Israel of 
apartheid. Yet in 
making the accusation in an 
April 27 report, the group bra-
zenly acknowl-
edges that it has 
“detached the 
term apartheid 
from its original 
South African 
context.”
This is immor-
al. “
Apartheid” 
has a sacred 
historical meaning, sanctified 
by the blood and suffering 
of millions of South Africans 
who were oppressed and 
discriminated against on the 

basis of race. In appropriat-
ing the word, Human Rights 
Watch presents a grotesquely 
distorted picture of both 
South African history and the 
current reality in Israel.
Apartheid was a state-en-
forced national system of 
racial discrimination that 
manifested in a slew of 
oppressive laws aimed at oblit-
erating the human rights of an 
entire race — among them the 
Population Registration Act, 
the Group Areas Act and the 
Separate Amenities Act. Black 
South Africans were denied 
the vote and equality before 
the law until 1994.
In contrast, within the 

borders of the State of Israel, 
all citizens — Jews, Arabs 
or otherwise — have the 
right to vote and compete 
equality before the law. They 
participate side by side in 
elections, and Israeli Arabs 
hold high-ranking positions 
throughout the Israeli govern-
ment, including the Knesset 
and the Supreme Court. After 
the recent election, an Arab-
led party holds the balance of 
power in the Knesset, and it 
was an Arab judge that con-
victed former Israeli president 
Moshe Katzav.
There is a continuing and 
bitter dispute around estab-
lishing a Palestinian state 

in the West Bank and Gaza, 
which aren’t legally part of 
Israel. The Palestinian leader-
ship has consistently rejected 
concerted efforts to create 
a separate Palestinian state 
in these territories, from the 
United Nations partition plan 
in 1947 to Prime Minister 
Ehud Olmert’s offer in 2006. 
Successive Israeli governments 
have demonstrated that they 
are willing to pay a huge price 
for a lasting two-state solution. 
Israeli overtures have been 
met with terrorist attacks, 
rockets and mortars.
No one who truly under-
stands the systematic racism 
and denial of basic human 

Rabbi 
Warren 
Goldstein