Deconstructing the Apartheid libel

Regarding “Israeli Arabs want July 19 as International Apartheid Day” (August 20), I wonder whether former MK Mohammed Barakeh asked any South African who suffered apartheid whether it is offensive to them.

As an ex-South African who knows well what real apartheid entails, I find it totally offensive to name such a day in Israel. In apartheid South Africa:

• Black people were not allowed in white hospitals and received third or even fourth-class medical treatment

• Black people could not enter post offices, restaurants, cinemas etc. Sometimes there would be entrances for whites and separate ones for non-whites; other services simply did not exist for blacks

• Black people sat on separate benches in parks – if they were lucky enough to find a park with those benches. They also were relegated to separate beaches.

• Black people had separate buses or were permitted only upstairs in double decker buses

• Black people were not allowed to go out at night in white areas unless they had a “pass” from their white employer

• Black people who worked in homes for whites were lucky to go to their own homes in the townships once a week and usually could not look after their own children

• Black people, although the majority, did not have a vote and certainly did not have any representation in the South African government.

I could go on ad infinitum.

So where is the similarity, I ask? Those who have never experienced actual apartheid may be fooled by the libel from ignorance but to someone who has lived in both South Africa and Israel, the comparison is offensive and odious!

NAOMI SIDELSKY

Jerusalem