Is Apartheid Worse than Democracy When it Comes to Racism?
Professor Ghassan Hage (University of Melbourne)
There is an ongoing struggle among anti-Zionist activists to make the charge of Apartheid stick to Israel as a description of the kind of racism that Palestinians are subjected to in Israel/Palestine. Zionists and some anti-Zionists deny the charge arguing that Palestinians inside Israel have way more rights than Blacks had under Apartheid South Africa. The use of Apartheid is yet another an example of the anti-Zionist proneness for exaggeration which reeks anti-Semitism. Both parties agree that Apartheid is the worst possible classification of a racist society not least since it is classified as a crime against humanity. In asking the question: Is Apartheid worse than democracy when it comes to racism? I want to highlight the difference between forms of racism. I also want to highlight the way ‘democratic racism’ pictures itself as ‘civilised’ by continuously comparing itself to ‘freak show’ racism. I also want to reflect on the tensions between the moral, the political and the academic in anti-racist writing.