Flying Dutchman wrote:I still don't see any law discriminating against Arabs, or pictures on benches "no Arabs allowed".
Yes, you are quite right - the Israeli law does not say it is ok to discriminate. No arguments there.
The Israelis have indeed been modifying their laws over the years to take into account Human Rights - it used to be ok (legally) to torture, and this has now been repealed. Similarly it was ok to bulldoze homes as a punishment - again this has been repealed.
Flying Dutchman wrote:Israel is trying to come to terms with their moniroties, hardly any different from other countries and espailly no different from ME countries.
No problems with 'coming to terms' with those living within the borders of Israel either.
Flying Dutchman wrote:In 1948 Israel gave Arab women the right to vote, Arabs have been cabinet members an
d an Arab has been on the Supreme Court. Many Arab countries have laws forbidding citizenship based on religion and/or ethnicity. In KSA the use of certain highways is based on religion.
Cool - Israel is indeed progressive on this point and puts surrounding Arab countries to shame.
In Occupied Palestine, though, many of the highways are also based on religion - with Colonialist only roads reserved for followers of the Jewish religion.
Flying Dutchman wrote: In fact Islam is a religion of apartheid, like the treatment of dhimmi's.
Perhaps you are right and Islam is a religion of apartheid. That's for the religion forum.
However, this is not the point here - here we've been talking about Israel's actual discrimination against it's non-Jewish citizens and non-Jewish occupants of the occupied territories, and the fact that Israel has indeed applied Apartheid like policies when it sets up separate roads, living quarters etc. The echoes of Apartheid also find resonance with the ID cards and restrictions on movements of those living in the occupied territories.
So, the South African government and I have a fundamental disagreement with you. We do not see the otherwise progressive stance of Israel as an excuse for their on-going discrimination. We both condemn the discrimination and don't buy the 'but the Arabs/Muslims are worse' argument.
Nothing in KSA has been designed that is comparable to the 'colonialist only' roads in the Occupied territories - so I'm a bit surprised that you bring that up in support of your view that Israel is less discriminatory than Saudi.
Cheers,
Shafique