It's time to call a spade a spade: Israel and apartheid

Within Israel-proper the government appears to officially sanction discrimination by allowing Jewish-majority communities to exclude residents that do not meet "social suitability" criteria and prohibits Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from living in Israel.

The Israeli-Arab Adalah legal centre reports that more than 50 Israeli laws in Israel-Palestine (with more bills in progress) officially discriminate against non-Jewish minorities. This reality of different laws for different racial groups, and its impact on children, is explored in a recent documentary by the ABC's Four Corners and the Australian newspaper.

In apparent support of racial segregation, in 2013 the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that residents of Israel must be categorised along racial lines, and cannot legally identify themselves as "Israeli", because this would affect the country's fundamental "Jewish" character. Recently Israel's Minister for Economy and Trade declared that there should be "zero tolerance" for any national identity other than a Jewish identity. What's more Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has long pushed for stripping Arab Israelis of their Israeli citizenship and the Israeli Foreign Ministry argues it is legal for the government to forcibly transfer Arab Israeli citizens out of Israel.

These positions seem to resonate with significant portions of the Israeli public. Twenty-Five years of survey research by the Israel Democracy Network shows consistently that a majority of Jewish Israelis want the government to "encourage" Arab Israeli citizens to leave the country (see here, p.94) and here, p.68). Another Israeli opinion poll, headed by Tel Aviv University's Prof. Camil Fuchs, found that if Israel annexed the entire West Bank a large majority of Israelis would object to giving Palestinians the right to vote. The poll also found that a majority of Jewish respondents were also in favour of preferences for Jews over Arabs in government ministry jobs. What's more, forty-nine per cent of respondents wanted the state to treat Jewish citizens better than Arab citizens.

The reality of Israeli apartheid also appears to have serious implications for the peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly declared that he will not agree to any peace with Palestinians unless they agree to Israel as a "Jewish state". What's more these efforts appear to be accelerating: recently Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to define Israel as a "Jewish state" in law.

What ramifications then does the emerging evidence and consensus on Israeli apartheid have for the conflict and a foundering peace process?

These developments are very significant given the increasingly clear intention of Palestinian leaders to pursue legal redress against Israel at the International Criminal Court. Given Palestine's status was upgraded to that of a "state" by the UN in late 2012, the state of Palestinian is now eligible to join the ICC and the crime of apartheid falls under the court's jurisdiction.

The implications are also important for civil society peace initiatives. Israeli, US and Palestinian agreement over apartheid will likely give further impetus to the growing global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement pressuring Israel to end its violations of human rights and international law. In Australia too the movement seems to be growing. Assoc. Prof. Jake Lynch, director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University is currently being targeted in a Federal Court case by an Israeli law firm that seeks to have BDS outlawed in Australia. The controversial court case however appears to have generated increased support for the nonviolent BDS movement in Australia, coinciding with the launch of groups such as the new pro-BDS group Australians for BDS and Sydney Staff for BDS.

Indeed from an Australian perspective these developments are particularly important. In light of the emerging US, Palestinian and Israeli consensus on apartheid, the virtually unquestioning support offered by the Australian government for Israeli policies, even to point of naively defending Jewish-only settlements, will be increasingly concerning to many. Basic equality before the law is of course a fairly elementary value for many people in Australia. Why the Australian government appears to be expending its political capital - and at the tax-payer's expense - to support deep legal inequality overseas, is a serious issue which needs to be addressed.