Apartheid in South Africa and Israel/Palestine: A Case of Convergent Evolution?

Abstract

`Apartheid’ is widely invoked to explain endemic conflict in Israel/Palestine. This paper argues that oppression in South Africa and Israel/Palestine bear striking familial resemblances but that there are also fundamental differences. Analogy is not the same as rigorous comparison: it contributes little to the understanding of causality or process and is likely not a sound guide for the development of political strategy. Both societies bear similarities in respect of their ethno-nationalist driving forces. Yet, whereas racial domination was a fundamental feature of apartheid racial capitalism, the displacement and expulsion of Palestinians compounded by the creation of settlements on occupied territory has driven injustice in Israel/Palestine. Another important difference is that South Africa’s existence within its established borders was never seriously contested by the leading liberation movements with the ANC holding firmly to the position that its struggle was to secure majority rule in a unitary nation-state with common citizenship. This presents a contrast to Israel whose right to exist has frequently questioned. While Israel/Palestine and apartheid South Africa show more differences than similarities, the paper concludes that they have undergone processes of convergent evolution, that is the acquisition of similar characteristics albeit from different starting points. Pursing this logic, the chapter closes by asking whether Israel and occupied Palestine might meaningfully be understood as a neo-apartheid state.