There are many reasons why it is utterly ridiculous for any slightly reasonable person to consider Israel an apartheid state. If, for no other reason, Webster’s Dictionary defines apartheid as “segregation by race.” Israel does not segregate anyone in any way.

Israel’s enemies point to the defending border wall Israel built as a reason to label Israel an apartheid state. If that is a valid reason then the United States is also an apartheid state because of their wall on the Mexican border.

Everyone must agree it is the duty of a government, in this case Israel, to protect its citizens from Islamic fanatic suicide bombers. There are so many of these bombers who have, and are willing to, forfeit their lives in order to kill Jews and whoever (Christian ,Hindu, Muslim, etc.) happens to be in the area.

An apartheid state does not allow the segregated people citizenship nor equal rights such as voting or freedom of speech. One and a half million Arabs live in Israel; they constitute about 20 percent of the population. Every single one of them has the same exact rights as any other Israeli citizen—and always have. They can vote, and they do. They can own property, businesses, and work alongside other Israelis, and they do. They can serve in the Israeli parliament, and they do. There are Arabs in the Israel government such as Masud Ghnaim, an Israeli Muslim politician, who is a member of the Knesset. Then you have Abdel Rahman Zuabi who took his seat in 1999 as the first Arab to sit on the Israeli Supreme Court. No way does this sound like an apartheid state.

So why are Palestinians who live in what they commonly refer to as the “occupied territories” treated differently? Because they’re not citizens of Israel. They are governed by either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. It is not Israel, but the Muslim dominated nations, that have confined Palestinian-Arab refugees to U.N. welfare in camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan for generations. The only control Israel has over these people takes place when they want to enter Israel, because Israel has to weed out potential terrorists.

The 1973 International Apartheid Convention developed a list of what a system of apartheid looks like. This includes subjecting the segregated people to the following: murder, arbitrary arrest, bodily or mental harm, restriction of movement, restriction of peaceful assembly and division along lines of race. This sound more like Islamic dominated countries such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan where dissent is a capital crime and where gender and religious apartheid are practiced.

Islam’s hatred of the Jews dates back to the formation of Islam as exhibited by verses in the Quran such as Verse 5:82 “Strongest among men in enmity to the believers will you find the Jews and pagans “and Verse 5:51” Oh you who believe! Take not the Jew or a Christian as a friend.”

Groups such as the Muslim Student Association and Students for Justice in Palestine, at many universities, host “Apartheid Week” to criminalize Israel by comparing the most, if not only, democratic country in the Middle East to the former apartheid state of South Africa. Those who hate Israel hope to persuade ill-informed people that Israel doesn’t deserve to exist just as apartheid South Africa didn’t deserve to exist.

As for the rights to the land of Israel, the Jews have been inhabitants for more than 3500 years. That is about 1500 years before Islam started.

In short, Israel and the Jewish people are being singled out for unfair, discriminatory treatment by Islam, the U.N. and well-meaning misguided groups. Sadly, the anti-Jew and anti-Israel factions are succeeding in pulling the wool over the eyes of the well-meaning ill-informed. Pathetically, Israel and the Jews have not launched a publicity campaign to counteract the lies and distortions propagated by so much of the Islamic world.

If you are a believer in truth and justice then speak out and be heard. Discuss this issue with others and circulate this article.

Ed Ziegler can be reached at Brooklyn13@Embarqmail.com or 352-750-3298.