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A few quick thoughts on the B'Tselem report, calling Israel an Apartheid State:
2/ B'Tselem are right to characterise Israel/Palestine as one political unit, in which there is a permanent, well-entrenched political system based on Jewish-Israeli privilege, and only Israeli Jews enjoy full political rights.
3/ International actors prefer to ignore this reality, and to continue speaking about the West Bank (and Gaza, with caveats) as under military occupation, which can be undone. This is more convenient than coming to terms the fact that the West Bank has been effectively annexed.
4/ It is necessary to wake up to the reality: as far as Israel is concerned, this is, effectively, one state, and the prospects of a viable, sovereign Palestinian state are nil. The Oslo process is not going to lead to statehood.
5/ This, however, does not tell us how to proceed forward - how to transform the current reality to an equitable one, in which Palestinian political rights would be recognised and upheld, while providing secure future to Israeli Jews.
6/ One thing is clear that the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa cannot be simply "copied" to Israel/Palestine. There are really crucial differences in terms of political economy, international law, and the question of Palestinian refugees.
7/ So B'Tselem's report may point to a shift to one-state framework for democratic transformation, but it is not inevitable. And it should be said that what really makes "one state" inevitable is Israeli de facto annexation, and failures to respond to it.
8/ As I said before https://twitter.com/YairWallach/status/1346572973960998915?s=20
9/ But whatever your preferred vision for Israel/Palestine (and you don't need to have one!), it is vital to recognise that there is, in effect, one unequal state there, and it is, for now, a permanent political situation. /END
