Beware the Last Apartheid Regime in the World

Rasa - The Trump White House should hold its head in shame. Instead of reversing President Donald Trump’s universally-condemned decision to declare Al-Quds as Israel’s new capital, it sent this week Vice President Mike Pence to the Israeli Knesset to give a speech loudly praising “the miracle of Israel,” and presenting America’s support for Israel as a question of siding with good over evil.

News ID: 436053

Date: 27 January 2018 - 21:51

RNA - Far from it, America has sided with evil over good and the desperate attempt by Pence to focus heavily on defending President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem Al-Quds as Israel’s capital, citing biblical stories about the city, and suggesting that King David’s declaration of it as the capital millennia ago still applies, won’t change the irrefutable fact that this is still an apartheid regime condemned and isolated the world over.

Not surprising, Pence used his speech to also appease Tel Aviv by attacking the Iran nuclear deal, terming the pact as a “disaster,” and accusing Iran of being a brutal dictatorship that seeks to dominate the entire Arab world. He vowed the US would “no longer certify” the deal, leading to applause from the Israeli MPs.

Lest the pro-Israel US vice president forgets, the country he criticized is the same country that helped Iraq and Syria defeat the terrorist group of ISIL, Al-Qaeda and their affiliates in the Levant. This is also the only country in the Middle East that almost every year holds democratic elections to choose its leaders and government officials.

The same is not true about Israel, which denies the Palestinians the right to vote, freedom, self-determination and democracy. This is also the same regime that keeps hearing criticisms and condemnations at the United Nations, including internationally-endorsed resolutions that decry Israel as the world’s last Apartheid regime that must be dismantled.

Just like the rest of the international humanitarian community, Iran considers the Israeli regime as a permanent menace for the national security of all countries. Iran supports the Palestinians because they are an oppressed nation plagued by the US-funded Tel Aviv regime which has expelled them from their motherland. Palestinians are living in poverty in camps in Lebanon, Syria and other countries. They have lost their homes, assets and jobs, and for that reason and no other, defending them is a humane and moral duty.

If that’s not enough, consider this: A United Nations hearing on its human rights record in Geneva on Tuesday once again accused the Israeli regime of ongoing abuses and anti-democratic policies as it was called out as the world's last functioning "Apartheid state".

A delegate from South Africa - a nation with a unique vantage from which to judge, said: “Israel is the only state in the world that can be called an apartheid state." The South African delegate said to UN members during the Human Rights Council (HRC) hearing at the Palais du Nations in Geneva that: "We remain deeply concerned at the denial of the right of self-determination to the Palestinian people, in the absence of which no other human right can be exercised or enjoyed."

This is not a one-off criticism of Israel and its Apartheid policies in occupied Palestine. The delegate who made the remarks was echoing the recommendations of several member states as well, that called, above all, for an end of the 50-year-long occupation of Palestine.

Nor is that all: While Israel continues to accuse the HRC of bias and denies responsibility for the crimes that correspond to the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, the independent review by Human Rights Watch found that the Zionist regime continues a pattern of systemic human rights violations - many of which have recurred consistently over the past 50 years of the occupation and some that have intensified significantly in recent years.

According to HRW's review, those violations include: unlawful killings and war crimes without accountability; illegal settlements and institutional discrimination; forced displacement; prolonged closure of Gaza and unjustified movement restrictions in the West Bank; and abusive detention.

Vice President Pence should hold his head in shame. Because it is against this condemnable background under international law that he went to the Israeli Knesset to praise the “miracle of Israel”. Deep inside his heart he knows that this “miracle” has only brought US-funded death and destruction to the Palestinians, including colonialism, war crimes, illegal settlements, systematic discrimination, forced displacement, blockade and open-ended war and occupation.

Iran’s opposition to Zionism and to the colonizing regime and policies of Israel is therefore a legitimate political position. It only becomes illegitimate if it is motivated or accompanied by illegitimate motives or arguments, for example such as stem from generalized hatred or prejudice against Jews. But such illegitimate motives or arguments need to be proven before accusing any opponent of Zionism. Iran has long underlined the wide differences between Judaism and Zionism, stressing that the two stand on the opposite. Those who doubt may go ask the Jewish community about the living conditions in Iran.

Pence’s speech at the Israeli Knesset cannot simply be taken for granted. In the absence of proof, his baseless accusation that Iran’s anti-Zionist discourse and opposition to the Israeli regime are per se a threat to regional peace and stability is a despicable calumny.

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